Philippine local police proves bloodless anti-drugs campaign possible

APD NEWS

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The day Rodrigo Duterte assumed Philippine presidency was a day of reckoning for Filipino drug users. Duterte had promised to go after anyone involved in illegal drugs, just as he did when he was mayor of Davao City. There were rumors he ran a death squad in his hometown; critics warned of a bloodbath.

Fearing death, thousands of drug users and dealers surrendered in the early days of Duterte's expanded drug war. It took Rey Bitogo, a resident of Bogo City in central Philippines, a while but he ultimately decided to surrender.

"I got scared because I heard there were bounties being offered to anyone who would kill drug users and pushers who hadn't surrendered," Bitogo told CGTN.

Submission to authority did not immediately take away his fear, however. At the time, many who surrendered still ended up dead. But Bogo's police chief then, Superintendent Byron Allatog, was determined to eradicate the city's drug problem without losing a single life – on both sides.

In an interview with CGTN in his office in Balanga City, where he had just been assigned, Allatog said his first course of action was to go down to the grassroots.

"I talked to community leaders to ask for their help. I told them the fight isn't the police's alone," Allatog said.

He also personally led police operations, and made sure they only targeted pushers and dealers. He and his men and women did so for more than a year without having to fire a single shot. The secret, Allatog said, was proper planning.

"If you are three steps ahead, suspects get caught blank during sting operations. Even if they have guns, they won't even have the opportunity to pull them out."

Under Allatog's leadership, not only has Bogo City police prevented deaths while cutting sources of illegal drugs but collaborative efforts between law enforcement and civilian authorities have also led the city to be declared by the national government free of narcotics.

Close to 2,000 drug users and addicts have surrendered in Bogo; more than 1,400 are currently undergoing community rehabilitation. Cops are present even during drug rehabilitation activities. Allatog says it is important to maintain trust between drug users and the police, and to treat the problem as a health issue.

"We are advocating the rehab of these users because if you target them and treat them as criminals, then they will not trust the police and their local officials," he said.

Allatog hopes to be able to replicate Bogo's success wherever his career in law enforcement takes him, and to be able to inspire other police units. But from December 2017, when President Duterte reinstated police into his drug war, to March 1, 2018, cops have killed more than 100 drug suspects. Critics say the killings continue and that the climate of impunity has gone beyond the war on drugs.

On the evening of March 2, 2018, 13-year old Aldrinne Pineda was shot dead by Omar Malinao, an officer of the Manila Police District. Malinao has offered different versions of the event – from responding to suspected theft to self-defense to falling over and accidentally shooting the teenager.

Pineda's death may not be drug-related, but human rights advocates say the circumstances do not matter.

"Every individual killing that is done with impunity is very alarming," Bobit Librojo, a human rights activist, told CGTN during the wake of Pineda's death.

(CGTN)