War on Drugs
Background
The Philippines is currently working on the War on Drugs, this platform was
pursued by President Rodrigo Digong Duterte (Philippines new and current
President). President Duterte was a former Mayor of the City of Davao, a world class
city and also considered as the Top Livable City in the World. Why? Because Davao
is considered also as the Safest City, Duterte pursued the Zero Drug Casualty.
After winning the elections he promised to kill the drug addicts and users around
the nation. As Mayor of Davao City, Duterte was criticized by groups like Human
Rights Watch for the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of street children, petty
criminals and drug users carried out by the Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group
with which he was allegedly involved (Bernal,2017). Duterte has alternately
confirmed and denied his involvement in the alleged Davao Death Squad killings.
Philippine anti-narcotic officials have admitted that Duterte uses flawed and
exaggerated data to support his claim that the Philippines is becoming a "narco-
state" (Boykoff & McKirdy, 2016). The Philippines has a low prevalence rate of drug
users compared to the global average, according to the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Duterte claims that data from the Philippines Drug
Enforcement Agency shows that there were 3 million drug addicts 2 to 3 years ago,
which he said may have increased to 3.7 million. However, according to the
Philippines Dangerous Drugs Board, the government drug policy-making body, 1.8
million Filipinos used illegal drugs (mostly marijuana) in 2015, the latest official
survey published; a third of them had used illegal drugs only once in the past 13
months (Heifetz, 2016).
Police campaign components
According to official police documentation, Campaign Plan Project: "Double
Barrel" that has two-pronged approach, Lower Barrel approach under Project
Tokhang or the famously known Oplan Tokhang (Cebuano for tuktok, "knock",
and hangyo, "persuade"), and Upper Barrel approach under Project HVT (High Value
Targets) that focuses on relatively more prominent drug personalities including
politicians, police and military personnel and other government employees.
Large-scale extrajudicial violence as a crime solution became the cornerstone of
Duterte's electoral campaign. On the eve of his May 9, 2016 election victory, he told
a crowd of more than 300,000: If I make it to the presidential palace I will do just
what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, holdup men, and do-nothings, you better get
out because I'll kill you.
Death toll
7,080 total number of people killed in #WarOnDrugs since July 1, 2016
2,555 suspected drug personalities killed in police operations, as of
January 31, 2017
3,603 victims in cases of deaths under investigation, as of January 9,
2017
922 victims in cases where investigation has concluded, as of
January 9, 2017
Pressures from the top and financial incentives have created an informal
economy of death to drive police killings in the Philippines war on drugs, according
to an Amnesty International report.
This is not a war on drugs, but a war on the poor. Often on the flimsiest of
evidence, people accused of using or selling drugs are being killed for cash in an
economy of murder, said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty Internationals Crisis Response
Director.
Hassan added: Under President [Rodrigo] Dutertes rule, the national police are
breaking laws they are supposed to uphold while profiting from the murder of
impoverished people the government was supposed to uplift. The same streets
Duterte vowed to rid of crime are now filled with bodies of people illegally killed by
his own police.
On Wednesday, February 1, Amnesty released its report titled, "If you are poor you
are killed: Extrajudicial Executions in the Philippines War on Drugs.
It came out two days after the Philippine National Police (PNP) were ordered to pull
out of the drug war because of corruption within its ranks.
Dutertes war on drugs enjoys popular support but has been harshly criticized for its
high death toll. Since July 2016, police have tallied more than 7,000 deaths in the
war on drugs. More than 2,000 have been attributed to police operations but the
bulk are vigilante-style killings with possible links to illegal drugs. The PNP calls
these cases deaths under investigation. (IN NUMBERS: The Philippines' 'war on
drugs')
Acting on instructions from the very top of government, the Philippines police have
killed and paid others to kill thousands of alleged drug offenders in a wave of
extrajudicial executions that may amount to crimes against humanity, the
international human rights organization said in its report.
Police have long been plagued by allegations of resorting to extrajudicial killings in
the name of the drug war, a claim PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa has long denied. The
PNP chief, who was once police chief in Davao when Duterte was mayor, insisted
that they presumed regularity in all police operations.
Dela Rosa himself admitted that the presumption could no longer be made after a
South Korean businessman was kidnapped and killed, allegedly by police who used
the drug war as a smokescreen.
Paid to kill
In a release to media, Amnesty said its report documents "how the police, working
from unverified lists of people allegedly using or selling drugs, stormed into homes
and shot dead unarmed people, including those prepared to surrender."
The report documented 33 cases involving 59 deaths. According to Amnesty
International, researchers spoke to 110 people from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao
detailing extrajudicial executions in 20 cities across the archipelago.
Field research was done from November to December 2016.
Government-led extrajudicial killings are endangering rule of law in the Philippines,
but the campaign is unlikely to stop anytime soon amid the President's widespread
popularity and a weak political opposition.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in a nation-wide crackdown on drug
peddlers and traffickers since President Rodrigo Duterte entered office seven weeks
ago, the country's national police chief Ronald de la Rosa told a Senate hearing on
Tuesday, according to media reports.
So far, around 750 of those deaths are confirmed to be a result of police anti-
narcotics operations, while the remaining deaths were still being investigated, Rosa
was quoted as saying. The 1,900 figure provided on Tuesday was higher than the
1,800 killings Rosa previously announced on Monday, Reuters said.
The former Davao City mayor, nicknamed "The Punisher", rose to power in a
presidential campaign centered on fighting crime, encouraging extrajudicial killings
as a key solution. He's even authorized the gun-carrying public to kill drug addicts
and criminals themselves.
His actions are now sparking alarm that the country might spiral into lawlessness.
"Duterte is steamrolling the rule of law and its advocates both at home and abroad,"
said Phelim Kine, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement
this week, noting that the President was breeding a violent society.
The Philippines has long battled a history of drug-related violence, making Duterte's
commitment to eradicating crime especially appealing to the bulk of the population,
which won him 40 percent of the vote in the May election. A July opinion poll
revealed he enjoyed a 91 percent approval rating, indicating solid support not only
for his war on drugs but the sexist remarks, diplomatic blunders and threats to the
business community that have marked his reign thus far.
A few domestic voices have lashed out against the President, including the Catholic
Church and Senator Leila de Lima. In response, Duterte has flagged the Church's
hypocrisy, particularly its wealth and priests' abuse of children, and accused de
Lima of having an extramarital affair and accepting illegal campaign contributions.
Domestic institutions are effectively powerless to stand up to the President,
strategists say.
"Duterte was elected with only a handful of congressional allies. But because
Philippine political parties are weak, he now has the support of most legislators who
simply switched sides after his victory in search of presidential patronage. This has
left only a few critics in office to speak out against the crackdown," Mark Thompson,
director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City University of Hong Kong,
and Ronald Holmes, research scholar at the Australian National University, wrote in
an editorial for Caixin.
Even the Supreme Court holds little sway over Duterte. The legislative body has
been politicized following the Chief Justice's removal by former President Benigno
Aquino in 2012, Thompson and Holmes noted.
Pressure from international organizations is also being dismissed.
In a statement last week, the United Nations (UN) said Duterte's policy effectively
gives the police and public "a license to kill." Intentional lethal use of force should
not be used for common policing objectives, the international body warned, calling
for an investigation into the deaths.
Duterte then threatened to leave the UN, saying the organization should stop
worrying about the bones of criminals piling up.
The death toll is indeed significant but critics need to look at the bigger picture,
warned Richard Heydarain, assistant professor of political science at Manila's De La
Salle University.
"You have to keep in mind that Duterte has the highest approval ratings for any
Philippines leader...The existing judicial system is no longer working and that is why
perhaps you need draconian measures to shake up the system," he told CNBC's
"Street Signs."
Given the country's historical poor track record in fighting crime, people are
adopting a wait and see attitude to the war on drugs to assess whether it's
successful, he said, suggesting tackling crime may be a bigger priority than human
rights.
"If you're a liberal democrat, issues like human rights and due process are
sacrosanct. But astonishingly in the Philippines, you now have a debate on whether
human rights is really for us," he continued.
In his state of the nation address last month, the President said human rights
cannot be used as a shield to undermine the country.
"That's resonating with people...it just shows that democracy and liberal values in
the Ph are not fully internalized; the PH is still a fledgling democracy," Heydarain
summed up.
Reference
Police Campaign Components (n.d.) Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Drug_War
IN NUMBERS: The Philippines' 'war on drugs' (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/145814-numbers-statistics-philippines-war-
drugs
Cops are paid to kill in PH war on drugs Amnesty Int'l (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.rappler.com/nation/160130-amnesty-international-report-philippine-war-
on-drugs
President Duterte's war on drugs threatens the Philippines's rule of law (n.d.)
Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/24/president-dutertes-war-on-drugs-
threatens-the-philippiness-rule-of-law.html
