Reaction Paper: Duterte’s War on Drugs

Even the most adamant supporters of the war on drugs agree that it is failing. At a major

UN summit on drug policy earlier this year, many member states argued forcefully for a more

balanced and humane approach. But there’s one anti-drug crusader who refuses to face the facts.

For the past six months Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines has waged one of the

world’s most vicious counter-narcotics campaigns.

Duterte campaigned for president with a pledge to clean up the drug menace for good.

Within days of winning the election he launched a scorched earth approach targeting anyone

suspected of being involved in consuming or selling narcotics. During his inaugural address on

30 June, the one-time mayor of Davao city vowed to “slaughter these idiots for destroying my

country” and kill them he has. The national police estimated that more than 6,000 people were

assassinated by law enforcement, paramilitaries and vigilantes since 1 July 2016. The police say

that at least 2,000 people were shot and killed by officers in “self defense” during anti-drug

operations. Around 33 people are killed for every one person injured, making this the deadliest

drug war ever. Another 38,000 people have reportedly been jailed, fueling a crisis in the

country’s overpopulated prisons.

The president exults in the bloodbath. He recently boasted of killing suspects during his

time as mayor, saying in “Davao I used to do it personally”, suggesting that summary executions

are tolerated at the very top.

Personally, I believe that president Duterte’s war on drugs is a coin with two contrasting

sides; in relevance to the principle of double effect, his war on drugs has its on pros and cons.
His intention may be noble and for the greater good, but his execution for these actions that he

believes would cater his interests and agendas. His advocacy to fight drugs started with the

alarming and dramatic increase of drug related crimes; peace is at risk because of these drugs

that harms the society. However, it is very important to know that his execution is far too

destructive for it involves killing may it be a pusher or a user. It’s as if they are looking for an

easy way to solve this problem.

The drug problem continuous to grow and it is an undeniable fact that it harms our

society so much. However, we must always think that when addressing these kinds of problems

where we have a noble purpose, we should always address the roots or the cause of why these

problems occur in the first place. I could somehow compare it to us as biological beings, when

we have diseases we tend to depend on medicine or chemicals that would “cure” us, and at some

point, it does, however, if the cause of our diseases comes from our lifestyle, this disease will

just come back. The same thing goes for the drug problem in the country, we should not take a

direct approach to solve it, rather we should devise a way to address the roots of this problem

and through that hopefully we will be able to attain a total drug-free society.