In fulfilling his election promise to tackle the Philippines’ illegal drug trade, the recently elected President, Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed the ‘Punisher’, has been relentless in his mission to destroy the country’s narcotics industry. Since formally taking office on 30 June, more than 3,000 people have been killed by police and vigilante groups without any due process. As a result, thousands of drug dealers and users have turned themselves in at police stations and entered rehabilitation centres to avoid becoming another statistic in Duterte’s drug war.
With over 600,000 dealers and users having already surrendered to authorities, the Duterte administration considers its crackdown a success. However, the government is ill-equipped to assist addicts with rehabilitation; with only 45 rehabilitation facilities nationally, and most already filled to capacity, many recovering drug users have no recourse to professional support. This lack of resources has the government scrambling to develop rehabilitation services.
Despite the lack of infrastructure and staff required to assist with the sudden increase in the number of addicts seeking help, Duterte has continued to wage his war on drugs, even encouraging citizens to kill those suspected of being involved in the trade. Furthermore, he has encouraged security forces to use maximum force saying, “Do your duty and if in the process you kill one thousand persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you.”
The large number of drug-related extra-judicial killings have given rise to domestic and international condemnation of Duterte’s campaign. Locally, Senator Leila de Lima, the chairwoman of a committee investigating police and vigilante killings related to the illicit drug trade, has been leading protests against Duterte’s bloody crackdown. However, in September 2016, under allegations that she was using the committee for exacting “personal political vendettas”, de Lima was removed from her position by the Senate. Her removal is considered a political manoeuvre to clear any opposition to the anti-drugs crusade. Internationally, human rights groups, the European Union (EU), and United Nations (UN), have also condemned the drug war; however, Duterte continues to blatantly dismiss these concerns.
Overwhelmed by the scale of the Philippines’ drug problem, Duterte, who was elected in May 2016 largely on the back of promising to demolish the illicit drug trade in six months, announced in September that his government requires another six months to fulfil this mandate. As such, with no end in sight in the short term, the drug-related death toll will continue to increase.
In fulfilling his election promise to tackle the Philippines’ illegal drug trade, the recently elected President, Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed the ‘Punisher’, has been relentless in his mission to destroy the country’s narcotics industry. Since formally taking office on 30 June, more than 3,000 people have been killed by police and vigilante groups without any due process. As a result, thousands of drug dealers and users have turned themselves in at police stations and entered rehabilitation centres to avoid becoming another statistic in Duterte’s drug war.
With over 600,000 dealers and users having already surrendered to authorities, the Duterte administration considers its crackdown a success. However, the government is ill-equipped to assist addicts with rehabilitation; with only 45 rehabilitation facilities nationally, and most already filled to capacity, many recovering drug users have no recourse to professional support. This lack of resources has the government scrambling to develop rehabilitation services.
Despite the lack of infrastructure and staff required to assist with the sudden increase in the number of addicts seeking help, Duterte has continued to wage his war on drugs, even encouraging citizens to kill those suspected of being involved in the trade. Furthermore, he has encouraged security forces to use maximum force saying, “Do your duty and if in the process you kill one thousand persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you."
The large number of drug-related extra-judicial killings have given rise to domestic and international condemnation of Duterte’s campaign. Locally, Senator Leila de Lima, the chairwoman of a committee investigating police and vigilante killings related to the illicit drug trade, has been leading protests against Duterte’s bloody crackdown. However, in September 2016, under allegations that she was using the committee for exacting “personal political vendettas”, de Lima was removed from her position by the Senate. Her removal is considered a political manoeuvre to clear any opposition to the anti-drugs crusade. Internationally, human rights groups, the European Union (EU), and United Nations (UN), have also condemned the drug war; however, Duterte continues to blatantly dismiss these concerns.
Overwhelmed by the scale of the Philippines’ drug problem, Duterte, who was elected in May 2016 largely on the back of promising to demolish the illicit drug trade in six months, announced in September that his government requires another six months to fulfil this mandate. As such, with no end in sight in the short term, the drug-related death toll will continue to increase.