DAVAO CITY—“My God, I hate drugs. And I have to kill people because I hate drugs.”
It was a strongly-worded statement of then PDP-L aban presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte in a Presidential forum at the De La Salle University in Manila sometimes in January last year.
With rising criminality in the Philippines, of which he claimed to be perpetrated by drug addicts, Duterte vowed that “cleansing” will be bloody.
When it comes to fighting crime, Duterte is known for his brand of leadership style—the “iron-fist” approach. For him, as someone who eats death threats during breakfast, such approach is the best way to restore peace and order across the country.
Duterte won the 2016 Presidential election and he vowed that thousands of criminals and drug addicts will be killed. The former local chief executive of Davao City was heavily criticized by human rights groups because of his alleged involvement in Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group that carries killings of criminals and drug users.
PHL a ‘narco-state’
Duterte has justified his war on illegal drugs by saying that Philippines is becoming a “narco-state.” In his State of the Nation Address, he said that there are 3.7 million drug addicts across the country, citing data from the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency.
The government’s illegal drug policy-making body, the Philippines Dangerous Drugs Board, said that in 2015 there are 1.8 million Filipinos who have used illegal drugs.
To intensify his war on illegal drugs, he ordered the Philippine National Police to adopt a “shoot-to-kill” policy. Apart from this, reward money amounting to millions were in place to entice cooperation from the public.
By the Numbers: ‘Oplan Tokhang’
Duterte’s war on illegal drugs gained headway with the police’s “Oplan Tokhang”, a campaign originating in Davao City where incumbent Philippine National Police Director Chief Superintendent Ronald dela Rosa, who is a Dabawenyo, implemented on a national scale.
Oplan Tokhang (knock and plead) is a strategy where police authorities literally knock on the doors of identified drug users and ask them to stop engaging in illegal drugs. The campaign’s second phase called as the “Oplan Double Barrel” was launched on October 26, 2015.
As of January 3, 2017, the PNP conducted 40,511 police operations; arrested 43,343 persons who were into the drug trade; knocked on 5,970,107 houses of suspected persons.
Those who surrendered numbered 1,016,696, of whom 75,084 were pushers and 941,612 were users. The PNP also re co rd ed 3,717 unexplained killings, of which it concluded the investigation of 789 cases.
How Duterte’s drug war unfolds
On July 2, the Communist Party of the Philippines has expressed cooperation to Duterte’s anti-illegal drug war.
“Indeed, the revolutionary forces have long been carrying out a campaign against illegal drugs. The New People’s Army (NPA) is guided by the standing order of the CPP Central Committee to disarm and arrest the most notorious criminals including the biggest drug traffickers, in order for them to be subjected to prosecution and just punishment,” the CPP said.
The CPP added that “the revolutionary forces share in President Duterte’s reprehension of the illegal drug trade and its grave effects on the Filipino people. The proliferation of illegal drugs, especially shabu, and the concommitant rise in incidents of violent crime serves the perpetuation of the ruling system.”
After Duterte sworn into office as the country’s 45th President, on July 3, the country’s law enforcement personnel killed 103 drug suspects between May 10 and July 7.
On July 9, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said that it would collaborate with the Duterte administration in its campaign against illegal drugs.
On August 3, Duterte blamed the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel for the proliferation of illegal drugs in the Philippines. It was during this month that the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign resulted to more than 700,000 drug suspects surrendered, according to the Mindanawon President.
On August 7, Duterte has named local politicians, police, judges, military, including 150 drug suspects involved in drug syndicate.
On August 8, the Philippine’s oldest political ally, the United States has expressed concern over the spate of extrajudicial killings in the country because of Duterte’s war on drugs.
“We believe in rule of law. We believe in due process. We believe in respect for universal human rights.We believe — fundamentally — that those aspects ensure and promote long-term security,” Elizabeth Trudeau, a State Department spokeswoman, said as quoted saying in news report. “We are concerned by these detentions, as well as the extra judicial killing of individuals suspected to be involved in drug activity in the Philippines.”
On August 17, Duterte publicly announced that his fierce critic, Senator Leila de Lima, had an affair with her married driver, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan.
On August 18, the spate of killings in the Philippines got the attention of the United Nations. This prompted UN ,through its Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, to call on the government to end the senseless killings. In response, Duterte has threated to withdraw from UN. By this time, death tool stood at 1, 800 while the Senate-led probe on EJKs chaired by Sen. Leila de Lima was opened.
On August 23, the Philippine’s Commission on Human Rights affirmed that the International Criminal Court would investigate the EJKs under the Duterte administration.
On August 25, Duterte released the so-called “drug matrix” which linked high ranking government officials, Sen. Leila de Lima, and others. The following day, the official death tool stood at 2,000.
On September 2, Duterte’s hometown, Davao, was bombed where 14 people was killed and injured a score of individuals in the city’s Roxas night market. The Davao blast incident prompted Duterte to declare a “State of National Emergency.” He ordered both the AFP and PNP to “suppress all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao” and to “prevent lawless violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere.”
On September 5, death tool stood at 2,400 and US President Barack Obama has reportedly cancelled his supposed meeting with Duterte in response to the “son of a whore” comment made by the Philippine president.
Reports of impeachment campaign against Duterte floated on September 13 as his war against illegal drugs resulted to unprecedented killings across the country. Duterte slammed US for its continued criticism on his anti-illegal drug campaign. He surfaced the issue of “Bud Dajo Massacre” in attempt to show the hypocrisy of the US.
On September 15, at least 1,000 politicians and public officials enlisted in a new list was announced by Duterte. His announcement came as former Davao Death Squad hitman Edgar Matobato, testified to the Senate probe on EJKs chaired by de Lima.
On September 19, Duterte’s vocal critic, Sen. Leila de Lima was ousted from her Senate committee, after the Senate voted 16-4, favoring her removal, in a motion by Sen. Manny Pacquaio. He also asked for a six month extension on his war on drugs and crimes during the released of Norwegian national Kjartan Sekkingstad in Davao City.
On October 28, police and anti-illegal drug operatives conducted an anti-drug operation in Makilala, North Cotabato which led to the killing of Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom including nine of his personal bodyguards. Dimaukom was among the drug list named by Duterte on August 7.
On November 1, the US State Department announced that it had ended its sale of 26, 000 assault rifles to the country’s law enforcement agency because the government has committed human rights violations due to its war on illegal drugs. On November 7, in response, Duterte ordered its cancellation.
On November 5, Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was killed in a reported shootout inside his jail cell according to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
On November 28, irked with the continued criticisms on his war on drugs, Duterte threatened human rights workers that they would be targeted. Duterte’s remark has drawn reactions from human rights group.
On December 8, Sen. Richard Gordo, head of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, announced the findings of the Senate-led probe on EJKs, stating that it found no proof that the killings are “state-sponsored.”
Human rights and Duterte’s drug war
However, Duterte’s anti-illegal drug campaign did not sit well with human rights group saying that it curtailed basic human rights, especially the poor.
“The killings are either done as punishment in the name of Duterte’s campaign against drugs or are perpetrated to silence those who might turn witness and expose details of the drug manufacture and trade. Either way, the drug-related killings in poor communities have become too rampant,” Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said in a statement on August last year.
Palabay further explained that illegal drugs business preys on the large populace of the poor, saying that “poverty makes them increasingly vulnerable to the drug trade, many of them using drugs to temporarily escape from their unaddressed problems of hunger, joblessness, lack of social services and of opportunities. The easy cash that the drug trade offers is too tempting for the hungry.”
Rey Casambre, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace panel, criticized the government forces for going after activists under the guise of Duterte’s Oplan Tokhang.
“They are drawing a list, using the anti-drug campaign to go after militant activists,” he said.
Even the New People’s Army, armed-wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines for targeting communist guerillas in the guise of Oplan Tokhang.
“Armed teams of the AFP carry out psywar operations where local residents are forced to participate in assemblies at the risk of being tagged as NPA sympathizers. Under the guise of the Duterte regime’s anti-drug campaign, military units conduct seminars where they slander the NPA,” Ka Oris said in an earlier DavaoToday report.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Duterte “was a vocal supporter of a death squad that perpetrated hundreds of extrajudicial killings of so-called undesirables, including children as young as 14.”
In its 2009 Human Rights Watch report, “‘You Can Die Any Time’: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao,” it implicated Duterte to Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group that was organized, financed, and directed by elements of local police and government officials. (davaotoday.com)
