PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs" is now on its third year. Let me be very straight to the point that such a war, if ever it is, has not and will not succeed. To be honest, I have never believed since day one that Duterte or any president for that matter will put an end to the menace of this society: illegal drugs.
While the promise of ending the lives of all those involved in illegal drugs within six months was attractive to many, that for me was the most unbelievable of all promises. Up to now, I am really wondering what made many Filipinos believe in such an unrealistic offer. It's as if Filipinos were made to buy a promise that was all talk and saliva without any assurance of a concrete product or output.
Apparently, there are a lot of factors or reasons why such a war will never win. Foremost, drug trade is not a local business. One need not be an expert in order to know that the Philippines wouldn't be the only country involved in such a business. If we believe that illegal drugs could be solved only from within, then there is no other way for us to describe ourselves but solipsistic.
The followers of the president and more so his ardent believers are nothing but daydreamers. I am tempted to think, sometimes, that these people are not blind to the truth and facts behind drug trade. What for are the intelligence and investigative units of this country if they are basically incapable of getting into the bottom of things?
Another commonsensical point is the fact that except for a few politicians who were killed and linked to drug trade, no big fish from the business sector has been killed (so far). I am sure that I am not the only one with this observation. People have been asking where that Cebuano businessman notoriously known for his involvement in illegal drugs has gone. Why is it taking too much time for the police to get him since the time the president threatened to kill him?
On top of all these points -- raised simply as matters of speculation, I'm still puzzled why the president has made "drugs" as his focus. He once said that he is not concerned with human rights but human lives. However, drug addicts are not the only threats to human life but also traffickers, smugglers, rapists, and all kinds of criminals. Why didn't he trumpet a "war against crime" instead of a "war on drugs?"
Of course, I can only anticipate the defense of the president's supporters: crimes are connected to illegal drugs. Many criminals are drug addicts But let's be realistic: many but not all criminals are involved in drugs. So again, why focus on drugs?
The reason why I've raised this issue is due to the fact that the president is nearing practically half his term. Within almost three years what we have are dead bodies and streams of blood. Unless we insist that the piles of bodies and the volumes of blood are basis for us to determine the achievement of the war on drugs, truth to tell -- we really do not have hard evidence and data that could prove that this country is getting better and safer. If we want to measure if the war on drugs has achieved anything, SWS and Pulse Asia should conduct a survey every now and then, asking people if they feel safe walking in the country's slum areas or in the remote parts of our major cities.
What's sad is that despite all these naked truths, people would prefer to continue with their hallucination that the war on drugs is successful. Do we need other nations to slap our face for us to wake up to the reality that the promise to end the drug problem within six months was not even a promise but merely propaganda? Most unfortunate is the fact that many continue to be in denial despite the bare realities of this administration's failure.