BAÑOC
From the very start, the war on drugs of President Rodrigo Duterte has been overwhelmingly supported by the Filipino people. The support was clearly manifested before the election, during the election — even until today based on the surveys.
It is noteworthy that any war has rules to be followed. Such that the combatants should only attack military installations; opposing combatants who surrender or those wounded and can’t anymore fight will be considered as prisoners of war; combatants who rape women will be punished, et cetera.
In any war, there are abusive combatants. They should be punished through court martial. The military hierarchy shall not tolerate abuses of their soldiers even during wars.
Likewise, the war on drugs by President Duterte has rules to follow. While the President challenges the police to be aggressive in running after the drug lords and drug personalities, it doesn’t mean that they will not observe the rules of engagement.
The instruction of the President is very clear: destroy the apparatus of drugs, run after the drug personalities, use your service firearms to defend yourself when your life is in danger. Clearly, the President is reminding the police to follow the rules of engagement.
But there are police who are abusive enough. There are few policemen who ride on their personal motives and interest. These kinds of policemen do not follow the rules of engagement. What is tragic is when their abuses victimize some innocent people, more so when they are minors.
So far, there are three clear incidents of abuses committed by the police during the war on drugs. First was the death of Mayor Rolando Espinosa in Baybay, Leyte, sub-provincial jail. It was clearly foul because the victim was already inside the government facility, yet he was killed by the police whose motives are very questionable.
Second was the treacherous kidnap-for-ransom and murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo. The abusive and corrupt policemen did not only get the millions of pesos of ransom money but also killed the businessman inside Camp Crame, had his body cremated and the ashes flushed in the toilet.
This is not President Duterte’s order. The involved policemen must face the consequences under the law.
Third is the recent murder of 17-year-old Kian Lloyd delos Santos by the three abusive policemen of Caloocan City. All evidences including the CCTV footage pointed to the police as committing the murder. Again this is not ordered by President Duterte. His instruction to the police is to use their firearms when their lives are in danger.
In the case of the minor Delos Santos, the lives of the police were not in danger as can be seen in the CCTV footage. It was a clear abuse. The President already made a statement that those involved must be punished. They should be because they stain the well-supported program of the President, the war on drugs.
Going back to the discussion on war, when there are abuses done by the combatants, they must be punished to stop their abuses. But it doesn’t mean that the war as a whole will be stopped, especially in a circumstance when the country’s military is forced to go to war to defend their territory. How can the military of the defending state stop the war just because of some abusive combatants when the military of the aggressor state continues on their offensives? That is tantamount to surrender.
It follows, therefore, that while we cry justice for Kian, it doesn’t mean that we call for the stoppage of the war on drugs. Otherwise, the drug lords and drug personalities will return to their happiest days of their lives. Yes, we should unite in calling for justice for Kian, but we should not forget to see the big picture: to solve the gigantic problem of drugs. The drug lords have not yet stopped. So if government will stop its war on drugs, is it not tantamount to surrender too to the drug lords? We might as well live without government.
It is important to remember that when the government went lax for a while on the war on drugs, following the killing of the abovementioned Korean businessman, the drug lords quickly went back to their business. Alarmed, the people called on the government to resume the war. The lesson here is that the drug syndicates are just waiting for the right timing.
As I said above, this war on drugs has the wide support of the people. It is no wonder that despite the millions of people in Manila, one could only count with one’s fingers the number of protesters who attended the rallies in different cities of the country, which apparently excited the opposition for a very short while.
Liberal Party stalwarts and loyalists have always tried to misled us into believing that they are for eradicating the drug menace. They say that Duterte’s way is an incorrect way. However, they will never emerge unscathed with their hypocrisy. Why? Because every time they claim theirs is the right way, the people will ask them why they did not implement such way during their days in power or when they had all the time to advise former president Noynoy Aquino. They have been stopped. They have totally lost credibility, if they possessed it in the first place.
The deafening cry that finds its place in the hearts of our countrymen is justice for Kian but on with the war on drugs! However, the opposition and bitter enemies of the President remain out of touch with reality. They put in their propaganda package the end of war on drugs, instead of just focusing on justice for the 17-year-old boy.
The Filipinos refuse to fall into such ploy.