Publicizing the drug list, what for?

On direct orders from President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has released yesterday the list of 207 names of barangay officials allegedly involved in illegal drugs. The list is composed of 90 barangay captains and 117 kagawads.

The stated purpose of publicizing the list is doubtful, however. Officials say the list may serve as a guide to the voters on whom to vote for in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. But drug enforcement officers had to allay fears that the list may be a hit list amid today's prevailing atmosphere of extrajudicial killings.

While PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino was quick to say that those in the list should also be given protection from any extrajudicial witch hunt, he offered no further details.

The list itself, according to Aquino, may be a predicate to the filing of charges against the said officials, but I doubt that would happen soon. The record of this government when it comes to drug enforcement has been reduced into "name and shame" tactics and instilling fear through violent killings mostly in the slums, purportedly justified.

Hundreds of new drugs cases each day involving drug users and small-time drug pushers are docketed into our already heavilyburdened courts nationwide, faster than the capacity of the judicial system to resolve. Yet this government's idea of strengthening the judicial system is to oust a sitting chief justice in the middle of her program for judicial reforms.

Such inordinate weight given to this "shock and awe" tactics or "tough guy" approach by the government has led to this fair question from the Foundation for Media Alternatives: "Two years into the campaign against illegal drugs, what has transpired?"

Data from PDEA shows 4,075 drug-linked individuals killed as of March this year, 123,648 drug personalities arrested, and 91,704 anti-illegal drug operations carried out since Duterte became president. Yet there are still no signs that the situation has improved significantly.

Except for information coming from fake news sites trumpeting an 80-90 percent decline in drugs supply in the country, the government has been quite mum about the continued supplying of shabu to the Philippines by international drug syndicates.

Meanwhile, the "name and shame" method of publicizing a list of alleged drug-linked officials only serves to whet an emerging populist appetite for tormenting the lives of those perceived to be beyond the speedy grip of criminal justice.

With President Duterte's trust rating dropping by 10 points in the latest Social Weather Station survey, he may be drawn to his usual ways of charming the crowd with tough talk and expletive-ridden rant, instead of getting hold of the situation and looking into evidence-based and more effective long-term approaches to the drug problem.

This public list of allegedly drug-linked village officials certainly does not fall into that category of effective long-term solutions. What it merely does, aside from whetting the mob's anger, is debase our values for due process and fairness, and weaken our democratic institutions' capacity to deal with the challenges we face now and in the future.

‘This public list debases our values for due process and fairness, and weakens our democratic institutions' capacity to deal with the challenges we face now.’