The Philippine National Police on Tuesday revealed that operations conducted by law enforcement agencies netted at least P1.2 billion worth of illegal drugs from January to 10 March this year.

PNP chief Police General Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said that 12,622 big-time drug pushers and street-level drug personalities were arrested during the 9,375 police operation of the same period.

He added that relentless nationwide operations on the campaign against loose firearms also yielded a total of 6,268 firearms from January to 12 March 2023 while a total of 14,472 wanted persons have been arrested following the intensified campaign against the wanted persons.

“This only shows that the PNP will not stop until all these fugitives from law are brought before the bar of justice one criminal off the street is also part of crime prevention,” said Azurin in a press briefing at Camp Crame.

He also cited five-year comparative data of murder cases which showed a sharp decrease of 40.01 percent as the trend of murder cases displayed a consistently downward pattern — from 7,121 in 2018, 6,310 in 2019, 5,490 in 2020, 4,853 in 2021 and 4,272 in 2022.

“Despite the decreasing number of murder cases over the years, there is still so much to be done in order to prevent these murder cases. the PNP will not stop until all these cases are solved and suspects are put behind bars,” Azurin said.