--- description: The shocking figure, derived from a study of 51 incidents, undermines the official claim that police kill suspects in self-defense title: Here's a Chilling Statistic From the Philippine Drug War image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da57befc4e3d063/6988b0d2a988ca3b096ba5d1/rtx2q75b.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is the Latest Chilling Statistic to Emerge From the Philippine War on Drugs by [Joseph Hincks](/author/joseph-hincks/) ## Joseph Hincks Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 6, 2016 4:47 AM CUT  A baby looks at an armed member of a police SWAT team during a drug raid, in Manila on Oct. 7, 2016 A baby looks at an armed member of a police SWAT team during a drug raid, in Manila on Oct. 7, 2016Damir Sagol—Reuters by [Joseph Hincks](/author/joseph-hincks/) ## Joseph Hincks Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 6, 2016 4:47 AM CUT In 51 drug busts conducted by Philippine police that involved shooting, nearly every suspect was killed. That’s according to an [investigation](http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/philippines-duterte-police/ "undefined") conducted by Reuters, which found that of 103 drug suspects 100 were shot dead and just three injured — a 97% kill rate. Of the three who weren’t killed, two had played dead. The figure powerfully undermines the official explanation that police open fire in self-defense and far exceeds the ratio of police killings to injuries in other jurisdictions — even in those whose police have been accused of perpetrating extrajudicial killings. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, police injured one person for every five people they killed between 2013 and 2015, according to Human Rights Watch figures cited by Reuters. In the incidents examined by Reuters, police killed 33 people for every person injured. The Philippine police meanwhile say that only 17 officers have died in antidrug operations since July 1\. That’s one officer for every 118 suspects killed — far fewer than in Brazil, South Africa or the U.S. [More than 5,800](http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/145814-numbers-statistics-philippines-war-drugs "undefined") people have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte began his war on drugs five months ago. Of those deaths, more than 2,000 occurred during what were described as “legitimate police operations.” However, Jun Nalangan, a special investigator at the government-funded Philippine Commission on Human Rights, told Reuters that “there is no such thing.” He said: “Instead of drug bust operations, they are conducting extrajudicial killings.” Read the full Reuters report [here](http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/philippines-duterte-police/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4591511/philippines-drugs-duterte-kill-rate-statistics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4591511/philippines-drugs-duterte-kill-rate-statistics/"},"headline":"This Is the Latest Chilling Statistic to Emerge From the Philippine War on Drugs","datePublished":"2016-12-06T04:47:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:09:28.629Z","description":"A shocking study of 51 incidents undermines the official claim that police kill suspects in self-defense","url":"https://time.com/4591511/philippines-drugs-duterte-kill-rate-statistics/","keywords":["Philippines","Drug War","duterte"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da57befc4e3d063/6988b0d2a988ca3b096ba5d1/rtx2q75b.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joseph Hincks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joseph-hincks/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da57befc4e3d063/6988b0d2a988ca3b096ba5d1/rtx2q75b.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A baby looks at an armed member of a police SWAT team during a drug raid, in Manila","caption":"A baby looks at an armed member of a police SWAT team during a drug raid, in Manila","creditText":"Damir Sagol—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4591511/philippines-drugs-duterte-kill-rate-statistics/","name":"This Is the Latest Chilling Statistic to Emerge From the Philippine War on Drugs"}}]}] ```