Extrajudicial Killings is Not the Solution to Our Country’s Problem

The Philippines is a beautiful and prosperous third world country which has a lot of hidden treasures and hidden beauty in it but there’s more to that. Philippines also hides a lot of problems beneath its land. Some of these problems are poverty, corruption, drugs, and many more yet among these problems, there’s one that stands out the most in the current government administration, the war on drugs which often leads to extrajudicial killings. The concept of extrajudicial killings for this essay defined as “the killing of a person by authorized government officials without undergoing any judicial proceeding or legal process”.

The extrajudicial killings started way back former President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ time. According to the Manila Times, 3,257 people are killed in the Martial Law between 1975-1985 and the police would often target political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers and others who do not abide to the laws enforced by former President Marcos. There may be 3,257 extrajudicial killings recorded but let’s not forget the 35,000 recorded tortures, 77 disappearances, and 70,000 incarcerations. Some of the incarcerations occurred with the victims being raided and arrested in their own homes without warrant of arrests which I believe is morally wrong.

In the present government administration with President Rodrigo R. Duterte, the extrajudicial killings that are happening in our country have worsened. In his 2 years and 6 months of stay as our president, the police officers have recorded 23, 518 extrajudicial killings with an average of 33 killings per day from July 01, 2016 to June 11, 2018. 2, 668 (11.34%) of these killings are drug related, 10,712 (45.55%) are non-drug related, and 10, 138 (43.17%) are better scrutiny of motives.

Not all of the recorded extrajudicial killings are about the War on Drugs which was proposed by our President even before he won in the Presidential elections last 2016. Some of the non-drug related cases are about personal grudges of a person towards another person. Among these 23, 518 people killed, are we really sure that all of them are crime-related? What if some of them were just accused? What if some of them were killed wrongly by our policemen? Just like the 17-year old, Kian delos Santos. Senior Superintendent Chito Besaluna, the Police chief of Caloocan, and Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo stated that Kian delos Santos was never on their watch list but they believed that he was a drug runner because another drug suspect told them. Kian is one of the many teens who have been falsely accused by our police. Come to think of it, what if they didn’t kill him on the spot? What if he was given the chance to take a drug test to prove that he is not guilty for their accusations instead of killing him that night? He could’ve had a nice and better future ahead of him yet these police officials chose to kill him because of a false accusation from a drug suspect.

For another instance, there are also people who have been killed because they allegedly fought back to the police. Last December 27, 2018, 5 people who allegedly fought back in Negros Oriental were killed in the police operations in different barangays of the province. This is not the only recent news about this instance. There are also 2 pushers, 3 holdapers, drug suspects, and many more who have been killed recently.

In executing these extrajudicial killings, the human rights of thousands of Filipinos are violated. According to the Article 7 of United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, “everyone should receive the same treatment before the law”. But why didn’t the victims even receive warrant of arrests when they are being chased by the police? Also from Article 9 of UNDHR,” no one shall be exiled of detained for no apparent reason. All men must undergo just jurisdiction.” Meaning, they should have a proper trial. In the Article 11 of the same Declaration, it was stated that “one is innocent unless proven guilty.” Some of the 23,518 people killed wasn’t even able to prove themselves guilty because they were killed on the spot when the police have seen them. There weren’t even enough evidences to prove that they were guilty of the accusations given by the police.

As of June 2018, almost 1/3 of the extrajudicial killings rate are from National Capital Region and Calabarzon because the crimes happening here are everywhere. Almost every barangay has a crime report everyday. According to the President’s 2017 Key Accomplishments, 79,193 anti-drug operations were conducted, 118,287 drug personalities were arrested, 1,308,078 surrenders facilitated, and 3,967 drug personalities died in anti-drug operations.

As a senior high school student who grew up living in this kind of state, I believe that executing the extrajudicial killings is not the answer in making our country a better and peaceful one. The number of criminals may have been eliminated since President Duterte step foot in the Malacañang Palace yet the lives of the people killed can never be replaced by another life. There are many ways on how we can dissolve the number of criminals present in our country. We should help each other in implementing new projects which can help the criminals to start anew. The government could provide a budget which will be used in building rehabs all over the country. The facility will be used for teaching the criminals that there’s a new hope in life, that their life won’t end just because the police have caught them doing illegal measures. They can be taught how to handle businesses so that after their imprisonment, they can start a business to help them regain their lives and they won’t be tempted to do any form of crimes again.

As for the extrajudicial killings itself, I think it should be stopped. Killing each and every criminal in the country is not the solution in this problem. They should be given proper prosecution so that they can prove that they are either guilty or not. Instead of killing them, we should help them to give their lives meaning. The government officials should always give theses drug suspects or criminals the right to speak up for themselves and to give them a proper trial before going behind the prison bars. It is their right as a human to undergo a proper and just trial to prove themselves whether or not that the accusations from the police officials are true or not. We are currently under a messed up nation because of the choices made by our government administration so being the people under them, we should make them realize that there are better ways to eliminate the criminals in our country. We should help each other because no one will fix it other than the people of this country. We are the only ones who can make these extrajudicial killings stop because it started from a Filipino, therefore every Filipino must help one another to help bring back the peaceful and non-chaotic state of our beloved country.