Abuses in war on drugs

Meanwhile too, OCTA tells us that 71 percent of Filipinos nationwide believe the country is moving in the right direction, which is perhaps why they rate approval of our president and vicepresident, trust included, in the excellent or very good categories.

Wow again!

Of course it is a given that in this Catholic country, hope springs eternal, and optimism abounds, even if the only salvation most young generations see in their life is to go abroad and get a betterpaying job.

And farmers with small, uneconomical patches of land likewise dissuade their progeny from working in their farms, knowing that one, when they die, the small patch will be further subdivided among his children; and two, there is no future in farming under present conditions.

From all these gloomy findings released during the fiesta month of May, the Bureau of Treasury adds another.

Government debt has soared to 13.8 trillion pesos in March.

This should bring our indebtedness to more than the 60 percent of GDP threshold. But no need to worry, our economic managers will tell us.

Still, the huge debt limits the ability of government to fund more infrastructure, which creates jobs, or provide more social services, which means less money for health, education and social welfare.

It crimps our ability to borrow more, and if the BSP goes the way of the US Treasury and just prints more pesos, then the inflation will balloon.

It creates a vicious dynamic that makes the poor poorer, the middle class the nouveau poor.

As for food inflation, which apart from oil is bellwether for our price index, solutions are medium if not even long-term.

We have neglected agriculture far too long and inflicted far too many wounds upon the sector that curing them will be a herculean task.

To begin with, one year has proven that apart from giving the Department of Agriculture more funds from the GAA, the president’s being concurrent secretary has left the department operationally hamstrung.

As for quick fixes such as quick (and questionable) importations, look at the saga of sugar in the last year.

First, “bigay-bawi” import permits in August 2022, then “biglang-bigay” of 440,000 metric tons in the first quarter of 2023.

Yet, how much is sugar in the markets? In the groceries?

Still high at 90 to 110 pesos per kilo.

But as Sen. Risa Hontiveros avers, a few favored importers must have made billions so easily, courtesy of the DA.

And do not forget what I have been warning about in this space in so many previous articles—rice has already inched upwards, but wait until it spirals, the caveats being the severity of El Nino, and the strength of forthcoming typhoons.

AT THE conclusion of his recent official visit to the United States, at a forum organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. was asked about the war on drugs in the Philippines.

The question may have been unexpected, coming as it did from a research institution, but apparently they wanted a categorical answer to concerns by some American lawmakers and human rights groups, such as the New York-based Human Rights Watch, over the bloody war on drugs by the Duterte administration.

Mr. Marcos acknowledged that there had been abuses committed during the “previous administration” in the war on illegal drugs.

Here’s what he said: “In my view what had happened in the previous administration is that we focused very much on enforcement. And because of that, it could be said that there (were) abuses by certain elements in the government and that has caused some concern … in many quarters about the human rights situation in the Philippines. ”

And further: “Well, I cannot speak (about) what my predecessor had in mind and what his idea was. But what I can speak (of) is the policy that we have undertaken…the drug war continues to be the source of much criminality in the Philippines.”

The drug syndicates in the country, he added, had grown “stronger, wealthier, more influential, worryingly so”, adding “instead of going after everyone, I tried to identify the key areas that we have to tackle, attend to, so that we can see a diminution of the activities of the drug syndicates.”

While declining to assess Duterte’s drug campaign: “I’m in no position to assess the administration of anybody else. That is not proper for me—that’s not a proper role for me to take,” he said his administration would focus on dismantling the drug syndicates while rehabilitating those hooked on illegal drugs.

Having said the “previous administration” committed abuses in the war on drugs—the official death toll is more than 6,200, but human rights groups here and abroad claim the figure is much, much higher, at between 20,000 and 30,000—the question now is what the Marcos administration will do about it.

The President already said earlier that he would not allow the International Criminal Court to come in and conduct its own probe of the war on drugs.

But if abuses had indeed been committed, what’s the proper thing to do?

The proper thing to do is to have an independent fact-finding body or a Truth Commission to investigate the cases and verify if the more than 6,200 victims actually fought back or were summarily executed without benefit of due process of law.

Recall that our own Supreme Court had already ordered the Philippine National Police to submit its findings on what it called “deaths under investigation.”

But the PNP submitted records of only a handful of cases with the cookie-cutter claim the victims all fought back, or ‘nanlaban.’

So what course of action will the administration now take to probe the acknowledged abuses so that justice can at last be served?

General Acorda’s advice

THE Philippine National Police is now 31 years old.

Before the PNP, we had the PC/INP with Philippine Constabulary as the national police force and all the local police forces under it till 1992.

To the public, the transition from the Constabulary-led police force to the PNP might have been just business as usual but there is actually a huge difference between the two if the public wants to understand better how the PNP currently operates.

Although we now have a national police force that is civilian in character unlike the Constabulary which was essentially a military organization, the PNP has never really gotten rid of its military orientation and culture.

This matters when we talk of the concept of Esprit de Corps, unit cohesion and loyalty and want to analyze and understand the recent instruction given by PNP General Benjamin Acorda Jr to his subordinates when he was appointed as PNP Chief.

It takes 100 years to develop a tradition as we often hear.

Thirty-one years of the PNP is therefore not enough to have built a civilian police culture in the PNP.

This is partly because the PNP is still being run by the last remaining military officers who began their careers in the Constabulary. Even if all the Philippine Military Academy graduates are retired, it is doubtful whether the PNP will become truly a civilian organization, given that the PNP Academy is a clone of the PMA.

Let us hope, however, the PNP will eventually become truly ‘civilianized.’

When that will happen is hard to say but will largely depend whether along the line the PNP gets a leader that is far sighted with the vision to get the PNP to follow what the Constitution wants.

Over the last 25 years, every PNP officer appointed PNP Chief comes out with grand statements to inform the public on how he intends to improve the PNP. General Benjamin Acorda Jr did just that and added more plans during last Monday’s flag ceremony in Camp Crame.

Another thing that he did, however, that was different from all his predecessors was to tell his subordinate officers particularly the junior officers to document all illegal activities of their superiors and report these directly to him or something to that effect.

This is apparently his attempt like so many other attempts in the past to grapple with the issue of scalawags in uniform.

And having been the erstwhile Chief of Intelligence of the PNP, he wants to use counter intelligence to do battle with corrupt police personnel.

I am sure the intention of General Acorda is good.

But as a friendly advice, he should rethink this carefully and be extremely cautious.

He should bear in mind that many roads are paved with good intentions that do not always end the way they are intended.

Because his instructions have the real potential of affecting the long cherished concept of Esprit de Corps and loyalty that has been inculcated in the mind of every service personnel.

Such instructions could destroy the trust that exist within a unit.

A command cannot function effectively if everybody cannot trust the people one is working with.

No one wants to be looking over his shoulders every time one wants to do something for fear of being reported.

Unit cohesion can be negatively impacted if this becomes a standard operating procedure. The current administrative structure that deals with infractions is enough to handle disciplinary and administrative investigations if done efficiently as it should be. There is no need to take extraordinary measures to find out who are the scalawags in uniform because many of these people are actually already known in the service.

WASHINGTON D.C.—Incendiary host

Tucker Carlson, who exited Fox News recently, repeatedly aired falsehoods on his top-rated show, from anti-vaccine to anti-immigrant propaganda—and even his departure was wrapped up in conspiracy theories.

Night after night, Carlson launched into what American media pundits and researchers described as divisive, racist and conspiracy-laden monologues to millions of viewers of his 8 p.m. prime-time show on Fox News.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight,” a program he described as a “sworn enemy of lying,” amplified debunked claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, immigration and the transgender community.

“Tucker Carlson is a dangerous misinformer,” said Angelo Carusone, president of the advocacy group Media Matters for America.

“Tucker served as the bridge between Fox News and the most extreme parts of the right-wing base—laundering anti-trans paranoia, election lies, and venomous rhetoric including the great replacement con- spiracy theory nightly.”

Last year, Media Matters declared Carlson the “Misinformer of the Year,” a designation reserved for the most influential purveyor of misinformation in the American media.

The nonprofit also released what it called a non-comprehensive research file that included more than 350 examples of falsehoods spread by the star anchor.

Carlson sprang to the defense of the rioters who stormed the US Capitol two years ago—in support of Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Downplaying the episode, he insisted that it was not an “insurrection.”

In a claim debunked by AFP last month, Carlson said police officers “helped” and acted as “tour guides” for a rioter dubbed “QAnon Shaman” for his infamous horned headdress.

That was false—the rioter, Jacob Chansley, pleaded guilty to a felony crime after videos showed him disobeying police orders.

Carlson also called Ray Epps, a former Trump supporter who participated in the

Capitol attack, an FBI informant, according to CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Last week, the influential broadcaster agreed to a $787.5 million settlement in a lawsuit by voting technology company Dominion over its coverage of false rigging claims in the 2020 election that Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden

Sometimes, it could actually make matters worse.

Besides, he should consider how long he will be at the helm of the PNP and whether he has the time to accomplish all that he has in mind with the time allotted to him as PNP Chief.

Considering that length of time of his tenure, it might well be all over before he can even warm his seat. So, he must be realistic on what he hopes to leave behind as his legacy.

Part of the problem here is that unlike in the AFP wherein the tenure of the Chief of Staff is now fixed by law, such is not the case with the PNP.

Perhaps, he may want to spearhead an effort for Congress to pass a similar law and leave that as his legacy.

But let us go back to General Acorda’s advice to subordinate officers.

Why is this not such a good idea?

The FBI denied he ever worked for them and Epps said he received death threats as a result of the false claim.

‘Dangerous stuff’

Last year, AFP also reported that Carlson misrepresented government data on COVID-19 vaccines and offered misleading claims on vaccine mandates for schoolchildren.

In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League called for Carlson’s firing after he presented an impassioned defense of the “great replacement theory,” a hateful notion that white people would be replaced by immigrants and people of color.

“Make no mistake: this is dangerous stuff,” ADL wrote in an open letter to Fox News chief executive, warning that the theory had helped fuel a string of mass shootings.

“Carlson’s full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory... and his repeated allusions to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far.”

News of Carlson’s departure on Monday sparked a string of supportive reactions from right-wing politicians, media figures and conspiracy theorists.

All that has to be done is initiate the proper investigation.

Problem is, it takes a big scandal similar to what happened to that P6.7B drug haul to spark action.

Discipline and professionalism together with leadership by example is really the better way to tackle problems of this nature.

But as we can see, it is hard to resist temptations especially if one is preparing for retirement.

That is why there is a need to concentrate on eradicating the culture within the uniformed service that allows infractions to go unpunished.

As an old hand, I would advise the good General to withdraw or rethink his instructions to junior officers to report on their superiors before it does irreparable damage to the service that we all -- active and retired personnel – care for so much.

Anti-vaccine propagandist Robert F. Kennedy Jr called Carlson “breathtakingly courageous,” linking his ouster to a recent monologue decrying COVID-19 jabs. He offered no evidence to support the claim.

Fox News did not explain Carlson’s abrupt exit from the network.

US media linked his departure to a lawsuit filed by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who claimed Carlson presided over a hostile and discriminatory workplace culture.

Last week, the influential broadcaster agreed to a $787.5 million settlement in a lawsuit by voting technology company Dominion over its coverage of false rigging claims in the 2020 election that Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.

“Tucker’s departure from Fox is mostly remarkable for what he was able to get away with and how long he was able to get away with it,” Carusone said.

“If anything, that reign illustrates how committed Fox is to lies and extremism.” AFP