THE day when the Social Weather Station (SWS) publicized the downswing in the President’s public esteem, the airwaves has choreographed that, at long last, the prolonged honeymoon is over. That is not unexpected.
By tradition, the media gives a new President a 100-day reprieve, after which, the President has to tread the moral tightrope up to the finishing line.
It’s magical. The fact is that for quite a long while, the gravitational pull of domestic and external dismay on the manner the government pursues its crime-busting operation has not ruffled the President’s “mannah from heaven” image. This only explains that Filipinos have heretofore been distressed with no much violence and criminalities that they voted for a non-establishment Presidential candidate who swore to vanquish crimes and grafters once elected.
True enough on day one in office, the no-stone-unturned policy of the President jolted the criminal underworld, particularly the erstwhile well-entrenched drug trade syndicates which did not take the siege sitting down. As predicted, the ensuing confrontation became bloody resulting in loss of human lives. In the beginning, the citizenry are ecstatic and even applauds the law enforcers for their new-found zeal in getting rid of lawless elements.
The truth is that while government has grown in power and resources, when it comes to protecting the citizenry against criminalities, the government appears impotent until the President upon assuming the Presidency loss no time to fulfill his campaign pledge by declaring all-out-war against drug offenders. It is no coincidence that this personal crusade of the President to stamp out the debilitating effect of drug addiction meets the approval of the people.
But as the police operations become bloodier, the rise in human casualties triggers protest from within and elsewhere. So that, while the citizens are solidly behind the President in its sacred mission to restore social order and tranquility, the same must not find fulfillment at the expense of unarmed suspected drug offenders. And public apprehension is heightened when the requisite formal investigations on such casualties are not forthcoming.
The Providential news is that our President has just effected a strategic shift hereof by ordering that PDEA shall henceforth take-over the lead role in the war against prohibited drugs. And it is a cause for optimism to hear that in accepting the Presidential challenge, the present PDEA leadership will, this time, go after the main source and not the lesser evils in the illegal drug business. Hopefully, with this new set-up, the field enforcement component of PDEA’s mandate will substantially minimize if not do away with the unnecessary loss of lives in its operations.
Unmistakably, the policy reconsideration in combating the illegal drug trade is a manifestation of the President’s commitment to due process as enshrine in our Constitution. For it is compelling mandate of government in a free society to protect lives, liberty and property of its citizens. In doing so, the government is duly-bound to bring crime under effective control in accord with our criminal laws and procedures. Along this parameter the war against the drug syndicates must continue without let-up.
With regards to those compatriots who are unmindful of the inconvenience and risk in reminding government about violations of human rights, their sacrifice is but part and parcel of the continuing quest for social justice ordained by the sanctity of human life. And sometimes the quest is not easy. Someone said: I know there is God. And I know He hates injustice. I can see the storm coming. But if it has a place in my heart and a part of me, I am ready.