The Purge: Philippine Edition

With all the bloody, lifeless bodies littering the streets, it's obvious that change has come.

© Raffy Lerma | Philippine Daily Inquirer

“Change is coming,” people would often say. Indeed, this change they are talking about has become very evident with the way dead bodies with flimsy cardboard signs branding them as drug users littered the streets since President Duterte assumed office. These dead bodies belong to suspected drug pushers/dealers/users who were killed by unidentified gunmen due to mere suspicion. The truth of whether the dead were guilty will never be proven, and is barely even questioned yet no amount of apology can bring back the dead if ever proven to be innocent—that is, assuming our president and these gunmen are even sorry in the first place.

During his first days in office, Duterte pronounced a “government-sanctioned butchery” by repeatedly urging law enforcement agencies and the public to kill people suspected of illegal drug usage and trafficking as part of his war on drugs. He even promised them impunity and bounties for those who turn in drug dealers ‘dead or alive’—giving rise to a rampage of extrajudicial killings wherein anyone suspected of being involved in drug-related activities is killed without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are clearly unethical since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction. It is a direct violation of human rights as stated in Article III, Section 1 of the Bill of Rights which states that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law...” But since our President says it’s alright to kill all those people, then it’s fine, right? Who cares about what the Bill of Rights says?

The alarming rate of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines has garnered the attention and concern of international communities including United Nation’s Human Rights experts who urged the Government to end the rampant extrajudicial killings, stressing that drug charges should be “judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned Duterte's apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings—saying that the illegal incitement to violence and killing amounts to a crime punishable under international law. However, President Duterte said he found these pronouncements as unwelcome meddling in national matters. "Tumahimik nga kayo…Do not force on me your code of conduct. You’re not supposed to do that. I never signed anything which says that I have to behave in this manner or in that manner," Duterte retorted. At this point, it is no longer a surprise to hear such brazen statements from our president. However, in that moment, our president—who, ironically, is also a lawyer—seemed to forgot that Philippines is one of the signatory countries to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that the presumption of innocence until proven guilty is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, and is also regarded as an international human right under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11. Agnes Callamard, the new UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, countered that claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield State actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings. "The State," Callamard added, "has a legally binding obligation to ensure the right to life and security of every person in the country, whether suspected of criminal offenses or not." But our President sure is adamant. Indeed, who are you to dictate him what to do when he’s the president and you’re not?

In all fairness, credit is due to President Duterte for fulfilling his promises of "combating" crime and drug problems in the Philippines. Come to think of it, as of August 19, just roughly two months after he was elected in office, the death toll was reported to be over 1,100, which includes reported vigilante killings. He certainly has a knack for keeping his promises but unfortunately, he’s awfully bad at maintaining friendly relations with international communities. Who would forget that incident wherein he called Pope Francis a ‘son of a bitch’? And now, he’s souring the relation between the United Nations and the Philippines through his brazen remarks. No matter how much of a sovereign and independent nation we think we are, we ought not to forget that during calamities, we need the help of other nations. It is worth remembering that one of the UN’s agencies, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, was one of the first to come to the Philippines’ aid when Super Typhoon Yolanda struck in November 2013. A question worth pondering upon: Is it a smart move to diss the UN like that?

Aside from thousands of bodies dropping dead on our streets, it is also absolutely bone-chilling that extrajudicial killing is on its way to be considered ‘normal’ in the Philippines. Most Filipinos don’t care whether someone drops dead for accusations of drug using/trading. They even think these killings are justified when in fact, they are clearly overstepping the line and trampling over other people’s rights and lives just because of Duterte’s shoot-to-kill mandate. But since when did fighting fire with fire became the best solution to anything? It is understandable that people would want to rid the streets of drug users/pushers for the safety of their families. Many even laud the killings saying that these drug users and pushers are better off dead--all while turning a blind eye to the surge of loss of lives--possibly innocent lives--just because they feel they're not affected by it. It's worth pondering how these people would feel if one day, someone they hold dear was wrongly accused and gunned out without a proper trial. Or worse, what if they, or someone they love become collateral damage in a random shoot-out? This isn't far from happening anymore considering the way bloodthirsty people are reacting to the president’s mandate. Moreover, unidentified gunmen posing as police roam the streets and kill people with impunity. If we don’t do something about it, it will only be a matter of time before it gets completely out of hand. How can we be sure that no one will use this opportunity to take revenge on someone they hate? Just kill him then sprinkle cocaine over the dead body and claim that he was a drug addict and voila! You get to walk away as a free man.

Due to president Duterte’s obsession on ‘purging’ drug users/pushers, he failed to realize that drug issues are but only one of the many problems in the Philippines and that drug use is a symptom of many social problems rather than the cause. Drug-dependency should be treated as a public health issue and not as a crime worth someone’s life. Let us not turn a blind eye on the rising numbers of deaths of possibly innocent people. Indeed, drug related activities are crimes punishable by law; but so is killing. Killing people instead of trying to change them is a lazy band-aid solution—it won’t work in the long run. Killing isn’t the only solution. The guilty should serve a sentence in prison then eventually be rehabilitated and redirected towards a better future. We firmly believe that humans, as flawed as they are, commit mistakes and deserve a second chance. Just because a person strayed from the right path doesn’t mean that he’ll never be able to get back on the right track. Well, unless he’s a cold, dead body on the streets with flimsy carton labeled with “pusher ako”.