The words of former President Rodrigo Duterte have echoed throughout his tenure and beyond, from his time as Mayor of Davao to his nationwide campaign against illegal drugs in 2016. His iron-fisted approach to crime and drugs ignited a fierce debate: should the priority be human rights, or protecting human lives from criminal elements?
For human rights advocates, the answer is unequivocal—both the perpetrator and the victim deserve justice. The rule of law dictates that suspects must be tried through due process. However, the reality is often starkly different. Those with influence and resources manipulate legal technicalities to evade accountability, while even those without privilege sometimes slip through the cracks due to flawed investigations and lack of evidence. This has left victims and their families in anguish, fostering deep-seated distrust in the justice system.
This perceived failure of due process has driven public frustration to dangerous levels, with some advocating for immediate, extrajudicial justice, particularly in heinous cases like rape and murder committed by drug addicts and petty criminals. Duterte capitalized on this sentiment in Davao City, where his ruthless anti-crime measures cemented its reputation as one of Southeast Asia’s safest cities. When he scaled up his methods nationwide, many Filipinos welcomed the intensified campaign, believing it restored order and security.
Upon assuming the presidency on June 30, 2016, Duterte launched an unprecedented war on drugs, vowing to eradicate the country’s narcotics problem. He framed the campaign as a decisive move to protect Filipino families and secure the future of the nation’s youth. His administration declared an all-out offensive against drug users, peddlers, and suppliers, mobilizing the Philippine National Police (PNP) and local government units in relentless operations.
According to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), an estimated 1.8 million Filipinos are current drug users, while 4.8 million have used illegal drugs at least once. The majority are male adults (87%) with at least a high school education. Methamphetamine, locally known as shabu, remains the most commonly abused substance. A 2012 United Nations report identified the Philippines as having the highest methamphetamine abuse rate in East Asia, with approximately 2.2% of Filipinos aged 16–64 using the drug.
The Philippine government has long viewed the drug crisis through the lens of criminalization rather than rehabilitation. Under Duterte’s leadership, this punitive approach reached extreme levels. In August 2017, a single police raid in Manila resulted in the deaths of 32 individuals—an operation designed to “shock and awe” drug syndicates.
Reports indicate that police forces arrested, detained, and even killed individuals based on mere suspicion of drug use or dealing. Poor urban communities, particularly in Metro Manila, bore the brunt of these operations. During the first six months of Duterte’s presidency, the PNP conducted 43,593 anti-drug operations, covering 5.6 million households. These raids resulted in the arrest of over 53,000 individuals and the surrender of more than 1.1 million suspected drug users and dealers. Official government figures estimate that over 7,000 suspected drug offenders were killed in police and vigilante-style operations within the same period. However, human rights groups contend the true death toll exceeds 13,000, citing rampant extrajudicial executions allegedly incentivized by cash rewards for law enforcers.
Beyond the killings, mass incarceration has overwhelmed the country’s penal system. Prisons, already operating beyond capacity, became even more congested, forcing detainees to live in unsanitary and inhumane conditions.
The grim reality of the drug war raises a fundamental question: Has the pursuit of security come at the cost of justice? While many Filipinos feel safer, the heavy-handed approach has left thousands dead and countless families shattered. The challenge remains—how can law enforcement maintain order without compromising human rights? If the country continues to prioritize punishment over due process, the cycle of violence and impunity will only persist.
The debate over human rights versus human lives remains unresolved. The Philippine justice system must find a way to uphold accountability without sacrificing the core principles of justice. Failure to do so risks further eroding the very democratic foundations the country seeks to uphold.
Now, with Duterte under trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), there is a glimmer of hope for the victims of the so-called extrajudicial killings. Yet, for those who benefited from his leadership, solidarity rallies have erupted, demanding his release and return to the Philippines. The growing number of his supporters suggests that more Filipinos favor his policies than oppose them—if numbers are the metric. Some warn that his potential arrest, widely perceived by his loyalists as a state-sponsored act by the current administration, could ignite mass unrest, potentially plunging the country into a new era of political turmoil.