Drug war: PNP says it respects human rights

Yearender

MANILA, Philippines — Despite allegations of abuses and misdeeds, the Philippine National Police said it continued to respect human rights in the enforcement of President Duterte’s war on drugs, with a majority of PNP officers complying with the rule of law and standard operating procedures.

This was the PNP’s assessment of its performance in 2021, a year when police officers continued to face another challenge: implementing COVID-19 protocols.

Critics have described Duterte’s term of office as a period of “rampant extrajudicial killings and a climate of impunity” in his crackdown on illegal drugs.

PNP spokesman Col. Roderick Augustus Alba, however, said most police officers respect the basic rights of drug suspects.

Alba said critics of the Duterte administration are entitled to their own opinion and perception, but he maintained that the facts would bear them out.

“The PNP, as an organization, always follows the rule of law,” he said in an interview.

The PNP has opted to take criticism in stride, saying it would focus on carrying out the President’s directive to rid the country of illegal drugs.

“We will not be affected kung ano man ‘yung binabato sa aming criticism. It will not affect us because ang tinitingnan kasi namin hindi lang ‘yung current generation,” Alba said.

Data from the government’s Real Numbers PH platform showed that 204 drug suspects have been killed in alleged shootouts with police since January 2020.

Since the community quarantine was imposed in March last year, anti-narcotics agents have killed at least 560 suspected drug offenders in alleged gunfights.

The same data showed that 42,621 drug suspects have been arrested by police since January, and 80,605 since the community quarantine started last year.

Duterte’s crackdown on drugs has resulted in the deaths of 6,215 drug suspects in reported shootouts with police. A total of 315,635 drug suspects have been arrested since June 2016.

Alba said the drug war has benefited the country as crimes dropped during Duterte’s term.

From around three million crime incidents recorded from 2010 to 2015, the number dropped to 1.3 million from 2016 to 2021, a decrease of 56 percent.

Alba said the improving peace and order situation proved that the war on drugs has been successful.

“That’s the legacy on the part of the PNP na masasabi namin, that we are winning the campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.

For police officers who violated human rights and committed other abuses, the PNP said these rogue lawmen would be punished after an investigation.

Since 2016, at least 5,000 police personnel have been dismissed from the service after taking advantage of the government’s drug war for their own gains and other offenses.

The PNP was hit by controversies in 2021, including the shootout between Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) personnel along Commonwealth Avenue on Feb. 24.

The incident soured the relationship between the law enforcement agencies.

Members of the QCPD and PDEA figured in another standoff on May 14, but there were no casualties.

Asked about the relationship between the two law enforcement agencies, PDEA spokesman Derrick Carreon said both sides have put the issue of the Quezon City shootout behind them.

“While that was an unfortunate incident, the issue has been put to rest by virtue of the findings of the Department of Justice,” Carreon said in an interview.

To prevent misencounters and similar incidents from happening in the future, the PDEA and PNP have crafted revised guidelines for anti-narcotics operations.

Both leaders of the two law enforcement agencies, PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva and PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos, are members of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1988.

Carlos is also familiar with the PDEA, being one of the agency’s pioneering officers.