PCOO rejects inconsistency claims on #RealNumbers figures

The statement came following a report by Vera Files, which said Communications Assistant Secretary Maria Rafael-Banaag contradicted the figures from the #RealNumbers, the official source of the anti-drug program’s data, when she denied that tens of thousands have been killed in the said government initiative. (File Photo Screengrab from RTVMalacanang/Youtube)

MANILA— The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on Saturday rejected the inconsistency claims against its released figures on the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, noting that the total deaths due to drug operations were 5,489 as of May 2019.

The statement came following a report by Vera Files, which said Communications Assistant Secretary Maria Rafael-Banaag contradicted the figures from the #RealNumbers, the official source of the anti-drug program’s data, when she denied that tens of thousands have been killed in the said government initiative.

“Contrary to Vera Files’ claim that the PCOO has become inconsistent with the #RealNumbers figures it has been releasing as compared to what has been published in its Year-End Report, the PCOO, PNP, PDEA, and the NBI have, in fact, been consistent with the figures they have been releasing since May 2017,” Banaag said in a statement.

In the PCOO’s year-end report, homicide cases under investigation were at 16,355 for the period July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, while 3,967 drug personalities died during anti-illegal drugs operation for the period July 1, 2016 to November 30, 2017.

“We are not contracting these data, in fact, we have been updating these data,” Banaag noted, reiterating that these homicide cases under investigation are not at all related to the anti-illegal drugs campaign.

“Homicide cases under investigation may have resulted out of road rage, land dispute, business rivalry, family dispute, love triangle or politics,” she pointed out.

The table below shows homicide cases under investigation since 2013:

The table below is an update of anti-illegal drugs operations conducted, arrests and the number of deaths during anti-illegal drugs operations.

“The PCOO did not contradict anything. If any, I only emphasized in my pronouncements what the government has been saying all along, that the numbers external institutions are quoting are computed inaccurately – skewed to push a certain agenda, and that is to discredit the Duterte administration, the State, all of us,” she said.