Although President Duterte's police methods have drawn concern in various parts of the world, even those who deplore his methods at home are praying that his 'war on drugs' would somehow succeed. However, international experts who have done extensive studies on the global drug wars are deeply pessimistic; they describe the "war on drugs" as a failed strategy, and are calling for a major policy "rethink."

These experts have not condemned the extrajudicial killings, the shoot-on-sight and "surrender or else" orders in the present drug war, as some UN officials, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and certain international publications have. Their studies precede DU30's war by at least a couple of years.

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THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has withdrawn its support for President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs, which the party described as having become "anti-people and anti-democratic."

"In line with standing orders, the New People's Army (NPA) will continue to intensify its operations to arrest and disarm drug trade operators and protectors. However, these will no longer be considered as cooperative with the Duterte regime's undemocratic and anti-people 'war on drugs,'" according to a statement by the CPP released on Friday.

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If the government wants charges to stick against public officials linked to the illegal drug trade, it should protect witnesses at least against high-value suspects.

Last Wednesday Police Officer 2 Ryan Casiban was found dead at a firing range in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu with only his pants on. The rest of his uniform plus his service M-16 rifle and police motorcycle were found in another area of the city.

Investigators reportedly said Casiban was among those who identified police generals Marcelo Garbo and Vicente Loot as protectors of the illegal drug trade. The two are among the five police generals, three of them still in the active service, who were publicly identified by President Duterte as coddlers of drug trafficking. All five have denied the accusation.

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A TOTAL of 3,257 extrajudicial killings (EJKs) were committed during the Marcos dictatorship. In contrast, there were 805 drug-related fatalities from May 10 (when Rodrigo Duterte emerged winner of the presidential election) to Aug. 12, per the INQUIRER count.

If the current rate continues, the total number of EJKs for the six years of the Duterte administration will end up about 700 percent more than the killings committed during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship.

President Duterte is either ill-advised or terribly underestimating the risk that he can be held liable at the International Criminal Court, given the circumstances of the killings.

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THE Philippines has vowed to investigate reports of a wave of extrajudicial killings, the government said Sunday, after Washington warned military aid to its Asian ally was dependent on respect for human rights.

According to media reports, nearly a thousand people have been killed since President Rodrigo R. Duterte won a landslide election victory in May largely on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals.

The US embassy warned the Duterte government on Friday that millions of dollars of military aid allotted to the Philippines was tied to adherence to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights.

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MANILA - Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of a town in the southern Philippines, was watching television Sunday after midnight when he was startled to hear the country's new president call out his name.

It was no honor. President Rodrigo Duterte was reading a list of more than 150 officials he said were involved in the illegal drug trade. He ordered Dimaukom and the others to turn themselves in within 24 hours or be hunted down.

Since he took office six weeks ago, Duterte, 71, has roiled the nation with a violent war on drugs that has left hundreds dead, most of them poor and powerless.

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A COALITION of human rights advocates urged President Duterte yesterday not to make his war on drugs a war on human rights.

In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDefend) emphasized the need to deal with the cause of drug addiction in the Philippines-poverty.

Around 30 private groups gathered in Quezon City yesterday to launch iDefend, intended to "fill a vacuum" left by the collapse of the political opposition, as well as to provide legal services to families of victims of extrajudicial killings and police operations in Mr. Duterte's war on drugs.

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MANILA - Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of a town in the southern Philippines, was watching television last Sunday after midnight when he was startled to hear the country's new president call out his name.

It was no honor. President Rodrigo Duterte was reading a list of more than 150 officials he said were involved in the illegal drug trade. He ordered Mr. Dimaukom and the others to turn themselves in within 24 hours or be hunted down.

"We were really surprised when the president came out to announce it," Mr. Dimaukom, the mayor of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan, said by email. "Not once were we involved in drugs. In fact, we were fighting drugs. I support the president's drug war."

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From underprivileged communities, police are taking their intensified campaign against illegal drugs to upscale bars and nightclubs.

But Philippine National Police ( PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa made it clear he is not about to wage war with owners and operators of leisure establishments frequented by the rich, saying he only intends to get their cooperation.

"First of all, I would like to initiate dialogue with them for a peaceful approach," he said.

The glitzy clubs and bars, he said, are mostly located in Makati and in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

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The killings will continue, but martial law is not in the picture - that's my reading of President Duterte's speech directed at Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

This administration doesn't need martial law, although it might declare a state of emergency in Sulu to crush the Abu Sayyaf. If the ongoing nationwide killing spree is sustained at its current rate, it may even surpass the body count of victims during martial law. Ferdinand Marcos at least tried to coat his authoritarian acts with legal niceties.

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Chief Justice Sereno went slightly off tangent when she instructed judges named in the "narco list" not to submit to the police without a warrant. She then wrote President Duterte to express her discomfort over the Name and Shame effort.

The President, when he exposed the explosive list of names, did not ask the judges to be arrested. He asked those named to report to the Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over them.

The Court, eventually, did the right thing. It asked that the police furnish it with a bill of particulars and requested a retired justice to oversee an internal inquiry.

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CEBU CITY- Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has described as "ill-advised and half-baked" President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to publicly release the names of over 150 local officials as part of his war on illegal drugs.

The 66-year-old prelate said that while he supported the President's campaign, the fundamental requirements of due process and rule of law must be observed at all times.

"There are people who welcome the President's move to name names, but there are also those who are anxious of what he did," Palma told reporters after he ordained 12 new priests at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Cebu City on Tuesday.

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Ill-advised and half-baked. This was how Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma described the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to publicly identify the local officials allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade.

While he supports the President's campaign to curb illegal drugs, the 66year-old prelate said the fundamental requirements of due process and the rule of law have not been observed when he announced the names of so-called "narcopoliticians," judges and policemen involved in the illicit trade.

He likewise called the drug list "not realistic," while at the same time expressing doubt over the inclusion of former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama in the list.

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Early Sunday, President Rodrigo R. Duterte dropped another bombshell and announced to the public the names of seven judges, 52 incumbent and former mayors and vice mayors, three congressmen, one former board member and 96 police and military officers allegedly involved in illegal drug trade, bringing the total number of shamed individuals to 159.

What could the "presidential shaming" of politicians, judges and policemen believed to be involved in illegal drug operation attain? If indeed they are really into the illegal drug business, could shaming make them stop their illegal activities?

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IFUGAO Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat is tagging the war on drugs waged by the administration as a war of the classes.

Baguilat said treatment of suspects in the drug clean up has been discriminatory.

"The rich and powerful are given deadlines to negotiate their surrender, are accommodated in the PNP White House, gets invited to coffee and are subject to an investigation. But the poor, the lowly drug pusher or the addict simply gets the bullet. It seems like the rules are different with the rich and the poor," Baguilat said.

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I LAUD the government's resolve in pursuing its anti-drug campaign, particularly in bringing to justice alleged narco-politicians, judges and bad cops who have contributed and/or benefitted from the drug menace.

However, I would like to raise some questions and concerns on how this war is being waged, especially on the latest list made public by President Duterte.

Case build-ups and dangerous precedent

Is the list the result of judicious case build-ups? Is it backed up by sufficient evidence that can stand the scrutiny of our courts? Will the government file the appropriate charges?

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In a televised speech Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking in the city of Davao, named 150 officials that he said were involved in the country's drug trade, including members of Congress, police officials, five retired and current generals and at least seven judges, and gave them a 24-hour deadline to surrender to police. Several have turned themselves in, including 18 mayors and 31 police officials, according to police statistics.

"There is no due process in my mouth," Duterte said. "You can't stop me, and I'm not afraid even if you say that I can end up in jail."

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President Threatens to Declare Martial Law

PRESIDENT Duterte yesterday sharply rebuked Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for cautioning judges not to heed his orders to report to police to explain their alleged involvement in illegal drugs and raised the possibility of declaring martial law in the event of a constitutional crisis between the two coequal branches of government. Sereno had warned in a letter to Duterte on Monday that "it would matter greatly to our sense of constitutional order" if the Supreme Court would be given the chance to discipline members of the judiciary as mandated by law.

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Do You Prefer Martial Law?

DAVAO CITY - The drug war cannot wait for the slow wheels of Philippine justice.

This was President Duterte's response yesterday to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's instruction to judges tagged by the government as drug coddlers not to surrender unless a warrant is issued for their arrest.

He warned that if Sereno precipitated a constitutional crisis, he would defy her, and would order all members of the executive branch to do the same.

Asking rhetorically if she would rather have him declare martial law to fight the drug menace, Duterte told Sereno in a nationally televised speech, "There is slaughter every day and you are just interested in the warrant of arrest."

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THE PRESIDENT'S "narco-list" came down in the wee hours of the morning last Sunday; like the proverbial thief in the night, it caught many by surprise. And like a piece of work rushed overnight, it was also ridden with errors. The magnitude of President Duterte's release of the list, naming over 150 local government officials, judges and soldiers as involved in drug cartels, cannot be overstated. Depending on which side they are on, lawyers have started to debate whether the list amounts to a systematic violation of the constitutional presumption of innocence or is merely an expression made from the President's bully pulpit.

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