𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦 | 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀

Four years have gone by since President Rodrigo Duterte took office as the 16th chief executive of the Republic of the Philippines. Four long years but it honestly felt like a millennium. It was truly a roller-coaster ride, although strangely it felt like we had been staying in the low for too long.

I am not here to reminisce the past or when Duterte exploited the anger of millions of Filipino people for his political gain. No, the 2016 Presidential Elections is not at fault here. After all, this society is run by an emotional mill so it is with no doubt that the majority can be easily swayed. Not to mention the lack of informed and critical education in our country, but that's a topic for another story.

What I want to point out are the prevailing human rights violations that have been tolerated by the Duterte administration for four years, and how the current regime has been creating an environment of fear and impunity through their oppressive and fascistic leadership.

For context, President Duterte was sworn into office in June 2016 with the promise of eradicating the worsening drug problem in our country. In his inaugural speech, he even urged citizens to kill anyone that they deemed were connected to the illegal drug trade.

“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.” the president stated, promoting the use of vigilante-style killing to end the drug problem in the Philippines.

What followed this statement was a series of unlawful summary executions orchestrated against suspected drug personalities. Alleged drug users and even children and teenagers were kidnapped and gunned down in the streets by local policemen. Their deaths have decorated the news for years, creating a rather unhealthy divide between pro-human rights individuals and Duterte's cult of die-hard supporters.

"Nanlaban" and "Drug user, 'wag tularan" were probably two of the most used phrases during the height of Oplan Tokhang. Both were used by the police to justify their murderous war on drugs.

When confronted by the local human rights groups and activists, Duterte had threatened to kill everyone who would criticize his grim and grotesque tactic in dealing with illegal drugs.

“The human rights [defenders] said I ordered the killings. I told them ‘OK. Let’s stop. We’ll let them [drug users] multiply so that when it’s harvest time, more people will die [...] I will include you [human rights defenders] because you are the reason why their numbers swell.” The president stated in his Malacanang speech in November 2016.

On August 16, 2017, Duterte instructed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to shoot anyone including human rights activists who were “obstructing justice”. The grounds for obstruction were not specified by the president but we could infer that it was related to the ongoing human rights investigation on the extra-judicial killings under his administration.

During the same day, a 17-year-old boy named Kian delos Santos was gunned down in Caloocan. The police claimed that they killed the boy in self-defense because he opened fire at them first. However, eyewitnesses and CCTV footage showed that the boy was unarmed and being helplessly dragged by two policemen before his death. A day before this incident, the local police recorded 32 drug-related killings in what was known as the bloodiest night of Duterte’s war on drugs.

Sick and twisted as ever, Duterte praised the police for killing 32 alleged drug individuals in just a night.

“That’s beautiful. If we can only kill 32 every day, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country.” said the president.

Fast forward to the present, the ever-glorious president is now endorsing the Philippines as a country that is seriously committed to prioritizing human rights.

“I am proud that the Philippines is one of the few countries that signed many of the world’s core human rights treaties. This affirms our serious commitment in honoring and fulfilling our treaty obligations and prioritizing the human rights agenda as a means to achieve our country’s sustainable development goals.” The president stated in a pre-recorded video message for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Human Rights summit held on December 10.

He also mentioned the need for multi-sectoral engagement in fostering a healthy human rights environment for all, recognizing that the “work is far from being over”.

Character development? I think not.

These statements will not bring back to life the unfortunate victims of the genocide-like war on drugs. A groundless affirmation will not change the current judicial climate in our country. These words were said by the same person who once glorified the heinous crimes of the police, normalizing murder as if it was his second nature.

In all honesty, I don’t believe in second chances, especially in matters that tackle human lives. Duterte is the president of the Philippines, his position alone holds him accountable for his administration’s failure. It is now time to demand accountability if we aim to uphold and protect human rights.

We must not let Duterte get away with his murders. We must not let our pity for the 75-year-old “Tatay Digong” to get in our way of attaining justice. The 2016 presidential elections was a lesson that we must not take for granted.

After all, there is no redemption when it comes to human lives.

This Opinion piece is written by Hyacinth Estrada on December 10, 2020, highlighting the need for accountability as the former president was able to end his term scot-free after killing thousands of people in his drug war campaign.