Drug war deaths near 2,000 mark

A total of 1,811 people have been killed in the government's campaign against illegal drugs, according to the tally of the Philippine National Police (PNP), covering the period of July 1 up to 6 a.m. of November 7.

The deaths were from over 34,000 anti-illegal drug operations, the PNP said as reported by "Balitanghali" on Monday.

The operations also resulted in the deaths of 15 policemen and three soldiers, the PNP said.

Meanwhile, close to 34,000 drug suspects have been arrested and over 765,000 others have surrendered. Of this number, 709,000 were alleged drug users.

The PNP also said it's Oplan Tokhang has so far covered over 3.1 million houses across the nation.

The Duterte administration's war on drugs has been criticized both locally and abroad for the increasing body count and is also being linked to the spate of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects. —KBK, GMA News