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Duterte, we, are better than this

I mean, President Duterte, who is emerging as our first anti-oligarch President ever, is better than being a leader presiding over the massacre of small-time drug pushers and addicts, intended to end the illegal drug menace his predecessor BS Aquino had allowed to flourish.

We Filipinos, who have a deep respect for human life, either because of Christianity or of Western humanism, are better than a people cheering the wanton murder of the underclass, most of whom were really driven by their misery to take drugs, and then sell them to others so they could afford their addiction. They certainly didn’t go into drugs to become rich but in order to numb themselves to the hellish life they were living.

TV news in the past weeks has become sickening, with its footages of alleged violent drug pushers – invariably in worn-out slippers, hunted down like rats in slum areas – shot by the police, allegedly because they fought back, or tried to grab a policeman’s gun even when they were hand-cuffed. An elderly father and his young son, both in dirty worn-out shirts, were shown arrested and handcuffed then shoved into a police vehicle. The TV reporter later reported they were killed as they put up a fight with their captors.

I am sick of watching police officers in TV news  – I’ve seen probably a dozen of them from various precincts in the metropolis – telling us, as if we were idiots, that the alleged criminals were shot during a firefight after they grabbed their captors’ guns.

I am tired of seeing corpses of alleged drug pushers, with guns either in their hands or on the ground just a foot away, obviously intended as proof that they tried to shoot it out with the police. But isn’t it standard operating procedure for authorities after a deadly firefight to take the gun away from the criminal, in case in his last seconds of life he’d attempt to take a policeman down with him into the grave?

A vigilante group calling itself shamelessly, the Socialist Party of the Philippines, releases its video, boasting that it is Duterte’s armed group going after drug-pushers. The video shows a middle-aged woman begging for mercy, and promising to forever stop selling illegal drugs. A few seconds later, the video shows a vigilante in a talahiban (bush-covered lot) shooting the woman in the head, together with her four companions — all in slippers.

Don’t summarily kill them, just summarily throw them into a stockade.
Don’t summarily kill them, just summarily throw them into a stockade.

Several minutes later, the same TV network reports the raid on what the police claim is the lair of big-time drug dealers, with a stock of shabu worth hundreds of millions of pesos, as well as the equipment, materials and paraphernalia for preparing the illegal drugs for sale and distribution. Shown being arrested were two Taiwanese who operated that drug center, according to the police. There are no reports, days after, that the duo tried to escape and had to be shot by the police.

No bank accounts
I am looking forward to this paper’s reports on what happened to these Taiwanese big-time shabu manufacturers. I won’t be surprised if the Bureau of Immigration later reports it had to allow the two to leave the country, as there were no sufficient evidence filed by the police against them.

Your regular drug pushers in the neighborhood don’t have safes or bank accounts that contain millions of pesos: that is, I suspect, a main reason why about a hundred of them have been killed in the past few weeks and that not a single big-time drug lord has been sent to his grave.

I don’t think Duterte, nor his police chief Ronald del Rosa, ordered the police to summarily execute drug pushers and even addicts. As he himself said, he is a lawyer and knows what is illegal and what is legal in the way these cases are to be handled.

What Duterte wittingly or unwittingly has done with his I-will-kill-drug-criminals rhetoric and the statement that those in the police force who do the same in the line of duty may even be promoted by doing so, is to give them the impression they can indulge in their basest instincts, which had been suppressed by the gradual acceptance in the police force of the rule of law and of human rights advocacies in this country.

Many, many years ago, and hobnobbing with police reporters and even joining their coverage, I learned that in some precincts, especially in areas known to have serious crime problems, rookie policemen earned their place as comrades-in-arms only after they have executed a suspected criminal.

President Rodrigo Duterte AFP PHOTO
President Rodrigo Duterte AFP PHOTO

Even decades before Duterte, the real rules of engagement by the police in this concrete jungle was to shoot to kill suspects after a long chase, especially if they had guns, even if they had indicated an intent to surrender. I myself saw one such instance, right in front of our office in Quezon City, and that was long ago.

Many police officers during that period who rapidly rose through the ranks had built a reputation of shooting criminals dead, regardless of whether they engaged in a firefight or not. A few infamous police colonels were known to have enjoyed testing their brand new pistols and Armalites by using these on suspects.

This may sound unbelievable in this Catholic country, but many of these police officers and men justify their killings in their minds, by thinking: the suspect is known, anyway, as a hardened criminal — ‘just look at his tattoos’ — and that he would just continue harming and even killing innocent people, given that he’d easily post bail… That the prisons are so packed and a young suspect will be better off dead than suffer the hell he is bound to experience inside the jail. Or even that the policeman will be better off serving the country by not having to spend so much time in court when the criminal is prosecuted.

The Marcos way
Summary executions of illegal-drug suspects to stop their heinous business and to scare others from going the same direction are not the only option. These are really the lazy option.

Duterte should learn from the President he has stated he admired: the former strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

The strongman didn’t just get a Military Commission to convict and then execute by firing squad the drug lord and financer, Lim Seng, with photos of his execution on the front pages of all the four newspapers then. Few would remember that Marcos set up the legal and institutional framework for an anti-drug campaign, having Congress pass the Dangerous Drugs Act in March 1972, and after Martial Law was imposed, setting up the Dangerous Drugs Board under the Office of the President in November that year and in 1974, the Inter-Agency Committee on Drug Abuse Prevention Education.

What fewer people remember is that drug addicts and pushers were summarily rounded up even without charges and brought to the military’s, or the then Philippine Constabulary’s, stockades, where in the crudest ways — the sheer unavailability of the illegal drugs for months – they got rid of their addiction.

Many of these drug addicts actually were sent to the stockades where those detained were mostly political prisoners, which is the reason why the two biggest of such facilities in metropolitan Manila were called Ipil Rehabilitation Center and YouthRehabilitation Center. I know, as I was imprisoned in Ipil for two years (as a political prisoner, of course). It was after a few months that we would learn that this or that guy wasn’t really an activist but a drug addict.

Summary killings of small-time drug pushers and addicts  to defeat the illegal drug scourge is not the only option, which is even a shameful one unfit for what could be our best presidency ever.

The better, really bolder option is,  as Marcos did, only to “summarily” arrest and  detain them, even for months.   Duterte’s lawyers would, I’m sure, come up with a “legal” mode for catching the suspected small-time drug dealers, and throwing them into some facility in our military camps, not only in the metropolis but in the provinces. These poor souls will get rid of their addiction only if they are put in a place where it it is impossible for them to secure shabu for months – and that is not in regular jails where the drug is available, but in special detention centers far away, preferably run by the military.

These poor people, anyway, wouldn’t be able to hire expensive lawyers to file habeas corpus cases at the Supreme Court. With hundreds, or thousands of such cases, the Public Attorney’s Office, the Commission on Human Rights and the human rights lawyers, wouldn’t have the manpower to deal with all of them.

Duterte doesn’t have to build new prisons for these. In the 1970s, the Ipil Rehabilitation Center was a military training center converted overnight into a huge stockade. Military gyms with basketball courts — ubiquitous in our military camps — could very easily be refurbished as detention facilities, as a few were, in the first months of Martial Law.

Since the conquest of leprosy in the 1970s, much of the facilities of the Culion Sanitarium and Hospital (at one time the largest leper colony in the world), on a distant island in northern  Palawan could be used, as soon as possible, as the maximum detention facility for the real drug lords who most probably are just not more than 50 in number.

An explosion of illegal detention cases? That’s better than the current explosion of summary killings.

tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com

This Post Has 80 Comments

  1. grace jaena

    Wala ba kayong mga mata ilang libo na ang mga sumuko, gusto nyo bang lahat ng bayan puro adik…paglabas ng bagong mga ipapanganak makikita na lahat adik… daig nyo pa ang zombie. baguhin nyo na lang kaya ang tawag sa pilipinas adik nation… bat di kayo sumama sa ng re raid na pulis para makita nyo… dapat lang mabawasan ang masasama sa pilipinas. yung mga drug lords mghantay lng at may pgkklagyan…

  2. ron

    The rule of law should prevail. Remember, before the raids and killings occurs, an ample warning to the suspects is being given. That should suffice for them to reclaim their lives. Your suggestion is a weak option to eradicate this drug problem besetting our country, probably it will work if the situation is not as severe as it is right now….

  3. Madel

    Poverty or hellish life is not a reason to use drugs or to sell drugs. There are tons of poor people i know who strive hard to live a decent life. I am not pro killing in this country, for so many years, under whose administration tried to erradicate drugs? Who so far tried to make better change in just few months of being the president? The problem here, every one has their opinion, sympathy, empathy and all those emotions just to have a say in this government. What have you done so far to make a change? Have you tried helping a group of children who became drug addicts because they were influenced by syndicates/adults who should know better? If killing those scumbags would be for the greater good of our children in the future, i dont mind at all. May their souls rest in hell!

  4. Michelle Ong

    Anybody knows how to play and win a Poker game? Read between the lines.

  5. jmsq

    I know what you mean. As a clinical clerk/ medical student, who is the first line in the emergency room, i have seen the gore brought about by this purging.
    And even though they said “nanlaban yan”, it is noticeable from the gunshots and probably if they are going to analyze the ballistics report, the gunshots are far from incapacitation, they are really intended to kill.

    1. Val Lance

      Yes, this is an oft-repeated observations. Yet, the law-enforcers have the same oft-repeated response – nanlaban yan.

      No one among us could choose the anti-criminal action. We could only choose our opinion – mainam na sila ang tumumba kesa tayo, or kahit tagilid tayo, bigyan naman natin sila ng due process.

      Again, it’s the devil and the deep blue sea.

  6. Kyle

    Please for a little while put your shoes on the officer fighting on the frontlines.

    Now you are trying to arrest someone who might be armed. You shout “hands up where I can see them” but the one you are trying to artest, panics and pulls something from the pocket. You shout again but he stills resumes what he’s trying to do.

    Now what will you do? Will you wait and let him pull that something? Now if it’s a handkerchief that he’s trying to pull. That’s all and good but if it’s a gun. You’re good as dead. You will leave your children and wife just because you let him pull that thing.

    And remember this will all happen in a split second. So you are making a split second decision.

  7. Joe

    Why stop when we are just starting, we have more to kill, including the traitors of this nation. The corrupt and those who sleeps with crime lords and sell their people. We are far from over. We want this nation future secured and if so, liberty must be paid in blood of those who are guilty for undermining it for decades. Don’t give us the morality lectures, we have been moral long enough for these people to destroy countless of lives and this nation. Remember, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of tyrants and patriots. It’s tyrants and patriots that are dying, while the rest are just talking. Decades lon people neglected this government, praise these traitors, and now you you want more neglect. The triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

    The yellow administration, your administration have coddled many crime lords and steal as many funds as they could than any others and we will come for them too.

  8. Joe

    Why stop when we are just starting, we have more to kill, including the traitors of this nation. The corrupt, the political prostitutes who sleeps with crime lords and sell their people. We are far from over. We want this nation future secured and if so, liberty must be paid in blood of those who are guilty for undermining it for decades. Don’t give us the morality lecture bs, we have been moral long enough for these people to destroy countless of lives and this nation. Remember, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of tyrants and patriots. It’s tyrants and patriots that are dying, while the rest are just talking. Decades lon people neglected this government, praise these traitors, and now you you want more neglect. The triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

    The yellow administration, your administration have coddled many crime lords and steal as many funds as they could than any others and we will come for them too.

  9. Joe

    Why stop when we are just starting, we have more to kill, including the traitors of this nation. The corrupt, the political whores who sleeps with crime lords and sell their people. We are far from over. We want this nation future secured and if so, li erty must be paid in blood of those who are guilty for undermining it for decades. Don’t give us the morality lecture bs, we have been moral long enough for these people to destroy countless of lives and this nation. Remember, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of tyrants and patriots. It’s tyrants and patriots that are dying, while the rest are just talking. Decades lon people neglected this government, praise these traitors, and now you you want more neglect. The triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

  10. 363252Uyanguren

    All I see, hear & read from the media (TV, radio & print) are rampant summary killings of “small fries” (user/addict of illegal drugs) but none of the drug lords, manufacturers, distributors & its protectors. These poor “small fries” cannot afford to hire lawyers whereas the influential “big fries” have the means & can hire the best lawyers. I just hope that none of the sons, daughters, grandchildren & other loved ones of the President & the PNP Chief will become addict or hooked to illegal drugs & will suffer the same fate as those of the illegal drug addicts/users today. God bless the Philippines.

  11. keej

    Mr. Tiglao, you are entitled to give your own opinion and I respect you for that but please do some research before you publish an article next time. Making Culion a rehabilitation center “big shot” drug lords is not that easy. First, building that kind facility is expensive our government can use the money to other things instead, like allocating it to the rumored additional salary increase of our teachers. Second, Culion, the place that you were suggesting is now very different from what it was before. Culion improved over the time. It is a paradise not just for its locals but for many people who experienced the beauty and solemnity of life in the Island. Do not think like as if Culion is a place where you can do whatever you want do with it, even if it is for the benefit of the “many”. Lastly, Culion is not an isolated island it has relatives like Coron, Busuanga and it is inhabited with thousands of people that are not lagging behind in this millennium.

  12. Anton

    U should move and live in mars tiglao and put up a perfect government.

  13. Toph

    Get your facts straight about CULION, PALAWAN Mr. Tiglao. The facilities you mentioned is now the Culion General Hospital servicing all the island municipalities around it and its poor residents. Better for you to go here and see for yourself, you rabid attack dog of GMA.

  14. Rudi Miranda

    Thank you, but ain’t an investigative report at all? Where’s the raw data?

  15. Roralidrakkonis

    I believe there are two reasons many of our citizens are cheering on these extra-judicial killings, despite the tranquil persona of the Filipino you mentioned. One, is, of course, being fed up with crime and the drug menace. But more ominously, it seems we Pinoys tend to choose our sides on an issue based on the personalities involved. Thus we have the Duterte-can-do-no-wrong segment of society. If the President said that crime was caused by duwende, people would believe it without a second thought. (Okay, a hyperbole, but you get it.)
    Sadly, we are deficient in critical thinking and prefer to think in black and white, letting others shape our thoughts. A more discerning admirer of the President would think: Duterte is doing a good job otherwise, but he may have set off something ugly this time.

  16. Vino

    PDU30 & Bato. . . JUST ONE, ISA LANG inosenteng tao ang mapatay na napatunayan wala talagang kasalanan (it will happen- with hard evidence_ the investigative journalists are on it right now)….kargo ninyo yan habang buhay (sabagay di naman kayo takot sa Diyos, at ok lang kayo sa baba dahil paniniwala nyo tama at sangayon ang buong Pilipino_nagkakamali po kayo di po lahat). Kawawa ang pamilya… kawawa ang mga bata…at kawawa rin po ang inyong mga magulang lalo nja inyong ina na inyong iniiyakan sa paniniwalang gagawa kayo ng tama at nararapat ayon sa pinatutupad na batas. May iba pang paraan, marami pa na higit na epektibo na may moral at di nakakatakot para sa kabataan at ayon sa kagustuhan ng Maykapal. . .meron. Period

    1. hokage

      puro kau puna ,. puro kau reklamo let the police do their job,.. para sa future lahat yan,..sobrang lala na nang sitwasyun ng droga sa bansa natin.. dapat disiplinahin ang mga pasaway.. tapusin ang masasama,.. kung sinasabi mong epektibong paraan? aber ano?! puro ka satsat ampao ka rin naman,..

  17. elliott v.

    instead of killing them, why not just build huge, well-guarded prison facilities in some remote island for drug lords and drug incorrigibles including police generals. there, they will either heal by themselves or die natural death.

    1. Ernest Axe

      And who pay for its upkeep? You?

  18. red planet

    What is more sickening to me is that the RP Constitution and Laws did not prevent PNoy from appointing Narco-cops to head the police, and Narco-guards, to oversee Shabu-Labs in our jails, or stop him from handpicking Narco-customs officials to import the chemicals and Narco-scientists to set-up the Meth-labs and Narco-lawyers and Narco-journalists to silence investigation and suspicion.
    Now comes Du30 promising to eradicate these scum, I AM ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE 100% ALL FOR IT! Even though we are aware that there are good cops that abide by the rules of engagement, yes there are also many bad-cops that kill those in their custody, out of incompetence, as means to get promoted, or settle scores with enemies, or to silence criminal associated that can witness against them. As we have seen this tactic backfired for these type of bad-cops, thousands in fear for their lives are surrendering and confessing a lot of information, as if really it were their death bed last will and testament. All this collected information from narco-surrenderees must be preserved and data based to build criminal cases against those most guilty.

  19. Concerned citizen

    Past administrations saw the implications of drug abuse on Filipino people but they let these crooks continue until Duterte came to the scene, now he is trying to save the future generation and there were antagonists and adversaries.. These shenanigans are hardened criminals, they can buy laws and justice. What will happen to these young people? Would you like to see a drug addict president in the future?

  20. Neil Canlas

    You mourn about the killings of criminals and drug pushers, how about the lives of our generation the lives of our youth? What about the families and victims of massacres and rape who’s suspect’s caused by drugs? Did you ever think of that??? Cut the crap about them being human and their rights, because these drug lords and generals does not care about your sympathy! the truth hurts and the truth will set us free!

  21. Karlo A.

    Hi. I am a Davaoeno and I am witness to how then Mayor, now President Duterte ran our city. He values life, life of those who are being destroyed by others, life of innocent people ended by criminals and drug addicts, and life of those about to be destroyed by abusive men. He doesn’t actually like to kill, but if needed to make his points about criminality and drugs clear then by all means he will. Kung baga sinasampolan lang kayo para matuto. As he said, all laws to penalize, jail, and prosecute criminals have already been there for as long as he can remember, but none of them has been implemented. That’s why he does all these with confidence because he knows the laws. Abogado and prosecutor din yan bago naging politiko. He bases his actions on the present laws. Sa mata lang natin eh sumusobra siya kasi nasanay tayo sa pabebe na istilo ng mga ibang politiko. So Mr Tiglao, if you say that you’re sick watching all these killings, if i were you try to stomach all these for now, kasi ikaw din mag bebenipisyo soon. Kasi he’s the only guy who can do all these kaya suportahan mo na kasi baka sa susunod ang isusulat mo eh pasasalamat na naligtas sa kapahamakan mga mahal mo sa buhay. Hwag mong antayin ikaw ang magsisi sa hindi pagsuporta sa kanya.

  22. Halle Vera

    News item: Two Taiwanese nationals apprehended with billion-peso worth of shabu in an exclusive subdivision.
    Hindi daw lumaban, TRIAD syndicate members are very suspicious, well-armed and very violent. Catching them without resistance is a sign of good planning by the law-enforcers.

    News item: Hundreds of Pinoy pushers and addicts killed in shoot-outs with the police.
    Lumaban daw. Poor planning ba?

    Kapag big-time foreigners, maganda planning. Walang patay.

    Kapag -small time pinoy, bara-bara na lang ang planning. Puro patay.

    Hala-bira!

  23. Markco

    It works both ways, you kill the source, you destroy drugs. You kill the proliferators, you destroy the process of drug distribution and then itself, drugs. So whatever happens, killing the distributors or the sources, its the same, you are killing and destroying drugs anyway.

    I don’t get it why many people including this author condems such acts, first of all, it is not proven that the president ordered such summary executions. Second, even if he said that he will kill bad people, he followed it with “under the rule of law”. Are you sure that the perpetrators or such vigilantes are inspired by the president? or do they have their own agenda? are they against crime or just riding the wave of change? Those cannot be proven at all.

    So mr. president, I am with you. Most filipinos do. We are tired of crime, its high time we go out, enjoying, without worrying for our lives.

  24. jack reacher

    If a real Chinese and, on some occassions, a Nigerian national is caught at “nang-agaw” nang baril or even those VIPs incarcerated sa Bilibid ang nadali then bibilib na ako … huwag puro na lang itong mga small time users ..

    Isama mo na yang ilang mayors …. at mga opisyal sa Bilibid ..

  25. doc_dyess

    Perhaps we are being ignorant of what drugs have done to our country and our citizens. True as it may be that some are not given due process, however considering the victims of heinous crimes what kind of due process was given to them. Who were protecting them. We all love to comment and pass judgments but the question we all have to answer is “what have we done as citizens to help stop the proliferation of drugs and criminality”? All I can say its at least in my lifetime I have a president and a government who cares about its citizen and its country, someone who is will to do everything to give us peace, security and order. Sad as it may be that few human rights where violated but this it to protect the majority. I am not trying to morally depend the current situations but I merely supporting and protecting my children’s future.

  26. Let Itgo

    I will only be convinced if Pilandok will manage to incriminate the real Drug lords, including these Generals and mayors. Bakit yung mga user at small time pushers lang ang binabanatan agad, bakit yung mga big fish, may pa interview at media explanation pa. Is this what he call Fair and honest governance?

    The truth shall set us free.

    1. Let Itgo

      Why not go to the source, unahin ang mga drug lords- Generals, Mayors, Politicians, kapag sila ang nawala, wala ng supply, unti-
      unti mababawasan ang user at small time pusher. Does Dela Rosa and Pilandok knows the Law of Supply and Demand?

  27. MAmog

    As always your article is direct to the point… I cant help but to hope that our pres digong will read this or at least one of his press staff is brilliant enough to know that you are one person our pres should listen to!

  28. kaka

    Sabi ni Pres, Duterte noon panahon ng kampanya “Huwag ninyo akong iboto dahil kapag ako ang nanalo magiging madugo at tataba ang mga isda sa Manila Bay” pero sa kabila niyan binoto pa rin siya ng taong bayan, ibig sabihin pinapayagan ng taong bayan ang nagyayaring pagpatay sa mga kriminal.

  29. Na Me

    Puro malilit at “hampas lupa” lang ang napapatay, bakit wala ni isa man lang na drug lord o malaking dealer na napapatay? Dapat managot ang pulis at military dito, mukhang palabas lang ito para sabihin ginagawa nila ang dapat gawin, pero tinatago ang totoong mga salaot.

    Intsik, corrupt pulis/military (majority) at politicians ang totoong malalaking isda dito.

    Gawain ng intsik ang i-corrupt ang mga pinoy sa gobyerno – military, politico, opisyal – noon pa man. Sila ang totoong kalaban ng Pilipino, pangalawa naman ang tamad, mabisyo at incompetent na mga opisyal sa gobyerno – halos lahat, madaling I-corrupt ang mga ito, ito, at ito ang dapat e-exterminate.

    Hindi ba alam ito ng president? Bakit ang mga general dumadan sa due process, pero ang mga maliliit hindi. Baliktad – dapat-salvage ang malalaki ang kasalan, at bigyan ng kinabukasan at pag asa ang nakakarami – ang malilit yon.

  30. Dale Gozar

    To: Bobi Tiglao, Rizalito David, CBCP, NTC, Laila De Lima, Senate, CHR and advocates of human rights – if can’t help find solution to drug related problems, Please shut up na lang!

    Senate INQUIRY ek ek is only a tool that senators or dirty/paid politicians (PDAF/DAP) use to harrass people (chief justice Corona, De Villa, now our policemen), free publicity, media exposure and get public attention/support.

  31. leon

    Thank you for appreciating several times what the former PresMacoy did for this country ruled by oligarchy.

  32. Naldo

    There is this dilemma of how to successfully eradicate this menace of illicit proliferation of the illegal drug trade and drug addiction in our society, the lowly foot soldiers are easily subject to summary execution, while those big Taiwanese drug dealers are handled cautiously, that is because a television camera crew and news reporter often accompany the rainding team, because it is a big bust for the police force and the coverage would certainly boost the popularity of the crime busting policy of the current government. But, such is not the case with small time drug dealers, which often would make news after the fact that they are already found dead and sprawled on pavements or their hideout, still it make its way into the news, because this time the media makes the coverage sensational for the public to view or read, either way it makes the headline and the people riveted on violence we ourselves had long tolerated.

    It is agreeable to say that justice must be served, and that each individual should be afforded the protection of the law, in which case each suspect must be given the right under the law to be innocent until proven guilty by the court. And, should these suspects value their lives, the very rational approach is to surrender to the authorities as most had already done to protect their rights, and to avail the new program of the government for them to change their life style, and become another law abiding citizen, willing to eke out a living through legal or legitimate means no matter how small the earnings would be – greed has corrupted each of this individual, which modern commercialism has enscounced in today’s society (Hollywood movies with themes that popularized and romanticized criminals like Robin Hood).

    The law enforcers should not discriminate, between small and big time drug dealers and sydicate leaders, in their aim to eradicate this scourge that afflict our society, arresting the criminals and sending them to prison until rehabilitated as stated in the column is the correct way. However, should their be any form of deadly resistance against the arresting authorities, then a deadly reaction might be justifiable, but only on such occassion where it becomes life threatening, should extreme measure be warranted. And, as for the media, it might be of good judgment that it execises caution in reporting the news to the general public, like in the USA, media would censor or issue a disclaimer telling the public of its graphic contents.

    Fighting crime is never without its share of inhumanity, this has always been the fact, it only has come to our consciousness as we see it unfold before our very eyes, because media had done its share to make it obvious and gruesome. So, how should this be conundrum solved? There should be one way – we have three branches of government, let us make use of each, and of their separate powers, get more intelligent people into congress rather than having unschooled but popular celebrities sit in the August Hall, with nothing to do except to be an observer or another habitual delinquent absentee, to pass bills and laws that promote the protection of our civil rights.

  33. Mr.Naughty

    It seems you haven’t lived in an area full of drug users and pushers Mr. Writer. because if you have, I am pretty sure you wouldn’t imagine even writing this article 🙂

  34. tob alik

    what is happening now is much better than what was happening before.
    transferring fear from the law-abiding citizens to the lawbreakers
    is the right thing to do.

  35. aldebaran

    I also know a number of pushers and users and not one of them was not given a chance or choice to change…..Pres. Duterte’s call for them to surrender is another chance and if they will not take it there is no one else to blame….

  36. To the Max

    If we are going to discuss which is right or wrong, I have only one suggestion if you may. Arrest all drug pushers and drug dealers accompanied by a criminal judge. No bail on those arrested. This will definitely stop the killings 100 per cent, I guarantee. This happened because of the corrupt police, corrupt justice system and wreaking president. Now you have a killer iron fisted president, let us show him that justice can be serve without killings.

  37. Rico

    You are correct, why not give a chance to poor people to change their lives. Killing the user won’t solve the problem they are also victims, they should only do it with drug lords and pushers.

    1. Kapitan Kidlat

      change their lives?
      after ruining themselves and the people around them?
      pusher are killed not the users…

      I am poor, starving and trying hard to meet both ends met.
      But I respect the law, I don’t sale drugs.

    2. Paul Manota

      You only mentioned user… How bout killing the pusher is that acceptable… Do you prefer to have these criminals play with our laws and run like they had been doing for a long time. Dont you appreciate innocent lives are safer now.

    3. Campo luningning

      If you look how s many kababayans recently surrendered voluntarily with the youngest age at 16; would you imagine this happening ever?! Thats bcoz of duterte’s way of leadership and i’m praying the President be divinely protected ,,clearly for thw fiest week his cabinet in all gears,, now starts the mentality ng mga pinoy magkontrabida..instwad of supporting the cause ..way way back its all proceedings and giving chances to these violators but they are backed and redtaped by highest in rank protectors;; if not now when will this stops,, id not tje bravery of duterte who will ..now you tell me

    4. Quiboloy

      PresiRody had said these very poor drug addicts and drug sellers — mga walang kinabukasan… at hindi naman sila nag-ambag sa pondo para sa eleksiyon, ayun yon!.

  38. aldebaran

    KILL em all! mOST of these so called “small time pushers” are men and women who still have strength to do clean work but they chose to sell drugs…. I personally know a number of “old age” people who still does hard labor with minimum pay but never resorted to this way of making money….

    1. Robert

      Tama ka. I myself get this old but never tried drugs but work hard to earn my bread. Only the lazy ones and wants easy money fooled themselves by drug dealers fell into this mire they are in. Better wash dishes in a small restaurant than sell drugs. Schools always teach that drugs is bad for health and illegal and always seen on tv. That means what they do is within their knowledge that it is totally wrong. Tell to the marines why they do it. The article writer above is pulling his legs, full of shit with his arguments. Well, just his crazy opinion.

  39. Jaypee Rodgan

    I support the President and his Chief PNP. For those who are against them, please try to live (with your family) in a neigborhood with drug addicts and pushers.

    1. cynthia estrada

      I hope you don’t live in QC because you sanction killings therefore you are a killer. I don’t want to live in neigborhood with duterte fanatics who are killers.

  40. Pete

    This is just another moro moro show. Go after the big DTO’s (Drug Trafficking Organization), that is the Chinese. They have the money, network to manufacture, distribute and sell this illegal drugs. Stop killing this disheveled poor drug users and small time drug pusher. The reason they are in that situation is because of a corrupt and inept government that limits their opportunity to have gainful and meaningful employment. Please Mr. newly elected President, stop killing victims and really go after the bad guys.

    1. Robert

      They are all bad guys. Anyone who tries to get into a gun fight with the police would surely be neutralized. Being poor is not the reason to go into illegal. Look in the news, those who surrendered are fine. I don’t want to see anyone dead but if they become a menace then better off put them to rest. Or you wait until you become their victim, will you?

  41. gener lut

    nice one mr. tiglao

  42. truthbetold

    Armchair generals have the luxury of second guessing the police actions. But I know brave and galant men from the force and they are the first ones who hate to kill. It grows old on them really fast. They suffer a lot from these experiences, they get nightmares and lose sleep over them.

    Its true, the people who hate going to war the most and the people who have fight in it. Lets not be harsh on our brave men and women but rather support and pray for them that they maybe kept safe from harm.

  43. MAKA PINOY

    STOP KILLING FILIPINOS! START KILLING CHINESE DRUG PUSHERS AND LORDS

  44. Red Oiniger

    We all know pretty well that proliferatiin of shabu in some prison facilities exists. Prison facilities that may served as rehab centers may be impossible bexause shabu can still be sneaked in unlike before, not a thousand addicts or pushers are apprehended, drugs are also sold in trickles…that addicts and pushers can be rehabbed in a detention cell.

  45. Josie

    What has happened to the RULE OF LAW? Isn’t it that the court has to declare guilt before any punishment could be meted out? In the US, the police have to be investigated for any killing that they do.

    These killings SHOULD STOP. It is only the poor people who are the victims of these killings.

    1. ben victoria

      What happened to the rule of Law is that the Law itself is ruled by the moneyed.

  46. litocruz

    Price tag of incarceration is so deep that perhaps housing all drug users and pushers
    can mitigate a weaker budget which may affect other immediate social needs which has grown overtime since the 1986 revolution. The menace of corruption is so infectious that the disease of drug addiction needs surgical procedure ..The question
    is, are we ready to sacrifice our immediate social needs n pour our resources to the problem of drugs as a result of corruption?
    In part of Europe, because of the lingering problem of healthcare budget, some patient
    who only depend on the healthcare program and has no money to spend ends up of being practically terminated by denying the water to the patient.
    It is hard to embrace the new norm in government..These corrupt officials past and present have no right to criticize what is going on because President Duterte is a product of their own malice.

  47. ARNEL SUAREZ

    THE GHOST OF THE SLAIN SUSPECTED DRUG PUSHER WILL HUNT DUTERTE IN HIS SLEEP… KILLING IS EVIL

    1. Abraham Manlulu

      Duterte once said that he never mind going to hell for as long as he knows his people will be living in paradise.

    2. Robert

      There are no ghosts nor guilt of killing the scourges of the society. Either a person be with the productive peace-loving society or simply annihilated for not comforming to the GMRC taught long since we were children. Live or die is the person’s choice, your choice. Don’t give us a joke, k?

    3. Paul Manota

      The ghosts of the true innocent victims of drug users and pushers will be on dutertes defense.

  48. field

    I hope Pres. Duterte heeds your suggestions.

  49. ernan

    1. there is a huge difference between the past and the present. with our population and even the type of drugs which people are using or selling now. after more than 3 decades and 5 administration change, our situations have become worst.
    2. drug dealer and users have been forewarned even before the president run for the election.
    3. the president was elected by the majority of the people because of his promise to fight crime, corruption, drug addiction and more.
    4. poverty should never be an excuse to commit crime.

    1. Demy Dizon

      God abhors Poverty. This is the reason why people wants to be in politics to enrich themselves. They’re the worst thieves. (Easy money)

  50. Gerard Palanca

    i mean municipality and boat ride

  51. Gerard Palanca

    FYI: Culion is a minicipality in the Clamianes Group of Islands in Northern Palawan. Not the in the southern part. Yes it used to be a leper colony but it is not an ISOLATED island. It is an hour’s biat ride from Coron and Busuanga and there are many islands and islets in between and many are inhabited. Please refer to a map!

  52. Marco

    Let’s not forget how many lives these scumbags have ruined. It’s hard to tell these days because if generals are involved as protectors of drugs (not hard to believe) then certainly in the lower level there are cops involved there too. Dirty cops and drugs dealers/pushers are now head-to-head in trying to cover their own tracks. They know illegal drugs means troble, why go there in the first place. Because of vices and greed.

  53. hik hik

    Ginagawa lang ninyong complicated ang mga bagay bagay – TUMULONG PO KAYO NA SABIHAN ANG SMALL TIME DRUG PUSHER NA SUMORENDER NA PARA HINDI SILA MAPAHAMAK – GANUN LANG KA SIMPLE.

    1. Robert

      Tama ka, hik hik. Kesa pina-pamper pa ng article writer sa itaas, gusto pa i-justify ang mga sira-ulo sa lipunan. Hay naku! Utak-shabu din yata ang writer na yan. Opinion ko lang din.

  54. Secret

    Squeeze the little ones,
    Paralyze the Protectors,
    Then Capture the Big Fish.

  55. Ernest Axe

    You dwell too much on the few who resisted and killed, but ignored the thousands who surrendered and swore to stop the trade and use of the illegal drug. Digong never promised prestine war on drugs but clearly said this will be bloody. And the people agreed and voted him. There are few collateral victims killed by dirty policemen with the purpose of silencing them. and this is your job to identify and expose them. Don’t be lazy and generalize things.

    1. Jaypee Rodgan

      You nailed it buddy! Kudos!

    2. Cris

      Well said. Digong is eliminating the buyer and the salesman. He is hitting the producers (druglords) where it hurts the most, by burning their business to the ground.

    3. Robert

      Tama! Isampal mo yan comment mo, pre, sa mukha ng sira-ulong article writer. Masyadong epal. Yellow crusader seguro yan. Ka-tropa ng mga LP.

    4. Jimmar

      Wow!well said,loved it!

    5. Sel

      On point! I couldn’t agree more..

    6. Toby Mguire

      Let me qualify your statement, “…and the people agreed and voted him.” that does not include the 60+% of the voters who do not agree with these killings. Come to think of it, there may even be some in those 30+% of voters who previously agreed with this President that do not agree too with these killings happening now.

      1. Ernest Axe

        Well digong’s opponents tried very hard to convince the people not to vote for him exactly because many people will die. Even the CBCP. But what happened?

    7. aramis goodway

      yes..i agree..thats thr rule now to know the truth what really happened, not being bias…hoping someone will write also for those thousand of people who surrendered and swore..

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