THE VICTIMS of the Duterte administration's war on drugs were "sacrificial lambs" used to make people believe the campaign is a success, according to a ranking official of the Catholic Church.

"Who are we to say they were hopeless and that they should die?" said Bishop Broderick Pabillo in his 14-minute homily at a Mass yesterday at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Ermita, Manila, which marked the launch of the Church's "Huwag Kang Papatay" (Thou Shall Not Kill) campaign.

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Car Sales Exec: I'm Appalled at Silence on Vigilante Slays

ACCOUNTABILITY and due process amid the wave of killings of suspected drug pushers and users, most of them poor, are among the hot-button issues that President Duterte should speak about in his first State of the Nation Address (Sona), according to people interviewed by the INQUIRER.

Other issues include the President's stand on the Paris pact on climate change, conditional cash transfer and poverty alleviation, the South China Sea dispute, the monster traffic jams in Metro Manila, K-12 program and corruption.

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Amid public concerns, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported an increasing number of drug suspects getting killed since President Duterte assumed office on June 30.

The PNP said the summary of the campaign against illegal drugs showed that 239 drug suspects were slain in police operations as of July 22. There were a total of 120,038 drug pushers and users who surrendered to authorities.

On July 20, the PNP reported 207 suspected drug offenders getting killed in police operations, meaning an additional 32 deaths were recorded in two days.

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At least 25,230 drug pushers and drug dependents have surrendered to police in Metro Manila since the government started its war on drugs, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) reported yesterday.

NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Oscar Albayalde also noted the significant decrease in street crimes in the metropolis with the implementation of both Oplans Tokhang and Double Barrel. Tokhang involves visiting the homes of suspected drug users and pushers and asking them to change their ways while Double Barrel refers to a two-pronged campaign to arrest drug lords and pushers.

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Message to Duterte to Coincide With Sona

THOU shall not kill.

The Sixth Commandment is the message for President Duterte that will emanate from a Mass which the Archdiocese of Manila will hold tomorrow afternoon as he delivers his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) to Congress.

The Mass will mark the launching of the "Huwag Kang Papatay" (Thou Shall Not Kill) campaign, which aims to bring together the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings that have come with the Duterte administration's war on illegal drugs.

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"LET US not allow violence to rule us but in every circumstance be vigilant and zealous in upholding the dignity and rights of all as befit responsible citizens and followers of Christ" is the plea in a "pastoral letter" issued by La Sallian Br. Jose Mari Jimenez FSC (no relation, as far as I know). Jimenez, who is president of De La Salle Philippines and auxiliary visitor (a regional supervisory post) for the De La Salle Brothers, thus joined other voices raised in concern over the number of people killed as part of the Duterte administration's deadly and bloody antidrug campaign.

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With the focus of the intensified drug campaign now shifting to drug lords, President Duterte has clearly and literally spelled out his way of dealing with them: KILL.

"It is spelled K-I-L-L. Bakit sabi mo kell? Bisaya eh (Why kell? It's Visayan)," he said, drawing laughter from his audience in Buluan in Maguindanao where he inspected a power plant operated by Green Earth Corp. last Friday.

"Remember that I have always been consistent in my statements. During the campaign: Do not destroy my country because I will kill you. Can't you understand that?" he said, addressing the drug lords.

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ALBERT EINSTEIN, the most influential physicist of the 20th century, reportedly said that if he were given one hour to save the world he would devote 55 minutes to defining the problem and five minutes to finding the solution.

I think that is a rather lopsided proportion, but it does illustrate the point that we should not jump into solving a problem without spending time to understand it.

Before rushing to solve a problem, whether it be the traffic mess, poverty, or drug addiction and crime, it is best to view it from different perspectives so as to come up with various insights.

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ON MONDAY, President Duterte will deliver his first State of the Nation Address with some very real numbers to back him. From July 1 to 19, or the first three weeks of his centerpiece campaign against crime and the scourge of illegal drugs, police reports say some 103,375 suspected drug users and pushers have surrendered, about 30,000 of them in Central Luzon alone; nearly 3,000 persons have been arrested; and 194 drug suspects have been killed in purported legitimate operations. Philippine National Police Director General Ronald de la Rosa has also said that "crimes against property and persons, like physical injuries, theft, robbery, rape, [car theft have] significantly gone down." Doubtless, that assertion will come with its own supporting figures when the President once again delivers a ringing endorsement of his tough crime-fighting methods in his Sona.

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The drug war is going big-time, with anti-narcotics agents killing the suspected operator of a shabu manufacturing facility in Valenzuela. Police raiders said Chinese national Meco Tan was shot dead when he tried to flee in his car during yesterday's early morning raid.

Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa warned that more large-scale drug traffickers would fall in the coming days, amid observations that the drug war has so far focused only on small-scale and mostly low-income street pushers and impoverished drug users.

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As noteworthy as the high number of drug suspects being killed daily is the number of cops arrested or themselves slain on suspicion of involvement in the illegal trade, or else relieved from their posts for drug use.

We don't know when the law enforcers lost their way and became lawbreakers. Presumably they were still straight when they joined the Philippine National Police.

PNP applicants are required to undergo psychiatric evaluation and a physical exam that includes testing for a drug habit. The number of cops being implicated in the drug trade indicates something wrong with the PNP recruitment process. Most of the cops apprehended, sacked or killed in the ongoing drug war are/were enlisted personnel who are/were relatively new in the force.

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This three-month reign of perceived police terror left at least 2,274 people dead. The government and police implausibly ascribed the deaths to gangland feuding, insisting that only 42 drug suspects were shot by police officers-most of those in "self-defense". In fact, the government openly encouraged the police to carry out extra-judicial killings so that the arbitrary goals of its "war on drugs" could be met on time.

The Narcotics Control Board provided the indices: 1,765 people arrested as major drug dealers and another 15,244 as minor dealers. More than 280,000 "drug pushers" and "addicts" gave themselves up to authorities and were sent for rehabilitation. In all, some 15.5 million pills were confiscated and the street price for the drug doubled or trebled over the course of the three months from February 1 to April 30.

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VICE President Leni Robredo strongly condemned on Wednesday the spate of extrajudicial killings that have occurred recently.

"This senseless and unjust violence must stop," she said.

As the government steps up its war on drugs, and suspected users, pushers, and drug dealers are killed by police officers, vigilantes, or drug syndicates, the vice-president urged authorities to seriously investigate the killings and bring those responsible to justice.

"The rise in extrajudicial killings is a call for all of us to uphold every person's right to due process," she said in a press statement.

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In the 20 days since President Duterte took office, about 10 drug personalities were killed daily all over the country.

Records of the Philippine National Police (PNP) show that 207 suspected drug pushers and users were killed from July 1 to 20. PNP records also show that 2,789 drug pushers and users were arrested while 114,833 surrendered during Duterte's first 20 days in office.

Police conducted 61,806 house visitations to warn drug suspects. PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa yesterday led the Special Action Force to the New Bilibid Prison to crack down on drug lords dictating the trade while serving sentence in prison.

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GOOGLE defines pogrom as an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, particularly the Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe in 1881-1884. The word is synonymous with massacre, slaughter, carnage, bloodbath without due process.

Although not exactly similar in reach, intensity and wickedness, there is little difference between the Russian pogrom and the Duterte administration's ongoing campaign against those engaged in illegal drugs in their disregard for the sacredness of human life and lack of due process.

Lately, various media outlets estimate that around 300 suspected drug addicts have already been killed by policemen and vigilante groups in various parts of the country since President Duterte's inauguration last June 30, 2016. The deaths have a familiar ring to it-the victims engaged the police in a shootout; they grabbed the gun of a cop or they tried to escape. One incredible aspect of this narrative is that hardly any cop has died in the process. Parati na lang ang drug addicts ang namamatay, hello?

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the Citizen's Council for Human Rights (Cchr) Strongly Condemns the Escalating Number of Killings of Suspected Drug Pushers and Dependents WHO Said to Have Died Either During So-Called Legitimate Police Operations or at the Hands of Unknown Gunmen.

the Surge in Fatalities Is Too Alarming to Be Ignored: From January 1 to May 9 This Year (129 Days), Reported Deaths From Drug-Related Violence Was 39. but the Death Count Suddenly Swelled After May 10. in a Matter of 64 Days, 251 Deaths Have Already Been Reported. What Makes These Spate of Executions Most Worrisome Is That This Was Prompted by President Duterte's Pronouncements, Made Even Before His Assumption into Office, That Urged the Police, Ordinary Citizens and Later, the New Peoples Army to Kill All Those Involved in the Illegal Drug Trade, With the Promise That He Would Shield Them Against Any Legal Consequences.

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ALMOST every day, we are being treated to spectacles on TV where relatives of alleged drug pushers are seen crying and wailing over their violent deaths in the hands of narcotic agents or policemen, and protesting the manner by which their loved ones were "terminated"-"Pinatay na parang baboy, eh, sumurender na nga!"

The questions we have to ask are: How many years have those relatives known of the nefarious activities of those pushers and remained quiet about what they knew and, worse, while benefiting from the fruits of their crimes? How many lives have those pushers ruined over the years ( including my own son's)? If those relatives really cared for them that much as they now seem in front of TV cameras, how come they never did anything to make them stop? They were warned many months ago!

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MANILA - Human rights are not a concern in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, he said, as he vowed to ignore due process and compared himself to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

In the latest of a series of tirades, the country's newly elected leader doubled down on a promised campaign of widespread killings and said he wouldn't listen to "bleeding hearts".

"I will retire with the reputation of Idi Amin," he said in a speech yesterday, referring to the late African ruler whose 1971-1979 regime was characterised by large-scale rights abuses that killed tens if not hundreds of thousands of Ugandans.

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SUMMARY execution is outside of the law. High value drug pushers (if identified) could be subjected to silent killing by the joint forces of "The Punisher", "Mr. Death Wish," and "Dirty Harry." This could be beyond the movies if the vigilante groups will do their thing.

We would like to believe that our policemen do their duty "to serve and to protect" by day, and we do not believe that they take off their uniforms at night to do a "Batman" raid with many "Robins." We want to evade that in our imagination, but that could happen. Our policemen are not expected to do vigilante actions because they are the agents of the persons in authority and they can always operate within the bounds of the law.

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Unfazed by the public outcry over drug-related killings and arrests barely three weeks into his term, President Duterte said he doesn't mind having more drug offenders killed even if it would mean his being likened to the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Speaking at a fellowship dinner over the weekend with his batchmates at the San Beda College of Law, Duterte reiterated that he would not change his leadership style, which he said had been effective in Mindanao. Duterte was Davao City mayor for two decades.

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