The ongoing war on drugs in the Philippines has resulted in over 5,800 deaths in its first six months under President Duterte. While the campaign has widespread public support, international organizations have condemned the unlawful killings. However, the government's failure to ensure due process and respect for human rights undermines the legitimacy and long-term effectiveness of the drug war. To truly address the drug problem, the government must find a sustainable solution that does not violate civil liberties and promotes transparency in its efforts.

1. WAR ON DRUGS JUST FOR THE STATUS QUO
The Oplan TokHang being implemented since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency
nearing its six month anniversary having killed around 5,800 people to date. Thus, the ongoing war on
drugs by the police or unknown assailants known as vigilante groups is effective enough to suppress
illegal drugs in the Philippines for the status quo.
Although numerous individuals and several international organizations have expressed their
denouncement regarding the unlawful proceedings of the said war on drugs, including the United
Nations, European Union, and the United States,President Duterte remains unfazed.
A survey commissioned by Social Weather Stations showed that 84% of the Filipinos approve the
ongoing campaign against illegal drugs, with only 8% rejecting it. This only proves that the greater
Filipinos recognize its feasibility to inhibit illegal drug use in the country.
The considerably massive toll of death should demonstrate the government’s capacity to regulate,
and authority to impose its legislative duties, and eventually instinctively induce conformity to the
deviants. This could induce a surpass from the number of 40, 000 felons apprehended and more than
one million surrenders so far.
However, the transparent blind spot -- the extrajudicial killings issue -- makes the drug war
campaign irrelevant for the long term as any common individual would instinctively believe that
everyone, guilty or not, is entitled with natural human rights, which is apparently neglected on the due
process. Hence, as stated by those who responded to the surveys, drug pushers and drug assailants
deserve to live and be subjected to a judicial trial.
The current administration’s scheme for what was supposedly three months and now prolonged
six months and how much more in the future would not totally eradicate illegal drugs use as it does to
the prime social conditions.
The way mundanes would seemingly always see it, it is all up to the government’s efforts and its
subjects’ cooperation to confine the issue. But it is the polity’s duty to promote transparency and
consistently manifest its means and extremes to the latter, enough to justly suffice the liberal rationale
the most.
By the end, it is most likely known to everyone how the regulation of drugs -- through the
and outputs -- collectively influenced the country’s image particularly on the affirmative decrease of
criminality. But men cannot kill forever; hence, for the time being, it is the Cabinet and its dogs'
obligation to keep up on playing their drastic game, and immediately find a more enduring gray area.
One evident cornerstone at present is to maintain the purported mega drug rehabilitation center to
welcome and accommodate more crooks, and establish a fortified counter proof to the critiques.
If one must kill for change, the administrators could be left to vex and flex the coexistent
constitution and by-laws, and enact another objective strategy subsequently as to form a coherent
to the former, such that it could ameliorate the government’s response to its ostensibly new self and
bring forth a lasting resolve.
Written by Soujee Ann W. Mangapac