"He saw the illegal drug problem as a law enforcement issue."
"He saw the illegal drug problem as a law enforcement issue."
The continuing issue of illegal drugs has resurfaced with attempts of the International Criminal Court to prosecute the Duterte administration for alleged crimes against humanity.
According to the ICC former prosecutor, who has since retired, ICC has reasonable basis to investigate the Duterte administration since the alleged extra-judicial killings were committed during the time when the Philippines was still a member of the ICC. The Philippines under the Duterte administration has since quit its membership and President Duterte has vowed not to cooperate with the investigation.
The basis of the alleged ICC investigation was the utterance of Duterte vowing to terminate all those involved in the illegal drug trade. The ICC calls these utterances of President Duterte extra-judicial confessions.
I don’t know how far the ICC will go, but the issue raises questions whether or not Duterte has succeeded in his war against illegal drugs. When he was campaigning, he said he would end illegal drugs in the country.
Actually, Duterte vowed to end three things: Illegal drugs, criminality and corruption. These promises resonated with the people. Hence, he won.
But how has he fared in all three of his promises?
I recall that Duterte vowed that he would end the illegal drug problem in three months. But six months passed and the problem was still there. He asked for another year, but illegal drugs proliferated. To top it all, the Duterte administration was accused of extra-judicial killings with the police resorting to what was called “Oplan Tokhang,” where the police would knock on the doors of suspected drug dealers and addicts.
We even saw on television how a suspected drug addict, a teenager, was taken to an alley corner and killed. These and many other incidents made for a culture of impunity with the police blaming dealers and addicts who fought back or resisted arrest.
In September 2018, Duterte declared that his only sin is the extra-judicial killings. Santa Banana, for a President to say that was self-indictment.
Actually, Duterte is concentrating on the enforcement of the law instead of looking into the illegal drugs problem in its entirety. Other countries with the same illegal drug problem did it differently — focusing on the most important aspect of the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
My gulay, with some 8 million drug users and addicts, the problem is simply the law of supply and demand. It is logical that international drug cartels find the Philippines a very lucrative market.
Unfortunately, the Duterte government cares less about rehabilitation and more about law enforcement.
While the police claimed that some 8,000 were killed in Duterte’s illegal drugs war, unofficial estimates by academic and civil society groups claim that some 28,000 had been killed. This was pre-COVID pandemic times. My gulay, the killings go on and on. Meanwhile, our borders remain porous and drugs continue to come into the country.
As I said about 50 percent of the illegal drugs problem is rehabilitation. How many rehabilitation centers are there? I can count them with my fingers. This is one aspect of the Duterte war on illegal drugs that has not been done.
Thus, until the country has enough rehabilitation centers staffed with doctors and nurses, a holistic approach to the illegal drug problem can never be attained.
The problem is not only illegal drugs itself, but extra-judicial killings, which are now being investigated and prosecuted by the ICC. The drug users and addicts have been classified as criminals, making them victims of the drug war when they are victims of illegal drugs.
In a nutshell, the war on drugs is a dismal failure.
Whoever gets to be president next year should learn this lesson, especially since the United Nations reports that the illegal drugs worldwide would be worse after COVID-19.