Guilty or not Guilty
By: Yvone Betenio & Ian Sierra
Introduction
“If you were the President, how do you solve the drug problem in our country? Everyone seems to have a
solution. Every Tom, Dick and Harry continues to criticize the President and his efforts. But no one ever
dared to fight this war before. Now that the business of illegal drugs has turned our country into a “narcostate” what do you expect the President to do? Sit back and relax?” (Soliven, 2017)
The right of life should uphold respect to each life but in this case nothing is less expected from the ones
who gives an action to do a certain job and the real problem lies within those who control it. Extra
Judicial Killing seems to be denounced by the international community as a clear delinquency from the
rule of law. In the campaign of Duterte administration against illegal drugs, many of the law for the right
of its men was violated and recognised as a warning to human rights. It is not humanely acted as a way to
decrease the rate of drug use in the country. It’s surprising that this sovereign drive has been associated
with extra judicial killings and worst the state’s critics and political opponents have accused the President
from committing and endorsing without a proper due process. As we make our stand as a citizen and talk
about this issue, we are against in the process of this inhumane campaign.
Counter Arguments
As the number of victims continue to mount and the violence and brutality became severe. There is a way
of performing this kind of governments’ activity that mostly of the killed suspected drug users and dealers
are mostly the breadwinners, irregular-wage or low-wage earners from the informal side of the country.
Others are also low in educational attainment but it isn’t always the poor who’s the head of drug use they
work in different illegal companies who sort drug in and out the country. As we obtain the information’s
gathered from the related studies, information’s from the interviewed victims, families, and witnesses are
allegedly improper behaviour of officials conducting this campaign. To respond to the rise in cases of
gross human right violations is to provide support and interventions to the victims and families. The
campaign of the rule of law and the respect for human rights is to fight against impurity. In this way,
people can be opened to discuss the negative and come up with ideas to correct the wrong and prevent
inhumane behaviour of our co-citizens.
Arguments
Let’s pause for a while and look at a different perspective. In God’s word, we are commanded not to kill
for we are humans, imperfect, that has no right to sentence others to death. What happens to this order is,
police are allowed to just shoot somebody without evidence and thorough investigation. Law enforcers
might have chances to vent out their grudge through this and cover up their deaths as drug related. This
order goes against God’s design of justice and human rights.
While we celebrate the decreased crime and success of this movement, there are families who are still
puzzled about the sudden death of their loved ones. According to Human Rights Watch.org, there are over
12,000 deaths of Filipinos, mostly urban poor. Their research has found that the police are falsifying
evidence just to justify the unlawful killings. Take for an example, Kian Delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz, and
Reynaldo De Guzman’s death. Kian was found in a fatal position with gunshot wound to his head. There
is also this CCTV footage wherein Delos Santos was just loitering near his house when two unidentified
men grabbed him and led him away where his body was later found. Delos Santos’ father pointed out that
the pistol was recovered from the left-hand if his otherwise right-handed son. Their case was just one of
the many unexplained deaths that occurred on that night.
Conclusion
The implementation of War on Drugs is a great step forward but given our messed up judicial system, we
highly doubt that everything will undergo legal processes and avoid unlawful killings. Extra judicial
killings are against God’s design, human rights and mask the truth behind all these. What if we are
killing the wrong person? We killed not just only the person, but his dreams, and his family’s heart. It is
evident that we are living in a country where the rich are always sheltered by money while the poor are
being slaves, ordered around, ended up being killed when mischief comes. We think the solution to this is
that not only the government should take an action but as a nation we should act as a part of this society in
which we benefit the extent of life that we deserve.