Philippine police chief defends deadly drug war of the 'Davao Boys'

FILE PHOTO: Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald Dela Rosa gestures during a news conference at the PNP headquarters in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines January 23, 2017. REUTERS/Czar Dancel/File Photo

MANILA (Reuters) - The police chief of the Philippines on Wednesday stood by the head of a secretive unit behind dozens of killings in the country's war on drugs, saying officers fired only in self-defence and the death toll reflected the danger and the scale of the narcotics problem.

National police chief Ronald dela Rosa was responding to a Reuters Special Report that spent four months examining killings by one group of policemen from or near Davao City, the hometown of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.