Political Analysis

During the year of 2016, the term of the late president Noynoy Aquino ended as his 6-year
term is finished. However, new presidential candidates were also introduced, and among of those
candidates was Rodrigo Duterte – the good mayor of Davao city. Duterte captured the heart and
vote of many Filipinos as his promises and platforms were interesting and seemed promising. And
then the result of the election came out during that same year, and fortunately, Duterte won the
presidential position. Since then, he administered the whole nation with his own leadership. But
as usual, no president is perfect as President Duterte committed some flaws and mistakes during
his early terms. One of those is the bloody war on drugs. Because of this implementation against
the illegal use of drugs, the administration, specifically President Duterte himself, faced such
criticism not just by the Filipinos, but also by the other nations around the globe. The War on
Drugs faced this criticism because it has crossed the line, and that, it is such an inhumane activity.
The Bloody War on Drugs that objectifies against the use of illegal drugs gave advantages to those
who were assigned for it, killed many lives, and violated some human rights.
 The combat against the illegal use of drugs affected the whole nation because of the
multiple cases of killings and shootings throughout the operations. During the first 6-month of the
operations, from July 2016 to September 2016, 311,686 people were arrested and 6,201 were killed
according to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Economist, 2021). With these data, we all can
agree that the number of deaths because of war on drugs was very alarming. And this is only during
the first 6-month of the operations. How much more would have been killed if this has continued?
Let us all be reminded that killing people is never going to be the solution of implementing justice
since we are talking about life here. It’s such ashamed that the killings were due lawful. It is said
that when the cops were provoked by the suspects during the operations, if the suspects were shot
dead, it is considered lawful since the police officers were doing the so-called “self-defense”.
Imagine those bodies shot dead. Additionally, with this number of deaths, it is impossible that all
of these 6,000 people who are dead have provoked the police officers.

Furthermore, according to some reports, around 122 children, including a one-year-old,

have been killed during the war on drugs (The Guardian, 2020). Now, with these cases such as the
killings of these innocent lives of children, can we still stomach these cases? I bet not. According
to a report that concluded some children have been deliberately shot at and targeted as proxies.
However, this shall not justify the actions of the police officers. Accidents or not, actions shall be
concluded. This shall not have been ignored for this is a violation to both legal and moral rights.
How can these officers afford to sleep during nights knowing that they have actually killed
children? Are they really that heartless? Their usual reasons such as self-defense or killed as
proxies, are not valid for them to escape from their unlawful and immoral act. Because first and
foremost, lives have been taken away. And secondly, many human rights have been violated.

The combat against the illegal use of drugs have violated some human rights. War on drugs
is morally and legally unjustifiable. With the number of killings, many human rights were widely
violated. It has resulted to state-sanctioned murder. It is also counterproductive for countering the
threats and harms that the illegal drug trade and use pose to society – exacerbating both problems
while profoundly shredding the social fabric and rule of law in the Philippines (Bookings, 2017).
Let us all be reminded that the human rights contain our own rights and protections from injustices.
And if this is going to be violated, then what would be the use of imposing these rights in the first
place. Killing people, especially innocent lives, has never been justifiable. No matter if you said
that it is for the betterment of the nation. But apart from that, killing people shall never the answer
nor the solution for making the nation better. I do believe that there are alternative ways for these
problems and conflicts to be solved. In case of illegal use of drugs, I believe that war on drugs is
never the answer to solve this problem. If and only if the government and the President Duterte
were wise, they could have thought of solving this conflict through building more rehabilitation
center. I believe that this could have been a better solution if they have only focused on this. But
what did they choose anyway? The brutal one. What I can’t understand is that, why choose such
inhumane act when there are actually better alternatives such as rehabilitation, as I have mentioned
earlier. With these numerous violations of human rights, I believe that the war on drugs shall not
take place again.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us all be reminded that killing people will never be good to
anything. It is morally wrong for you are not the giver of life for you to take it away in just a snap.
Further, it is legally invalid since there could have some alternatives which can be implemented to
solve these problems, rather than opting something brutal and unlawful actions.