How many innocent lives is ok?

He can never be wrong and anybody who points out a flaw, a misstep, a misdirected, misguided initiative or course of action will be pilloried, threatened, even harmed either by him or his minions. It's only been seven weeks. It's only the beginning.

To the Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, etc., shut up. To the former US ambassador to the Philippines, "bakla!" for supporting the view of the Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely that rape must not be trivialized (although I don't believe that being called gay is an insult, but we all know in what context the president said it).


The United Nations is "inutile,"and if it continues to call the world's attention to the supposed drug-related extra-judicial killings that have become this regime's focus.

The latest threat is that the president will pull this country out of the United Nations. The inutile United Nations. The same body that ruled in favor of the Republic of the Philippines in its dispute with the mighty People's Republic Of China, which this regime has been downplaying, almost to the point of totally disregarding the ruling. A quick browse though their website belies the president's branding of the United Nations. The beneficiaries of their various humanitarian projects in the country will probably disagree with the president.

I'm aware that illegal drugs is a concern, a major concern even, but I never believed it was this country's foremost concern. Corruption and poverty rank higher in my book - they cause way more misery, and deaths. In fact, I believe that alleviating poverty and combating corruption will make a much bigger dent in the war against drugs than killing with impunity.

His defenders ask, "why are you so concerned about the so-called human rights of criminals and ignore the rights of their victims?" They want the people to assume, of course, that all of the dead have been proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that they were in fact criminals. Who found them guilty? Only the person who pulled the trigger, emboldened and rendered immune from any responsibility, moral, legal, criminal or otherwise, by no less than the most powerful person in the country.

I'll digress, for there lies the problem - if a person in position sees that position as power instead of a responsibility, then we're in big, big trouble. Being in power means getting away with things, good or bad, and if history taught us anything, it's that it's usually getting away with bad, or murder. A policeman who's got the power, armed with a gun, is dangerous, scary. A policeman who's responsible for the safety of the people, for keeping the peace is very much different from the former.

In the meantime, what do we say about 20 year-old Jefferson Bunuan, the boy who dreamed of one day becoming a crime fighter himself?

Lourd de Veyra asked a good question on his Facebook account: "Nagtataka lang ako: bakit itong mga drug pusher na nanlalaban, may pambili ng shabu at baril... Pero walang pambili ng sapatos? Lahat naka-tsinelas." That's the sad reality about this war: the supposed bigger fish - police generals, mayors, governors, judges, big-time drug lords... they're merely named, and the foot soldiers are the only ones ending up dead.


The war on illegal drugs must continue. I've seen too many lives ruined, lost due to drugs. But not at the expense of the innocent, not at the expense of the rights of the rest of us. Would it be too much to ask our president to at least acknowledge the mistakes, reassess the approach and to be more careful and lessen the collateral damage?


How many innocent lives are we willing to lose before we acknowledge that there's something wrong?