Duterte's war on drugs - Part 2

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- Part Two -

In the first few months of the Duterte administration – also the first months of the Philippine president’s signature war on drugs – homicide statistics released by police were vague.

A huge number of cases were initially identified as “deaths under investigation.” It was unclear whether these deaths were related to the drug war or not.

But a year into the campaign and one thing has become clear – more Filipinos are being killed.

Homicide figures don’t include those killed in police anti-drugs operations, which now number in the thousands. In one week in August alone more than 80 people were killed in what police described as a “one-time big time” drug bust.

“Nanlaban,” or “they resisted,” is the defense police in these cases would usually turn to to explain a death and no less than President Duterte had their backs.

“I said, ‘Sir, if they are there, destroy them also, especially if they put up a good fight. If they don’t have a gun, give them a gun. Here’s a loaded gun, fight because the mayor said, let’s fight,’” Duterte said in a speech in December.

And when evidence of extrajudicial killings mounted against police in the death of a mayor accused of being a top-tier drug supplier, this is what Duterte had to say:

“I will not allow these police to go to prison even if the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) says it’s murder.”

True enough, after just several months of taking them off duty, police involved in the mayor’s killing were reinstated. But Duterte has been singing a different tune since the spate of killings of teenagers that started in August.

August 16, 2017, Kian delos Santos was shot dead by police officers who were conducting an anti-drug operation. A call-to-action photo hangs in the entrance of his wake. / CGTN Photo

17-year-old Kian delos Santos would have been just another drug suspect who died resisting arrest had it not been for security footage that showed a boy thought to be him being dragged by two police officers in the direction of the spot where his body was later found.

This was bolstered by witness accounts of police handing Kian a gun, telling him to fire it and run. And finally, autopsy results that revealed gunshot wounds to his head.

The backlash was swift and people quickly took to social media to express their anger.

Hundreds attended Kian’s funeral, turning it into a demonstration against the war on drugs. Politicians who were previously supportive of the anti-narcotics campaign were calling for an end to the killings. And Duterte?

“I said I will protect those who are doing their duty. I never promised to protect those who are supposedly engaged in doing their duty but committing a crime in the process.”

And in another speech, he said, “Should the investigation point to the liabilities by one, two or all, there will be a prosecution, and they will have to go to jail.”

No one’s in jail yet but torture and murder charges have been filed and the entire police force of Caloocan, the Manila suburb where Kian was raised and killed, has been relieved of duty.

Senator Bam Aquino visits Kian delos Santos' wake as many politicians step out in outrage over Kian's death. / CGTN Photo

Yet, the killings continue. At least three more teenage boys have been found dead in the weeks following Kian’s death.

One of them, 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz, was killed in a shootout with police after he allegedly robbed a taxi driver, but the driver himself said the police account of the killing seems “scripted.”

An autopsy also indicated Carl may have been lying down and handcuffed when shot.

Critics have long questioned the evidence of what police say are cases of suspects dying as a result of armed resistance.

“If you’ve seen the layout of people who have been killed, the gun is usually at the same distance from the hand of the suspect. Surely it’s not just coincidence that so many of the shots show almost exactly the same distance of different killings,” Walden Bello, a former congressman and now one of the spokespersons of a group called In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity (I-Defend), said in an interview with CGTN last year.

CGTN also spoke with families of a number of drug suspects killed by police in what were supposedly legitimate anti-drug operations. One of them had a video of the victim, Erick Sison, pleading for his life before a succession of gunshots were heard.

That’s not to say, however, that suspects are never going to fight back against police. One drug dealer interviewed last year said he’d fight it out with cops if the time came.

“I’m ready to die, so I’m also ready to kill. I don’t want to die without putting up a fight,” he said.

Photo of a man gunned down at a protest against Kian delos Santos' death and other drug war victims'. / CGTN Photo

The drug dealer, who wanted to be identified only as “Dagul,” claimed that he had already surrendered under the police’s Oplan Tokhang program, but with those who’ve surrendered are still getting killed, and with not much else to make money from, he told me there was little point in leaving the drug trade.

That line of reasoning was also used by one 14-year old drug courier who said that not even the brutality of Duterte’s war on drugs would make him stop.

“I have learned to set aside fear because I really need to make money. I don’t know how else to earn a living,” “Richard” told CGTN.

When people in the drug trade speak with such audacity and desperation, it could be asked just how effective the deadly war against illegal drugs really is.

(In part three of this series, CGTN’s Barnaby Lo - @barnabychuck - talks about the importance of keeping tabs on the Philippine government’s war on drugs.)

Part One: The Year of Living Dangerously: Covering Duterte's war on drugs