The government’s latest “real” numbers on its war on drugs contradict an oft-repeated claim by President Rodrigo Duterte.
STATEMENT
A reader asked VERA Files Fact Check to verify Duterte’s Aug.14 claim that:
“To date, I would say that about 1,000 policemen and soldiers died because of the drugs.”
Source: PCOO, President Rodrigo Duterte, Speech during the launch of Go Negosyo’s Pilipinas Angat Lahat program, Aug. 14, 2018, watch from 29:45-29:56
FACT
In an Aug. 17 press briefing, the Presidential Communications Operations Office, Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation updated “Real Numbers PH,” purportedly the “real” numbers on the war on drugs. The update covers the period July 1, 2016 to July 31, 2018.
PNP spokesperson Benigno Durana Jr. said the number of law enforcers killed in drug operations is 87:
“As of today, various drug law enforcement agencies have laid down their lives : 87 of them with 200 plus injured in these drug operations.”
Source: PCOO, Press briefing on Real Numbers PH, Malacañang, Aug. 17, 2018, watch from 35:44 to 35:55
This is the same figure the government released for the period until Feb. 8 this year.
Duterte has previously churned out numbers that contradict Real Numbers PH, frequently revising the supposed number of enforcers killed.
Sources:
Presidential Communications Communications Office, President Rodrigo Duterte, Speech during the launch of Go Negosyo’s Pilipinas Angat Lahat program, Aug. 14, 2018
PCOO, Press briefing on Real Numbers PH, Malacañang, Aug. 17, 2018
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, Facebook page, “Stop Fake Numbers, Rely on #RealNumbers only!”
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
