LESS than 20 police officers are facing murder and homicide cases in various courts nationwide in connection with the deadly anti-drug crackdown of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
From July 1, 2016 to August 22, 2017, the National Prosecution Service (NPS) has filed cases against 19 policemen in courts, data from the Department of Justice (DOJ) show.
Of the 71 murder and homicide complaints were filed against police officers involved in the killing of suspected drug personalities, 35 have been junked, while 17 are still pending before the NPS.
Forty-five of the cases were part of legitimate drug operations of the police, while 26 were incidents outside of the police operations.
No case of collateral death during legitimate police operation has been listed in the inventory.
On August 17, the Senate committee on finance deferred action on the DOJ's proposed 2018 budget after the department failed to give a comprehensive data on its probe into the drug war deaths.
The panel approved the budget of the department amounting to P17.276 billion in its hearing on August 31 after the DOJ complied.
Senator Franklin Drilon earlier claimed that the agency's report on its probe in the killings was "dismal," as the war on drugs has already listed about 3,400 deaths. (SunStar Philippines)