Illegal drugs still in Palace crosshairs

The characters and circumstances were different but the actions and consequences were similar.

President Duterte’s war on drugs went through episodes in 2016 that recurred last year along with his threats to criminals, his tiff with groups critical of his bloody campaign, and allegations of extrajudicial killings.

Duterte ordered the police to destroy the illegal drug apparatus. He instructed law enforcers to shoot down drug suspects who pose danger to their lives.

Police units conducted deadly drug raids almost every night. Human rights advocates

criticized the raids but Duterte and the Philippine National Police (PNP) ignored them.

The death of a civilian or civilians sparked outrage and raised questions about the way the anti-narcotics operations are implemented. Duterte removed the PNP from the clampdown on illegal drugs. Officials claimed drug-related crimes worsened after the PNP was barred from joining the drug crackdown. Duterte talked about bringing back the PNP to the war on illegal drugs and soon restored the role of the police in the campaign.

It was not hard to detect similarities.

In the last two years, the President has been instructing policemen to run after drug syndicates, advising them to shoot suspects if they fight back and promising them protection if they face charges in connection with the crackdown.

Critics claimed Duterte’s remark was an endorsement of extrajudicial killings but he denied this, insisting that he never instructed government forces to shoot people who are “on their knees and begging for their lives.”

But the anti-drug campaign was placed under intense scrutiny after the death of 17-yearold student Kian delos Santos and 19-year-old Carl Arnaiz, both in the hands of Caloocan policemen last August.

Delos Santos, a suspected drug courier, was shot dead after violently resisting arrest, policemen said. But witnesses claimed Delos Santos was killed even if he was already begging for mercy.

Arnaiz, meanwhile, allegedly robbed a cab driver before he died in a shootout with law enforcers. But the cab driver disowned the affidavit attributed to him, even describing the killing of the teenager as “scripted.”

The drug war also faced sharp rebuke over the death of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, who was believed to have been targeted by policemen in an extortion scheme.

Jee was reportedly kidnapped and killed by policemen of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group. He was allegedly strangled to death inside Camp Crame, main headquarters of the PNP, his body cremated in a funeral parlor and his ashes flushed down a toilet.

Patterns

Last October, about two months after the death of Delos Santos and Arnaiz, Duterte issued a memorandum ordering the PNP, National Bureau of Investigation, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Bureau of Customs and Philippine Postal Office to leave to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) “the conduct of all campaigns and operations against all those who, directly or indirectly, and in whatever manner or capacity, are involved in or connected with illegal drugs.”

Duterte issued the directive even if he was aware that PDEA only had about 2,000 personnel to curb the drug problem, which he claimed, has contaminated four million people. Duterte’s figure went against the results of a nationwide survey of the Dangerous Drugs Board, which estimated the number of addicts at 1.7 million.

But Duterte appeared to have doubts on the capability of PDEA from the start.

“You have been downgrading the drugs problem. Okay. I ordered the military and the police out of the picture. Everyone. Only PDEA. Now, the question you will ask is, ‘Would this agency, a single one, be sufficient to meet the challenges of the drug problem?” the President said in a speech last Oct. 17.

“Would there be enough resources for this agency to deal with the problem effectively? I don’t know.”

It was the second time Duterte excluded the 170,000-strong PNP from his war on drugs, a platform that helped him win a landslide victory and beat his more moneyed rivals during the 2016 elections.

As his administration faced criticism over the murder of Jee last year, the President abolished all anti-drug units of the police and directed the PNP to suspend its infamous Oplan Tokhang.

He also vowed to cleanse the police force of scalawags and punish those behind the death of the Korean businessman.

During the weeks that the PNP was not part of antinarcotics operations, Duterte bombarded his speeches with stories about crimes perpetrated by drug addicts.

The President repeatedly talked about drug users who rape children and the man who supposedly beheaded his wife before claiming that he had killed the president of the Philippines.

His messages were complemented by successive news reports by state-run media about murders committed by suspects “high on drugs.”

But there was a noticeable change in the President’s tone. In 2016, Duterte assured soldiers and policemen that they would not be imprisoned for doing their duty. This year, the President clarified that the protection would not cover abusive practices and illegal acts.

“What I reminded to the military and the police is that it should be in the performance of duty. You are not allowed to kill a person kneeling down, begging for his life. That is murder,” he said in a speech last Aug. 23.

Duterte brought back the PNP to his anti-drug war through Memorandum Order No. 17 signed last Dec. 5, less than two months after he stripped it of its role in the campaign.

In the memorandum, Duterte claimed that there was a “public clamor” to restore the role of the police and other law enforcement agencies in the crackdown on illegal drugs.

Safeguards

To prevent a repeat of incidents similar to the murder of Jee, Duterte had ordered the PNP to make sure that only those “with the fervor of patriotism” and those without pending cases would join the fight against illicit drugs.

This year, Duterte invited the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to set up a satellite office in the Philippines so it could monitor the drug raids conducted by the police. He also instructed the PNP to coordinate closely with the PDEA during anti-narcotics operations and vowed to put in jail policemen who committed criminal acts.

“Should the investigation point to liabilities by one, two, or all, there will be a prosecution and they have to go to jail if convicted,” the President said last August.

Asked to explain the President’s decision to remove and then restore the role of the PNP in the war on narcotics, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said: “What can I say other than the President really wants the most efficient means of conducting a war against drugs.”

New deadline

Close to 3,000 people have died since Duterte launched his brutal campaign against illegal drugs. One of the high-profile deaths this year was that of Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., who was killed along with his wife Susan, his brother Board Member Octavio Parojinog Jr., and sister Mona in a drug raid last July.

When reporting about deaths in anti-drug operations, the PNP would offer the same narrative: “nanlaban,” meaning the drug offender fought with arresting officers and the police officers shot them dead in self-defense.