LELANI P. ECHAVES:

The letter from the Redemptorists of the Philippines expressing outrage over the spate of killings in the government’s war against drugs was most welcome, says Echaves. Read in all its Masses yesterday, the letter has set off a thick wall of protests and condemnation from President Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters. The supporters write about their neighborhood obliterated by illegal drugs, and proclaim the president as their savior. But with the illegal drugs trade right under their noses, Echaves wonders what their barangay chiefs and officials were doing all these time. These officials keep winning elections and the people voted for them ad infinitum, despite their being inutile.

That letter from the Redemptorists of the Philippines which was read yesterday in all their Masses was most welcome. It expresses outrage over the spate of senseless killings in the government’s war on drugs. And it demands an end to extra-judicial killings.

Of course, the letter has set off a thick wall of protests and condemnation from President Duterte’s supporters. Social media will be no less noisy.

They write about their neighborhood obliterated by illegal drugs, and proclaim Duterte as their savior. We could ask what their barangay chiefs and councilor were doing all the while, in the face of all the illegal drugs traded right under their noses?

Oh, these barangay officials just kept winning election after election. So, the people still voted them ad infinitum, despite their being inutile? Were the residents and voters inutile as well?

Not really, they just waited for a Duterte to come along. Ah, so!

Still, while this country has some semblance of a democracy, everyone needs to remember that contradiction should invite attention, not passion.

If the Government and its functionaries take this road, then it should attentively address the Redemptorists’ contentions:

That the war on drugs has become a war on the poor. Most of those gunned down, either because they pushed or used drugs, are from the poor;

That while the poor are shamelessly gunned down, and presented in pitiful positions, the alleged drug lords who have by now become household names are still loose and freely v-r-o-om in their BMWs and Hummers;

That the so-called justice is meted to the poor in the streets but is weak against the drug lords’ security men and glib-tongued lawyers;

That while the war on drugs must continue, it must not barrel down in its path the innocents, because even one innocent dead is one senseless death too many; and

That while the Government is loud and noisy about raids on shabu dens raking in hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, about P 6.5 billion pesos worth freely entered the country, and for a long while, we did not hear a hoot from Duterte and other high-ranking government officials.

Expectedly, some defenders will respond with passion rather than attention. They’ll say:

There go the yellows again, itching to wrest the leadership from Duterte;

True, some poor people died, but every war always has collateral damage. Ah, basta, Duterte pa rin. Such responses are expectedly irrelevant, and merit no rational discussion.

Sadly, the country is split between people who believe in an all-or-nothing approach to the country’s war on drugs, and people who clamor for the return to sanity and balance in emotions.

This is disturbing to leaders whose only tool is a hammer; they tend to see every problem as a nail.

Yet, we can declare war on drugs and continue to respect the rule of law.

We can declare war on drugs and yet remember that the poor man has as much right to life as the rich man.

We can declare war on drugs and yet not lose our spiritual moorings.