MANILA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Philippine police have so far killed a total of 46 drug suspects since December last year, a police spokesman said on Friday.
Police Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) have also arrested a total of 4,968 suspects in the 3,253 anti-drug operations the police have conducted in December.
"There are reports received by the Directorate for Operations that out of the 3,253 operations conducted by the PNP nationwide, 46 died in police operations as a result of the intensified Double Barrel Reloaded," Bulalacao told a news conference.
Of the 46 deaths, he said 16 were from Central Luzon, six in the Philippine capital of Manila, 11 in Mindanao and the rest were distributed in other regions.
PNP chief Director Ronald dela Rosa announced in March last year that the PNP relaunched its war codenamed "Project Double Barrel Reloaded", promising to implement a "less bloody if not bloodless" anti-drugs campaign.
The PNP posted on its website that from July 1, 2016 to January 17, 2018, the PNP has conducted a total of 81, 919 anti-drug operations resulting in the arrests of 119,361 and the killings of 3,987 drug suspects.
During this period, the PNP also said that it has seized a total of 2,577 kilos of methamphetamine with a street value of 13.24 billion pesos (roughly 256 million U.S. dollars).
For homicide cases, the PNP said that, from July 1, 2016 to January 17, 2018, it has recorded a total of 2,235 drug-related incidents. Out of these cases, 413 cases are solved and 1,822 cases are under investigation.
The PNP said that it has so far arrested 446 government workers during its anti-drug operations. The number includes 44 policemen, 189 elected officials and 213 government employees.
It has also destroyed a total of 183 drug dens and clandestine laboratories where drug lords manufacture illicit drugs, it added.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched the anti-drug crackdown after he took office in June 2016 to wipe out the drug trade in the Philippines.