PRESIDENT Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs, with more than 6,500 already killed, and more than one-half of this number by vigilante groups, is now on hold. This is an attempt to cleanse the ranks of the Philippine National Police of rogue cops.
What about the killings that have already taken place?
No doubt we need to take out the scalawags in uniform from the PNP. The police force, the President says, is corrupt to the core. Take the case of the South Korean businessman. It is the perfect example of how brazen cops can get. Imagine strangling him right inside Camp Crame! And then they had the gall to ask for money from the victim’s wife.
There are many more instances when foreigners, mostly Chinese, become victims of “tokhang for ransom.”
Police chief Ronald dela Rosa was quick to dismantle the AIDG or Anti-Illegal Drugs Group. He will replace it with another unit. In the meantime, whether the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency will perform is a matter of speculation. Some of them are also corrupt to the core.
So in the wake of efforts to restore the people’s confidence in the police, will the killings now stop?
I raise this question because there has been no attempt on the part of President Duterte and his police chief to stop all the extrajudicial and vigilante killings.
The killings must stop, period. Other countries are also looking at us as a country that does not respect human rights and the rule of law.
I am all for eradicating the drug menace. If we don’t do something about this now, we can make the country a narco-state.
But for once, President Duterte should listen to his critics here and abroad. We do not want to give the impression that the government is a killing machine, do we?
President Duterte himself must have realized how big the illegal drugs problem is. He now wants to extend his war to the end of his term. Obviously, he has acknowledged that for as long as there is demand, there will always be supply.
The war on illegal drugs has become a worldwide phenomenon. Even the United States is still at war against the $36-billion narcotics industry from Colombia and Mexico. Indonesia and Malaysia have drug mules on their death row.
I’ve said it before: President Duterte can only minimize the entry of illegal drugs and the local manufacturing of shabu in the country. He can never end it all.
There are thousands narco-politicians and other government officials. It’s not possible to end this completely. And if we bring all of them to our courts, our justice system does not being much comfort. Bring them all to courts, impossible, with the kind of justice system we have? Kill them all, then? Santa Banana, that’s even worse.
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The President should realize that the Catholic Church and all its bishops and priests are his friends, not his enemies. He should end the ranting.
If we analyze everything, the Catholic Church and its priests and bishops have the same goal as the President. They want to rid the country of illegal drugs.
The President should realize that in every institution or organization, there are rotten eggs. The clergy are no exception.
Within this context, the President should realize that the Catholic Church founded some 2,000 years ago is not the clergy. The Church has withstood the test of time and as Jesus Christ said, “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Mr. Duterte continues to enjoy the support of the bigger segment of society, who are predominantly Catholic.
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President Duterte’s war on corruption is another thing. For so long as some people have greed for money, there will always be corruption in government.
Corruption in government is an endemic malaise. I have been a journalist for the past 66 years, and I think I have seen it all. I know for a fact that corruption is the bane of almost all presidents. They might have had good intentions, but their administrations were rocked with corruption scandals.
Just how the President will tackle corruption at Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Public Works and Highways, Transportation, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Energy Regulatory Commission, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP and everywhere else, remains to be seen. There are always some geniuses who can devise means to make money.
There are some things the President should understand. Corruption in government is a two-way street. There is always the one who offers the bribe, and the other, a government functionary who accepts the bribe.
Corruption can take place in many other ways. Corruption in government is so deeply rooted and so pervasive that it will certainly take the President more than the end of his term to at least minimize it.