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The Deafening Silence of the Murdered Countrymen:

A Setback for Duterte’s Administration

April 2021
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The Deafening Silence of the Murdered Countrymen:

A Setback for Duterte’s Administration

Humanity has been deeply compromised since the administration of the current president,
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. The Filipinos right now are much aware of what’s happening around their
country, their voices are as loud as a menacing thunder in the sky, it was no surprise at all. But
how come their voices which are as loud as the thunder was killed by the silence of the
government officials who’re sitting in the ends of the rainbows, eating from their pot of golds? It
was cruel. Aside from their silence, was also the cruelty and unimaginable death of our fellow
countrymen who did nothing but to fight for our rights and our dignity. Nevertheless, their death
did not put in to waste, their beliefs remain living as it is the start of the setback—it was the start
of the revolution. It has said that the gruesome governance of the president leads the nation to its
deepest and lowest state—brutality, unlawful death, and incompetence.

Humanity has lived for about 7 million years now and counting, and it has said to be the
start of everything. However, after years of experimentation and evolution, people seem to
disdained their beliefs in humanity that’s why wars, battleships, and combats happened. And it
was dreadful, inhumane, and gruesome. About 76 years ago, World War II ended, it was the
beginning of an end, it was the new hope for humanity. But the ashes from the war, the unlawful
deaths, the injustice governance, and the unimaginable experiences has kept and still live with us
up to this day, it was an event to remember. This is somehow similar to what has happened and
somehow (in different idea) still happening to our country right now, the Philippines. We have
been enslaved and colonized by the Spaniards for over 333 years, 48 years for the Americans,
and three years for the Japanese. We are still a slave, not by the outlanders but by our own
people. We are their servers with nothing but credentials, nothing but dignity, we are almost
nothing without those. They let us feel that we are worthless and when the moment we rise to
fight for our rights, for our credibility, for our dignity, they’d silence us by murdering us. It was
evident since the Marcos Administration and the unlawful era of the Martial Law. According to
Fenton (2017), since the presidency of the then President Marcos, the Philippines has carried out
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at least 31 judicial executions and at least 3,000 extra-judicial executions which leads to a ratio
of 1 to 100. Furthermore, Johnson & Zimring (supra note 5, pp. 103-45) added that even under
the Martial law, there are also 12 judicial executions happened. Though in his last nine years of
presidency, there were no killings executed. In the other hand, according to Hilbay (2009), on the
years 2001 to 2006, which happened to be under the administration of the then President Arroyo,
the non-governmental organization (NGO) Karapatan found out that 819 people were victims of
the president’s “extra-judicial, summary, or arbitrary execution” and has an average of 137 non-
judicial state killings per year during the first half of her presidency. (Johnson & Fernquest,
2018). These facts are just the overview of the Philippines’ brutal government decades ago.
However, these facts relived in the Administration of the person who promised changed.

The state killings of human rights had happened in the first year of the presidency of
President Duterte in his War on Drugs advocacy, and the Oplan Tokhang which is a shame
campaign launched by the administration. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
(2017) noted that, “The Philippine state is neither transparent nor consistent about how often it
kills extra-legally.” Kaufman & Fragan (supra note, 14; Belur, 2010) supported this by stating
that there are different degrees of state involvement, from (1) tolerating, condoning, and
encouraging the killing of drug users and sellers, to (2) the fiction of buy-bust operations in
which the targets of a sting resist arrest and are killed in a shoot-out, to (3) cold blooded
assassination as an act of governmental terrorism. In other words, these are only their front-face,
telling the people that their suspects which actually the victims, were armed that’s why they fired
their guns only because they were fired first, when in fact, as a strong accusation, the guns were
just planted after they brutally murdered those innocent people.

In the prevailing climate of impunity of the Philippines, ever since the power of
presidency of Pres. Duterte has come, combined with the increasingly hard line which was taken
by the army towards the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDPFF), has resulted in a
relapse in the situation for our human rights defenders. It was confirmed in 2017 that 15 of them
—land rights activists, farmers, members of indigenous communities have been executed for
extra-judicial killings. Among his victims were Ramon Dagaas Pesadilla and his wife, Leonila
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Tapdasan Pesadilla who were shot by an unidentified gunmen in their home in Barangay
Osmeña, in Compostela Valley on 2 March 2017. These victims were both active members of
Compostela Farmers’ Association who fights for their opposition to major mining projects in the
area. Alongside these victims, is Gilbert Bancat, a coconut farmer and peasant leader who was
gunned down by an unidentified assailant which was suspected to be in the private army of a
landlord in the area and a serving member of the Philippine Army. Bancat was an organizer of
the Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Partylist and land activist. The assassination of Bancat
happened on 25 February 2017. On 3 February 2017, Renato Anglao former Secretary-General
of TINDOGA (Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association) was shot dead by three
unidentified men in Quezon, Bukidnon province. (Philippines: Spate of Killings of human rights
defenders, 2017) These victims are the few Filipinos who are brutally and unlawfully killed just
because they want to voice out their rights. They are activists not terrorists. Their deaths were not
a chair-turner for the opposition to take action, in other words, they were ignored.

As a human right defender, Zara Alvarez led a group of farmers in taking action to the
alleged human rights abuse by the government troops in which they kill farmworkers. Because of
her beliefs and her eagerness to protect the farmers, Alvarez was accused as an outright rebel
member. In an interview with Alvarez with Al Jazeera’s 101 East in 2019, Regencia (2020)
quoted, “It is very clear that it is the police who killed those victims.” Her accusation has
suspectedly led to the brutal death she had. Alvarez’ death comes just weeks after Duterte signed
his controversial anti-terror legislation which stated that warrantless arrests and longer detentions
without charge are allowed. This circumstance led Karapatan’s national leader, Cristina Palabay
to blame the government for this brutal action. She argued that Alvarez was one of those who are
in Duterte’s list of “terrorists” which became the primary reason of her assassination. She even
insisted that considering the prior threats that they received from the state, it is no longer
impossible to not blame the state forces because amongst, they were the one who has grudge in
Alvarez’ protests and accusations. She even pointed out the incompetence of the checkpoints and
curfews which are imposed due to the Corona Virus Pandemic which she believes one of the
reasons why the state forces were involve in Alvarez’ assassination. She stated, “Everything is
on lockdown, isn’t it? The streets are very much guarded by state forces with all the checkpoints.
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And yet, the killers were able to get through these cordons of state forces.” Her blunt statement
made her accusations to the state forces and the government, powerful. In the other hand,
surprisingly, it was humorous to find out that during President Duterte’s campaign in 2016, he
promised to negotiate with the rebels and found some allies among activist groups, he even
proclaimed himself as the country’s “first leftist president”. But the humor was then frowned
upon in mid-2017. His negotiation with those he promised, collapsed. He even declared them
“terrorists” and pledged to wipe them by ambushing them. He created a national task force “to
end local communist armed conflict” in which he directed his ire against activists, farmer
organizations, land rights campaigners, and also to those who have openly criticized his
inhumane war on drugs and alleged right abuses. With all of these accused facts, it is not new to
us, Filipinos, who are openly aware of the situation, that our government denied these
accusations, saying that those who have been killed had “resisted” arrest. (Philippines: Spate of
Killings of human rights defenders, 2017)

But does these accusations and suspected facts relevant to those who sees the good in this
brutality? Even if the Duterte Administration has been declared one of the worst, incompetent,
and inhumane governance, some people or what they are known for as Duterte Diehard
Supporters (DDS) still admit that his harsh and brutal leadership made the Philippines somehow
aligned. He lessened those who are known pushers and carriers of illegal drugs in the country by
using his War on Drugs advocacy. Because of this, according to Wikipedia (2021), about 6,600
people linked to the illegal drugs trade killed as of July 2019. However, even if he eliminated
those who are linked to the illegal drugs trade, the fact that he let his troops in killing innocent
people who are accused of using drugs and accused of firing armed weapons as an excuse for
them to kill these innocent people is not a thing to be proud of and must be taken down in action
more. But despite of that, he eliminated the terrorists and even negotiated to them with promised
peace. However, his elimination of terrorists embroiled those who are named as activists who did
nothing but to protest for their human rights. His indecisive commands and actions led to the
deaths of those who are innocent and who are fighting for their rights.
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Because of his gruesome governance, President Duterte led his nation to its deepest and
lowest state—brutality, unlawful death, and incompetence. He took away the human rights of
political activists, community leaders, and human right defenders, and even those who are
innocently living their lives. He managed to take a blindside to what is happening around his
administration or let’s say, he did take action, but his action screams fatality. He even declared,
as quoted by Ibid (n.d), “I don’t care about human rights, believe me. There is no due process in
my mouth.” How could a president in a country where human rights are valued ever since the
colonization in the past centuries and decades ago to say something like that? He is an epitome
of ruthlessness. He is indeed the administrator of incompetence, injustices, and killing. This
deafening silence of the murdered countrymen is now the voice of our fellow countrymen who
are still seeking for justice and competency. People should open their eyes and see that the
reality is there in front of them and must take down in action—by seeking for justice, rather than
being poisoned by the lies the government feeding us.
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References:

JOHNSON, D., & FERNQUEST, J. (2018). Governing through Killing: The War on Drugs in
the Philippines. Asian Journal of Law and Society, 5(2), 359-390. doi:10.1017/als.2018.12

Philippines: Spate of killings of human rights defenders. (2017, March 10). Front Line
Defenders. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/philippines-spate-killings-
human-rights-defenders

Regencia, T. (2020, August 19). Human rights leader killed in Philippine “war against dissent.”
Aljazeera.com; Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2020/8/19/human-rights-
leader-killed-in-philippine-war-against-dissent

Wikipedia Contributors. (2021, April 16). Philippine drug war. Wikipedia; Wikimedia
Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_drug_war