to follow up police investigations, or for those who have identified the killers, brought their
cases to court. Most families, instead of seeking justice and spending time and resources,
chose to spend their time working to ensure the well-being of the family. Since adult men
were the major casualties in the drug war, more pressures were placed to poor Filipino
women – most were mothers, grandmothers and, even teenage mothers – to make ends meet
now that the family’s breadwinner is gone.
Two stories of women illustrate this situation. Mrs. Rodriguez manually cuts up rubber
slippers until late in the evening to finish her quota. On one occasion, she asked her son to
buy food for her, but her son didn’t return that night. It took her 14 hours to locate her son’s
dead body at a morgue (Philippine Human Rights Information Center, 2018). “Grace’s”
daughter died during one of the police operation in October 16, 2016 (Ladrido, 2018). As a
result, she was left to provide for her family of three children, 10 grandchildren and her ailing
husband.
Gender relations within the household before and after the EJK is another aspect that needs
to be examined in depth. In another documented case, a woman didn’t know how to feel
about the untimely loss of his husband since she was being physically abused by him
(Ladrido, 2018).
Further, Amnesty International documented at least 10 cases related to the drug killing,
where witnesses, may they be the sole witness or not, were not even investigated or
questioned (Amnesty International, 2009). This is a violation of the Revised PNP Operational
Procedure 9.4 (h), wherein there is a need to identify and question victims/complainant and
possible witnesses at the scene after identifying the crime that was committed (Philippine
National Police, 2013).
Profiteering
The cost of a funeral service for those killed in the anti-drug operation is expensive for those
people living in dire poverty. The cost ranges from P35,000 to P50,000 (Amnesty
International, 2017). The cost is being disputed by family members because there were many
funeral parlors near the area of death, but the body was taken to a more expensive funeral
home. According to Amnesty International (2017), “the police get a cut from funeral homes
for every body they bring.” Accordingly, the police officers are being paid by at least P10,000
in exchange of the body. Police theft was also observed after the drug operations. AI
documented cases involving missing laptop, watch, cellphone, money and even the statue of
the Virgin Mary after police operations (Amnesty International, 2017). Worse, some officers
are being allegedly paid for every drug user and pusher they kill. The so called “cash reward
scales” range from 20,000 Php for street level pusher and user; 50,000 Php for a member of
the neighborhood council; 1,000, 000 Php for distributors, retailers and wholesalers; and 5,
000, 000 Php for drug lords (Mogato & Baldwin, 2017).
Harassment of Human Rights Defenders
Panaghoy: The Philippine War on Drugs from the Perspective of Women
March 2019
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