Berongoy 1

Bianca Berongoy

Phillips

AP English and Composition

9 January 2018

Corruption Within The Philippines:

A community has become reliant on drugs, violence, and needless slaughter all because

of corruption within government officials. Corruption has become the root of all problems within

the Philippines and the current president puts law after law in place to try to avoid this corruption

and fix the other deep-rooted issues within the Philippines. The corruption within the Philippines

is so deep-rooted it would need a near perfect body of government to get the Philippines to be

somewhere livable for those in lower social classes. The corruption within the Philippines has

forced citizens to suffer unnecessarily which will continue despite Duterte's strict

implementation of laws as his hypocrisy and needless violence has promoted the growth of a

community where violence and drug use continue to endanger those living under him.

Prior to Duterte becoming president of the Philippines, he resided as mayor of Davao

City. Currently Davao has the highest murder rate in the county and the second highest rape rate

(Raphelson). This is indicative of Duterte mishandling his political powers and leaving a trail of

unjustifiable violence anywhere he has been given power. This pattern continued once he began

his presidency over the Philippines as obsession with quick results and desire to kill those

involved with drugs has done nothing but fuel brutal killings in poor communities (Mong). Some

could argue this violence is necessary to eradicate the drug market within the Philippines, yet

according to Vanda Felbab-Brown, one of the most important things is to reduce violence within
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drug distribution markets. Under Duterte the opposite happened and he converted a relatively

peaceful drug trade into one saturated with violence through vigilante killings and a mostly

corrupt police force.

Though some could argue the war on drugs is necessary to improve the quality of life

within the Philippines, the general consensus is that though drugs are an issue within the

Philippines they are not the issue that the President should solely dedicate his attention to. "The

Philippines big enemies are corruption and poverty not drugs. That is why Philippines President

Rodrigo Duterte's death squads are fighting the wrong war." (Panos Mourdoukoutas ). When the

president dedicates a majority of his resources and power to dealing with an issue that is not even

the main reason Filipinos suffer under his authority, quality of life will not improve.

When Duterte discusses why he focuses on drugs so heavily he reduces the issue down to

attempting to rid the Philippines of its high crime rates. Yet another example of his hypocrisy has

been made clear when he pardoned officers who were believed to have participated in the killing

of a jailed mayor (Jennings). This hypocrisy has made it unreasonable for Duterte to attempt to

excuse his prioritizing of drugs as trying to decrease the amount of crime within the Philippines.

Though there are many who still support Duterte ,"Public anger is rising in the Philippines over

the reported surge of extrajudicial killings that have victimized several children and teenagers"

(Palatino). Even the citizens of the Philippines are finding Duterte has abused his authority and

has attempted to pardon it with claiming it is being done for the betterment of the Philippines.

The main perpetrators of these killings are those expected to protect the citizens of the

Philippines, but instead have promoted the growth of corruption and fear within the community.

A seventeen year old boy, Kian Delos Santos was shot by the police. They claimed they shot him
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once he fired at them, yet witness statements and footage shows they shot the unarmed teen and

dumped his body in an alley. These killings were dismissed by Duterte and other government

officials as collateral damage of the drug war (Rauhala). The killings of minors or anyone

Duterte or the police believe they have reason to believe are involved in drugs has been

described as marking an appalling new level of depravity in this drug war by Phelim Kine.

When something like this happens most presidents would reduce police involvement as in

this particular situation the cops have become a source of fear and within the police force itself

corruption is rampant. Instead, Duterte wants to increase police involvement within the

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) which worries citizens as police were responsible

for judicial killings (Ranada). Duterte has gone back and forth on whether police involvement

contributes to the bettering of the Philippines, but ultimately he continues to choose the police

force over the well-being of the people time after time.A police force that is drowning in

corruption coupled with a president that continuously abuses his powers has led to high levels of

distrust within the community.

Companies believe they cannot trust the police and instead hire private security because

of high risk of corruption when dealing with police (The Philippines Corruption Report). The

levels of distrust are clear when Pia Ranada has found seventy-seven percent of Filipinos doubt

the polices honesty and the drug war being the primary reason behind that. Duterte has

consistently presented himself with an image of being desperate to rid the Philippines of

corruption, even repeatedly saying he was willing to leave office if that was the best for the

country. Duterte has gone as far as creating the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission
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(PACC) to investigate those he suspects have abused their powers and committed corruption

according to Christina Mendez.

Yet when corruption is constantly something Duterte stresses he wants to get rid of, it

becomes easy to call him out once it is remembered "almost 9000 people accused of drug

dealing or drug were killed in the Philippines in the first year of his [Duterte's] government."

(Brown). Not only are people looking in on the situation within the Philippines worried about the

state of their country, but the citizens are growing uneasy with unjustified killings of suspected

drug users and dealers (Phelim). When the war on drugs was first started Duterte presented it as

if his goal was to rehabilitate drug addicts and get rid of the drug trade within the Philippines, but

instead has become about merciless judiciary killings. The police have allowed gunmen to

continue to slaughter drug users as they've done little to stop or get involved with these killings.

Even if the war on drugs lacked the violence it now possesses it still would be unable to

target the main problem behind most of the issues within the Philippines. The main issue within

the Philippines is poverty and how the people have been forced to turn to drugs to be able to

support themselves and their families. Duterte has pledged many things to those living under

him, complete removal of poverty being one of these things. He promised to make a majority of

the people middle class. Yet the plans he's implemented has done little to help those whose main

source of income is fishing or farming. In the Philippines there is little to no family planning

meaning a lot of people dependent on one source of income, this coupled with the fact there are

very little industry jobs in the Philippines has led to people being forced to turn to the drug trade

to support their families.

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Duterte's war on drugs has not only increased the levels of distrust within the

community but has also increased the amount of disease within the country. Duterte's drug policy

has worsened the impact of a wide array of diseases from HIV to tuberculosis. Duterte's violent

means of implementing his new laws has made people too afraid to get checked out and seek

help. the shift of attitudes towards drug users and needle users has led to 50% of those inject

their drugs to be infected with HIV (Rauhala). The rampant fear within the country Duterte has

not only supported but encouraged has had negative effects on drug users seeking help. They

stay within the inherently corrupt system of drug usage as there is no safe way for them to escape

without being brutally slaughtered by one of Duterte's men.

According to Rambo Talabog seventy seven percent of the population within the

Philippines are happy or at the least satisfied with Duterte's drug policies. These people are only

satisfied, because they believe Duterte's policies will be effective in eradicating the drug trade

within the Philippines. Yet as shown by Duterte's previous experience as mayor of Davao City

he has a tendency to instill needlessly cruel policies that leave the places where's he's given

authority in a worse situation than prior to his leadership.

Corruption within the Philippines is so deeply embedded that a near perfect leader would

be required to fix the deep rooted issues. Unfortunately the person who has been given the most

power within the Philippines has taken advantage of the authority he’s been given to abuse and

slaughter the people needlessly. Corruption within the Philippines will never end unless a leader

who has empathy and sympathy to the current situation is put into place.
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Works Cited
Felbab-Brown, Vanda. “The Human Rights Consequences of the War on Drugs in the
Philippines.” ​Brookings​, Brookings, 8 Aug. 2017,
www.brookings.edu/testimonies/the-human-rights-consequences-of-the-war-on-drugs-in-
the-philippines/.
Inc., GAN Integrity. “Country Profiles.” ​The Philippines Corruption Report​, Oct. 2017,
www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/the-philippines.
Jennings, Ralph. “Most Filipinos Will Stay Poor Despite Duterte's Anti-Poverty Pledge.” ​Forbes​,
Forbes Magazine, 6 July 2017,
www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2017/07/06/the-philippines-will-stay-poor-despite-n
ew-anti-poverty-pledges/#6acd5bfc176f.
Jennings, Ralph. “Why Corruption Persists In The Philippines Despite Duterte's Tough
Anti-Graft Talk.” ​Forbes​, Forbes Magazine, 22 Aug. 2017,
www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2017/08/22/why-corruption-festers-in-the-philippine
s-despite-a-tough-anti-graft-campaign/.
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Watch​, 30 Oct. 2017,
www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/30/philippine-drug-board-urges-new-focus-drug-campaign.
Mendez, Christina. “Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission Created.” ​Philstar.com​, 6 Oct.
2017,
www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/10/06/1745984/presidential-anti-corruption-commissio
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Mourdoukoutas, Panos. “Philippines' Duterte Is Fighting The Wrong War.” ​Forbes​, Forbes
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Palatino, Mong. “Rising Outrage Over Duterte's War on Drugs in the Philippines.” ​The
Diplomat​, The Diplomat, 12 Sept. 2017,
thediplomat.com/2017/09/rising-outrage-over-dutertes-war-on-drugs-in-the-philippines/.
Ranada, Pia. “Duterte to Bring Police Back to Drug War.” ​Rappler​, Rappler, 22 Nov. 2017,
www.rappler.com/nation/189268-duterte-bring-pnp-back-drug-war-philippines.
Ranada, Pia. “Duterte Wants Safeguards vs Corruption in Amended Constitution.” ​Rappler​,
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www.rappler.com/nation/173764-good-bad-duterte-year-one.
Raphelson, Samantha. “Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte Sustains Support For Deadly war on
drugs.” ​NPR​, NPR, 13 Nov. 2017,
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adly-war-on-drugs.
Rauhala, Emily. “Duterte's 'Drug War' Is Fueling the Spread of Disease.” ​The Washington Post​,
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disease/2017/10/06/37a707be-a2c5-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_story.html?utm_term=.2cb
88c3f133d.
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