Failed war

Malacañang got into a massive snit a few days ago over the call by Vice President Leni Robredo to stop the “failed” drug war and allow the United Nations to conduct an investigation into the extrajudicial killings linked to police and vigilantes. (She later clarified that she meant to say “reassess, not stop” the drug war.)

Robredo noted that despite the harsh methods wielded against the problem and the bloodbath that has taken place over the last three years, the drug menace — in the context of recent news of cops “recycling” captured drug hauls and convicted drug lords being set free — appears to be unyielding.

“Obviously, it’s not working,” said Robredo of the Duterte administration’s vaunted “war on drugs.”

Not unexpectedly, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo quickly ripped into Robredo’s remarks. Malacañang was no longer surprised that Robredo “again demonized the President and this administration’s campaign against illegal drugs,” he said, adding it was all “lies and black propaganda.”

But wait. Those with even half-functioning memories will remember that what Robredo said was, in fact, old hat. It wasn’t anything new.

Here, for instance, was a statement from as early as August 2017 along the same line: “Nangako ako that I will do away with the shabu. Ngayon, alam ko na na hindi ito matutupad, na hindi talaga matapos ’to (I promised to eliminate shabu. But now I know it’s not possible, that there’s no end to this).”

That was President Duterte speaking before soldiers in Marawi, and candidly admitting that the drug war he had launched to much cost and bloodshed was essentially unwinnable.

The lucid moment was apparently not a one-off thing, because in March this year, the President was again straightforward about the problematic progress of the drug war.

“Things have worsened. My policemen are at the brink of surrendering,” he said during a campaign rally in Cagayan de Oro City.

“Things have worsened.” And when the President speaks thus, you can be sure his underlings would trip all over themselves to echo his words, even if that meant damning themselves and their organization.

Right on cue, Philippine National Police spokesperson Police Col. Bernard Banac was quoted as affirming Mr. Duterte’s grim judgment of his flagship domestic policy: “Sumasang-ayon tayo sa assessment ng Pangulo na nag-worsen na nga talaga ang drug situation in the sense na ’yung mga international drug syndicates ay patuloy pa rin na niyuyurakan ang ating mga batas, patuloy pa rin sila na nagpapasok ng large volume of illegal drugs (We agree with the President’s assessment that the drug situation has worsened, in the sense that international drug syndicates continue to violate our laws and bring in large volume of illegal drugs).”

By this time, when things had only gotten worse according to both the President and the PNP, two smuggling incidents at Customs involving billions of pesos’ worth of illegal drugs had made the news, along with reports of “floating cocaine” bricks being fished out of shorelines.

The smuggling scandal led to the President not firing a favorite lieutenant, Nicanor Faeldon, but instead rewarding him with another government post.

The police force, meanwhile, would find itself in controversy after controversy, from the grisly news of cops kidnapping Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo under cover of an
antidrug operation, then killing him right on the Camp Crame premises, to policemen — including allegedly the country’s top cop — making a tidy business for themselves reselling drugs captured from syndicates, and prison officials meanwhile earning their own keep from approving the release papers of a number of convicted drug lords.

Also — Peter Lim remains at large, the so-called Davao group has received not one minute of official scrutiny, and, not least, thousands of mostly poor Filipinos have died unaccountably from police operations.

Are any of these an indication that the drug war is in any way succeeding?

New Metro Manila police chief Police Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, for one, appears to think a new tack is necessary: Last week, he announced that he was shifting police operations from the small fry to the big fish. Too many ordinary folk have borne the brunt of the crackdown while too few big-time drug suspects have been arrested, and “This kind of pattern is why we’re being criticized,” said Sinas. “At some point, you’re going to have to ask, why are the arrests like this all the time? It’s impossible that there are no big fish in your area.”

In other words — the drug war as it’s being run right now isn’t working. In other words — a failure. Perhaps Panelo should chide his boss and the PNP instead for admitting as much?