• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, June 23, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Don’t Call Philippines’ Duterte’s Anti-Drug Campaign a ‘War on Drugs’

Gideon Lasco by Gideon Lasco
12/11/18
in Opinion
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, talks to Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, right, during a press conference in Manila on January 30, 2017.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left) and Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa. Photo: Noel Celis, AFP

1k
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

For decades, various scholars have warned against the uncritical use of military metaphors. Susan Sontag, for instance, decried the use of the word “war,” stressing that use of military language conveys a state of exception: “In all-out war, expenditure is all-out, unprudent – war being defined as an emergency in which no sacrifice is excessive.”

Her warning resonates in the Philippines, where people keep referring to President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign as a “war on drugs.” The country is not the first to call its campaign against illegal drugs a “war:” the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia all waged their own drug wars, all of which by their own admission failed.

In these instances, the conflicts were with large drug cartels run by well-armed criminal organizations, which for some may justify the use of military metaphors. Such a situation, however, is not the case in the Philippines, where the so-called drug war has targeted defenseless “suspected drug users” – or even people who have no connection to drugs at all.

Victims of Anti-Drug Campaign

Joshua Laxamana, 17, was player of the online game Dota 2 who went to Baguio City for a gaming tournament on Aug 14, 2018. He never made it back. His dead body surfaced in a hospital in another province days later. The police claim that he was a “notorious burglar” with whom they exchanged gunshots. They cited his arm tattoo as a proof – but gaming sites point out that it was actually the image of Queen of Pain, one of the characters in the game Laxamana he used to play.

Kian Delos Santos, also 17, was a student who was killed in Caloocan City, Metro Manila on Aug 16, 2017. Despite video footage showing him being dragged by police officers, the police claimed that he was a drug runner who fought back. According to eyewitnesses, his last words were “Please stop! I still have an exam tomorrow!” He was ordered by the police to run, and then was shot multiple times while running.

Classmates of 17-year-old student Kian Delos Santos, who was killed allegedly by police officers during an anti-drug raid, light candles at Kian's wake in Manila on Aug 25, 2017.
Classmates of Kian Delos Santos light candles at Kian’s wake in Manila. Photo: AFP

Joshua and Kian are just two examples of people who are the supposed belligerents of the “drug war.” A recent study of 5,000 documented killings found that victims are overwhelmingly male (94 percent) and engaged in manual labor, like tricycle drivers, street vendors, construction workers, and the unemployed.

“Most of the victims are very poor,” Professor Clarissa David of the University of the Philippines and one of the study’s lead proponents told me, adding that “23 percent of them were killed inside or right outside their homes.” Ominously, reports indicate that police officers and hired assassins are financially rewarded for these indiscriminate killings.

Meanwhile, ethnographic studies, including my own research, show that urban poor Filipinos use methamphetamine to help in their income-generating activities, giving them energy and helping them stay awake longer. Contrary to Duterte’s portrayal of all drug users as “zombies” or “subhumans,” they have diverse experiences and their drug use is best understood in their socio-economic contexts.

Duterte’s War on Drugs

In the face of this reality, referring to the anti-drug campaign as a “war” is inimical to efforts to hold Duterte accountable and convey the magnitude of the violence he has enabled at best enabled and engendered at worst.

To call it a “war” is to perpetuate a political environment that makes it less acceptable to criticize its architects. It paints a state of exception that justifies the suspension of rules of procedure, the exercise of extraordinary powers by the chief executive and his enforcers, and the use of deadly force. It boxes the population into an us-versus-them mentality, makes them think the country is under attack and must be protected at all costs, setting the stage for authoritarian rule and increasingly-brazen proposals.

To call it a “war”, moreover, is to imply that there are belligerents who actually are linked with drugs – and have the means to fight back. This is exactly what police officers say of the people, including minors, they end up killed in acknowledged police operations – nearly 5,000 of them in two years.

Chart on people killed in anti-drug operations in the Philippines since July 2016.

Inside shanties, in very poor communities where families could barely eat three times a day, men who possess at the most a gram of shabu (if indeed they were not planted evidence) are supposedly armed and dangerous. By using the term “drug war,” we play into the deadly narrative that these victims are in fact dangerous drug users and the police killed them only in self-defense.

Finally, to call it a “war” is to conjure up an image of two sides fighting each other. While there are legitimate targets for law enforcement (like drug traffickers and drug lords), and while the police have attempted to clean their ranks, these have been overshadowed by the death toll of mere users or small-time dealers that increases by the day, and by the use of drug-related accusations to stifle political dissent.

In a sliver of hope, the policemen who killed Kian Delos Santos were recently convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment – but justice remains elusive for Joshua Laxamana and many others.

No Real War

There aren’t two sides to the tens of thousands of killings in the Philippines. There is only the state making lists, threatening the poor, and declaring the number of people killed as an “accomplishment.” There is no real war.

When a conflict is called a war it becomes unpatriotic to be against it. When something is called a war it becomes acceptable to have “collateral damage” or “casualties,” even when they are children caught in the crossfire, or worse, children targeted by the police.

What’s happening in the country, then, can only be called a massacre – or a “state-sanctioned killing spree.” Calling it out for what it is will not stop Duterte, but it will call attention to what is truly at stake in the Philippines.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
Share1034Tweet
Gideon Lasco

Gideon Lasco

Physician, anthropologist, assistant professor at the University of the Philippines, and op-ed columnist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Related Posts

A soldier checks the temperature of a motorist at a checkpoint before entering Manila. Photo: AFP
World

Philippines Reports Record Infection Rates, Orders Millions to Stay Home

by Anya Ruppert
August 4, 2020
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and the army.
Featured

Duterte Foe Accepts Philippine Drug War Post

by Staff Writer
November 6, 2019
A pro-cannabis activist holds up a marijuana cigarette during a rally on Capitol Hill
National

Marijuana Justice: How Legal Cannabis Can Help Address US Racial Disparities

by Maria Michela D'alessandro
August 30, 2019
President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he delivers his State of the Nation Address at Congress on July 22, 2019
Opinion

Philippines Duterte Midterm Review: Drug Policies and Governance Undermine Successes

by Gideon Lasco
July 25, 2019
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and the army.
Featured

Amnesty Urges UN Probe of ‘Systematic’ Philippine Drug War Killings

by Staff Writer
July 8, 2019
A scientist in 2018 in France studies tuberculosis, a multidrug-resistant form of which could require a shorter treatment plan than previously, according to a 2019 study in a US journal
Opinion

Tuberculosis Kills Thousands Every Day, So Why Don’t We Talk About It?

by Gideon Lasco
June 18, 2019
Next Post
Pakistani security personnel near a church

US adds Pakistan to blacklist for religious freedom violations

A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests outside the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC after Khashoggi went missing.

Khashoggi, Other Targeted Journalists Named Time 'Person of the Year'

Recommended

An Iranian protester

Iran’s Nuclear Program: From Its Origins to Today’s Dispute

June 23, 2025
Protesters and police clash during the “No Kings” protest in Los Angeles, California on June 14, 2025.

US Appeals Court Allows Trump Control of National Guard in LA

June 20, 2025
Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptors light up the sky over Beirut, Lebanon, on June 14, 2025. Iran launched multiple missiles toward Israeli targets, triggering interception attempts above several regional capitals, including Beirut.

Israel-Iran Conflict: Latest Developments

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
An Iranian walking in front of a wall painting of the Iranian flag in Tehran

How Much Damage Has Israel Inflicted on Iran’s Nuclear Program?

June 16, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post