MANILA, Philippines — “Baseless and absurd.”This was how Communications Secretary Martin Andanar described the allegations of Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa in her latest opinion piece which was carried by the Los Angeles Times. “The President also recently signed Republic Act 11458, which expands the coverage of exemptions from revealing the source of published news or information obtained in confidence,” Andanar said in a statement on Saturday. Andanar added that Ressa’s claim that there were 27,000 drug-related killings in the Philippines was baseless, saying that there were only about 5,000 deaths based on reports from Philippine law enforcement agencies. “Again, Ms. Ressa continues to cite the baseless number of 27,000 drug addicts that were allegedly killed, which is actually the total homicide cases including cases not related to the drug war,” he said. “Sticking to the hard facts that came from our law enforcement agencies, the number of unfortunate deaths from legitimate police operations are only 5,526,” he said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 28, 2019 04:52 UTC