LAW AND DISORDER: Philippines war on drugs: ‘1,900 killed’ amid crackdown.
Ronald dela Rosa was speaking at a senate hearing into the sharp rise in deaths since Rodrigo Duterte became president.
He said police operations had killed about 750 people, but the other deaths were still being investigated.
Mr Duterte won the presidency with his hard-line policy to eradicate drugs.
He has previously urged citizens to shoot and kill drug dealers who resisted arrest, and reiterated that the killings of drug suspects were lawful if the police acted in self-defense.He also threatened to “separate” from the UN after it called his war on drugs a crime under international law.
An equivalent number of deaths in the US would be about 6,000.