INTRODUCTION

AN APPEAL TO GOD: The mothers of the 4 children who were nabbed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement

Agency in 2019 and detained in

Bahay Pag-asa kneel in front of the altar of the San Jose de Navotas

Parish to pray for the safety of their children. IDEALS filed a writ of habeas corpus to demand the release of the minors.

Killing under the cloak of “war” is nothing more than an act of murder. The campaign against illegal drugs waged by current President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration has been brutally fought over the past four years with no end in sight. With the President’s call to end the illegal drug trade in our country, many have heeded this call to arms. The Commander-in-Chief’s narrative, that this is a “just war”, is one which resonates with his people as evidenced by his high approval ratings.1 However, regardless of how rosy the narrative may seem to be, one must always go back to reality: that this is not a war, but state-sponsored murder. According to the monitoring system of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the #RealNumbersPH initiative, almost six thousand people have died due to anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2020.2 This number has been deemed by some to be unreal when compared with the independent tallies of various human rights groups and news organizations.3 But even if the government’s count is taken at face value, the fact remains that the government has acknowledged that thousands of Filipinos have been directly killed by the police in the name of this campaign. This underreported but already staggering number does not even include vigilante killings, which constitute the bulk of the killings urged by the President’s campaign of violence.4 “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” said the Chief Executive in one of his earlier speeches.5 Emboldened by the words of the President himself, the perpetrators responsible for the killings have continued racking up the death toll of this operation with impunity.

Apart from the violent deprivation

“ However, regardless of how rosy the narrative may seem to be, one must always go back to reality: that this is not a war, but state-sponsored murder.

of the lives of people supposedly involved in dangerous drugs, an impressive number of arrests have also been carried out. According to PDEA, roughly 259,000 persons have been arrested with the hopes of achieving a drug-free Philippines.6 Arrests are necessary in any legal system to make people answer for the commission of an offense. Unfortunately, the reality is that some of these arrests are done outside the bounds of law and arbitrarily deprive the victims of their freedom.

When such flagrant violations of fundamental human rights are committed and sanctioned by the very

State and its agents who have sworn to protect its citizens, what recourse do the victims have? Given the magnitude with which these atrocities have been committed, various human rights organizations have taken up the gauntlet and fight against the culture of violence and impunity that the current administration is espousing.7

After having documented over 400 human rights violation cases since 2016, IDEALS has decided that such a number is significant enough to warrant an analysis of the four years of the Duterte administration’s socalled war. This study shall conduct a demographic analysis with the aim of introducing who the perpetrators are, who victims are, the violations committed against the latter, and the allegations of the former as to the circumstances surrounding the violation. In the conduct of this study, IDEALS worked with various partner associations such as the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women in the Asia and Pacific, the Archdiocese of Manila, and the Dioceses of Novaliches, Caloocan, Antipolo, among others. Together, IDEALS and these organizations were able to offer some relief to the victims of human rights violations through the referral of cases, monitoring and documentation of incidents, conducting interviews of the victims, their families, and witnesses, as well as provide other forms of assistance.

By scrutinizing the details of each victim and the violations committed against them, IDEALS aims to go beyond the facade of the numbers given by the government and reveal the injustices hidden beneath.

TOGETHER AS ONE: MISEREOR, the German Catholic Bishops’ Organization for Development Cooperation, joined IDEALS and partner organizations to celebrate the Day of Valor back in April 9, 2019 with families who have lost their loved ones in the Duterte Administration’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.