Dispatch from Crame No. 304:
War on drugs not a numbers game - Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on PNP's "official number" of casualties on the War on Drugs

5/9/18

In an effort to "set the record straight" on the casualties of President Duterte's war on drugs, PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde admitted that 4,251 drug suspects had been killed since July 2016 up to April 30 this year. This is to dispute the much higher estimates of human rights groups and other critics of this controversial and bloody campaign.

It's abhorrent how the PNP can reduce the war on drugs as just another numbers game. Each kill is a life taken; each kill is an orphaned family, a grieving mother, father, wife, child, and friends. One can only fathom how the aggrieved can get by without being able to speak out for fear of their own lives and without even the remote possibility of getting justice.

No, you cannot just release an official data on the "real numbers" of those killed in your murderous war on drugs and that's it. This does not settle the fact that this government is committing a gross violation of the basic rights of its people by encouraging law enforcers to kill suspects.

Kahit po patulan natin ang PNP sa usapin ng numero, huling-huli pa rin po sila sa kanilang pagsisinungaling sapagkat sa 2017 year-end report ng Malakanyang, ipinagyabang talaga nila sa Pangulo na 20,322 ang napatay sa kampanya kontra-droga. Tapos ngayong binabatikos sila at nakaamba ang imbestigasyon ng International Criminal Court (ICC) ay biglang bumaba sa mahigit apat na libo na lamang ang biktima.

Ngunit uulitin ko po, bawat isang pagpatay ay mali at may dapat na managot, at hindi lamang isasama sa bilang na ire-report kay Digong o sa media. Nagiging normal na lang ang mga patayan at ang kelangan na lang ay maiulat ang tamang numero ng mga biktima. Ang kelangang mabunyag ay ang katotohanang peke ang war on drugs na ito at labag sa karapatang pantao ang istratehiyang ito.

But for the people perpetuating this strategy, the lives of these suspects don't count. Bato Dela Rosa, who speaks like his godfather Duterte, then told the PNP that "you cannot wage a war without killing and I simply do not take it as a punitive police action." Now, we have Albayalde who is fearlessly following the footsteps of his PMA batchmate and is not new to these drug-related killings as former NCRPO Chief.

Maling-mali po ang strategy ng gobyernong ito laban sa droga sapagkat hindi lamang binalewala ang halaga ng buhay kundi pangunahing naging target din po ang mga mahihirap na walang kalaban-laban. Bakit mahihirap? Dahil isa sa pangunahing ugat ng problemang ito ang matinding kahirapang nararanasan ng marami sa ating mamamayan.

Meantime, the big-time drug syndicates are left untouched. Government can't seem to build their cases for lack of evidence. What a farce!

Media na rin mismo ang nagrereport na talamak pa rin ang bentahan ng droga sa loob at labas ng Bilibid. Ang sagot ng gobyerno, "mahaba pa ang proseso at hindi madali ang war on drugs," pero ilang libong buhay pa ang kanilang kikitilin? Malaking kalokohan at panlilinlang sa mamamayan!

I challenge Bato--fix the drugs problem in the Bilibid. Target the big wigs, not the small-time drug users and couriers from the slums - target the syndicates, the movers, the powerful ones.

To Albayalde, make your appointment count - this is your chance to correct the costly mistakes of your predecessor. We can fight illegal drugs and other criminality without these killings and without stoking the culture of impunity among our personnel in uniform and in our society.

Wag nating pagdebatihan kung ilan at kung tama ang bilang ng mga napapatay. Ang tanong, tama bang polisiya at tugon sa kriminalidad ang pagpatay? Ang tanong, pagpatay ba ng mga suspects ang tutugon sa problema ng drugs sa bansa?