Senators Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Joel Villanueva and Juan Miguel Zubiri in a Meet Inquirer Multimedia forum. YUJI GONZALES/INQUIRER.net
Some supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Senate have condemned the spate of drug-related extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the country but believe the government’s crackdown on illegal narcotics is necessary in dealing with the drug menace.
“Nobody among us would approve of EJKs or any human rights violation. But as a former mayor, I don’t think we are amiss in our duties in fighting drugs. It’s only during President Duterte’s time that we found out that the drug problem is this big. We never had an idea that 90 percent of all barangays in our country are infested with drugs,” Sen. JV Ejercito said in a Meet Inquirer Multimedia forum on Monday.
“We do not promote or condone EJKS, but the momentum of the war against drugs, I don’t want it to wane,” Ejercito said.
Ejercito said the “Duterte chilling effect” helped in keeping drug perpetrators off the streets.
“I have to admit it that the Duterte chilling effect scared away drug pushers for a time. It’s a complicated problem and we can’t rely on the government alone to fix it. We have to do our share because it’s already a menace. Call it frustration out of desperation, but I found satisfaction nung nakita kong hindi na sila lumalabas ng bahay (when I saw they weren’t stepping out of their houses),” he added.
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri admitted that summary executions, which he attributed to drug syndicates targeting each other and small scale dealers, cast doubt on the credibility of the government’s war on drugs.
“Each one of us individually and collectively as a group condemn EJK. There is no place for EJKs in any civilized society. We are not Afghanistan, we are not at war just like in Syria. So it has no place in Philippine society. But we support the President’s war against drugs,” Zubiri said.
“Kung hindi gumalaw si Presidente (If the President didn’t move) like he did and made it the front and center of his campaign, I’m worried today in the next elections it will be funded by drug money and we will be just as bad as narco states in central and south America.”
Zubiri said he would like to see more drug suspects arrested, “hopefully most of them alive.”
For his part, Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara noted that the country’s laws enshrined in the Constitution clearly prohibit killings and safeguard Filipinos’ human rights, but noted that these laws should be properly implemented.
“Definitely mali ‘yung EJK, kasi nasa Constitution ‘yan (EJKs are definitely wrong, it’s in the Constitution). We have all the safeguards in our Constitution. So we just have to see at the implementation stage. We have to make sure our laws are living. If we are talking about human rights, you have to make sure meron ding social economic rights,” he said.
“In the war of ideas, we’ve won already the civil-political war. We know what is right, it’s just a matter of doing it. In terms of coming into a consensus on what the country has to do to make sure people earn more, have a job, more opportunities in education and healthcare, we have to work on that,” Angara added.
The Philippine National Police has suspended all antidrug operations to focus on weeding out rogue policemen, following the murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo inside police headquarters in Camp Crame. JE/rga
READ: 4 killed on day war on drugs halted, says PNP