Roy Tang

If you want to shut up the critics of the drug war, all you have to do is:

1. Cite the statistics (and where they’re sourced from) justifying claims of an epidemic
2. Tell us what mechanisms you are putting in place to prevent abuse of increased police activity
3. Tell us what procedures are in place to verify that any kills during police operations are justified
4. Tell us what mechanisms are available for those falsely placed on drug watchlists or those falsely accused of drug crimes to clear themselves
5. Give us regular updates on the status of investigations into the spate of homicides particularly those that seem drug-related
6. Tell us what mechanisms are being put in place to prevent further murders
7. Take down more of the supply side, i.e. large scale drug busts, top level drug lords, etc

Are these suggestions helpful enough?

Instead what we get is:

• random anecdotes (“sabi ng mga lgu madami na daw ulit!")
• blanket statements with nothing to back them up (“4M na ang addict! We are observing human rights! We are just doing our jobs”), minsan may kasamang iyak
• condescending dismissal of any criticism from outside the country (“the filipino people support us”, “you dont know how it is here”)
• the president backing a team of cops accused of executing a high profile prisoner
• the foreign secretary saying critics are just helping criminals (if you’re killing them illegally, you’re criminals too!)
• death penalty rammed down our throats (AFAIK wala pa rin nacite na justifications or studies showing this would be helpful sa prevention, feel free to correct me if wrong)

We are even told that drugs are becoming resurgent because tokhang was suspended, e hindi pala effective yung solution nyo so bakit nyo pinagpipilitan? Is the expectation that we should have tokhang forever?

Anlakas magcall for unity tapos critics are either given meaningless patronizing statements or outright dismissed or even bullied. If you want unity, maybe take other people’s concerns into account and not just your own.

Last drug war rant since Lent na. After Easter na ulit (or hopefully di na kelangan at that time?)