Head Start College of Cotabato

Cotabato City

The Cause and Effect of Anti-Drug Campaign in Duterte Administration

By: Paul Xyrus Evangelista
Bs Criminology 4

When President Duterte took office in June 2016, he promptly

carried out his campaign promise to end crime by announcing his brutal
war on drugs. The illegal drug issue was presented by Duterte as being
good for the growth of the Philippine people. Since the majority of drug
addicts are now dead or in rehabilitation, it has had more positive effects
on the nation. It is now safe to walk alone in the streets and travel to other
parts of our nation because the percentage of drug addicts in that
particular area has decreased. After the drug war, our nation had peace,
and its citizens now feel secure. In addition according to Lee (2022), the
Philippines may become drug-free. If everyone, including the government,
local authorities and friends and family of drug users and sellers follows
Duterte’s laws, then the Philippines could potentially be closer to achieving
the seemingly impossible status of a drug-free nation.

Thousands of people in the Philippines have been killed since

President Rodrigo Duterte launched his “war on drugs” on June 30, 2016,
the day he took office.(Website, 2020). The Authorities refers the deaths of
youngsters under the age of 18 who were either purposefully targeted or
unintentionally shot during anti-drug raids as "collateral damage."

According to Reuters (2019) Philippine citizens are overwhelmingly

satisfied with President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, a survey
showed, giving a boost to a government outraged by an international push
to investigate allegations of systematic murders by police. Former Pres.
Duterte's promise to launch a war against drugs and did not alone help him
to win. He was elected because many voters truly believed he was different
from the common politicians we were used to vote for. Some people
supported him because of his straightforward personality, simple
governance style in Davao City, and clean record (free of corruption).

However, Rodrigo Duterte, who is now the former president of the

Philippines, began the War on Drugs in 2016, and it has had a long-lasting
negative impact to other, public trust in the government, and citizen-to-
citizen trust. Due to Duterte's decision to unleash the police and their hit
men against suspected drug users. The Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency, 5,601 drug suspects lost their lives in police anti-drug operations
between July 1, 2016, and January 31, 2020. The police assert that these
individuals were slain because they resisted arrest (Human Rights Watch,
2020).

Continuing Duterte's program specifically the anti-drug war is not

bad, this anti-drug war is not just to kill drug addicts, it is done to protect
the youth and the future generations so that it can prevent them from
getting addicted to bad activities. In addition according to (Wikipedia,
2022). Duterte urged his successor, Bongbong Marcos, who won the 2022
Philippine presidential election, to continue the war on drugs in "his own
way" to protect the youth. Marcos declared his intention to continue the
anti-narcotics campaign, focusing more on prevention and rehabilitation.