Presidential son and Davao City vice mayor Paolo Duterte on Wednesday criticized the Commission on Human Rights' "outrageous" comparison of the number of victims of Martial Law to the casualties in the War on Drugs.

CHR chair Chito Gascon earlier expressed alarm at the number of drug-related casualties breaching the 5,000 mark, which he said was higher than the deaths recorded during the first years of Martial Law.

"Being compared to the people whose lives were wasted on the evils of illegal drugs was an insult to those who died because of their political ideology," President Rodrigo Duterte's son said.

Gascon's "reckless and insensitive" comments against the administration's War on Drugs was meant "to attack and undermine President Duterte and his agenda to rid the country of illegal drugs," the Davao vice mayor said.

A total of 5,882 people have been killed across the country since Duterte launched his intensified campaign against illegal drugs, latest data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed.