19-DAY ANTI-DRUG CZAR

19 - DAY

ANTI-DRUG CZAR

Maria Consuelo Pacilan Illustration by Stephen Esic

The promise of a drug-free nation within three to six months upon election was President Rodrigo Duterte’s main selling point in his presidential campaign. However, in the three and a half years since he won the presidency, the nation’s drug problem intermittently talked about prior to Duterte’s term has evolved into one of Filipino society’s most distinguishable issues.

Depending on who you consult, drug-related deaths can go anywhere from 6,000 according to government reports and upwards of 20,000 according to human rights organizations. Drugrelated casualties have constantly been on the news during the three and a half years of Duterte’s term so far. To an extent, the same people who lead the war on drugs have visibly become desensitized to these alarming numbers.

Whether or not the drug war’s “collateral damage” points to 6,000 deaths or 20,000, the reality of lost lives, broken families, and empty homes behind these figures remain.

In response to the drug-related deaths, former Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief and now Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa simply says, “Shit happens.”

With no data to measure success or lack thereof, other than Duterte’s proclamations that even the PNP cannot verify, all that is left are the casualties among the poor, reports of police brutality, drug kingpins that roam free, a continually growing narcolist, and a laughable drug matrix — all of which point to the drug war’s apparent failure. Even Duterte himself has admitted defeat.

On October 31, in a dare to disprove one of the drug war’s most outspoken critics, Duterte appointed Vice President Leni Robredo as the new co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), giving her six months to revamp the approach to the drug problem. When the position was first offered, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo explained that Robredo will be given the resources she needs to fulfill her responsibilities and that the new post will grant her powers equivalent to that of a Cabinet member.

Even after being warned by her supporters that she was being set up for failure, Robredo still accepted the post a week later. Labeled by her critics as out-of-touch, Robredo aimed to tackle the drug problem by addressing it as a public health concern, acquiring the help of not only the police force, but also local government units, barangay units, community and church groups, and health organizations.

After accepting the position, Robredo almost instantly triggered agitation from the president and his allies when she consulted with officials from the United States and the United Nations on how to best approach the drug problem. She met with members of the private sector, religious groups, and national and local government agencies to enhance her multidisciplinary approach. Robredo also required police to wear body cameras to ensure the integrity of drug operations. Furthermore, Robredo had already looked into the Quezon City government’s anti-drug campaign after seeing the positive transformation of Salaam Compound in Barangay Culiat, which was once infamous for its illegal drug trade.

Acknowledging the importance of a data-driven and evidence-based campaign, Robredo also asked for the narco-list to determine her starting point and ascertain where the drug supply was coming from. It was this move, in addition to meeting with foreign officials, that began the watering down of Robredo’s scope of authority. In response to the vice president’s request for access to classified documents, Duterte said, “To my mind, in my own estimation, it’s not good for the country.” He explained that he fears Robredo might reveal state secrets to foreign entities.

Perhaps the president who previously admitted that his only sin was extrajudicial killings meant, “It’s not good for me.”

Retracting his earlier statement, Panelo announced that Robredo effectively gave up her chance to attend Cabinet meetings when she talked to “enemies of the state” and asked for classified documents.

However, pursuant to Executive Order No. 34, Series of 2001, the vice president is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (NSC). The Executive Committee is tasked to review national security issues and concerns and formulate positions or solutions for consideration by the NSC. Hence, Vice President Robredo should

naturally have access to sensitive information regardless of whether or not she belongs to the Cabinet.

This begs the question, if the vice president’s own rights are not acknowledged and often quickly dismissed, how much more are the average citizen’s?

The president and his allies, it seems, were more committed to disproving Robredo’s capability and bullying her into resignation rather than actually aiding her mandate and assessing the credibility of her approach to the drug problem. Instead, Robredo was told multiple times to watch her mouth and be grateful that the president appointed her to such a position even if she belonged to the opposition.

However, if they truly prioritized the welfare of the masses and wanted to resolve the drug problem, they shouldn’t have gone through such lengths just to prove a point — that is, if Duterte couldn’t do it with all his resources, Robredo shouldn’t be able to either.

Only weeks into her appointment, we saw the beginnings of Robredo dismantling this point. In terms of strategy, so much hasn’t been explored in the government’s approach to the drug problem. Efforts to address the drug trade solely from the supply end have proven futile. Robredo’s dynamic, inter-agency approach could have spawned solutions aimed at the demand of the drug problem, something which current policies have failed to address.

This constant banter between the vice president and the president’s camp is a testament to the massive divide, distrust, and partisanship in the government. You are either pro-people or pro-administration. You can seldom be both because both serve conflicting interests.

Left with the responsibility of resolving the drug problem, but at the same time having no access to information, how much can Robredo actually accomplish?

In these circumstances, Senator Panfilo Lacson’s words hold true, “’Pag tinanggalan ka ng authority at naiwan sa iyo ang responsibility (When you’ve been stripped of authority and yet left with the responsibility), that is a guaranteed formula for failure.” If the President couldn’t even resolve the drug problem, with the entire police and military force behind him, in addition to inflated intelligence funds, how much can Robredo actually do with limited resources, undefined powers, and no authority as the ICAD co-chair? Despite all her well-meaning intentions, there was little chance of success from the beginning.

The president, the PNP, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and the ICAD Chair and PDEA Director General, Aaron Aquino, all expressed doubt on Robredo’s capability to handle the drug war because of her zero experience on law enforcement.

What is funny is, considering the thousands of human rights violations generated by the war on drugs, there seemed to be little law enforcement that actually took place.

Almost unsurprisingly, less than three weeks into her appointment Duterte fired Robredo as a response to Liberal Party President, Senator Francis Pangilinan and Robredo’s dare to dismiss her upfront instead of giving off-handed remarks about her performance.

This begs another question: What now? If the drug war, with its implementation heavily concentrated on the use of lethal force, turned out to be such a spectacular failure, do we just keep utilizing the same strategy? It would be the mark of desperation and insanity to do so.

Perhaps Duterte couldn’t handle the prospect of a woman with a more dynamic approach to the Philippines’ drug problem.

A remarkable thing that’s come out of all this chaos, however, is that it’s the president that comes out worse from Robredo’s termination. The president and his allies surrendered an opportunity to show the people a unified front against a common enemy, the drug trade. What could have been more important than the interests of the Filipino people?

Even with the odds stacked against her, all it took Robredo was a little over two weeks to send the president and his allies scrambling to hide their secrets.

A few hours after her dismissal, Robredo announced that she had only just begun and will continue her work against the drug menace even after being

discharged from her post. Regardless, all that was lost was an empty title.

Since her election as vice president, Robredo always seemed an overlooked dissenting voice in the background, until she made the decision to accept the position as anti-drug czar. Amidst the lack of public officials who know better than to run their mouths, Robredo emerges as a tenacious figure that’s not only talk but is actually willing to substantiate her criticisms of the war on drugs, in addition to finding an alternative approach.

For now, the blame for the drug war’s failure can rest where it truly belongs. TC