Road to perdition

Cong Corrales

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” – Saint Bernard of Clairvaux [c. 1150]

AS if the execution of 17-year old Kian Loyd delos Santos, under the pretext of this administration’s bloody war on drugs, is not enough, Education Secretary Leonor Briones still pushed on to issue Department Order No. 40, Series of 2017 — the “Guidelines for the Conduct of Random Drug Testing in Public and Private Secondary Schools.”

I find it hypocritical when Briones issued a statement condemning the murder of delos Santos and 29 other minors before him when the drug testing will seriously undermine the safety and the right to education of all the other minors. (Yes, other minors have been killed under Digong Dada’s so-called war on drugs.)

Look, I understand that we need to stop illegal drugs from destroying the youth. Let me extend an olive branch then. I think it is accurate to say that most, if not all, Filipinos want to see the end of the drug menace that has gripped this country.

However, even if we declare this as our “basis of unity,” there are still two schools of thought on how to go about ending the drug scourge to contend with. These are through rehabilitation and by a war of attrition.

I’d like to state upfront that I’m for rehabilitation because for me substance abuse is a health problem. You may not agree with me but that’s that.

It’s not that I can’t break it down for you but if you’re one of the zombies who is pissed off because the Commission on Human Rights isn’t investigating crimes committed by drug addicts and other mentally ill people, none of what I write here will make sense to you anyway. So, I’ll cut to the chase because I’m digressing already.

As New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Phelim Kine statement: “Imposing mandatory drug testing of students when Philippine police are committing rampant summary killings of alleged drug users puts countless children in danger for failing a drug test. Education officials should be protecting students, not putting them in harm’s way through mandatory drug tests.”

Although Briones assured the lawmakers during the hearing on the Department of Education’s 2018 budget that the results of the random drug testing will be kept confidential, the schools are still empowered to impose sanctions on the students who will test positive which includes expulsion or denial of admission.

Let me digress on this for a while. My friend Rhona Canoy, who runs the International School in Kauswagan, told me they also conduct drug tests. It is random and is not mandatory, she tells me. Failing their drug test, she said, will not be a reason for expulsion since they have rehabilitation in mind.

Now back to the point I was making. So the government, in effect, will not only push the troubled youth out of school but will also put them in the crosshairs of the overzealous police and their community assets. It will create the impetus of a whole new wave of other “delos Santoses” in its wake.

Like in delos Santos’ case, we have seen how the police did their “intelligence gathering.” They killed him first and then looked for pieces of “damning evidence” to justify their kill. They even scoured through Facebook for that “damning evidence.”

So even if Briones assures parents that the list of the drug test results would be kept confidential, what’s to keep the police from  getting their hands on this list when push comes to shove? You ask how? The Deped order is based on Republic Act 9165, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs of 2002. Who enforces this law? You’re correct — the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the police. You can be sure that they will have access to this list. Even barangays have their own list, for crying out loud. I will discuss this administration’s penchant for “lists” next week.

I fear that if this administration will stubbornly continue on this path, we will be counting more dead bodies of our youth in the days to come.

Yes, we all want the drug scourge to end. That is a good and noble intention — to protect what Dr. Jose Rizal called the “hope of our nation.”

However, this war on attrition against drugs will kill the youth much faster than the drugs themselves will destroy their future if we continue to tread this road. And yes, Secretary Briones, their blood would be on your hands, too.