Duterte's drug killings--no evidence and no value

History easily would show that it does not pay to do evil for evil. A peaceful protest in Ireland which was shot at, causing the deaths of fourteen people, led to the formation of the IRA, which subsequently led to more deaths. In this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy where every faithful is to render love and kindness and win heaven, the Catholic country of the Philippines had more than 500 extrajudicial killings under Philippine President Rodolfo "Rody" Duterte in his war against drugs. They were alleged pushers, small fry. Meanwhile, murderer-scions of senators are freed from jail as are former presidents charged of plunder. Rody himself has bragged during his presidential campaign that he shot an arrogant college rival to put him in his place. This braggadocio has infected numerous citizens incited to aid combat a public menace, alarming many who were not forgetful of Martial Law under Marcos and conscious of the very violation of human dignity and rights.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines launched a "Thou Shall Not Kill" campaign in response to this, but even the survivors of the killings are too meek to come forward and just let the matter rest lest they are given the same treatment as well. There has been no world leader in recent memory who has assumed power with so much lack of finesse and appreciation for his voting public. Using the fight of drug addiction as an unlikely platform, he is fearmongering, rather than doing what he is called to do--be a father to the country.

Former President Noynoy Aquino has managed to make the Philippines rise to economic stability not seen in decades. This relative calm is now the backdrop of the undocumented, unsubstantiated killings of many poor and possibly addicted (and therefore unhelped) men and women, making it easy for the comfortable middle-class to wave it away. But violence is an irrational beast, especially if fed by people ignorant of what actually corrects drug addicts or how drugs wars have been won elsewhere. Rockefeller laws (hyperstringent laws such as in NY that first-time marijuana possession merits decades in jail) do not work; they merely disrupt the family and make the already impoverished further sucked into desperation and criminality.

However, restorative justice works. Narcotics or Alcoholics Anonymous works. Changing Lives through Literature (parole or halfway house reflective discussion groups) and tough love live-in programs like Community of the Cenacle work. Addicts become the people they once were or better. Their family is preserved and hope and joy thrives. If Pres. Duterte is serious at being pro-Filipino for the remaining time of his power, he should concentrate on the root causes of what forms drug addicts--the inattention and low self-esteem brought by a fragile, dysfunctional or absent parenting ripped by poverty, under- or overseas employment or materialism. He should protect families, not eliminate them. He should know that every killing hurts the killer more than the killed, and more so if the killer goes unpunished. This is proven in history and common sense (see Gorgias by Plato), forensic cases and sociological literature over and over again. The guilty are damned and know it and live miserable lives.

In short, Duerte in his uncorrected, unreproved history of shooting another is merely making more clones of himself to drown out the crime he acknowledges he has done. He is better saying it in the confessional than making it campaign fodder and ending his trigger-happy ways there and then. Instead he has recruited the weakwilled and the desperate and created a new type of Filipino--one that is unChristian, cowardly and coldhearted, one destined for the hellfire instead of its baptismal bounty. These are sad times.