Operation Oplan Tokhang:

President Duterte’s War on Drugs

Ethical Issues
Since taking office on June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has launched
an abusive “war on drugs” that has resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 Filipinos to date,
the vast majority poor urban slum dwellers. The Philippine National Police’s own data indicates
that police killed at least 2,250 “suspected drug personalities” from July 2016 to January 2017,
with an additional 3,600 alleged drug users and dealers killed by “unidentified gunmen.” Police
Director-General Ronald dela Rosa has characterized the killings as proof of an
“uncompromising” approach to drug crimes.
The problem here is . He supports the police no matter what they do in their operation.
This supports gives courage to the authorities to abuse their power. Extra Judicial Killing or EJK
is one of the result of abused power by the authorities. Extra Judicial Killing (EJK) is the killing of
a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal
process. In President Duterte Administration Extra Judicial Killing (EJK) is increase dramatically.
The police blames the Vigilante group as a suspect for those killings. Davao Death Squad or
(DDS) is one of the famous vigilante group, many critics said that the leader of (DDS) is President
Duterte himself. They said that the President Duterte order the killings of drug addicts and alleged
drug addicts. Alleged criminals killed in police operations are another disturbing matter. The rise
in incidents of drug suspects reportedly killed while trying to resist arrest are too dramatic to be
given a presumption of regularity. A number have telltale signs of a rubout as acknowledged by
the police themselves.
Human rights advocates say these extrajudicial killings target the poor. Often, the victims
are unarmed, low-level drug users, whose individual deaths have little impact on the systemic
drug problem in the Philippines. Their killers becomes the judge, jury and executioner.

The Affected Parties

Who are the major players or the affected parties on this war? First and foremost,
President Rodrigo Duterte, because he is the president of the Philippines, he is executive chief
officer of Philippine National Police and if it’s true he is the leader of (DDS) then he ordered some
of vigilante killings. The Philippine National Police (PNP) they are the one who execute all the
police operation. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) they have all the Intel about those
drug addicts, drug lords, and drug personnel’s. The barangay captains because the ‘’Operation
Oplan Tokhang’’ starts with the watch list they gave to police. Drug Addicts, drug pushers, drug
lords, drug personnel’s, drug cartels, and drug syndicates they are the main target of ‘’Operation
OplanTokhang’’.
The Judicial branch of our government, because they are responsible for bringing justice
to those victims of EJK and the whole operation. The Legislative branch, they are responsible for
preventing these crisis to happen, they are also the one who investigate the issues. The
Commission of Human Rights (CHR), Human Rights Advocates, and Anti-crime Watch are all
against in the Operation Oplan Tokhang and (EJK).
Consequences of Each Possible Action

In order for President Duterte to resolve the issue on police abused he replace the chief
(PNP) and gave it to the one he trust who he is PNP chief “Bato Dela Rosa”. He also reshuffle
all the police director, chief and personnel that had anomaly and alleged corrupt. President
Duterte thinks that giving more incentives and increasing the salary of the PNP will be a way to
solve the problem in police abused. There are also report that President Duterte have a
surveillance inside the PNP that gives report about the alleged corrupt and anomaly PNP
personnel’s.
The office of Senate opens an investigation about the Extra Judicial Killing (EJK) that leads
to the witness who present himself as an ex-DDS member Edgar Matobato. Matobato had
testified that Duterte had ordered the killing of over 1,000 suspected criminals and opponents
from 1988 to 2013 when he was mayor of Davao City. But The Senate committee on justice and
human rights is all set to clear President Duterte of alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings in
his bloody war on drugs, as “nothing was proven” during the committee’s inquiry,the panel’s chair.
Senator Gordon Also thinks that Matobato lied during the Senate probe. He also didn’t
think that the Davao Death Squad (DDS) exist. Gordon, who chairs the Senate committee on
Justice and Human Rights, said he would no longer waste the Senate’s time investigating
matobato and lascanas after the latter flip-flopped on his claims on the DDS.
Recently Duterte suspended the PNP's involvement in the drug war after the death of
South Korean national Jee Ick Joo, who was allegedly abducted and killed inside police
headquarters in Camp Crame by anti-drug operatives. Duterte denounced the PNP as a corrupt
organization, directing Dela Rosa to conduct a cleanse of the organization.
For those who is saying that these extrajudicial killings target the poor. The Philippine
National Police (PNP) expand its anti-illegal drug campaign to schools, factories, and the
entertainment industry through Oplan Double Barrel Alpha. The PNP also set sights at high-value
targets aside from suspected drug users and pushers. The PNP also conducted Oplan Tokhang in
posh villages of Makati City such as Forbes Park, Dasmariñas Village and Magallanes Village.
 Potential Action and Proper Ethical Action

One of the main problem here is transparency on police operation. We suggest that in
every police operation, there will be a policeman that will be a cameraman to document the
operation. Body camera will also work in this situation. Every police operation should be well
documented to prevent the police to abuse their power. In order to execute the police operation
successfully the authorities need to have reliable source of information regarding their watch list.
For the EJK our government should be clear on the description of Extra Judicial Killing.
Many people are confused on what are the difference between the Extra Judicial Killing and
Murders. As the documentary said Extra Judicial Killing is an emotional term, the people thought
that all of the killing happened are all Extra Judicial Killing. A proper information to educate the
people so that they will understand the operation.
We also think the Operation Double Barrel is not that serious. Instead of visiting homes of
drug personalities, police officers distributed flyers that contain emergency hotline numbers and
information about the government campaign against illegal drugs. It’s not fair that in slum area
they personally knocks on the house of those allegedly drug addicts while in high end areas they
are only allowed to talk to the nanny, the police cannot talk to the owners of the
house/apartment/condo. The police should execute the operation fairly.
President Rodrigo Duterte have many loyal supporters in his presidency and in his war on
drug. We decided to suggest that our President Duterte and Police Chief “Bato” Dela Rosa should
build a secret task force. A task force consist of young, great, and loyal PNP police, PDEA agent
NBI agent, and other agencies that is include in war on drug operation. A task force that they can
trust, they can be used as a surveillance in their agencies to determine who are the corrupted
officials.
The Philippine National Police should be serious in punishing those policemen who are
involved in anomaly transaction, drugs, illegal and unethical actions. They should be suspended
or terminated and the authorities need to file charges against them. This a serious problem and
they need a serious solid solution about this. The abuse of the authority is the most important
issue here. We will loss this war if we don’t do something about it.

https://www.hrw.org/tag/philippines-war-drugs

Mark Nickenson C. Cauilan

Xavier Elizalde
Patrick Baltazar