After covering the crime beat for many years, I can declare with certainty that there really are criminals who resist arrest or nanlalaban.
And when they do, there truly are instances when they are so hardened, or feeling so desperately trapped, that they resist violently, using whatever weapon is available. And it’s likely that the weapon would be used to kill, which is the best way to avoid being further pursued and captured.
In such instances, of course the arresting officer would defend himself, by neutralizing the threat.
It’s also not farfetched that the police would be outgunned. Organized crime rings can be well-funded, and they invest in firepower, getaway vehicles and communication devices.
The most well-funded are the drug traffickers and gambling lords, whose illegal activities can be sustained for long periods. Not as sustainable, but also profitable, are kidnapping for ransom and carjacking.
As we have seen in many cases in the past, the goons who engage in these activities are typically heavily armed – and they have no compunctions about using the weapons to kill those who get in their way: victims, arresting cops, prosecutors, witnesses, even judges who send gang members to prison.
Obviously, engaging in activities to raise colossal amounts of dirty money is not for the faint-hearted. And neither is fighting them. Cops who run after such criminals must be ready to kill or be killed, and even risk the safety of their loved ones.
The greater the gains from illicit activities, the tougher the resistance to arrest. And the illegal drug trade has to be the most lucrative traditional criminal activity (hacking into bank accounts, a 21st century crime, can be more profitable, and easier for experts). Plunder can’t be far behind, but this is another story.
So the chief of the Philippine National Police was just being honest and realistic when he said a bloodless war on drugs is impossible. Director General Ronald dela Rosa made the comment as the PNP relaunched Oplan Tokhang at the start of the week.
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As real as the cases of nanlaban, however, are the “salvagings” or summary executions along with the planting of evidence by police, especially in drug cases. Philippine cops have been engaging in salvaging since the Commonwealth period.
One reason last year’s killing of teenagers by police so spooked people and pulled down President Duterte’s ratings was the thought that anyone could be targeted for brutal execution, including children. It doesn’t matter if the kids are experimenting with drugs or not; parents believe in their children’s capacity for reform and want the kids to be safe, especially from homicidal cops.
Tokhang Take 3 is supposed to do away with such abuses. At the relaunch last Monday, all the “tokhangers” were in proper police uniform. As promised, the kinder, gentler tokhang was carried out only during daytime, and will be suspended during weekends.
With so many journalists accompanying the tokhangers and all the kibitzers raising their smartphones to record everything, it was a wonder the cops managed to get anything done as they conducted house-to-house visits.
The real action is going to be when tokhang’s relaunch recedes from the headlines, and when the tokhangers begin focusing their attention on the folks on President Duterte’s updated narco list.
Public support for Duterte’s ruthless war on drugs, unusually high for about a year since he assumed office, began crumbling after video footage, witnesses and recovered bodies provided incontrovertible evidence of brazen abuse of police power, mostly targeting the impoverished.
Duterte has been trying to explain the focus on penny-ante hampaslupa drug suspects, arguing that they are the users of shabu, poor man’s cocaine, which fries the brain.
But other drugs have the same effect, and worse. Perhaps with Tokhang 3, the cops can focus their energies on those who distribute and use cocaine, Ecstasy and other party drugs. They can go after dealers of the opioid analgesic fentanyl and its cousin carfentanyl, said to be 100 times more potent than fentanyl, 5,000 times stronger than heroin and 10,000 times stronger than morphine.
Carfentanyl is being likened to nerve gas and eyed as a potential chemical weapon. The biggest distributor of fentanyl and its analogues is China, which legally manufactured and sold the drugs mostly online until they were classified as controlled substances last year.
If the tokhangers run into the traffickers of these drugs and a genuine firefight erupts, Pinoys will probably again look the other way if the take-no-prisoners approach is applied.
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With the relaunch of tokhang, Malacañang expressed hope that the PNP had learned some lessons.
The PNP may remember that neutralizing moneyed drug personalities such as the Parojinog clan members elicits little public outrage, but murdering teenagers from the slums in cold blood, regardless of whether they are working as drug mules to make ends meet or taking shabu to forget their hunger, is seen as an atrocity.
A useful reminder is that by law, the lead agency in any drug war in this country is not the PNP but the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Filipinos generally agree that prohibited drugs fry the brain and can induce criminal acts, such as raping and murdering six-year-olds.
We are also seeing proof that narco politics is upon us, undermining free elections and democratic institutions, entrenching warlords and aggravating the high murder rate, with journalists among those targeted. It also looks like the administration is telling the truth in reporting that drug money is financing Islamist terrorism.
Fighting these threats to public safety cannot be done with kid gloves. The campaign against illegal drugs has always been an ugly war. I don’t think we’re ready for the non-violent approach that is gaining popularity in Latin America, which is to legalize much of the drug trade, regulate and tax the industry, and treat the demand side as a problem that calls for a public health approach.
But it’s possible to have a more precise aim in neutralizing threats, with abusive cops severely punished for eroding public trust.
The anti-drug campaign should work like a smart bomb. Mass extermination works on rats and termites, not people.