Drug war ‘reloaded’
>> Thursday, March 16, 2017
EDITORIAL
Barely had national police chief
Ronald Dela Rosa said police chief said Monday his forces had
"reloaded" and were back fighting their president's deadly war on
drugs when nine drug suspects were shot and killed in Bulacan Monday and
Tuesday.
This,
as critics warned of more extrajudicial killings and other widespread human
rights abuses in the drug war, with Amnesty International saying police may be
guilty of crimes against humanity.
It
accused police of fatally shooting defenseless people, paying assassins to
murder addicts and stealing from those they killed.
Following criticism, President Rodrigo Duterte stopped the Philippine National
Police’s war against drugs just over a month after they were withdrawn because
of widespread corruption, but now that it was resumed, expect more casualties
despite the PNP’s declarations that it would be less bloody.
Duterte
said late January he suspended all police from his crackdown on illegal drugs,
which has claimed more than 6,500 lives, after describing them "rotten to
the core".
Dela
Rosa said Monday reforms had been implemented to ensure there was no repeat of
previous problems, which included anti-drugs officers kidnapping and murdering
a South Korean businessman.
He
said the war on drugs is on, and “this time it is going to be more extensive,
aggressive and well-coordinated, with built-in systems that guarantee full
accountability and instill internal discipline among all personnel."
The
drug war was originally named "Double Barrel," in a reference to a
two-pronged strategy of police fighting the drug war on the streets while also
focusing on "high value" targets.
A
police statement announcing the new campaign named it as "Double Barrel
Reloaded".
Dela
Rosa said in the statement there had been a "resurgence" in the drugs
trade while police had been suspended.
"It
only goes to show that we cannot afford to lower our guard when confronting a
vicious enemy. There must be continuity of effort if the desire is to
completely eradicate the problem," he said.
Duterte
said in late January he planned to "cleanse" the police force, which
has long been regarded as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country,
before letting it return to the drug war frontlines.
The
PNP press release referred to specific measures to stop corrupt police officers
from being involved in the drug war, rather than structural measures to tackle
graft throughout the force.
Duterte
won presidential elections last year after promising to eradicate drugs in
society by killing tens of thousands of people.
Since then, police have reported
killing more than 2,550 people and nearly 4,000 others have died in unexplained
circumstances, according to official figures.
But
despite this, according to government spokesmen, more Filipinos support the
drug war. Reports point out however, a sizable number of Filipinos are against
it after a lot of drug suspects got killed without benefit of a fair court
trial. With resumption of the drug war, expect more casualties and it will only
strike home among its strong supporters when a member of their family gets killed.
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