NPA Mindanao declares war on drugs but assures ‘due process’

DAVAO CITY—The war on drugs declared by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has drawn an ally that the incoming leader is no stranger to—communist guerrillas in Mindanao.

The New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao announced that it would take the war on drugs a notch higher to stop drug trafficking that had reached communities considered as guerrilla bases.

Efren Aksasato, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Far South Mindanao, said guerrillas would try drug lords and offenders in revolutionary courts and impose the penalty of death on those found guilty.

In an interview with the Inquirer at a guerrilla base, Aksasato said guerrillas, however, would respect the right to due process of drug suspects.

In his invectives-laden speech during a thanksgiving party for supporters in this city, Duterte offered cash rewards for dead drug lords and pushers and encouraged people to effect citizens’ arrests on suspected criminals and shoot the suspects dead if they had guns.

Aksasato said under the guerrillas’ revolutionary brand of justice, the accused would stand trial and be given the chance to defend themselves with the help of lawyers.

“But if the court will find them guilty beyond reasonable doubt, then they will definitely face death penalty,” said Aksasato. “There will be no exemptions.”

Aksasato said while guerrillas had yet to catch a big fish in the drug trade, they had taken into custody drug pushers and users in rebel territories.

The guerrilla spokesperson said among the penalties imposed on drug offenders arrested by guerrillas in the past was “community arrest” through which the offender would be closely watched by a “revolutionary council” and barred from leaving the village where he was arrested.

Another form of punishment being imposed on offenders, he said, was hard labor. The offenders, he said, “have to work for their community, including helping in the farms.”

Aksasato said some of the penalties might be considered light but this was because they were part of the guerrilla campaign to make communities aware of the dangers of illegal drugs.

The campaign, he said, had become effective in drawing the surrender of small-time pushers and users who sought NPA help to reform.

Among those currently being held by the NPA for an alleged drug offense is Chief Insp. Arnold Olgachena, police director of Governor Generoso town in Davao Oriental province.

Another rebel spokesperson, Rigoberto Sanchez of the NPA-Southern Mindanao region, said the capture of Olgachena was “a blow against the unholy alliance” of government and military officials in the province that allowed the drug trade to proliferate.

Sanchez said guerrilla units in Davao Oriental “have already gathered information from the ground regarding the festering illegal drug trade” there.

The flow of money from drugs, he said, had been traced to “political elites and ranking government forces.”

The NPA had offered to release Olgachena to Duterte but the incoming President told the guerrillas that the officer’s fate was in their hands and penalties, including hard labor, should be imposed should the guerrillas find Olgachena guilty in their court.

Aksasato, however, said the war on drugs needed a corollary effort to address poverty to be successful.

“We have to understand that the small pushers are doing it because they are poor and they need to bring food for their families,” Aksasato said. Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao