Drug war tactics starting to reach saturation point – Sen. Lacson
Apolitical ally of President Duterte said yesterday law enforcement agencies implementing the President’s controversial anti-illegal drug campaign should change their tactics as their current strategies are “starting to reach its saturation point as far as the public is concerned.”
“While the overall strategy is still effective, I think it is time for the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to make adjustments in their tactical offensive,” Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, chairman of the Senate public order and dangerous drugs committee, said.
Lacson, a former PNP chief during the abbreviated Estrada presidency (July 1998-January 2001) was reacting to a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showing an 11-point fall in the satisfaction ratings on the government on drugs.
“The summary killings by riding in tandem and other similar methods have become too predictable and the public has grown tired to hearing the same modus operandi (MO) over and over again,’’ Lacson said.
The police must therefore show solutions of these DUIs (drug-related deaths under investigation) and arrests must be made in considerable degree,” he added.
To Sen. Risa Hontiveros, there will be more killings, less public approval.
“This is how I see the latest SWS survey which pointed to an 11-point drop in public net satisfaction rating for the Duterte government’s war on drugs,” she said.
Hontiveros conceded that the government’s war on drugs may have had massive popular support at the start, “but inevitably it has turned into a national nightmare.’
“As long as the government’s antidrug campaign continues to create a climate of fear, impunity and killing, this war is a losing battle with less and less supporters,” she pointed out.
The lady senator pointed out that the SWS survey is also a slap in the face for those who had been denying the existence of extra-judicial killings (EJKs).
“For a second consecutive time, the majority or 73 percent of Filipinos are worried that they, or someone they know, would become victims of extrajudicial killings. The fear is real. EJKs are a reality. The government’s attempt to massage its original data and/or reintroduce new and questionable data on the killings attributed to the drug war cannot hide this fact,” she said.
“Our nation is now farther away from the order and security that President Duterte promised during the campaign. Our people are living in fear, among the ghosts of the drug war victims, without any semblance of justice in sight. It’s time for the public to wake up from this national nightmare and set things right by holding all those responsible for these killings accountable, alongside the implementation of a public health agenda on the anti-drugs campaign,” she added.
Senator Joel Villanueva also shares the same opinion that the government needs to start rethinking its approach on the war against drugs.
“We appreciate the government’s relentless commitment on the war on drugs. No doubt about it,” said Villanueva.
But, he also said, “looking at the other side of the coin shows its weaknesses,” noting that even the former President of Colombia stated some of this. “We don’t want the public to lose its faith in the government because of the increasing casualties of the drug war. I don’t think we’ll get a passing grade when it comes to addressing vigilante killings,” said the senator.
“And with this data we should start rethinking our approach to ensure that the backlash on the drug war will not affect the other programs of the government especially poverty alleviating programs,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III downplayed the results of the latest SWS survey, saying that an 11point drop in the Filipinos’ satisfaction on the President’s war on drugs is just a “small percentage.”
“Most probably it went to undecided and not against. Not worth worrying about,” Sotto said, adding that more than 70 percent continue to express satisfaction.