Still, human rights
The Duterte administration is pleased with the release of the Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) report stating that more than 7,000 were killed during Oplan Tokhang, and not 20,000 or more which the critics of President Duterte here and abroad claim. But the Palace did not say anything else about the larger part of the report, the violation of human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
According to the report, Oplan Tokhang violated eight rights since its launch of the campaign against illegal drugs last 2016. The intensified campaign against illegal drugs under President Duterte has made those rights “vulnerable by the government.” We know that human rights is not an issue Duterte wants to hear about, much less discuss. The protection of the Constitution was not provided for the more than 7,000 dead. Even the process of “Oplan Tokhang” was apparently a violation of human rights. There is no problem with "persuading drug addicts to change, but the methods must be right." I for one also agree that illegal drugs is a menace to society, and must be purged. But also, in the right way. Drug wars or anti-drug campaigns all over the world have shown that they are only effective in driving the trade further underground, and not eliminating them. Even the famous Search Bloc of Colombia was not successful in eliminating illegal drugs. They most likely succeeded for a short time after eliminating men like Pablo Escobar, until the trade was taken up by another group or syndicate, with the illicit trade too profitable to ignore.
According to the Palace, drug syndicates and not police were responsible for most of those killed. But we can only roll our eyes and ask exactly who these syndicates are. And I have long been asking why the campaign against anti-illegal drugs has intensified under the Duterte administration, when it has always been a crime, taught at the police academy no less. Is it because Duterte is the president? So whatever the president of the country wants to eliminate is what the PNP focuses on? If carjacking is what the president wants to eradicate, we would see an increase in carjacker deaths? Or against illegal recruiters? Isn’t the PNP supposed to go after all crimes, at all times with the same conviction and intensity, no matter who sits in Malacañang?
The number of those killed during Oplan Tokhang should not solely be the focus, no matter whose body count one believes. The issue of human rights violations that the Constitution guarantees needs to be raised. We know there have been instances where those killed were innocent, like Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Kian Delos Santos. The “nanlaban” reason for deadly police response cannot be a blanket condition when engaging and killing possible drug suspects. All are protected under the Constitution. This is the summary of the AHRC report, which hopefully the PNP will also guarantee.
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