FLORESCA, Mar Angelo A.

11-2

ISSUE DISSECTION

In June 2016 three years after President Rodrigo Duterte took office, his “war on drugs” has
killed thousands of people largely from the poor sectors of the Philippines. Extra judicial killings
by the police have continued on a regular basis at that time spreading from city to city and
other regions and provinces. The impact of the “war on drugs” doesn't only include the loss of
life but damage to livelihoods, education, and mental health of the family members that
survived.

Research by media organizations and human rights groups has demonstrated that police are
routinely executing suspects of unarmed drugs, and then planting guns and drugs as evidence.
Police also denied misconduct by the Philippine authorities. Locally and globally, the strategy
was widely criticized for the number of deaths arising from police actions and reports of
widespread extrajudicial executions. The program is endorsed by the majority of the local
population, Death toll figures differ. Officially, as of January 2019, 5,104 opioid personages
were killed. The death toll is over 12,000, say news outlets and human rights organisations. In
the first year the victims included 54 children. Opposition senators reported more than 20,000
were killed in 2018. In February 2018, since at least July 1, 2016, the International Criminal
Court in The Hague declared a "preliminary investigation" into killings related to the Philippine
Drug War. From June 2016 to July 2019, 134,583 anti-drug operations were carried out,
193,086 people were arrested and 5,526 suspects died during police operations, based on data
from the PNP and PDEA. Approximately 34.75 billion drugs have been seized. 421,275 people
surrendered under the PNP Recovery and Wellness Program (219,979 PNP-initiated, 201,296
center-supported community centers), and 499 Reformation Centers were established.

Social Science perspective to be applied is demography the reason i choose this because it
studies statistics of births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, and the case in my work
it focuses more on death because of the drug war and extrajudicial killings it determined the
number of killings as the years and months go by.

The alternative perspective that i have chosen is political science because study concerns the
allocation and transfer of power in decision making, the roles and systems of governance which
Extrajudicial killings are cases where a government kills citizens with no judicial oversight
because of Duterte's drug war and his “shoot to kill” order which promise the order of killing
criminals which police are eager to kill without any rumours.

REFERENCE:

Duterte Vows More Bloodshed in Philippine 'Drug War'. (2020, August 16). Retrieved August 16,
2020,from https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/07/23/duterte-vows-more-bloodshed-philippine-
drug-war

Editorial. (2018, September 28). The Guardian view on the Philippines: A murderous 'war on
drugs' | Editorial. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/28/the-guardian-view-on-the-
philippines-a-murderous-war-on-drugs

Felipe, C. (2018, May 07). PNP bares numbers: 4,251 dead in drug war. Retrieved August 16,
2020, from
https://web.archive.org/web/20180612143849/https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/05/
08/1813217/pnp-bares-numbers-4251-dead-drug-war

Mogato, M. (2017, April 18). Special Report: Police describe kill rewards, staged crime scenes in
Duterte's drug war. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-
philippines-duterte-police-specialrep/special-report-police-describe-kill-rewards-staged-crime-
scenes-in-dutertes-drug-war-idUSKBN17K1F4