Philippines media reported on Monday that drug dealers were killed when they resisted arrest during operations in Manila, Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal, Bohol and Cebu at the weekend.
Police said many of those killed in those raids and undercover stings had chosen not to go quietly.
"Our undercover agents killed two known drug peddlers in sting operations," Adriano Enong, police chief in Rizal province just to the east of Manila, told reporters.
"There was a shootout between undercover police officers and drug peddlers when the men sensed they had sold 500 pesos ($10.80) worth of drugs to policemen," he said.
Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle gave special prayers on Sunday urging incoming state officials to avoid a culture of death and reprisal. Those prayers will be read each day before the new government takes office in the deeply religious, predominantly Catholic Philippines.
Catholic bishops have been disturbed by statements attributed to Duterte warning of killings, and by his plan to seek the return of the death penalty by hanging.
Duterte has also said some journalists were killed because they were corrupt.
In southern Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for more than 20 years, rights groups documented a total of 1,400 unsolved murders from 1998, most of them petty criminals and street-level drug peddlers. Duterte denies any involvement.
(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty and Paul Tait)
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