The Case of the Philippine Drug War: When the State Securitizes an Existential Threat to Public Safety (original) (raw)
Securitization of the Philippines War on Drugs
Final Project, 2018
This paper explores the concept of securitization presented by Copehagen School and interprets the Philipines War on Drugs through its lens. The Filipino war against drugs is entrenched in deep social, economic and historic disparities and frustrations. The war seemed to have revived the general masses by giving them an enemy they can let their hatred out on and by doing so, they now see an end to the chaos and lawlessness. However, it is the rhetoric of the state that has convinced the public about a solution that is neither sustainable nor a cure for the country's drug epidemic.
Securitization in the Philippines’ Drug War
Indonesian Journal of International Relations, 2021
Since his inauguration in late June 2016, Duterte has adopted “shoot-to-kill” policy for suspected criminals and drug addicts. Despite public support, the policy received growing international backlash over extra-judicial killing and mass slaughter of youth, mainly the urban poor communities. This paper attempts to analyze the process of securitization waged by President Duterte to construct a state of emergency of drugs so that extraordinary yet outrageous measures can be justified by using the Copenhagen School’s securitization concept developed by Buzan, Waever, and Wilde (1998). This paper argues that President Duterte’s speech acts and politicization of threats successfully build public support of harsher law enforcement on drug-related crime. Furthermore, the paper also connects the dot between the securitization of drugs as Duterte’s political weapon and the disproportionate impact it has on the minority poor and vulnerable children. Using the critical application of securiti...
2 the strategic setting is the classic concern. 3 But when lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism, disasters, and even political instabilities are considered by government as matters of national security, public safety in the domestic scene is the critical component. In my perspective on national security, public safety is a constitutive policy that lies in the domain of the interior, the national police, and other law enforcement agencies that have the legitimate use of force within national borders.
Drugs and drug addiction may be generally referred to what Jose P. Rizal may have referred to as the “Cancer of Society” that ruins the social fabric of any society. Not only does drugs destroys lives, but the would-be potential of those addicted on drugs to function in an organized society. This comes in a crucial time wherein the President strongly put forth his War on Drugs, involving the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in its campaign as leading government security agencies since 2016. In this regard, it intends to provide a preliminary assessment of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s “War on Drugs”, through government’s supplemental operational forces (via AFP), within the Metro Manila. Moreover, this will be supplemented with the following objectives to support the main objective, particularly: To determine how the current conduct its role on PRRD’s “War on Drugs” within the National Capital Region; To identify the problems or operational gaps that are being encountered by the AFP in its role in the conduct of PRRD’ War on Drugs; and To determine the manner upon which the AFP can improve its role to better support PRRD’s “War on Drugs.”
State Security, Societal Security, and Human Security
Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 2017
Generally speaking, the traditional approach of security mainly regards states as a sole referent object of security and refutes any attempt to broaden the concept of security. This understanding is known as a realist approach. This approach, however, has been recently challenged by the Copenhagen School, the Welsh School, and the human security approach. The Copenhagen School assumes that there is now a duality of security: state security and societal security. However, both the Welsh School and the human security school look at individuals as a sole referent object of security. This article critically reviews the traditional approaches of security, the Copenhagen School, the Welsh School, and the human security approach. This article finally argues that the Copenhagen School could successfully broaden the concept of security, and therefore, it is more convincing when compared to other schools.
The purpose of this research is to identify the positive and negative mental perceptions of AUP Academy students concerning the current government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign when it comes to their security and whether the students were concerned about the war against illegal drugs. The research process involved administering survey questionnaires to the respondents. The questionnaire included questions that asked their safety perceptions and feelings toward the war on drugs. It also included statements about the war on drugs that could be personally rated according to the Likert scale. The data gathered for the statements that could be rated were mostly positive with a considerable amount of people undecided about the issue. The results for the open-ended questions on the other hand affirmed that there are both positive and negative effects. The results were gathered in a table and categorized by its positive or negative nature. The findings of this research could help future research on this topic and could help raise awareness of the impacts of punitive anti-illegal drugs wars initiated by the government.
A Militarized Political Weapon: The Philippines' War on Drugs
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, 2019
The purpose of this paper is to provide analytical background on the origin, implementation and impacts of the Philippines’‘war on drugs’, with particular reference to the illicit economy for methamphetamine. It aims to outline, over the two-plus years of the drug-war campaign, how the nation at first embraced the outsider politics of Duterte as he pledged to rid the country of its shabu industry, and bring order to the poverty-engulfed spaces of the dense urban neighbourhoods where the drug problem tends to manifest. This support soon changed to fear, however, as it became obvious to many that the killings were not restricted to those ‘who deserved it’, but that the drug war also targeted people with no connection to drugs. In the face of diplomatic and widespread international criticism, Duterte nevertheless forged ahead with his campaign, mocking international critics, and using the drug war as a militarized political weapon to intimidate, imprison – and even kill – his domestic critics and rivals. All of this was done, ostensibly, as a means to achieve a drug-free state – though it would be more accurate to argue that it was used instead as a means by Duterte and his acolytes to attain and then retain national political power.
Insurgent safety: Theorizing alternatives to state protection
In the United States, public safety is embraced as an unquestioned social good. Broadly speaking, the criminal justice system is tasked with administering and maintaining public safety through the use of law enforcement, the courts, and prisons. First, through a focus on racialized police violence, this article develops a critique of the dominant model of public safety practiced in the United States—identified herein as 'carceral safety'. Second, through an analysis of findings from the (Re)imagining Public Safety Project (RPSP), this article seeks to sketch out an alternative model and practice of safety that does not rely on banishment, policing, or mass criminalization. In contradistinction to the forms of state protection exercised under the seemingly innocuous rhetoric of 'public safety', RPSP participants conceptualized what I am calling 'insurgent safety': locally determined, anti-capitalist practices and ethics for reducing, and responding to harm.
Deconstructing Human Security in the Philippines
The Human Security Act of 2007, otherwise known as Republic Act No. 9372, was enacted by the 13th Congress of the Philippines that took effect on July 15, 2008 providing legal framework for the government’s anti-terrorism strategy and security policies. However, this newly crafted statute does not have a landmark case yet. Proposition one looks at the absence of terrorism’s definition that makes the law as vague, ambiguous, and highly susceptible to abuse; thus, the said Act is also too broad. Proposition two compares the special law to some provisions of the 79-year-old Revised Penal Code or R.A. No 3815. Upon the enactment of the HSA, criticisms were thrown, especially among leftists or militants and civil libertarians or members of the civil society, that the Human Security Act will be used by the government to commit human rights abuses. Proposition three dissects some provision of the anti-terrorism law which may be contrary to basic human rights as it tackles controversies on wiretapping, detention, and the issue on writ of amparo. Lastly, proposition four discusses the view on whether or not the penalties and damages are just and admissible. All in all, this paper shall examine the pros and cons of the four-year old Human Security Act of 2007, using various perspectives in social sciences including legal and security studies dimensions to better understand the country’s continuous fight against terrorism that impedes social and economic development, as a major form of non-traditional security risk and human-induced disaster.
2012
In this essay I will take a closer look at how the war on drugs has para-militarized space. I wish to briefly discuss three interrelated facets. Firstly, I will highlight how the war on drugs has been framed by the ambiguous logic of security, above all the blurring of the boundaries between policing and war-fighting. In fact, George H. W. Bush was right: the war on drugs was (and is) no metaphor. But it’s not a conventional war either. The war on drugs is best understood by looking at the military doctrines that came to shape it: low-intensity conflict (LIC) and counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine. Secondly, I will show how the war on drugs has subjected space to the logic of security. I will argue that this process has entailed the design and deployment of border regimes, not just in the sense of borders between sovereign states but also in terms of complex assemblages that allow for the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate flows of people and resources. I will argue that these security assemblages serve tactically to enact a strategic sovereign decision on the legitimacy or illegitimacy of people and goods. Thirdly, I will discuss the international dimension of the war on drugs, how it has been folded into counterinsurgency operations in Latin America, most notably through Plan Colombia, and how it is now folded into the war on terror.
IJASS PUBLICATION, 2022
Terrorism is often used as a means to achieve political goals, power, religious interests, and other similar ends. Terrorism is a form of threat that can lead to acts of violence, destruction, and chaos as a violation of the law generally carried out in a targeted and planned manner. The Philippines is one of the countries that has become a strategic target for terrorist acts. The threat of the theoretical group cannot be separated from the condition of the Philippine government which is not yet structurally and intellectually strong in dealing with this threat. In this paper, the author wants to examine the form of the threat of terrorism which is a serious nuisance to the security of the Philippines. So that it can be seen whether the increasing threat of terrorists in the Philippines is in line with the readiness of the government to deal with these threats. This research method uses a qualitative description. By focusing on the existing problems described descriptively, namely by using a qualitative method to make descriptive results able to form concepts in the form of more objective results. The short result of the research is that the largest terrorist group in the Philippines is Abu Sayyaf. As the seeds of terrorism in the Philippines started from the struggle of the Moro nation in seeking asylum for independence, it changed from an Islamic political movement, namely the National Liberation Front (MNLF) and then in the 80s it split into a more radical Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and that utilized by the ASG group (Abu Sayyaf Group). Both the MNLF and MILF deny ties to the Abu Sayyaf group. The two have officially distanced themselves because of his attacks on civilians and his alleged profiteering.
The Pacific Review, 2019
The article provides the first substantive analysis of the war on drugs in the Philippines under the Responsibility to Protect. It develops in two stages. First, it argues that the war on drugs constitutes crimes against humanity through an analysis of, i) extrajudicial killings and vigilante justice, ii), dehumanisation, and, iii) the exaggeration of threat. Second, it examines the response of the permanent five members of the UN Security Council (p5) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Despite that the US, the UK, and France have expressed public concerns, we show that they prioritise counter-terrorism and trade over the Responsibility to Protect. Meanwhile, China and Russia uphold the view that the war on drugs is a matter of domestic jurisdiction. Regarding ASEAN, we draw on 26 semi-structured elite interviews conducted in South East Asia (2016-2018) to evidence that the elites prioritise state sovereignty and non-interference. The outcome is that there is a significant protection deficit as the government of the Philippines, the p5, and ASEAN are failing to protect those targeted in the war on drugs. We hope that the article will act as a catalyst for a much needed conversation on the international community's political, legal, and moral responsibilities regarding mass violence against drug users in international relations.
University of Asia & the Pacific Law Journal, 2019
The anti-illegal drug campaign of the Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte has exacted heavy social costs in the Philippines. It has also placed the institutions for accountability and democratic rule of law at a precarious situation. With the collective moral ethos of Philippine society heavily strained by the consequences of the anti-illegal drug campaign, the conceptually parallel ideas forwarded by Catholic social teaching on the one hand and human rights law on the other can potentially provide an oasis for making sense out of the so-called war on drugs. This paper presents the prospects of the intersection between the teachings of the Catholic Church—an institution held in high regard in Philippine society—and the different ideas underpinning human rights law as a potent counterpart to the war on drugs.
On insecurity as a public issue
Civitas - Revista de Ciências Sociais, 2007
may be, for instance, the increase of the social demand for authoritarian order, and the blockage of efforts to transform the whole situation through rational policies). (13) Media, public agenda, elite's reactions towards "violence". (14) Besides the Polices, the state of the Penal institutions. (15) Public expenditure on violence's consequences and public policy's share in the State's budgeting. Answering these questions could bring new light on the issue of violence; therefore, could bring new perspectives to social research on security and insecurity in Latin America.
Understanding the Philippine National Security Strategy
Understanding the Philippine National Security Strategy, 2016
National security is a concept that seeks for the protection of the interest of the nation state and its people with the state’s sustainability and survival its utmost priority, hence, a strategy to promote it is instructive for every nation. However, in the development of a National Security Strategy (NSS), the people must understand and have a common appreciation of the necessary fundamentals that constitute the framing of such a strategy. National security commands the employment of all the elements of national power: its territory, people and resources, and the use of political, diplomatic, economic and military components. The Philippine government needs to translate the employment and prioritization of these elements into a national security framework towards achieving its national interest of “ensuring its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the well-being of its people and institutions are preserved, protected and enhanced” as mandated by the Philippine Constitution. In framing the NSS, the national interest should then be the precept. However, although universally used, global interpretation of the notion of ‘national interest’ is highly diverse and does not have a fixed definition. Conversely, there is a basic need to contextualize the concept of national interest to better guide the framing of a strategy to promote national security.