Reign of terror

Letter

SINCE the Duterte government launched its aggressive war against illegal drugs, more than 8,000 people mostly poor drug users, peddlers and small-scale dealers have already been killed. Thousands more have surrendered and are in the process of being rehabilitated. Others have gone back to their old ways, only to join the ranks of those killed, or spend the rest of their lives on the run.

The Office of the President was put on the defensive when fresh allegations of corruption were leveled against his deadly drug war where police were accused of planting evidence at crime scenes, receive cash awards for fulfilling the mission to kill/extrajudicial killings and resorting to vigilantism. But the President himself is unrelenting. His “harvest time” or deaths to be precise from his war on drugs is OK and lauded his police force to go on.  In short, the madness continues.

The Philippine National Police has gone on a killing rampage that has exposed the rottenness and corruption of the institution. The murder of a kidnap victim inside Camp Crame, the massacre of civilians in communities, police violence against protesters, and the cover-up of crimes — all these point to impunity on the part of law enforcers.

But the real manipulators of the drug menace, the drug lords of the trade have yet to be captured or arrested. They have a so-called list but is all for a show. Duterte literally coddles the police running after the small fry and have taken into their hands the criminal opportunities.

Both the government and police have strenuously denied that extrajudicial killings have taken place and that the figures presented by local and international rights groups and media attributed to the war on drugs was misleading. The Catholic Church on one hand lamented the indifference or tacit acceptance of the public that to kill dug dependents is normal or needs to be done. But many are killed not because of drugs and those who kill are not brought to account and protected no less than by the President himself.

The Filipino people in general has blasted Duterte’s war on drugs which have created a “reign of terror” and that it victimizes the poor. Simply put, killing people is not the answer to trafficking of illegal drugs. Simply put, killing people is not the answer to trafficking or use of illegal drugs. The government should address drug addiction vis-à-vis our socio-economic and political realities.

The approach of the Duterte government to solve the problem of drug addiction is entirely wrong because it does not address the core problems that breeds addiction to drugs in the first place.

And now, they have a memorandum to bring forth the “war against drug” inside the school premises veiled under a “Drug-free Workplace Campaign.”

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers  opposes such campaign because it pre-supposes that in the school and all public servants for that matter, drug addiction is prevalent thus it is logical to bring “tokhang” in our schools and offices.

While the school is a probable site or a lucrative so-called market for drug traffickers, there are plenty of reasons why the Drug-free Workplace Campaign is doomed to fail. To bring the reign of terror inside campuses is a very dangerous action to begin with. Students and teachers who fell victims to drug addiction inside or outside of school premises must be accorded sensitive measures to deter human rights violations and appropriate rehabilitation support and services.

But what is more frightening is the ease of entry that men in uniform or so-called anti-drug use personnel will create inside the school premises. It can be considered an “open season” of arrests among students and teachers who are considered targets for not passing the drug test previously administered.

This could lead to more drop-outs of students for mere suspicion of being drug-users or drug dependents as the case maybe. Among teachers who cannot meet the timetable as defined for rehabilitation could be dismissed as proposed. Considering our justice system is slow, we cannot predict for now how many would be “sidelined” for being tested positive for substance abuse and eventually leave the educational system due to mishandling of information and unwarranted public scrutiny.

The requirements indeed of successful programs to counter drug abuse are heavy. How can our educational system laden with multi-facet problems from lack of basic inputs in education to lack of teachers and related training cope with drug abuse? Our educational system is literally busting to the seams which have been further aggravated by the much-loathed K to 12 programs.

And with the implementation of the Drug-free Workplace Program, teachers will again bear the burden of making-both-ends-meet to supplement the government program’s inequities from data gathering to monitoring and reporting.

But the most crucial if not the key aspect will be the government’s role in addressing the socio-economic base that breeds addiction.

The drug war extension is untenable given the corruption in the police institution. That Duterte himself admitted that nearly 40 percent of the police force are corrupt should have been enough basis to discontinue and re-evaluate the government’s approach to solve the problem of illegal drugs.

As we have said before, the drug war is now being used as a cover for other criminal activities such as extortion, kidnapping for ransom and murder. How can a corrupt and fascist police force, where impunity is the norm, successfully stamp out criminal activities such as the illegal drug trade? The body count will continue to rise and more criminals in uniform will wreak havoc on the people.

President Duterte’s war on drugs has clearly become anti-people and anti-democratic and has rapidly spiraled into a frenzied campaign of extra-judicial killings and vigilante murders perpetrated by the police and by police-linked criminal syndicates.

The bloody tradition of human rights violations by the police and military is still present and rampant in the PNP and AFP. From Oplan Tokhang to the military operations in the country-sides, human rights violations continue.

A comprehensive program is needed to end the drug problem. This must include addressing the socio-economic basis of the illegal drug problem, the corruption in law enforcement agencies and the gross inadequacies of the country’s health care system. The drug war killings have only emboldened the corrupt police force to commit more crimes.

The so-called war on drugs is doomed to fail, not just because of its flawed approach to the problem, but also because the implementers are corrupted and themselves involved in various criminal activities. In the case of the Camp Crame kidnap-murder incident, top police officials in the anti-illegal drugs task force are believed to be involved. And now in the case of Kian, a 17-year-old student, the tables were turned against him and his family.

We call on the President to stop his blanket endorsement of the killings in his drug war. That many of the victims come from poor communities point to the socio-economic basis of the proliferation of illegal drugs. Unless this is addressed, the drug problem will persist and the abuses will mount in folds.

The Duterte administration has unleashed unmitigated violence and threats of violence against the people mostly victims and people at the lowest rungs of the criminal syndicate ladder. Meanwhile, suspected high profile drug lords and their protectors are afforded courtesy calls to Malacanang, accommodations at Camp Crame’s guest house and preliminary investigations by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Topping the agenda of the Filipino people are the socio-economic reforms which are considered the “meat” of the peace talks. It is high time that serious measures should take place take place on issues of poverty, underdevelopment, inequality, economic sovereignty and other social and historical factors that form the root causes of the armed conflict.

The education sector and the Filipino people have supported the draft on socio-economic reforms being advanced by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines panel which considers the People’s Agenda for Change that was submitted to both the GRP and NDFP panels last year.

We welcome the NDFP’s prioritization of land reform, rural development, national Industrialization, economic sovereignty, environmental protection, the rights of the working people, social services and pro-people fiscal reforms as submitted in the People’s Agenda. But the people’s voice fell on deaf ears and the militarists in Duterte’s camp prevailed and the President has chosen to abandon the path to peace.

The rising body count in the war on drugs, continuing threats of Martial Law, violations of sovereignty and neoliberal economic impositions all undermine the aspirations of the people for just and lasting peace.

Because social conditions are fundamentally unchanged, our calls remain the same: militant struggle for national freedom, democracy and just peace. We must protest and demand that the Duterte government fulfill its promises to the people. We must struggle against the regime’s anti-people and anti-national policies and push government to resolve the outstanding issues of the people. We must also demand from Duterte to stop the all-out-war against the people and to continue the peace talks to address the roots of the armed conflict.

The education sector is one with the Filipino people’s call to unite, to demand justice and an end to madness of police and vigilante killings, and to defend human rights. We must also strive to struggle against the rampant problem of drug addiction, and aspire for a system that will guarantee our democratic rights and welfare! We must resist intensifying state fascism! –Alliance of Concerned Teachers