Philippines Drugs War Deaths Reach 1,800, Police Tell Senate Inquiry

The number of drug-related killings in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte took power has doubled to almost 1,800, police have said.

The number of suspected drug traffickers killed in his seven-week-old war on drugs had previously been put at about 900 by Philippine officials.

However, Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa on Monday told a Senate committee investigating extrajudicial killings that 712 drug traffickers and users had been killed.

He added a further 1,067 drug-related deaths were being investigated by officers.

The latest figures had been compiled since the start of July, he said.

Mr Duterte, dubbed "The Punisher", took office on 30 June after winning the presidency on a single-issue campaign of tackling illegal drugs and other crime, pledging to kill tens of thousands of criminals.

He has repeatedly called on police, and even civilians, to kill drug criminals - and warned police officers involved in the trade will face the death penalty.

Senator Leila de Lima, spearheading the inquiry, said she was concerned law enforcers and vigilantes may be using the crackdown "to commit murder with impunity".

Witnesses have accused police officers of shooting dead suspects.

One woman told the Senate committee her husband and father-in-law were arrested and beaten by officers and taken to a police station where they were gunned down last month.

But Mr Dela Rosa told senators there was no order to kill suspects.

Last week, two UN human rights experts urged Manila to stop the killings, saying they amounted to a crime under international law.

In response, Mr Duterte threatened to pull out of the organisation over the weekend, inviting China and others to form a new global forum.

He urged the UN to also consider the number of innocent lives lost to drugs, before laying into the organisation in a typically expletive-laden tirade.

But his foreign minister Perfecto Yasay has since said the Philippines has no intention of quitting the UN.

"We are committed to the UN despite our numerous frustrations and disappointments with the international agency," said Mr Yasay.