Bulacan State University

College of Criminal Justice Education

“An assessment in Duterte’s Administration in War on Drugs in

the province of Bulacan for the year 2016-2017”

INTRODUCTION

In today's modern world drug addiction has been still the issue around the world which

was trying to repress by the government in order to attain long lasting peace, improve economic

status and social progress.

In the Philippines, the Aquino Administration’s view on drug abuse was more holistic.

The government embarked on public and youth awareness campaign like Barkada Kontra

Droga program, and institutionalized management and assessment of overall drug demand and

supply reduction through the Integrated Drug Abuse Data and Information Network, an online

data pooling and collection system. President Aquino during his term mainly exerted more effort

in increasing the economic growth of the country. There are lots of controversies faced by the

Aquino Administration pertaining to Illegal Drugs.

According to Castaneda, "the Aquino administration opted to neglect the country’s drug

problem and allow illegal activities to proliferate despite their knowledge about it."

However when President Duterte won in the last presidential election almost everything

has changed such as the way he deals with illegal drugs.

According to Lapeña, "86,984 drug suspects arrested during the first year of the Duterte

administration, compared to the 18,766 suspects arrested in the first year of the previous

administration." President Duterte said in his first SONA, “I have resolved that no matter how

long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue because it is the root cause of

suffering." Duterte administration mainly focused on in its first year, the fight against illegal
drugs. The President promised during the campaign for last year’s presidential elections and in

the first few weeks of his presidency to fully end the illegal drugs problem in the country. The

war on drugs has been through many changes in Duterte’s first 12 months. Since taking office on

June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs” that has led

to the deaths and arrest to suspected drug addicts.

According to John Gershman, an expert on Philippine politics "The Philippine president

sees drug dealing and addiction as major obstacles to the Philippines’ economic and social

progress"

The war on drugs has received a high level of popular support from across the class

spectrum in the Philippines. The ***The province of Bulacan was 4th province with the highest

In this particular study, the researcher aims to Assess Duterte's Administration on War on

Drugs in the province of Malolos for the year 2016-2017. We would like to know if the actions

taken by President Duterte has a huge impact in the rehabilitation of the drug addicts which was

arrested by the police and as well as those who voluntarily surrendered or it just another useless

program set by the government. Furthermore the relevance of this study is to inform and give

awareness to the public about the effectiveness of Duterte's Administration in dealing with

Illegal Drugs. This study will show whether or not President Duterte's commitment on War on

drugs is effective in improving public safety.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Every administration always have a campaign when it comes to illegal drugs. Even

before President Rodrigo Duterte elected, many of drugs personalities has been arrested, killed

and undergo to a rehab but herein, now President Duterte had strongly campaign about war on
drugs the one strongest evidence is Tokhang. Since operation in war on drugs started last July

1,2016. 7,080 people were killed as of January 30,2017 and 3,603 death victims that are under

investigation. In this particular study the researchers will broad and highlight President Duterte’s

effectiveness in dealing with Illegal Drugs in the Province of Bulacan. Specifically, it aims to

answer the following questions:

1. How many among drug users in the Bulacan voluntarily surrendered?

2. How many among them are convicted?

3. How many among these drug users were brought to rehabilitation?

4. Did these rehabilitated people overcome their addiction to drugs?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the study is to contribute additional information to people and

to identify whether or not President Duterte’s commitment in dealing with Illegal Drugs was

effective and as well as its War on Drugs helps to minimize the usage of illegal drugs in the

Province of Bulacan. The researchers also want to determine the result and effect to the people

concerned to this topic. The outcome of this study would be a contribution to the knowledge of

the people involved in this study.

Moreover, the result of the study will be beneficial to the following:

To the Community. This research will provide awareness to the community about the war on

drugs and how this campaign works for the users of illegal drugs.
To the Parents. The result of the study will help the parents on how guide their children to

prevent using illegal drugs.

To the Drug Users. This study will help the users of illegal drugs to be aware of what will

happen to them if they surrendered to government.

To the Future researchers. This study will serve as a reference material and a guideline for

future researcher who wishes to conduct me study related to war on drugs of President Duterte.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

Consequently, this study is limited only to analysis of Duterte’s Administration in War

on Drugs in the 21 towns and 3 cities of the province of Bulacan in the year 2016-2017.

The researcher is only limited on what is available in the internet, library and department of

government that can be applied in this study.

Furthermore, the data that the researcher will use are only those available in ** from June

30,2016 up to

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

Illegal Drugs – A drug is a substance that affects the body functions. If a druf is classified as

illegal this means that this is forbidden by law.

http://positivechoices.org.au/students/what-are-illegal-drugs

Government – The political system by which country or community is administered and

regulated.
http://britanicca.com/topic/government

War on Drugs – is a series of actions tending toward a prohibition of illegal drug trade.

http://definitions.uslegal.com/w/war-on-drugs/

Drug User – refer to a person who consumes an illegal psychoactive substance.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org> wiki >Drug User

Rehabilitate – to restore a good condition of good health, ability to work, or the like.

www.dictionary.com/browse/rehabilitation

Tokhang – to knock on a suspected drug trafficker or drug addicts home to persuade them to

surrender and stop their illegal activities.

http://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/tokhang
 CHAPTER II

Due to related drug problems in various countries there are lots of theories, literature,

studies and etc. conducted in order to solve the drugs addiction which is considered a major

obstacle in attaining long lasting peace and hindrance in economic and social progress.

Relevant Theories

There are lots of studies conducted to theorize on how to solve this illegal drugs

problem of society.

Deterrence Theory is one of the theories that can be used to suppress drug problems in

the country. This theory was used in the War on Drug of 80s in the US led by their then president

Richard Dixon. Consequently, the deterrent element of incarceration has become a dominant tool

in the War on Drugs in an attempt to deter potential offenders and reduce recidivism. The

objective of these policies was to reduce the harms caused by illegal drugs use by reducing

consumption and proliferation.

Deterrence theory says that people obey the law because they are scared of getting caught

and being punished instead of being motivated by some deep moral sense. According to

deterrence theory, people are most likely to be dissuaded from committing a crime if the

punishment is swift, certain and severe.

On the other hand tougher laws and prosecution under the banner of deterrence has

resulted in a reduction of judicial discretion and an unequal enforcement of the law. This unequal

application of the law is not a direct result of Deterrence Theory, but one of the unfortunate

consequences of its application.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/deterrence-theory-of-punishment-definition-effect-on-law-
obedience.html

An Availability-Proneness Theory of Illicit Drug Abuse according to Reinald G. Smart,

Ph. D. involves the proposition that drug abuse occurs when a prone individual is exposed to a

high level of availability. Treatment of a drug abuser should be successful only where large

reductions are made in availability or proneness.

Source: Theories on Drug Abuse selected Contemporary Perspective

Related Literature

Illegal drugs are still one of the major problems in many countries around the world.

Some country uses violence and some are not.

Here in the Philippines when Duterte became the president a ruthless war against drugs

had taken countless lives of both guilty and innocent civilians either from police operations or

extra judicial killings. But there are also other countries who exercised the same type of anti-drug

campaign.

One certain example came from Thailand one of Philippines neighboring country. On

early 2000s the Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawarta engaged a bloody campaign against

drugs and criminality. This campaign had a lot in common with the anti-drugs campaign that is

currently ongoing in the Philippines. Just like the Philippines, Thailand had huge early successes

that led to a high support from the public. Thailand’s war on drugs was carried through

collaboration between local governors and police officers. The Government officials compiled
blacklists which led to arrests in many cases extra judicial killings. As the bodies piled up the

police claimed that most of the deaths resulted from rival drug cartels killing each other to

prevent betrayals from their accomplices. The Police targets mostly consisted of the small fish or

low level dealers rarely did the list contained the names of the actual drug lords themselves but

for every death Thailand defined it as a step towards success.

But after Taksin Shinawarta’s reign an official investigation was made and showed that

out of 2500 people that are killed in the campaign more or less 1400 were innocent even the

profitable drug routes remained intact and protected by the Myanmar and Thai Bureaucracy and

business elites. Thailand’s experience showed that the real culprits often escaped the extralegal

approach to solve the drug related problem. It wasn’t just Thailand who tried the same method.

Columbia and Mexico also tried the same method decades ago but after thousands of deaths they

to failed.

(source= theconversation.com)

Despite Thailand’s Failure another neighboring country “Indonesia” wanted to copy the

same methods in dealing with illegal drugs. Indonesian president Jowko “Jokowi” Widodo wants

to commit his country to do same campaign. He ordered the police to shoot foreign drug dealers

who would try to resist arrest. And claimed that Indonesia is in emergency in narcotics problem

(Source=www.voanews.com)

Related Study

There are lots of studies conducted in order to solve Illegal Drugs problem around the

world.
 The book “Peaceful Measures: Canada's Way Out of the War on Drugs” by B K

Alexander argues that Canada's "war on drugs" has been a costly failure and should be replaced

by "peaceful" measures for addressing the harmful effects of drug use. This book contains an

analysis of whether the war on drugs has achieved its objectives concludes that it has failed to

control drug abuse as a social problem, has failed to deter drug use, and has created serious new

problems.

Conceptual Framework

This research aims to determine whether or not the actions taken by President Duterte has

a huge impact in the rehabilitation of the drug addicts which was arrested by the police and as

well as those who voluntarily surrendered or it just another useless program set by the

government. President Duterte’s campaign against Illegal Drugs was the aggressive one which

causes a huge number of deaths of alleged addict and many drug users voluntarily surrendered

due to fear that they might be a victim of extra judicial killing.

ILLEGAL DRUGS

GOVERNMENT

AGGRESSIVE PEACEFUL
 WAR ON DRUGS REHABILITATION, SEMINARS,

Hypothesis of the Study

In this study the following hypotheses are formulated:

Null Hypothesis

 President Duterte's commitment on War on drugs is not effective in improving public

safety and its campaign against War on Drugs is just another useless program set by the

government.

Alternate Hypothesis

 President Duterte's commitment on War on drugs is effective in improving public safety

and its campaign against War on Drugs has a huge impact in the rehabilitation of the drug

addicts which was arrested by the police and as well as those who voluntarily

surrendered.