"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."
- George Jean Nathan
The Philippines is a democratic and republican state with a presidential form of government. The government tries to act on behalf of its citizens due to a system of checks and balances (GOV.PH, n.d.). Regardless of the government's power, we cannot assure that negative activities such as corruption, scandals, and illegal substances will not occur.
Various leaders have used a variety of leadership styles in the Philippines over the years, some of which have brought the country down to its knees. Presidents and other elected officials who are both sincere and effective are extremely rare. We may even mistakenly believe they no longer exist.
In almost two years of being in a pandemic, we fell under the same implementations and response until now, when it is very clear that they don't even work. Lockdowns, quarantines, curfews, restrictions, all of those were implemented, but no concrete plans to address the situation were heard from the government.
As stated by Dela Peña (2019), in 2016, when President Duterte was still running for the presidency, he vowed that if he won, he would clean up the country. However, the Commission on Audit (COA) issued a report finding "deficiencies" in the use of P67.3 billion for fighting COVID-19. This led the Senate to look for signs of errors in fund use. The company's financial files show that it "does not appear to be financially capable" of paying its debts. In his most recent Talk to the People, President Rodrigo Duterte said that his Cabinet members were "clean." However, a political scholar says the government has no genuine agenda against corruption. Sen. Panfilo Lacson said in 2018 that P583.5 billion had been lost due to used or stalled projects.
The administration of Rodrigo Duterte has a terrible record in terms of human rights and democracy. Human rights, as well as political opponents and civil governance, have been violated. Since Duterte’s election on July 1, 2016, police in the Philippines claim to have killed over 4,800 people in drug-related operations. Humanitarian organizations, on the other hand, claim that the death toll has surpassed 12,000 people (Hincks, 2018).
Extra-Judicial Killing, or EJK, is being implemented as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug war campaign. Because of the absence of due process in the law, there are numerous cases where some people are wrongfully executed. Similarly, in the case of Kian Delos Santos, who was killed by the three Caloocan police officers who were found guilty of murder during a drug raid and sentenced to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole. In addition to that, they were also ordered to pay the bereaved family 345,000 pesos.
Study of CHR shows that there were 3,386 drug-related killings as of June 2021. Some were by the police, and some were unidentified. Police and the military were given too much authority that it was sometimes abused. Human rights were lost, non-stop cursing and blasphemy heard from the national tv, blatant unfair bias to officials, loss of competence, and lack of plans for the betterment of the country. These are just some of what transpired under his regime that shows how we are currently under poor leadership and governance
Taking everything into consideration, regardless of the government’s power, we cannot assure you that those negative activities such as corruption, scandals, illegal substances, and so on that may constitute crimes against humanity and violate our rights to life will not occur. We, as Filipino youth, remain hopeful that we can still do something about it, to open the eyes of the people and the eyes of the government itself to not be blinded by the truth and finally lead us to better governance.
REFERENCES:
About the government. (n.d.). GOV.PH. https://www.gov.ph/about-the-government.html
Buan, L. (2021, December 1). In Duterte’s drug war, justice is ‘nearly impossible’. RAPPLER. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/duterte-drug-war-killings-justice-nearly-impossible-2021
Hincks, J. (2018). 'My only sin.' Philippine president admits killings occurred. Time. https://time.com/5409425/philippines-duterte-extrajudicial-killings-icc/
Peña, K. D. (2021). Corruption scandals under Duterte: From whiff to helplessness. INQUIRER.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1488894/corruption-scandals-under-duterte-from-whiff-to-helplessness
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