‘Tweaking’ the anti-drug operations

On July 29, in the Lower House’s Committee on Human Rights’ fourth inquiry into the “Drug War Years,” victims anew shared their ordeals.

Their accounts aimed to put a human face on a ‘War’ that left thousands dead, law enforcers included, and thousands more – widowed, fatherless, motherless, orphaned, traumatized and scarred for life.

In a charged testimony, Tatay Rodrigo Baylon of Caloocan did just that. Six months into the ‘Drug War’- right smack on DU30’s self-imposed deadline, he said – his 9-year old son Lenin was killed amid a vigilante-style operation. Another statistic, another ‘collateral damage,’ a high-ranking official cavalierly once mouthed.

To this, Tatay Baylon decried: “Paano na kaming mga collateral damage…sa pekeng war on drugs na yan? … Ginusto niyang maging guro…ang aking bunso…”

In a curious instance, a widow testified to seeing SOCO and funeral parlor personnel even before hearing gunshots that killed his husband and son – shot point-blank by operatives who barged into their home while they slept – another of the many cases of mistaken identity. Her daughter was only spared, the widow bewailed, because she scampered toward the street, begging for her daughter’s life, seeing the latter dragged into a van. Looking across the aisle, she pled, “Ganyan ho ba kayo mag-operate? Hindi ninyo alam yung lugar … ang mga taong inyong ino-operate?”

The real target of the operation was her husband’s brother, as later revealed in an official report.

During those bloody years, news of piled-up bodies seemed to have numbed the better of us, preachers on the gospel of mercy and redemption included. But hearing the accounts re-told by the victims was so heart-breaking that even real-time trolls miraculously fell silent during the testimonies.

Jarred and moved, Committee Members pounced on the probe. The cringing and wincing among top brass resource persons were palpable all throughout.

So, we now ask: How did a well-intentioned ‘War’ ever come to this?

Foremost, the strategy was congenitally-infirm, the ‘War’ having been waged with enemies within the ranks. More so, for having “fought crime with crime,” clichéd by its sub rosa yet open adoption it might as well have been official policy.

But frustrated with rising criminality, public support – fueled and fanned by a massive troll army regurgitating the hype that every rape, murder and theft were unfailingly triggered by drug use – was so overwhelming.

Save for the victims and a courageous few, a complicit Nation kept mum or turned a blind eye. Worse, hordes cheered. So the killers sated this bloodlust.

Second, thus far, the inquiry pins the unbridled killings on the ‘Quota System.’ That is, all anti-drug units must conduct a specific number of drug operations per week or month, lest they be ‘relieved’ or rebuked by and among their peers. The results were inevitable: It became a competition, pa-pogian, disclosed Committee Member and retired Police Col. Cong. Bonifacio Bosita of 1-Rider Party List.

Operational procedure was skirted. Evidence was ‘planted.’ Pre and Post Operation Reports were ‘doctored’ or, in a host of cases, absent altogether.

Cong. Bosita added that, as COP then, he was laughed at by a senior official for still having no deaths in his jurisdiction. Despite painstakingly facilitating the ‘surrender’ of 21 of 22 in the drug watchlist, Cong. Bosita was just as soon relieved of his command.

Third, unwilling to be outdone, unauthorized units conducted their own drug operations. The thing is, the latter and some official operatives were found to have had imprecise knowledge of proper procedure, particularly on buy-bust operations. When asked by Antipolo Cong. Romeo Acop, some resource persons couldn’t even properly define “Operation Tokhang.”

Fourth, any death in the name of the operations was presumed ‘Regular’ – “nanlaban,” in other words. As again disclosed, the ‘Regularity’ of the death was hinged on the Regional Director and not the regular Courts, as should have been the case.

Fifth, the Top Dog reassured operatives of having their backs, going as far as saying he would join them in jail should they be ‘compromised.’ (Examined closely, the alleged ‘Kill Order’ only made hardcore criminals more dangerous, further endangering the lives of operatives.)

But now, abandoned and facing possible jail time, bagito lawmen have lost their jobs, some with families – on account of following orders – we are distraught by the many victims of this internecine ‘War’ they did not ask for.

We join those who maintain that Law Enforcement should not be demoralized by the on-going congressional inquiry. As admitted by no less than the former Chief PNP and now Sen. Bato De la Rosa and former Justice Secretary now SolGen Menardo Guevarra themselves, human rights violations were indeed present during some of the operations.

So, if there is anyone who should be the subject of our collective disgust and condemnation, it is him who has made murderers out of men. It is those who have abandoned their Honor, those who tread on the poor and the helpless in the name of a weekly or monthly ‘accomplishment,’ those who continue to abuse the Badge, enriching themselves thru crimes, either as protectors or criminals themselves.

For, as the inquiry has shown, even 5% of the entire rank-and-file can do such massive damage and on a national scale. In bed with syndicates and corruption-riddled agencies, it is the ‘compromised’ who cause the proliferation of drugs and the rise in crime. It is them who cause the need for congressional inquiries. It is them who cause the demoralization.

In the end, the lesson is clear: Nothing beats honest-to-goodness law enforcement work.

No medal or the empty praise of a thuggish demagogue, however glib, could ever replace that day when one will finally hang his uniform – with a conscience, clear and intact. With a head held high. With the reassuring solace of looking at his family and the community straight in the eye. With a Badge, untarnished with the blood of his fellowmen.

With Honor.

For one of those whose lives has been upturned by the drug menace, there is no one truly hateful of its continuing entry into our mountains and shores. For everyone and the Nation’s sake, we thus pray for the success and safety of our law enforcers in the present Administration’s calibrated approach.