CHR: Fewer killings with Duterte’s drug war in the hands of PDEA

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairman Jose Luis Gascon is hoping that the number of killings linked to President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs will not have a resurgence when the campaign is returned to the control of the PNP.

Gascon said the CHR had observed that the number of slain drug suspects in anti-illegal drug operatioms of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency declined since Duterte tapped PDEA to handle the war on drugs.

“Totoong napansin natin na nung nalipat si PDEA, bagama’t di natigil, nabawasan ang bilang ng napatay (na drug suspect). Umaasa kami na itong pagbalik sa pulis ang operations na ito, law enforcement operations laban sa droga, ay sundan lamang yung police operations procedures,” Gascon told reporters in Parañaque City.

“Yung use of force... hopefully hindi tumaas ulit yung bilang ng mga nasasaktan at napatay. Kung meron mang paglabag ay dun kami magbibigay ng pansin at mananawagan na pangutin ang may sala,” he added.

Last week, Duterte said he would eventually return the war on drugs to PNP from PDEA.

"As of now, just to parry, nilagay ko muna sa PDEA. Whether I like it or not, I have to return that power to the police because surely it will increase the [drug] activity," he told the soldiers in a speech in Fort Magsaysay.

Duterte made the PDEA the lead of the drug war to satisfy the critics of the PNP. —NB, GMA News