Reaction Paper about “Christianity and Duterte’s War on Drugs in the Philippines”

By Jayeel Cornelio and Erron Medina

The Philippine Drug War is anti-drug policy, under President Rodrigo Duterte. President
Duterte is formerly mayor of Davao City before he ran for presidential position in 201in order
for him to save the country, Duterte gained population because the nation was amazed on how
Duterte led Davao city during his governance as a mayor and under his leadership Davao is
considered the ninth safest city in the world, and he assumed office of the President on June 30.
2016. The Anti-drug campaign aims that drug addicts in the Philippines be caught, confined in a
rehab center, be jailed, or if they resisted our policemen, drug addicts shall be killed. Even
though Duterte has the support of most Filipinos during this time, there are also Filipinos who
raised their concerned about this policy, for it is not right and it violates human rights. This
policy also led to killings of innocent lives, just like the life of a Kian Delos Santos, a teenager
whose death was caught on a video, he was shot by policemen that is conducting an anti-drug
operation at the time, and even accused that he is drug user and they planted drugs and firearms
on him.

The Philippines has a law that says No law shall be made respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious
profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No
religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights. (Article III, Section
5).

In this research, the authors focused on what Christian groups and leaders respond to
Philippine War on Drugs. Some of the Catholic’s leaders had already responded by invoking the
nation, for example is Manila’s Cardinal Tagle, he stated “a nation cannot be governed by
killing”, those who harm or kill others to listen to their conscience, the voice of God that
summons us to do good”. The research focused on Payatas, one of the poorest villages in Quezon
City it also a hotspot of the government’s anti-drug campaign. The researches also studied the
response and opinion of other Christian groups such as the Baptist, Evangelicals, Charismatics,
Iglesia ni Kristo (INC), and Ang Dating Dann (ADD). Their research question was How do
different Christian groups understand the War on Drugs in Payatas?, How have they responded?,
And what accounts for the difference in their responses?.

As the researchers interviewed the Religious leaders, they was surprised on the responds
they got. They all got different opinions and response to Duterte’s War on Drugs some of them
supports this advocacy and some supports the idea and not the way on how Duterte wants to
make Philippines a drug free country. The Evangelical Pastor, Pastor Marco blames that these
addicts on stealing their musical instruments, and the others believe that these addicts have
spiritual problem, and the reason why they are using drugs is because is “a form of wickedness
which should be fought at all cost”. And according to Pastor Julius who is a Baptist
congregation, God has a purpose why He selected President Duterte as the leader of our country
because it is His way of punishing the Philippine’s society for all its sins, he also said that
Filipinos should accept President Duterte as their leader if they truly believe and God and that is
His Plan for the Filipinos to repent. But some of the researcher’s informants agrees that
prevalence of illegal drugs should stop, they also think that the way of the government is a
problem because they live by the Ten Commandments which include “thou shalt not kill”. While
Fr. Martin, a Parish priest was asked about his opinions on Christian teachings about submission
to the government and as for him, compassion for the families that will be left behind and for the
people comes first before the submission to the government, he said that people should be like
Jesus Christ, we should help these addicts and helping them does not mean that we will be
tolerating them. And as for Fr. Marcelo, “once a leader does not respect life, people do not owe
him respect”. As a conclusion, the researchers conclude most religious leaders of Payatas
supports Duterte’ way of making the Philippines a drug-free country and even 70% of Filipinos’
adults supports his advocacy.

In my opinion Duterte’s War on drugs has flaws because of the killings, the will of the
advocacy is good but their ways are questionable. For me these drug addicts and even the
criminals should have a second chance. In addition to the flaws of the policy, countless innocent
lives were taken during bypass operations and the policemen would also plant illegal drugs and
firearms to their lifeless body, which is really injustice, they chose to put the lives of innocent
individuals for their own gain. Another negative effect of the policy is that the Philippines has a
bad image outside the country and that most Filipinos does not feel safe in their own country and
can’s even trust the policemen who is supposed to be our protector. By contrast there are also
positive outcomes in this advocacy, rehabilitations centers has improved and multiply, and the
drug addicts and pushers decreased in numbers.

As for me, I both agree to Pastor Julius, a Baptist congregation and Fr. Martin, a Parish
priest we should trust in God plans and that He has a reason on why He chose Duterte to be the
ways on making our nation better. And I believe that compassion for others should always come
first before submission to the government, if we could just be compassionate and think if we will
be in their position what are we going to feel, even though our loved ones is the wicked person I
would still like to give them a chance to change.