Living dangerously

This is what living in fear is like: someone came to me yesterday, worried about becoming a casualty of Oplan Tokhang. He has three young children, he told me, and he needed help.

He swore he’s no drug personality, but several strangers in civilian clothes had barged into his home at past 3 a.m. and wanted to know the name of his neighbor, who was apparently on a drug watchlist. He said he didn’t know, and the men wondered how this was possible. Now he’s worried that whoever intruded into his home and scared his children resented his response and might target him instead.

The guy is unassuming and a dedicated worker as far as I know, but while narrating his story, he looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The only thing I could do to help was to refer him to someone who could accompany him to their local police.

I can understand the fear, since he knows people who have been shot dead or rounded up and packed like cattle in jail as part of the drug war. These days, merely being placed on a drug list, even if unverified, can cost a person his job.

Just a block away from our office in Manila’s Port Area, there have been several drug-related shooting deaths. One of those killed used to be a driver of one of our colleagues. The guy left behind two young daughters, whose mother is overseas.

Now the fear is spreading beyond drug personalities, following the assassinations of a deputy commissioner of Customs and a regional officer of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Taking a life has never been easier. Law-abiding citizens are starting to be wary of motorcycle riders, for fear of getting hit in the crossfire of cops, vigilantes and hired guns.

The drug war and peace overtures with rebel groups are supposed to make Filipinos feel safer. Instead the opposite is happening. The nation is awash with guns and any compunction to kill has been tossed out the window, because of the certainty that in the time of Dirty Rody, one can get away with murder. Easily. The old world order?

With all the talk about a “new world order,” it’s interesting to have a glimpse of US President Barack Obama’s worldview at the end of his second term as leader of the free world. There was no mention of the drug deaths in the Philippines. Here are excerpts from Obama’s press conference on the sidelines of his final APEC summit in Peru:

At the end of eight years – I can look back and I can say that I consistently did what I thought was best. It doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes, but it means that you’re being true to your oath and the commitments you made to the people who elected you…

The main advice that I give to the incoming president (Donald Trump) is the United States really is an indispensable nation in our world order. And I say that as somebody who has gone out of his way to express respect for every country and its people, and to consistently acknowledge that many of the challenges that we face are not challenges that America can solve on its own. But what I also know is that the basic framework of the world order coming out of World War II and then on through the end of the Cold War was shaped by a set of ideals and principles that have worked for the vast majority of people – not just America, but around the world. The notion of democracy and rule of law, and a free press and independent judiciary, and open markets, and a social welfare state to moderate some of the sharp edges of capitalism, and lifting up issues of human rights, and investing in public health and development not just within our own borders but elsewhere in the world. And working with multilateral institutions, like the United Nations; making sure that we’re upholding international norms and rules.

That’s what’s made the modern world. And there have been times where we, ourselves, have not observed some of these norms as well as we should, and have been accused of hypocrisy… There are times where we haven’t observed these values in our own country and have fallen short of our ideals. But that basic structure is the reason why the world is much wealthier, much more secure, and, yes, less violent, healthier, better educated, more tolerant than it was 50 years ago.

And that requires constant work. It doesn’t just happen on its own… I’ve said this in places where there’s this pushback against this modern order. But you take an example like Europe – before that order was imposed, we had two world wars in the span of 30 years. In the second one, 60 million people were killed…

And so what I would say would be that we all share responsibilities for improving that order and maintaining it, and making sure it’s more inclusive, and delivers greater hope and prosperity for more corners of the world. We all have responsibilities – every nation – in respecting the dignity and worth of their citizens. And America can’t do it all for everybody else. There are limits to our reach into other countries if they’re determined to oppress their people, or not provide girls education, or siphon off development funds into Swiss bank accounts because they’re corrupt. We’re not going to be able to handle every problem.

But the American president and the United States of America — if we’re not on the side of what’s right, if we’re not making the argument and fighting for it, even if sometimes we’re not able to deliver at 100 percent everywhere — then it collapses. And there’s nobody to fill the void. There really isn’t. There are other very important countries — like China —where if it weren’t for China’s cooperation, we couldn’t have gotten the Paris agreement done. But China is not the one who was going around organizing 200 nations to sign on to a Paris agreement, or putting together the paper and the policy outlines and the conceptual framework.

Russia is a very significant military power, but they’re not worrying right now about how to rebuild after a hurricane in Haiti. We are.

And I’ve said before, that’s a burden that we should carry proudly. And I would hope that not just the 45th president of the United States, but every president of the United States understands that that’s not only a burden, but it’s also an extraordinary privilege. And if you have a chance to do that right, then you should seize it.