"x x x.
No one wants President Duterte to fail in his war on drugs and crime, but this is exactly why we must not be afraid to speak what we feel about its dreadful—even if unintended—consequences. We cannot afford to waste the promise of this new administration and the hopes it has raised among our people.
The first consequence is the propagation of a culture of violence: that of people growing accustomed to the idea that killing can solve our problems and bring peace and security to our country. This “gospel of death” is a lie: Throughout history, one unchanging truth is that violence only begets more violence. From here on, extrajudicial killings can only spread to target other “undesirables”—the definition of which is once again left to the powers-that-be. Moreover, criminals will only be emboldened to commit more (and more violent) crimes, since there is no way out for them: either to kill or get killed.
The second consequence is the rise of a police state. Without the due process afforded by warrants of arrest and the right to a trial, we are giving too much power to the authorities to decide what is right or wrong—and worse, who gets to live or die. Can we completely trust the police, and even if we do, can we really entrust them with absolute power, knowing that it “corrupts absolutely”? As Mr. Duterte himself has said, not all policemen are clean—in fact, some generals are corrupt—and so the idea that policemen can take justice in their own hands should be unnerving, if not downright repulsive.
But the immediate and most riveting consequence, which is already happening now, is the victimization of innocent lives: of sleeping youths who would never see the light of day; of men and women in the act of surrender; of people whose only crime is to share a name with a drug pusher, or be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Someday, a generation more civilized than us will look back at the victims’ stories and images as proof of our callousness and indict us for a failure of empathy: a failure that will undermine all our triumphs.
x x x."
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