MANILA - Most extra-judicial killing cases involving policemen have been "dropped and closed" due to lack of probable cause, a police official said Thursday.

"Of the 1,500 incidents of police killing (drug) suspects, 1,200 have been dropped and closed because there was no irregularity in the performance of their duty," Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos said.

There are only 28 incidents wherein "probable cause" or "possible violation of police operation procedure" were found against cops who fired upon suspects, Carlos said.

"There are now two cases where police involved (in the shooting of suspects) are facing murder charges because they intentionally killed the victim," the PNP spokesman said.

Carlos said the number of drug personalities who died during legitimate police operations is minimal compared to those who survived the raids.

"There are wise criminals, 45,000 of them, who did not put up a fight and they are alive and arrested and are facing criminal charges in court," he said.

Carlos admitted that the government's intensified campaign against illegal drugs has resulted to "an 18 percent increase in murder cases."

"These are not automatically extra judicial killings... There are those killed by the drug syndicates themselves (who are) purging their ranks (from) underlings who are not remitting the proceeds of their drug sale," Carlos said.

Though there have been bystanders who were killed in crossfires during drug operations, the public should see the "entire result of the campaign," he said.

"It is unfortunate that we have collateral casualties in this campaign... (But) If we look at the total crime environment, we are better off because 59 percent decrease in total crime volume," he said.

HITTING THE PASSING MARK

The PNP has managed to hit the 70 percent passing mark by apprehending at least 1.3 million of the 1.8 million drug suspects identified by the government since President Rodrigo Duterte took office.

"We just hit 1.3 million (arrested drug suspects) in December... We will try to tweak and fix or improve our campaign to address
the 3.6 to 4 million (drug peddlers and users in the country) that were reported," Carlos said.

The PNP will have an "assessment" of Duterte's war on drugs on January 6 to "see what actions need to be taken" to fulfill the president's campaign promise of ridding the country of drug users and peddlers before his term ends, Carlos said.