So, There's a Small Genocide Occurring in the Philippines and Everyone Keeps Forgetting About It.
 |
| Photo courtesy of The New York Times. |
"Forget the laws on human rights... I'll dump all of you in Manila Bay and fatten all the fish there." -President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte.
It is no secret that the Philippines is a truly magnificent place. A simple Google search will confirm that. It's a jaw-dropping archipelago, with beautiful wildlife, beautiful views, beautiful people, and a terrifying propensity to churn out dead bodies.
For the last two years Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has been waging a "war on drugs" that resembles less the 1980's Reagan-esque drug wars that come to mind when we hear that phrase and more Pol Pot's Cambodia circa the 1970's. Because Duterte isn't simply locking up drug dealers and users. He's slaughtering them. Lots of them.
 |
| Photo courtesy of The New York Times. |
While the numbers are startling, like with most crimes against humanity, they are also vague. Duterte's government says that only 4,500 people have been killed in "police operations," while Senators of the opposing party put the number closer to 20,000. The Human Rights Watch is settled in the middle - 12,000 killed as of January, 2018. Many of them are young men and children, most of whom were given no trial. While thousands more have been jailed and convicted in an over-populated and faulty justice system, a large number of those actually killed are murdered by unknown assailants. They're walking the street after night falls, someone pulls up in a truck or on a motorbike, and the next time someone turns the corner there is a dead body (head often wrapped in tape) waiting on the sidewalk. There is almost never any evidence left on the scene and never any justice.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Time. |
While these scenes and their images are traumatizing for the millions of people living in these communities (especially the young children who know no other world), they are exactly what President Rodrigo Duterte wants. "If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself," he urged voters on the campaign trail in 2016. He encourages these acts of violence, to take the work out of his own hands. For the last two decades Duterte has been linked to Filipino death squads, even during his time as mayor of Manila. These death squads have executed thousands of people, dumping their bodies in the ocean, leaving them on the side of the street, and even throwing them out of helicopters. Duterte doesn't stray away from this. In disgusting fashion he embraces it.
 |
| Photo courtesy of South China Morning Post. |
"Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there is three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them." -Duterte.
In June, 2018 the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a statement condemning the President's actions, and the International Criminal Court has been investigating these extrajudicial killings since October, 2016. But still they continue. Now, there is no quick solution to this problem. Thousands more people will die, and even when the killings stop there is still going to be a large-scale drug and addiction problem that ravages the over 7,000 island nation. We can't forget that.
Too often addicts are treated in one of three ways: they're called liars (especially young addicts), they're locked up, or they're cast aside, considered lost causes (especially older/harder drug users). This happens everywhere, not just in the Philippines, but in your own backyard. Believe me, I know. However, the danger that drug users and drug addicts face in the Philippines is unprecedented and catastrophic.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the International Business Times. |
I know it's easy to ignore this problem. It's half a world away and affects those who are already cast out to begin with. But we have to care. Because you can't win a war on drugs with bullets. You win with treatment, with service, with compassion. And first and foremost, you win with knowledge. This isn't a call to arms, this isn't a piece to slander a "Third World" nation. It's not an overdone hero-complex blog asking for you to donate money to those "less fortunate." It certainly doesn't tell the complete story, nor paint a complete picture of the Philippines. While I honestly don't know what this is, I know it isn't that.
 |
| Photo courtesy of The Guardian. |
All I know is that I had to write something down about it. Because I know that when I look over the faces of those people, whose neighbors and loved ones have been murdered by an elected official because of an addiction problem much larger than themselves, I weep. And I know these words aren't revolutionary. They aren't meant to be. But I had to write them. To recognize people as people.
Some of the many sources I used:
http://time.com/philippines-drug-war/
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/18/philippines-dutertes-drug-war-claims-12000-lives
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-urges-people-to-kill-drug-addicts
https://web.archive.org/web/20101022100313/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,265480,00.html
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dutertes-war-drugs-really-war-poor-graphic-images-1586262
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-drugs-killings.html
Comments
Post a Comment