In response to the latest hogwash statement made by Rodrigo Duterte that the brutal murder of young innocent victims Kian Loyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz will not be the last, we say the war on drugs is in fact a fascist war against the poor and the youth.
Mr. Duterte said in his latest response to criticisms from the United Nations that a halt in the drug war will further imperil Filipinos, adding that this war is an existential struggle for the nation to “usher in real, lasting and meaningful change.”
We strongly condemn Mr. Duterte’s myopic and delusional obsession on the drug problem. We emphasize that this is not the root of the country’s social ills. The mad President is putting the cart before the horse by thinking that drugs are the cause of poverty.
Mr. Duterte deviously uses such one-dimensional and outrageous description of Philippine society to rationalize the unjustifiable by calling for the senseless killing of more youths in his bloody drug war.
Following the death of Kian Loyd, the fascist US-Duterte dictatorship has again claimed the life of another youth, UP Diliman interior design student Carl Angelo. The unceasing spilling of blood ultimately points to the utter absurdity of the antidrug campaign which Mr. Duterte himself admitted will not be resolved by the end of his six-year term.
Bloodthirsty Mr. Duterte continually encourages the police to kill without due process while deceitfully shielding big capitalists and smugglers involved in various drug deals, even to the point of protecting his son, Davao Vice Mayor Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, who was linked to the drug-smuggling “Davao Group,” which is now at the center of a P6.4-billion shabu scandal.
We twit as absurd Mr. Duterte’s repeated insistence of drugs as the root problem of Philippine society. Imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism, which Mr. Duterte’s regime now willfully serves, are the real reason for the continuing exploitation and oppression of the Filipino people.
VENCER CRISOSTOMO, national chair, Anakbayan, anakbayan.media@gmail.com