Sorry, but…

On Sunday, at a festival in Tarlac celebrating the Nativity, President Duterte apologized for the loss of innocent lives in his war on drugs. “It’s not that I’m sorry for the decision, but I’m sorry for those who were caught in the crossfire,” he said.

He had earlier described these casualties as collateral damage, the unfortunate result of police using automatic weapons when confronting criminals: “When they meet, they exchange fire. With the policeman and the M16, it’s one burst, brrr, and [he] hits 1,000 people and they die.” He added that America, among other countries, also kills innocent civilians when it bombs hostile territory. “Why do you say it is collateral damage to the West and to us it is murder?” he said.

The apology and the depiction of his brutal campaign as par for the course do little to honor the memory of the young “collateral damage” such as San Niño Batucan, 7, Danica May Garcia, 5, and Althea Barbon, 4, whose violent and senseless deaths should give law enforcers pause. Why should the young pay the ultimate price for the folly of their elders, and the hubris of leaders who think themselves infallible and above law and reason? “Forgive me, but I really cannot lose the momentum here,” the President said. “As I have said, this is a matter of survival for my country.”

Unfortunately, San Niño, Danica May and Althea can no longer appreciate such lofty nationalism. They were ordinary kids caught in the war on drugs that appears to have driven both police and vigilantes to frenzy like sharks by the smell of blood.

By accounts, San Niño was at home in Consolacion, Cebu City, on Dec. 3 when he cried out in pain and clutched at his bloodied stomach. Not soon after, he was dead in a hospital where he had been taken—a victim, according to his father, of a stray bullet fired in the course of a “failed police operation” concerning a suspected drug pusher.

Earlier in the war on drugs, two motorcycle riders barged into Danica May’s home in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, while the family was having lunch, and opened fire. The apparent target was Danica’s grandfather, Maximo Garcia, who had surrendered to police days ago after being told he was on a drug watch list. He was questioned briefly but was allowed to go home. Now, with two men chasing him, Garcia ran to the back of the house toward the bathroom from which Danica May emerged just as the gunmen fired. She was hit in the head and died in hospital.

Althea was riding on the back of her father’s motorcycle in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, and was looking forward to the popcorn he had promised her. But she was shot by policemen targeting her father who was on their drug list.

Asked by reporters about minors caught up in the violence, Mr. Duterte said those cases would be investigated, but added that police could kill hundreds of civilians and not be held criminally liable. “It could not be negligence because you have to save your life. It could not be recklessness because you have to defend yourself,” he said. These words render hollow his promise to investigate the extrajudicial killings that, per reports, have breached 4,000 since he took office five months ago.

About a third of those killings were a consequence of police operations that Mr. Duterte had publicly encouraged, even to the point of quickly clearing the policemen involved in the suspicious death of Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte, in his prison cell. Cops will not go to jail for doing their job, he had promised time and again, fueling the climate of impunity and emboldening criminal elements into using the war on drugs for their ends.

The unintended consequence of his brutal campaign does not faze the President, who has raged against criticism from human rights groups and foreign governments: “We have 3 million drug addicts and it’s growing. So if we do not interdict this problem, the next generation will be having a serious problem. You destroy my country, I’ll kill you. And it’s a legitimate thing. If you destroy our young children, I will kill you… There is nothing wrong in trying to preserve the interest of the next generation.”

The irony involving “our young children” is right there.