Palace tells Reds: Antidrug campaign is propeople

ANOTHER word war has erupted between the Duterte administration and communist rebel leaders, this time over the Philippine National Police’s bloody war on drugs.

In response to a statement by the Communist Party of the Philippines that it had withdrawn its support for the government’s war on drugs because it had become “antipeople and antidemocratic,” Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar yesterday countered that the Duterte administration’s harsh moves were “propeople and pronation.”

“Of course not. In fact, it’s pro-people,” Andanar told the INQUIRER when sought his reaction in a phone interview.

“If you look at the [number of] drug pushers and drug lords, and compare it to the number of drug dependents and the fami- lies affected by their activities, then the ratio would tell you that [the antidrug campaign] is propeople,” he said.

The Malacañang official said the government’s drive against the illegal drug trade was meant to “save the nation” from individuals who had benefited from the manufacture, sale and distribution of illicit substances.

Andanar said: “This is for the common good of the entire nation, [for us to] have a drug-free society. There is no one in his sane mind who would say that any antidrug campaign is antipeople and antidemocracy.”

He expressed confidence the CPP’s latest remarks against Mr. Duterte would not derail the resumption of peace talks between the communists and the government in Oslo, Norway, on Aug. 20.

The government, he said, would respect the communist group’s opinion on the President’s handling of the antidrug operations.

‘Nomatter what’

“The negotiations for peace will continue no matter what,” Andanar said. “[Achieving] peace is larger than anyone.”

He also played down the CPP’s claims that the extrajudicial killings were the handiwork of the police and other law enforcement agencies.

“The CPP will have to show us clearly which deaths they are referring to. Are they referring to the deaths that were born out of authorized police operations? Or are they talking about the deaths born out of vigilante killings?” he said. “If they are referring to the vigilante killings, then that is not the work of the government.”

After initially declaring support for the Duterte administration’s antidrug war, the CPP the other day criticized the President for allowing the police to violate human rights “with impunity.”

In a statement posted on its website, the CPP said it was withdrawing its support for President Duterte’s antidrug war, adding it had spiralled into a frenzy of extrajudicial killings and vigilante murders.”

Almost 1,000 dead

The CPP noted that the police had summarily executed suspected drug pushers and users numbering nearly 1,000 in a little over a month.

“In effect, Mr. Duterte’s drug war has clearly become antipeople and antidemocratic,” the CPP said, adding that “human rights are being violat- ed with impunity by police personnel, emboldened by Duterte’s assurances of ‘I got your back.’”

“In contrast, suspected big drug lords and their protectors were afforded courtesy calls in Malacañang, accommodations in Camp Crame’s guest house and preliminary investigations by the NBI,” the CPP said.

“Duterte has become so full of himself and intoxicated with the vast power he is not used to handling. He thinks he can get away with upturning the criminal judicial system and denouncing people for defending human rights,” it said.