Sharper, focused war on drugs

With President Rodrigo Duterte divesting the Philippine National Police (PNP) of its responsibility to wage his administration’s anti-drug war, the road is clear for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to conduct a better campaign that won’t have to involve so much death.

Or will the death toll slow down with PDEA assuming the lead in the war on drugs? Likely not, since there will always be drug dealers who will resist arrest and respond in kind with violence against the arresting PDEA officers.

What we will hopefully see less of since we’re not guaranteed a bloodless campaign — and since when have law enforcement and the larger war on crime in general been bloodless? — are the deaths of drug suspects that appear less than actual violent resistance on their part and more like summary executions.

The public clamor for blood against drug suspects had been stoked by President Duterte’s inflammatory rhetoric and whether intentional or not, had goaded the police into cracking down on suspected drug pushers and ending up with a higher death toll in the process.

President Duterte is loath to admit that international pressure had led him to delegate the war on drugs to the PDEA, and he even instructed PDEA to keep the intensity of the campaign at present level or even higher which means there won’t be a letup in the death toll.

But with their limited personnel and resources, PDEA would have to make sure there will be more drug suspects meeting their maker sooner than later on a daily basis, and that just wouldn’t do in a war on drugs that is making a lot more people nervous and concerned.

Herein lies the contrast, the sharp divide: while a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that more people believe that drug suspects didn’t resist with violence and were summarily executed, a Pulse Asia survey showed that majority of the people still support the war on illegal drugs.

So what is it? Do we believe in keeping the ruthless, relentless war on drugs on track or are we ready for a campaign aimed not just on targeting and eliminating the small fry but shutting down and putting the major suppliers out of business and doing it by the book?

For that’s how the PDEA usually operates, and as its regional office in Central Visayas stated, it can rely on an interagency task force comprised of the PNP and the military to support its crackdown on the drug syndicates that are the source of these illegal drugs.

By going after the source rather than the middle dealers, the PDEA can take the war to the doorsteps where it should be and shut them down. Easier said than done of course, but that’s the PDEA mandate that frees the police to go after other crimes and calls on their support only when the situation calls for it.