Pagdaro sa Kalinaw: Re-thinking the War on Drugs on the International Day of Peace

"Since wars begin in the minds of men (and women), it is in the minds of men (and women) that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” 

So states the constitution of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organization, (UNESCO) which provides the rationale for the UN's program on Culture of Peace, which seeks to maximize the "soft power" of culture, education, and science to prevent and reduce violence and war. In particular, through research, education, and respect for "marginalized" knowledge, UNESCO is encouraging communities around the world to understand the underlying thought processes and justifications of war. This process, combined with inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, will lead to a broader, more thoughtful, and hopefully, a more productive dialogue as an antidote to violence. 

This past September 20, I gave a short workshop on Culture of Peace, jointly sponsored by the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process and Ateneo de Davao University, as part of the build-up to the celebration of the International Day of Peace on September 21. Promotion of a Culture of Peace, along with Conflict Sensitive Development in conflict-affected areas, are 2 of the major thrusts of the current administration's peace efforts to end the Bangsamoro insurgency. September 21, as many of us know, also commemorates the day in 1972 when martial law was declared by former president Ferdinand Marcos, leading to one of the darkest periods of injustice in Filipino history. Thus, to connect the dual significance of the International day of Peace and the commemoration of Martial Law, I modified my presentation to suggest that a culture of genuine peace must also be a culture of authentic justice. In other words, achieving peace involves the pursuit of justice by making concrete efforts to build a "Culture of JustPeace." 

After the workshop, one of the young participants, a community member from a local church, asked if this could approach could also be used as an alternative in the War on Drugs. In fact, this has also been one of my conclusions, considering that the total number of people killed in the past 2 months of the War on Drugs has surpassed the total number of people killed in all insurgent and terror attacks, plus counter-insurgency and counter-terror police and military operations, over the past few years. Thus, while the government attempts to wind down several wars across the country, it has also launched a new national civil war on its own people.

Viewing the government lead peace processes side-by-side with the War on Drugs gives us an opportunity to reflect on an apparent schizophrenia, or split personality, of public policy. In this view, we are left to consider political initiatives that simultaneously encourage peace on one hand, while promoting violence, on the other. Perhaps, the solution to this bi-polarity in our collective thought process is to find a new way of thinking about the War on Drugs that will bridge our collective aspirations for peace and justice and promote a culture of JustPeace in the Philippines.

Therefore, strengthened by the rejoinder that, "it is in the minds of men (and women) that the defenses of peace must be constructed", I will propose three alternative mental frameworks for addressing criminality and drugs, in the hope that these will allow us to begin collaborating, dreaming, and discovering together new ways and possibilities:

"It's not a battle, it's a journey," so stated the advertisement for a private addiction support program that came across my desk recently. We could approach this not as a war, but as the journey to freedom. Dealing with the issue of drug abuse means we all have to get on board the ship that we will sail to islands of peace and prosperity. The community will do the leg work to mobilize resources and supplies to sustain the journey, and has the primary responsibility to pull the oars until we reach the open seas. We need specialists to help us navigate through the crowded harbor of boats that might get in they way, block us, or tie us down. Like a vinta, we must set our sails to the wind, and harness our cultural energy to propel ourselves forward. When we face storms, rocks, and wild currents, all hands are on deck to keep a look out for those things that will take us off course or wreck us. The journey to freedom is long and arduous, but if we all work together, we can reach our destination.

The non-violent liberation struggle. If some of our communities are struggling for a better life and suffering under the tyranny of oppression, let us use all the tools of active non-violence, community organizing, and radical peace activism. The Philippines has a long history of struggle for justice and freedom, and it is this collective history that provides resources needed to address the current situation. This will involved hard-headed and sophisticated analysis of the power players at hand, and the ways in which the levers of unjust power can be transformed and converted to leverage JustPeace. We must maintain our interconnections and solidarity together, maximizing the strengths and power of the poor and the marginalized, and recognizing the need to sacrifice and share our privilege and wealth in service of the greater common good. Let us turn the triangle of injustice as we seek true liberation from all forms of violence and oppression.

The construction zone.  We must rebuild our community center from the ground up, starting at the foundation. First we need to make a design, to figure out what kind of drug-free community we want to build. Looking at other attempts, models and successful project will help us figure out what will work well in this particular soil and environment. Digging out the rocks, dirt and waste of prior construction requires, hard work, honesty and truth. The foundations must be carefully placed and expertly filled in with integrity and good governance, for without this, the building will collapse. Many different skills, workers, and professionals, are needed as not everyone has the capacity for the different elements of intervention - courts, police, therapist, corrections officers and more. Most importantly is the involvement of community from planning to inauguration, the building is a community center, so the accountability, resources and design should be gathered from those who will be using it.

Thus, if we can shift our thinking, as UNESCO states, we can open up new possibilities. The wisdom of scripture reinforces this, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

It is our own selves and our own lives that we must offer in sacrificial service, not the lives of poor drug addicts, the police commando, and the innocent bystanders, in the pursuit of JustPeace. Our collective and concrete acts of sacrificial service in building, journeying, and struggling for a new society must be matched by a complete transformation, a renewal of the mind, and re-thinking, of the current war on drugs. 

Jeremy Simons has lived in the Philippines for over 21 years, the past 7, in Davao City. He works as a peacebuilding trainer and consultant with various academic institutions, NGOs, government programs, as well as partnering with Lumad communities for conflict transformation. Prior to coming to Davao, he lived for 6 years in an urban poor community that was severely affected by drugs, working as a community organizer in neighborhood justice programs, engaging in community policing and transformative justice initiatives. He can be reached at justpeaceadvocate@gmail.com.

Bayanihan Justice (Part 3): Killing Mary Jane Veloso

Yesterday, August 12, 2016, marked the 1,000th victim of extra judicial killing since the May 10 election, 598 at the hands of the police (according to ABS-CBN on-line). In almost exactly 3 months, it is probably safe to say, more Filipinos have died at the hands of the Philippine National Police than in the past 3 years in the fields of combined battle with the MILF, MNLF, and NPA. While President Duterte advances an aggressive peace agenda with rebel groups, he wages war on his own people - targeting almost entirely un-armed petty criminals - instructing his police to draw up kill lists and take no prisoners. These commands, if given in battle, would contravene the Geneva convention and Philippine military guidelines on lawful orders. 

In 1995, former U.S. Army Ranger and West-Point Military Academy Instructor David Grossman published a book called, "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society." In the book, he traces the evolution of modern military training, which uses intentional psycho-social conditioning to teach soldiers to kill. One of Grossman's assertions is that human nature has built-in defense mechanisms that resist the taking of human life, and modern military training was developed precisely to break-down these natural, psychological checks and balances. These training techniques include the use of computer killing simulation "games" and other media tools, many of which have been adopted for commercial use and circulation.  

As a former U.S. Marine, I experienced this brainwashing during boot camp, which included a psychosocial process de-constructing natural human instincts. This occurred alongside a process of social re-construction, re-patterning and re-orientation to a new command-structure. There was a historical rooting, and enforcement of communication patterns and social rituals (Marine Corps history and traditions), and articulation of radical familial-communal expectations ("Always Faithful" to our "band of brothers") - all of which provided the rationale and conditions for a community committed to killing, for the good of society. Thus, we should ask ourselves, are the actions in social media, the public statements of political leaders, and constant barrage of violent images, in alignment with our understanding of the value and intent God/Allah intended for individuals and communities. Or are they nothing more than a concerted, large scale, attempt to diminish our natural resistance to the taking of life, as identified by Grossman? 

How quickly we rose to the defense of Mary Jane Veloso, just a year ago, sentenced to death by the Indonesian judiciary, allegedly for transporting drugs into the country. Her cause garnered 250,000 signatures from 125 countries, the fastest recorded growth of a petition on Change.org. Even our national icon, Manny Pacquio appealed to the Indonesian government on her behalf. And here we are, 1,000 drug-deaths later, and barely a whimper for mercy on the kilobytes of social media to defend those who succumb to the bullets of PNP and PDEA invading urban slums searching for the many Mary Jane Velosos of the Philippine archipelago. 

Have we allowed this socio-political experiment of vigilante executions to re-write the "source-codes" of justice in our community in order to allow those who are powerful define who is "in" (Duterte supporters) and who is "out" (anyone labeled anti-Duterte or drug user)? Are we allowing ourselves to undergo a process of psycho-social conditioning and social brainwashing that is erasing the spiritual values and cultural ties to our isigkatawo, the collective kalooban, and social capital that binds us - even the least among us - as a Filipino community? And if we are to question such a process of psycho-socio-cultural re-conditioning, what alternative sources of justice will we propose, beyond the bakal kamay of death squads and state sponsored terror?

What David Grossman figured out in his modern research on killing, has already been passed on to us in the wisdom of our elders and faith traditions. As people who breathe the breath of God/Allah/Magbabaya the Creator, we are sustained by a life giving force that energizes all of life, as St. Paul says, "in him we live and move and have our being." Thus, we are at our best individually, culturally and socially when we live in alignment with this life force to affirm the divine order created and entrusted to us - we are stewards and caretakers of our social reality and physical surroundings. 

On the other hand, the destruction of the environment and ecology; the taking of life and the support of communal acts of structural injustice, extra-judicial killings, and political violence; cultural genocide and the perpetuation of all forms of oligarchy and class division - all these violate the socio-economic-ecological equality and flourishing that is affirmed in the best of our cultural history and spiritual traditions. To participate, endorse or support the Spirit of Death that stalks our streets fundamentally goes against the integrated human-divine nature in us, as well as the natural inclinations of human psychology. 

Let us, therefore, pray, organize, protest, boycott, march, and struggle by all non-violent means at our disposal to reclaim our humanity, our culture, and our soul - to restore our drug-affected friends and relatives through transformative Bayanihan justice - and to rescue the hundreds of Mary Jane Velosos soon to be slaughtered in this senseless, self-destructive war on the Filipino people.  

Bayanihan Justice (Part 2): Bangon! Killing kids (and adults) in Davao didn't stop crime

Last Friday, I spoke with a pastor from Tagum city, who shared that of the 4,000 drug users/pushers that surrendered in that city, the police sent half of them home without doing or providing anything, they simply lack the resources to help. Another friend related a story from Cebu, where her son was staying in a boarding house, and heard what he thought were leaves falling on the roof, but which turned out to be bullets from a drug raid at the house next door. Apparently, there was a drug den and several users/seller were executed during the police raid. He was told by relatives that the victims had already surrendered to the police in previous weeks, but had gone back to selling drugs, and so they were killed.

In president Duterte's state of the nation address (SONA) on Monday, he painted a picture of the resilient Filipino, facing the darkness of the drug menace, a darkness so deep, because it is the dark just before the dawn of a new day. He vowed to continue his current approach to eradicate (based on PDEA figures) 3 million drug users and pushers, since the number of users and pushers that had surrendered (as of the SONA) amounted to only 120,000, with the those individuals arrested in the thousands.

But before we continue, we should ask ourselves, do we have any evidence to show that the current approach will work, from past experience? President Duterte made repeated referrals during his SONA to "come to Davao" and see how the city is a model of the success of his efforts in governance, and there is the widespread misperception that Davao is a safe, clean and drug free city. Let us therefore go to Davao and examine the evidence.

According to her January 2016 blog, former Davao City Judge and founder of the Transformative Justice Institute, Attorney Adoracion Avisado notes,

"Despite the allegation by some people that Davao City is drugs free, statistics show otherwise. The number of drugs cases pending before the two drugs courts are close  to four thousand as of the end of 2015. The number of cases filed each week are definitely more than the number of cases which the two branches of the trial court can dispose."

She further states that an average of 70 cases were scheduled each day in Davao, despite the fact that only 5 can realistically be handled, and that across the nation, it is common to have 30 cases scheduled in the daily docket. The Davao City jail in Ma-a has over 2,500 inmates, thought it was built too handle at most 800. Inmates literally sleep in shifts because there are not enough beds for everyone to lie down on.

This data is from the end of 2015, after more than a decade of Duterte's iron-fisted crack down on crime that left over 1,000 pushers, users and petty criminals dead, according to the Coalition Against Summary Executions. Thus, kung gamitin natin ang ating utak, we can deduce that the iron fist approach to crime does not work, because if it did, than crime surely would have been virtually wiped out, there would be no new drug cases filed in court, and the jail would be nearly empty. However, rather than reducing crime, after a decade of summary killings, there were still 4,000 cases pending in the court and over 2,500 inmates, most of them with drug charges, in the Davao city jail.

Having lived in Davao since 2008, I can also attest to the fact that crime is still a problem by personal experience. In 2012, I remember smelling the marijuana drift into our living room window from the house next door and hearing the male resident abuse his female partner through the window screen at night. We called the police to report both the domestic violence and the drug use. When the police arrived, they interviewed the woman in front of the abuser in the open street, breaking basic protocols regarding how to treat situations of violence against women. The drug den was never busted. My neighbors were victims of akyat bahay multiple times, as well as my parents in a different subdivision, yet nothing happened. I am not saying Davao was worse than any other city, but neither is it much better, and we need to be honest about it.

It's time for us in Davao to be realistic, because we are touted as the model the nation will follow. The "successes" of the city need to be put in their proper context, so that what is good can be emulated, and what is bad can be eliminated. We have to stop comparing the Davao of 2016 to the "NicarAgdao" of the 1980s. The killing of petty thieves from the year 2000-present did not solve the problem of sparrow units and Alsa Masa gun battles in the 1980s and 90s. Rather, it was shrewd political wrangling and quid-pro-quo alliances with the shadow players behind the gun slingers that reigned them in.

The killing of men and women in the sex trade (see my previous article, "Death stalks the streets") did not make us start following the speed limit, rather, consistent use of "speed guns" made people slow down. The killing of low-level criminals has nothing to do with the effective implementation of the women, children and gender code in the city and the 911 program. The killing of kids sniffing glue does not prevent bombings and terror attacks, because rugby boys are not the ones planning to bomb airports, ports and van terminals. We cannot use the justification that death squad killings are necessary for effective governance, which is the underlying message of the current administration.

Orasa na, bangon ta, ug gamiti ang atong huna-huna! Pwede man ta maghimayhimay kung unsa ang cause, ug unsa ang epek. Kay dili logical ang atong pag-justify sa DDS ug sa war on drugs sa national level.

What the extra judicial killings justify is not effective governance, but a narrative woven by that crafty, master story-teller and communicator, placing Digong himself as the center of a salvation story, where he rescues us and our city like Batman in Gotham city, and we repay him with elected office and the entrenchment of his family in political power. The war on drugs is not so much about drugs, as it is about power.

Thus, my argument is simple: first, most of the positive aspects of Davao governance were successful in spite of the DDS, not because of the DDS. Second, since the data indicates that former mayor Duterte could not eliminate crime in his own city, a relatively small city where he could exercise greater control of the mechanisms of government, we cannot expect him to succeed as president of a nation with over 100 million people in 6 months. And third, is the illogic of the "logic model" of the drug war, which is premised on the fact that killing criminals motivates those left alive to stop their criminal activities out of fear. But such is not the case, and our kababayan are paying a dear price for our failure to link causes and effects.

We therefore need to think more carefully about what actually works to reduce crime. There are lots of reasons crime increases and decreases, but hard data and lived experience shows, the summary execution of petty criminals does not help end criminality nor does it improve governance. We will have to be honest and look elsewhere for the answers...

Bayanihan Justice (Part 1): Death Stalks the Streets

"What is a Christian response to Duterte?" This question was posed by my students in the conflict transformation class I teach at Asian Theological Seminary in Quezon City. What they really wanted to know was my perspective, as a resident of Davao city and a Christian peacemaker, regarding policies of extra judicial killings, the kind championed by Rody Duterte previously as mayor of Davao city, and now president of the Philippine nation. As a disclaimer, I have no problem with Pres. Duterte, he has some good "peace" initiatives, but his policy on justice and crime control needs critical examination as part of the broader effort for genuine and inclusive national development.

8/15/2008 - "A Spirit of Death walks the streets" After Angelica was stabbed to death this morning, a sense of fear assaulted the community. Angelica was the 3rd in a string of hits on the gay/transvestite community working in the sex trade. He was the center, flamboyant, everyone's friend....

Jason [another sex worker] asked Annabelle [an outreach worker] to accompany him to the police station to be taken off the list...the hit list is maintained by police, or at least they have access to it...Steve said the DDS (Davao Death Squad) is the only effective alternative to courts, where cases are not effectively prosecuted. "Targets" are warned, if they continue, then warned again, then taken out [killed].

The previous quotes are entries from my journal, the one I used in 2008 to record my thoughts as part of a Filipino sinalikway ("abandoned ones") outreach team among street youth and men and women in the sex trade in Davao City. It is these, the outcasts, the marginalized, the poor and desperately addicted - who bear the brunt of deadly policing. These journal entries highlight the heart of the the question. In fact, I take the question posed by my students to be less about Duterte, and more about how Christians of any and every kind, claiming to be followers of Jesus, the prince of peace, engage in the world of coercion, violence and death.

If we consider our creation story as a collective narrative grounding our understanding of human nature and social identity, we can also discern how to live in accordance with that identity and narrative. The scriptures read, "God created human kind in his own image, male and female he created them." This statement, reflecting the belief not only of Christians, but of Muslims and Jews, provides an anchor, asserting that all people are created as reflections of the identity of God. Many indigenous Filipino creation stories contain a similar theme. For the Talaandig tribe in Bukidnon province, the first human was brought to life when Magbabaya, God-the-creator, breathed into him and brought him to life. Life is sustained by the very breathe or spirit (Hebrew "ruah") of God, and all humans - including drug addicts, sex workers, gang members, corrupt politicians, wealthy business people, ordinary tricycle drivers, teachers - everyone, bears the sacred imprint of the divine.

Furthermore, the first instructions given by the creator show us how to live out the creative potential imparted by the divine breath of life: to establish a community of people on earth ("be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth"); to further develop, harmonize and cultivate the natural resources of creation ("Rule over every living thing....God...put him in the Garden to cultivate and keep it"); and finally, to "name" the animals, that is to speak meaning, purpose and culture into the creation itself, ("..the Lord God formed every beast...and brought them to the man to see what he would call them"). Thus we can see that the purpose of our collective existence is to create authentic community, nurture and cultivate our environment, and by our words and actions, bring to further life and fruition the culture around us, the good things that the creator has put under our care and responsibility. 

This creation story therefore provides the foundation for the establishment of a God-honoring justice system, recognizing the fundamental God-image of all people, and therefore implying that everyone should be treated with dignity regardless of their deeds. We can denounce acts of inhumanity and harm (both crime and violent punishment) and still treat those who harm others as humans with respect, created in the image of God. We can both "love the sinner and hate the sin" and thereby fulfill the vision of the creator for humans to be the cultivators and partakers of flourishing community. The following reflections will explore these questions: How do we live out a creative and compassionate approach to crime that honors both victims and offenders and leads to holistic peace (shalom)? This is what I refer to as Bayanihan Justice, and in fact we already have the resources on hand here in the Philippines to achieve it. However it will require an entirely new way of thinking and doing justice for this transformation to occur.

Jeremy Simons was born and raised in the Philippines and has been a resident of Davao City since 2008 working as a peace and reconciliation advocate. He is a Roman Catholic teaching conflict transformation at an Evangelical seminary, along with other institutions and NGOs. He spends the majority of time in restorative justice and peace accompaniment with Lumad First Nations and Muslim communities in Mindanao. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of any institution, church, denomination or group.