Salazar, Ayessa Nedine F.

S-SCI 1
Assessing and Evaluating Articles

War on drugs had its different comments both in local and international groups. Although
many have condemned this way of eliminating drugs in the country, President Rodrigo Duterte
won’t stop and change his mind to eradicate the use of drugs as to what he promised.

The five articles focused about the President’s statement that he will destroy and kill
those people who destroy his country in which he pertains to drug users. The article from the
Philippine Daily Inquirer focused more on the statements of the president during the interview. It
does not look biased, but it only presented about the President’s stand of that particular issue.
Wherein it is his duty to protect his people from those who try to destroy them especially the
youth who will possibly suffer for the coming years if this problem won’t be solved. He also
dared his detractors to file more cases against him and he is not afraid of it. The second article
from Gulftoday, although the same statement as the first article were mentioned here, it mainly
prioritized about the assertion of the London-based Amnesty International director, James
Gomez which somehow expressed a biased side, broadcasting the criticisms on Duterte’s way of
leading that threatens everyone of the possible implementation of lawlessness in the country.
While on the third article, from The Standard, was quite neutral, showing both positive and
negative sides by giving statements from different opinions of a credible authority whether he
may be in favor or against the way the president handle the issue. It also gave numbers of death
rates and statistical data from reliable sources to analyze the result of the campaign. The fourth
article coming from The Philippine Star covered a lot of topics not only about the said content
but as well as the other topics related to it, and it is mostly about Duterte’s statements just like
the previous articles. And the last and fifth article, from the Guardian that deeply talked about the
children who were considered to be collateral damage but it only focused on Duterte’s side
without having further elaborations on each of his statement.

Upon reading all those articles, I come up with the conclusion of each articles are factual
enough because the statements or quotes that they included from the President’s mouth were the
same. However, some of them did not made the statements into its full extent in which they did
not discussed it well. I find the third article more useful and comprehensive in giving
information. It just not only presented statements of opinions but it also showed numbers that
will somehow give the viewers the interpretation of what’s going on in the country that will
serve as a factual basis.

Article 1: Duterte: It’s my duty to destroy those who destroy my country

Frinston Lim (Philippine Daily Inquirer) July 1, 2017
Article 2: Death for those out to destroy Philippines, says Duterte
Manolo B. Jara (Gulftoday) July 1, 2017
Article 3:‘My duty to kill drug users’
John Paolo Bencito (The Standard) July 1, 2017
Article 4: Duterte to PNP: Kill 1,000, I’ll protect you
Christina Mendez (The Philippines Star) July 1, 2017
Article 5: Duterte says children killed in Philippines drug war are 'collateral damage'
Jonathan De Guzman (The Guardian) July 1, 2017

Word Count: 455