by: Renz Kayle Arayan
Drug abuse affects almost all countries of the world. In the Philippines it has reached epidemic proportions and is one of the top priorities on the government’s agenda. (Hembra, 2004) Drugs. Why is it very rampant these days? Just like the other vices that people have like, alcohol and smoking, people began to normalize it despite drugs being illegal. That is why the rates of substance abuse increased in the Philippines. The illegal export and import of goods are also overlooked by officials which gives drug pushers a chance to easily import and export illegal substances in the Philippines. The Filipino citizens also overlook this issue because of the fear of getting dragged into the problem. Getting involved in any form of illegal substance is a dangerous place to get into.
courtesy of: CNN Philippines
Drug abuse affects almost all countries of the world. In the Philippines it has reached epidemic proportions and is one of the top priorities on the government’s agenda. (Hembra, 2004) Drugs. Why is it very rampant these days? Just like the other vices that people have like, alcohol and smoking, people began to normalize it despite drugs being illegal. That is why the rates of substance abuse increased in the Philippines. The illegal export and import of goods are also overlooked by officials which gives drug pushers a chance to easily import and export illegal substances in the Philippines. The Filipino citizens also overlook this issue because of the fear of getting dragged into the problem. Getting involved in any form of illegal substance is a dangerous place to get into.
Before he was elected as the
President of the Philippines, promised to get rid of substance abuse here in
the country, thus the famous tagline,
“My God I hate drugs. And I have to kill people because I hate drugs.”
Duterte also said during the
campaign period, “If I become president, there would be no such thing as
bloodless cleansing,” Duterte said in a speech during a forum at the De La
Salle University in Manila on January 2016. And for the past 3 years of
Duterte’s term, he has been working hard in fulfilling his promise. His first
promise to the Filipino people was to suppress drugs, crime in 3 to 6 months.
Schools also became
more lenient in terms of this issue. They have discussed the effects of
substance abuse to the students. The Department of Education (DepEd) designed
the Kindergarten to 12 (K-12) curriculum in such a way that students would
learn about “Substance Use and Abuse” in their health classes in Grades 5, 8,
and 9 (Cepeda, 2017).
With these
plans, it successfully came through in the first year of Duterte’s term. More
than 1.3 million drug users and pushers surrendered during the administration's
first year. (Placido, 2017) Crime rates in the Philippines decreased along with
the rates of illegal substance usage. Even government officials such as barangay
officials that were at the watch list along with other citizens were successfully
exposed and had no other choice but to give in or they would have to go to the
court.
Duterte’s ways
were successful for the first year of his term, everyone was finally agreeing
that his promise might have a chance to be fulfilled. But as years passed and when
Duterte started the Oplan Tokhang,
people started to protest. Although Oplan
Tokhang did reduce the number of drug users, people protested that the police
have been taking the lives of innocent people, even when they’re clean from the
list. It said more than 16,000 deaths are being investigated and over 118,000
drug offenders arrested since the government launched its war on narcotics.
Government data showed that authorities are probing a total of 16,355 “homicide
cases” although the number may be higher as the report only covered July 1,
2016 to Sept. 30, 2017. Human rights advocates classified the deaths as
“extrajudicial killings” as they claim that President Duterte’s rhetoric has
emboldened policemen to use shortcuts in the anti-drug crackdown (Romero, 2017).
Many people
have started to fear the policemen roaming around the streets at the night.
People were also enraged at the fact that some policemen abused their power.
There were even some issues about policemen killing innocent people. This has caused
an outrage to the citizens and were again, angry at the President. But the President
and the policemen did not take any criticism at heart and just brushed them aside.
Even in
schools, students have also feared the possibilities of being in the middle of
the war. Many of the high school students here have not only seen the war on drugs from their television screens; they live in the very same communities where men and women have been gunned down under suspicions of drug use (Cepeda, 2017). This made Duterte change the guidelines of the Oplan Tokhang. Because of the new guidelines, though there were still protesters, some of the protests died down and submitted to the ways of the policemen. At least 4,747 barangays were declared drug-free as of Nov. 27 and more than 16,000 drug dependents are undergoing the health department’s rehabilitation program. A total of 2,236 former drug users have completed the program. Also, over 14,000 drug addicts who surrendered were given livelihood and skills training by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as of end September (Romero, 2017).
Not only did
they handle this situation strictly inside the country, but to the people who
will enter the country as well. The Bureau of Immigration took their security
measures on a higher level, they inspect the luggage of the people who enter
from outside the country more seriously. Through this process, the entering of
illegal substances will lessen which gives the government a bigger advantage in
solving the rampant drug problem in the Philippines. The President has also
declared Martial Law in Mindanao, giving the country a chance to lessen the
rates of the drug users in an orderly fashion. Mindanaoans however, peacefully
submitted to the President’s declaration understanding his purpose of declaring
Martial Law to his fellow Mindanaoans. As a Mindanaoan myself, I believe that Martial
Law - despite their rules of strict curfew and a few other rules - will help
solve things in a better order for the people. The Oplan Tokhang and all the other programs that the government
started are imperfect programs for
the people of the Philippines and there will be ups and downs of these
situations, but this is a step of change for the Philippines and to the Filipino
citizens. It is not difficult to solve the drug problem if the people just
follow the orders of the higher ups in a composed manner. Discipline is just
what the Filipinos exactly need in order to solve the drug problem in the
country.
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