By Matthew Tostevin and Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, July 18 (Reuters) - Facing a U.N. human rights
investigation into its bloody war on drugs, the Philippines
presented a new death toll on Thursday to counter much higher
numbers given by critics.
But rights groups accused the government of using partial
data to mislead and said that even the official figure of more
than 5,500 police killings in drug operations was far too high
and there must be accountability for every death.
President Rodrigo Duterte's administration has challenged
activists' death tolls of the three-year-old drug war that rise
as high as 27,000.
Under the banner of #TheRealNumbersPH, officials told a news
conference that 5,526 "drug personalities" had died in anti-drug
operations between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. That was
below a previous police figure of more than 6,700 dead.
"The Real Numbers are the validated figures," Marie Rafael,
a presidency official, told reporters.
The drug war faces new scrutiny since the U.N. Human Rights
Council adopted a resolution a week ago to investigate the
killings. The government rejects accusations of systematic
abuses including executions, planted evidence and falsified
reports.
Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. human rights chief, said last
month that even the official number would be "a matter of most
serious concern for any country".
"Getting the real figure is very difficult," said Carlos
Conde, Philippines researcher for Human Rights Watch.
"Outside the police, there's no one entity doing the
tracking. There are NGOs that are trying but they can only do it
based on media reports."
Some of the higher estimates are based on a 2017 official
report on "Key Accomplishments" of Duterte's administration that
included 16,355 "homicide cases under investigation" on the same
page as the nearly 4,000 dead in police operations at that time.
Then, last year, the Supreme Court asked the government to
explain more than 20,000 deaths during the drug war.
"I just say at least 20,000 dead," said Ellen Tordesillas of
Vera Files, a non-profit fact-checking group. "All we have done
is to debunk the government figures with their own figures."
MISSING DEAD
The presidency's Rafael said that official data no longer
included "homicide cases under investigation" because those
weren't necessarily related to the drug war.
That is where critics say suspicious killings could appear -
including any carried out by police outside regular operations
or by vigilantes with alleged police links.
One who will not be counted was 23-year-old Jaybee Castor,
whose family wept over his coffin on Thursday.
Abducted by masked men in June, he was found dead north of
Manila this month with seven sachets of methamphetamine and a
sign that read "I am an addict and a thief. Do not tolerate me."
Rafael acknowledged that the official drug war numbers would
also not include 3-year-old Myca Ulpina, shot dead last month
during a drug raid. Police have said four officers will face
charges over that killing.
The Philippine officials did not have figures for the number
of other non-suspects killed in the drug war.
They said that the number of killings was small relative to
the arrest of more than 193,000 "drug personalities" since the
drug war began.
But the rate of successful prosecution of drug cases is low
- less than 53 percent in 2017, according to Department of
Justice data. The rate for all cases was over 72 percent.
Putting too much emphasis on disagreement over the figures
could be a distraction, said human rights researcher Conde.
"Ultimately we think this is an attempt to cover up the
killings and the complicity of the killings," he said. "We're no
longer debating with them whether it's 6,000 or 27,000. We're
now focused on accountability rather than deaths."
(Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Nick Macfie)