Bato’s on-and-off ‘war’
NO we know that despite its bluster the administration is not impervious to public opinion. The switch of who’s in charge of its “war” on drugs is a direct result of negative public opinion.
Chief Ronald dela Rosa and the national police have been ordered to stand down in their pursuit of the “war” on drugs, replaced by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). If I were Dela Rosa, I would take that as a personal embarrassment.
Recent surveys have shown that the people don’t believe the police when they say those whom they’ve killed in their drug war had engaged in shootouts. The public, in overwhelming numbers, want drug suspects to be taken alive instead of being killed on the spot.
I have been saying that summary killings of drug suspects is tantamount to murder. Without due process the police cannot just kill suspects, they must be given their day in court. Every suspect, whatever the alleged crime, must undergo due process.
Unless the suspects tried to fight it out with the police, which the public doesn’t believe has been the case. Now the administration has realized that the people don’t believe the police excuse that practically all suspects tried to shoot it out with the raiding officers.
And so the police are out of the picture in the drug war. The question now is, is this permanent or just a temporary move to mollify public dread and anger over the extrajudicial killings (EJKs), which the police have just said recently are just the critics’ allegations.
The police had been taken out of the drug war before when some of its crooked elements kidnapped and killed a Korean businessman in the country. Why were they reinstated as the main agency running the “war” on drugs? Will they be put back in again after a few weeks of respite from the nightly carnage of drug suspects?
My impression of Director General Bato is that he’s no brilliant strategist or a raging intellectual. He’s in his job because of his closeness to the appointing power and because there’s no one else the appointing power trusts to hold the position. But those attributes don’t guarantee a job well-done according to the rules and the law.
This government plays the people like a yo-yo, pulling them up and down as it manipulates their emotions and fears. Now the PDEA is again in charge of the drug war, and if it fails in its mission because of its small size and inadequate resources, the administration could then announce that a bigger force is what’s really needed. And the national police will be back in harness.
This administration plays the people through a variation of Abraham Lincoln’s political adage that you can fool all of the people some of the time, or that you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
This administration plays the Filipino people on the premise that it can fool all of them all of the time. That is total hubris that may work some of the time but not all of the time.
*** Tantrum Ergo. Now the police are saying there have never been any EJKs. They have to make their minds: Yes EJKs or no EJKs? They’re confusing the people with contradictory statements. Or are they themselves confused?