Robredo urges Filipinos: Demand transparency in Duterte’s drug war

Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday called on the Filipino people to demand “greater transparency” in the administration’s war against drugs, amid thousands of killings that have come with the “major publicly funded campaign.”

In her strongest words yet against President Rodrigo Duterte’s centerpiece program, Robredo criticized “inconsistencies” in how the government has presented the campaign, as well as the growing injustice brought by it.

She said the thousands of drug-related deaths “are an urgent call for us to make sense of what is happening in the country.”

“It behooves our leaders to be honest about the basis of the drug war. What exactly is the scope of the drug problem? Why are the numbers about the extent of the problem—as officially reported by the President—inconsistent? Any campaign against illegal drugs must be founded on integrity and transparency,” she said.

Initially a campaign eyed to end in six months, Duterte has said he would extend the anti-drug drive "until the end" of his term, citing the gravity of the problem.

More than 2,000 drug suspects have been killed in police operations, with hundreds more reportedly killed vigilante-style. Duterte had said he would stand by the police for wrongdoings “in line of duty.”

The anti-drug campaign drastic turn, however, after Duterte ordered the dismantling of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, following the abduction and killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.

Jee’s death—seen as a case of the so-called “tokhang for ransom”—was allegedly done by policemen right inside the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame.

Duterte slammed the police force as “corrupt to the core,” and assigned the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to take over the campaign, with assistance from the military.

‘Killings no solution’

Robredo reiterated that while drug abuse is “indeed a serious problem” that must be fought, it “should not be treated as one which can be solved by bullets alone.”

She underscored her office’s support for the rehabilitation of drug dependents, saying the issue “must be regarded as … a complex public issue linked intimately to poverty and social inequity.”

“You cannot kill addicts and declare the problem solved. The solution needs to be more effective, more humane, and more sustainable than that,” she said.

“The challenge is not to wipe out every drug dependent. The challenge is to define the proper health, education, and psychosocial interventions to prevent further drug use and help them transition into productive members of our society,” she added.

‘War vs. poor’

The Vice President was speaking before students and faculty members of the De La Salle University-College of Law, which organized a forum about the anti-drug campaign, in observance of the death anniversary of Sen. Jose Diokno, a human rights lawyer and government official detained during Martial Law.

Here, she urged the public to question the rising number of deaths in the name of the drug war, asking them to “watch out” for how injustice “is becoming alarmingly commonplace in our national consciousness.”

“Do not let this happen. Never let the horror of summary executions assume the privilege of normalcy, and do not permit brutality to be the defining character of our young democracy,” she said.

Robredo also called on Filipinos to view the recent events with empathy, especially towards the less fortunate, saying that the drug war “is increasingly a war against the poor.”

“Before the shootings began, the poor have already felt unseen by the public, their lives only a matter of daily survival. But it had to take the death of a wealthy Korean businessman to evoke public outcry. So you see, Filipinos in the margins are up against our apathy and inaction. They are up against the dangerous lie that their lives do not matter,” she said.

“We need to stop this. Our rights and liberties must not discriminate against class and social standing. The poor are as human as we are, unless you allow those with authority to take their humanity away. And no one—not even the most feared leader—should ever have that power,” she added. — BM, GMA News