Whispers in Earnest
Those 20,000 Lives or More
I wrote this to remember those 20,000 or more souls who have been killed from Duterte’s drug war in the Philippines. I mourn for those 54 children or more who were tangled into this mess from a blood-hungry ex-Leader. I cannot imagine the grief that their families have gone through when they continue to seek justice for the lives slain from the very person, appointed by the Constitution to uphold it. Killing never solves anything. If the government is really serious about change, substance abuse or drug addiction is just a symptom, not the cause of these systemic ills in the country. Good leaders would check why there’s this urge or pull to do drugs. You can never remove poverty in the picture. Good leaders can make use of various rehabilitation interventions through a mental health facility in order to heal their addiction. We don’t downplay a structural form of evil in our society by killing (accused) people. We go deeper to the causes and search for any misconceptions why they gravitate towards substance abuse and work our way up towards healing and restoration.