700,000 of them

Typical of Filipinos, those who have enough time and energy after a hard day’s work, to engage in conversations or discussions about issues of the day. Typical of Filipinos to succumb to partisanship, lose sight of the essential, and end up arguing. It takes strong friendships to stop the breakup of what used to be good relationships, even blood ties, over debates that really just pass mostly forgotten under the bridge of history.

I can understand that a newly installed President commands the center of attention. After all, in our present practice of democracy, presidents are often more important, during most of their term, than institutions. With immunity from suit, presidents can, indeed, be considered more important than many laws. And with a man like Rodrigo Duterte as President, with his history and character, he hugs controversy—or controversy hugs him.

Duterte’s war against drugs is naturally drawing the most attention, especially since drug-related deaths are being tracked and reported with such consistency. It’s a toss-up, actually, on who is driving the news about these deaths, whether it is the police in order to show that they are dead serious about the campaign, or whether it is an overzealous media and those opposed to what they consider to be extrajudicial killings. The end result, anyway, is that the death count is viewed as very alarming, or made to look that way, even without a reasonable comparison against drug-related deaths in the past two decades.

The entry of commentaries or judgments by foreign governments, international agencies or global political personalities adds fuel to the fire. There is no proof that government is responsible for the unexplained killings, but the lack of known efforts by the authorities to immediately and publicly investigate these is seen by some as proof of connivance by the police.

Anyway, there is much food for thought, much grounds for speculations, and even reason to make conclusions without proof—resulting in a war not only between the government and drug-involved personalities but between citizens themselves. The acerbity and hostility are so toxic that I know of some friends who have deactivated their Facebook accounts to rest from emotional tirades and even threats within the social media arena.

As I said, Filipinos fighting Filipinos over controversial issues of the moment is par for the course. We are our greatest enemies, so to speak. Except for the poor, most of whom have not yet found their voice, or any spare energy after an exhausting day. I can remember so many controversies that have divided us, from my youth in the 50’s and 60’s, to the recent years and months. The funny part is that those issues have come and gone, done their damage to people and country, and mean really nothing today—if they are remembered at all. In fact, if Duterte did not open up painful memories by approving of the Marcos burial in the Libingan ng Bayani, even martial law and its atrocities were already in twilight zone.

There is no difference after all this time with the contentious atmosphere that now defines Philippine society, even the government and its traditional allies. I usually just observe this continuing abnormality as it is so consistent in our collective behavior but feel compelled to focus on it now. And my reasons are not considered with the partisans who are slugging it out in social media or in diplomatic circles in shock at some presidential announcements. My reasons are simple but many, about 700,000 on the surface and a suspected three million in the shadows.

I refer to the 700,000 drug dependents and pushers who have surrendered and the estimated three million more who have chosen to stay unidentified as of yet, but all of them looking for drugs to feed their addiction or earn from their trade. In their case, or about their case, President Duterte is a distraction because he is the center of attention when it should be them. All the ruckus that Duterte causes or others cause to upset Duterte even more takes away from the kind of urgent and crucial focus we all should be giving to drug dependents, to pushers, to drug lords, to the manufacturers of shabu, to the police who protect the drug industry, to the judges and mayors and governors who earn from the illegal business.

Let us remove President Duterte from the equation because, sooner or later, he will not be there anymore. It matters less that we agree or disagree with the way he wants to wage war against drugs; what matters more is that the drugs are here, they are inflicting immeasurable damage on their victims, causing horrible misery to their families and danger to their communities, corrupting politicians and bureaucrats, and may be turning our republic into a narco state before it becomes parliamentarian. What are we to do with a cancer that has already victimized millions and remains one of the most aggressive kinds of societal cancer ever known to Philippine society?

After all the voluminous rhetoric or angry talk swirling in all modes of media, where are the plans, proposals or concepts that address the ravenous cancer we face every day? This is not about Duterte, this is about all of us, our families and children, our and their future, the very life of our state? So what if we agree or disagree with Duterte’s way? If we agree, how do we sustain it beyond his time? If we disagree, what should the new plan look like?  No matter how we argue and debate, the problem of drugs is already here and will not easily be solved—all the more when we cannot agree what to do.

If we had not been aware about the 700,000 and known even less of the estimated three million more after all these decades when they were growing, without a dedicated effort against drugs, the numbers would continue to grow. Too busy to focus, and too dead by the time we will.