MANILA - A director of an international human rights watchdog called the claim by the Philippine National Police (PNP) that there are no cases of extra-judicial killings under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte "ridiculous."

In an interview with ABS-CBN News Sunday, Human Rights Watch Geneva director John Fisher also slammed the police for subscribing to a "convenient" definition of extra-judicial killings based on an order from the previous administration.

"That's a ridiculous claim. The number of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines is there. It's a very convenient definition that manages to reduce the number to zero," said Fisher, who visited the Philippines last week to meet with human rights groups.

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Administrative Order No. 35 defines EJKs as killings where "the victim was a member of, or affiliated with an organization, to include political, environmental, agrarian, labor, or similar causes; or an advocate of above-named causes; or a media practitioner or person(s) apparently mistaken or identified to be so."

The Human Rights Watch official said the definition of extra-judicial killings is a universal concept and no government can limit its definition to its own preference.

"The definition of extra-judicial killings is not up to the government. It's a matter of international law. It stems from something as basic as right to life which is found in the universal declaration of human rights," he stressed.

He added that a quick Google search would give a more accurate definition of EJKs than what the Philippine government gives: "An extrajudicial killing is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process."

According to Fisher, the over 3,800 people killed during police operations, a number based on Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano's Al Jazeera interview, are examples of extra-judicial killings.

"All these cases, these are individuals who have been simply shot as they were going about their business. There's no judicial process... That's why they're called extra-judicial executions because it's without judicial proceedings," he said.

According to official government numbers, a total of 3,811 drug personalities were killed in anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016 to August 29, 2017. Government data also said there were 6,225 drug-related killings from July 2016 and September 2017.