Writer: Kevin Nielsen M Agojo, CityU
Throughout the regime of former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine Nationwide Police (PNP) performed an instrumental function as ‘chief executioner’ within the battle on medicine. By securitising the drug downside and elevating order over the rule of regulation, Duterte gave the PNP and vigilantes a carte blanche to kill suspected customers and merchants — exacerbating violence and injustice all through the Philippines.
Authorities knowledge exhibits {that a} whole of 239,218 anti-illegal drug operations had been performed throughout Duterte’s time period in workplace, ensuing within the confiscation of illicit medicine value over US$1.6 billion. The federal government additionally reported a complete of 6252 casualties, although the constitutionally unbiased Fee on Human Rights and Worldwide Prison Court docket have each made increased estimates.
Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr received the presidency within the 2022 election by means of a message of unity — with the assistance of authoritarian nostalgia, disinformation and weak electoral opposition. Marcos Jnr has made no specific declarations on the battle on medicine, however in Might 2022 he disclosed that Duterte suggested him to proceed the drug battle. The image stays unclear after Swedish Ambassador to Manila, Annika Thunborg, welcomed the brand new president’s pledge to conduct the marketing campaign inside authorized bounds and ‘with the deal with rehabilitation and socio-economic growth’.
Ought to Marcos Jr honour this dedication, he should shift from a coverage of securitised and punitive measures to community-based remedy and rehabilitation providers for individuals affected by illicit drug use. He should additionally cope with the PNP’s tradition of impunity — particularly given the Philippine Division of Justice really admitted in February 2021 to police culpability in drug battle killings.
Past the anti-illegal drug marketing campaign, Marcos Jr and the PNP should additionally tackle problematic red-tagging — the blacklisting of college students, activists and journalists crucial of the sitting authorities. Notable circumstances in 2022 embrace the PNP’s arrest of physician and human rights advocate, Maria Natividad Castro, and the detention of 93 people — together with agrarian reform beneficiaries — throughout a collective farming exercise in Tarlac. The police claimed the peasants had been a part of an underground communist motion.
The designation of former PNP deputy director basic Ricardo de Leon as Chief of the Nationwide Intelligence Coordinating Company doesn’t bode properly for social activism. De Leon claimed that the Nationwide Activity Pressure to Finish Native Communist Armed Battle — extensively disparaged for its red-tagging spree — must be maintained for nationwide safety and growth.
Reforming the PNP and its contentious practices is a tall order, particularly for a commander-in-chief who comes with heavy baggage. Marcos Jr and his household are tainted by home atrocities and ill-gotten wealth. Throughout his father’s dictatorship, the Philippine Constabulary Built-in Nationwide Police (the precursor to the PNP) earned notoriety for abuses of energy. As chair of the board of Philippine Communications Satellite tv for pc, Marcos Jr reportedly pocketed between US$9,700–97,000 in month-to-month wage regardless of having no duties. He additionally took practically US$500,000 out of the workplace earlier than fleeing along with his household to Honolulu.
Marcos Jr additionally has a shaky human rights file. He was allegedly among the many hawks within the 1986 ‘individuals energy’ revolution who pushed for ‘aggressive measures in opposition to each navy rebels and the citizenry’. They had been prepared to danger a massacre to defend their besieged loyalist forces. When he campaigned for the presidency, Marcos Jr remained unapologetic in regards to the brutalities dedicated beneath martial regulation.
However his massive electoral victory brings a possibility for redemption. Marcos Jr is now in the very best place to show to the general public that he’s not a brute like his father. As the brand new commander-in-chief of the state safety forces, Marcos Jr carries professional authority.
He’s tasked with bettering the nation’s human rights state of affairs amid considerations dropped at mild by the Fee on Human Rights, the US Home of Representatives and the Worldwide Prison Court docket. But throughout his first State of the Nation Handle, Marcos Jr failed to debate his particular coverage agenda for human rights. This omission, whereas disappointing, was anticipated given the overwhelming proof for the abuse of political authority by the Marcos household.
Hailing the police as ‘vanguards of peace’, Marcos instructed that using pressure in operations ‘should be cheap, justifiable and carried out solely when obligatory’. His appointment of Lieutenant Common Rodolfo Azurin Jr, who boasts intensive expertise in area and administrative work, as PNP Chief ought to assist him rectify the institutional ills that plague the organisation. Whereas Azurin Jr seeks to proceed the drug battle, he vowed to shore up applicable rehabilitation packages and shift the main focus to produce elements. He claims it will make sure that the entry of unlawful medicine ‘shall be decreased, if not minimize fully’.
Policing is a thankless job. As ‘street-level bureaucrats’ who work together with individuals and maintain substantial discretion in finishing up their duties, it’s important that the police serve the general public’s pursuits always. The dynamic between the president and the police was distorted beneath the Duterte regime, with the PNP serving as ‘the police, prosecutor, choose and executioner’. Solely time will inform if Marcos Jr can rebuild the PNP into a really skilled establishment.
Kevin Nielsen M Agojo is a PhD pupil within the Division of Public and Worldwide Affairs, Metropolis College of Hong Kong.
