22 October 2017•Update: 22 October 2017
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY
A total of 790 killings were recorded from Sept. 16 to Oct. 15, according to records from the Philippine National Police explained Saturday.
chief of Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management-Case Monitoring Division said they recorded 15,911 homicide cases since President Rodrigo Duterte took office July of last year up to Sept. 15.
According to data obtained by Rapper, a Philippine-based online news portal, the number of cases rose to 16,701 as of Oct. 15 – an increase of 790 homicide cases or an average of 26 killings per day took place for 30 days.
The Philippines police defined a homicide case or incident as the event where an assailant killed at least one does not include those killed in police operations.
The data also excludes the number of law enforcers killed during operations, which as of Sept. 15 totaled to 85.
The latest average killings relatively lower than the median of 39 deaths mark during the early months of the Duterte administration and also shorter than the 31 homicide killings during the final full year of the previous administration of President Benigno Aquino III, the report added.
Contrary to claims that drug-related killings top the recorded cases, the report showed that of the total 16,701 cases, only 14% or 2,269 are drug-related killings, 23% or 3,851 are non-drug related killings, while 63% 10,551 are still under investigation.
Leading the non-drug related killings with 57% or 1,801 cases are killings that stemmed from “heated arguments or misunderstanding" followed by 36% or 1,377 cases which arose from “personal grudge".
The motives of the remaining 7% of the non-drug related killings are personal gain, atrocities by threat groups, land dispute, revenge, jealousy, love triangle, self-defense, and three recorded cases of activist/media killings.
Following Duterte’s order to let the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) be the sole agency to carry out his administration’s “drug war”, the Philippine police vowed to focus its operations on preventing street crimes which include killings.
