According to a Rappler article by Michael Bueza, there were 5,927 people killed (2,086 in police operations, 3,841 extrajudicial or by vigilantes), 33,830 arrested, and 764,742 "surrendered" (As of 12/12/2016). The citizens live in fear, not because of criminals but from the government. In the Financial Times article, by Bryan Harris and Grace Ramos, there are three ways the death toll has risen up as fast as it has. The first is by the government through the Philippine army and national police in executions and ambushes at police checkpoints. Sometimes people will be stopped by the police and then arrested or killed immediately. Out of fear, people turn themselves in to the local police stations for processing, hoping that by turning themselves
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Men, women and children were caught in the crossfire of the drug war. In a Washington Post article by Kristine Guerra, President Duterte calls the death of innocent people “collateral Damage”. Duterte says “Let me tell you. This is the law of my land. Here is a police. Here is a gangster, (raises two fingers to demonstrate), the police officer has an M16 rifle that can shoot multiple rounds, while the gangster is armed with only a pistol. When they exchange fire during a confrontation, the police officer fires his weapon and ends up killing 1,000 other people. That's not criminal liability,” (Guerra). The problem is that is negligence on the officer. He has the responsibility to protect the people as well as his own life and part of that is to not escalate the situation and put more people in danger. It should also be the governments’ job to minimize the amount of deaths of innocent people; it may be dangerous to deal with criminals but it is not an active warzone. Duterte relates the drug war to the United States’ drone strikes.
When you bomb a village you intend to kill the militants, but you kill in the process the children there. Why do you say it is collateral damage to the West and to us it is murder? Instead of helping us, the first hit was the State Department. So you can go to hell, Mr. Obama, you can go to hell. I would rather intimidate and strike fear in the hearts of the criminals, if it involves human rights, …show more content…
The policy has allowed anyone to abuse this drug war to kill people. Although drug crimes have decreased due to fear from the government and vigilante groups, the people of Philippines now live in fear of death, losing their rights, and possibility of a dictatorship is forming. Drug related deaths and crimes are now replaced with killings from the government and vigilantes with the president's blessing. Killing and jailing political opponents based on loose drug policies in order to gain power only speaks to Duterte propping an authoritarian dictatorship. We must be aware, condemn acts like this, and stop a man who compared himself to Hitler. The ends never justify the means if innocent people have to die in the crossfire. This drug war must
Men, women and children were caught in the crossfire of the drug war. In a Washington Post article by Kristine Guerra, President Duterte calls the death of innocent people “collateral Damage”. Duterte says “Let me tell you. This is the law of my land. Here is a police. Here is a gangster, (raises two fingers to demonstrate), the police officer has an M16 rifle that can shoot multiple rounds, while the gangster is armed with only a pistol. When they exchange fire during a confrontation, the police officer fires his weapon and ends up killing 1,000 other people. That's not criminal liability,” (Guerra). The problem is that is negligence on the officer. He has the responsibility to protect the people as well as his own life and part of that is to not escalate the situation and put more people in danger. It should also be the governments’ job to minimize the amount of deaths of innocent people; it may be dangerous to deal with criminals but it is not an active warzone. Duterte relates the drug war to the United States’ drone strikes.
When you bomb a village you intend to kill the militants, but you kill in the process the children there. Why do you say it is collateral damage to the West and to us it is murder? Instead of helping us, the first hit was the State Department. So you can go to hell, Mr. Obama, you can go to hell. I would rather intimidate and strike fear in the hearts of the criminals, if it involves human rights, …show more content…
The policy has allowed anyone to abuse this drug war to kill people. Although drug crimes have decreased due to fear from the government and vigilante groups, the people of Philippines now live in fear of death, losing their rights, and possibility of a dictatorship is forming. Drug related deaths and crimes are now replaced with killings from the government and vigilantes with the president's blessing. Killing and jailing political opponents based on loose drug policies in order to gain power only speaks to Duterte propping an authoritarian dictatorship. We must be aware, condemn acts like this, and stop a man who compared himself to Hitler. The ends never justify the means if innocent people have to die in the crossfire. This drug war must