While running for office last year, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. promised to seek a new path to fight illegal drugs: catching the “big fish” and rehabilitating drug users .
“Let’s educate the youngest,” Marcos said in Taglish interview. “And those who are already involved (or already addicted), we should treat them. … We are trying to formulate … the best path for rehabilitation.
It’s a radically different approach from that of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who outraged Filipinos and the international community with his brutal war on drugs, giving police blanket authority to kill anyone caught using or to sell drugs.
During Duterte’s six-year presidential term, government data showed about 6,000 drug-related killings. However, human rights groups ankle the figure is much higher, estimating that up to 30,000 people were killed.
“I will never apologize for these deaths”, Duterte said in January 2022. “Kill me, imprison me, I will never apologize. »
Since taking office, Marcos has established more than 100 community drug rehabilitation centers that provide drug addicts with temporary shelter and reintegrate them into society. Today there are nearly 500 such centers, called Balay Silangan Reform Centers, in the Philippines.
However, during the first year of Marcos’ presidency, the number of drug-related murders actually increased compared to the last year of Duterte’s term, according to a recent report by the Dahas Project of the Center for Third World Studies of the University of the Philippines. They counted 342 murders since Marcos’ inauguration in July 2022 through June 2023, 40 more than the previous year. Of these, state agents killed a total of 146 people.
Study researcher Joel Ariate Jr. said Rappler says that even though Marcos is touting a different approach, the policy hasn’t changed because the officials who implemented Duterte’s war on drugs are still in power.
“No one is being held accountable for the people killed before,” Ariate told Rappler. “There is no sense of justice, no sense of punishment. What will stop those who have killed and continue to kill?
As the government tries different approaches to tackle the Philippines’ drug problems, Christians engaged in drug prevention and rehabilitation ministries continue their work quietly and faithfully. Even though government policies may impact the number of people who show up at their door, they continue to see God saving men and women from their addictions.
Two Ways to Wage a War on Drugs
The Philippines has long faced a drug abuse problem, as its geographic location allows international drug syndicates to use it as a major market and transit hub for the illegal drug trade in Southeast Asia. Around 1.67 million Filipinos used drugs in 2019, according to at the government drug office.
Citizens fed up with corruption and crime elected hard-liner Duterte in 2016. A former mayor of Davao City, Duterte ruled the city with an iron fist for more than 22 years. “If I am elected president, give me about three to six months, I will get rid of corruption, drugs and crime,” Duterte said. declared during his presidential campaign.
Duterte has granted police immunity in the war on drugs, which has sometimes led corrupt police officers to kill people with no ties to drugs. For example, a 2017 police operation in Caloocan City claimed the life of 17-year-old Kian Loyd Delos Santos. On him were two small bags of shabu (slang for methamphetamine) and a .45 caliber pistol.
Police said he was a suspected drug dealer who resisted arrest and shot at them, forcing them to return fire. But witnesses and CCTV footage revealed the young man begged for his life. Gunpowder tests confirmed Delos Santos’ innocence, while journalists find the drugs and the weapon had been planted on him.
The death of Delos Santos caused an outcry. Authorities tried the three police officers involved in the killing and found them guilty of murder.
An investigation by the International Criminal Court find that only 507 of the 42,286 anti-illegal drug operations conducted in the first year and a half of Duterte’s rule were based on an arrest warrant.
Marcos has strived to differentiate his approach from that of his predecessor. “The campaign against illegal drugs continues, but it has taken on a new face,” Marcos said in his second State of the Nation Address in July. “It is now focused on community-based treatment, rehabilitation, education and reintegration to reduce drug dependence among our concerned citizens. »
Leading Christian anti-drug ministries have witnessed the impact of whiplash on government policy. Since Marcos came to power, “illegal drugs have proliferated again, (even) in our maximum security prisons, with inmates as conditioners,” said Ariston Lee, executive director of the Philippine Teen Challenge, a Christian center drug treatment operating in the country. for 35 years. (Packagers refer to dealers who repackage medications into smaller bags for sale.)
Ginno Amodia, director of House of Hope (HOH) on Cebu Island, said fewer residents are now coming to Christian drug rehab centers — and it’s not necessarily because there are fewer drug addicts. On the contrary, “illegal drug treatment centers have sprung up” during Duterte’s presidency, with some seeing strict drug laws as a business opportunity.
“Every barangay (neighborhood) would have an outpatient program,” Amodia said. “A person with a substance abuse problem only needs to go to the barangay once a week and attend a two-hour Narcotics Anonymous session. The government no longer requires them to go to a comprehensive rehabilitation center like ours.
Because of that and factors like the pandemic, House of Hope now has 10 residents, compared to the usual 20 to 30 residents. House of Hope does not receive funding from the government, but rather from sponsors, including churches, businesses and individuals, who financially assist addicts who cannot afford the center’s monthly fees.
Showing the Gospel to At-Risk Youth
Christian groups also work to prevent young people from using drugs. Abegail Mesa-Raymundo, founder of Rescue Kabataan (meaning Rescue Youth), runs an eight-month mental health program in partner schools. This school year, Rescue Kabataan is helping students in General Santos City in Mindanao and Taytay, Rizal, Luzon.
Volunteers from local churches regularly visit schools to create a safe space to help high school students deal with issues such as drugs, sexual abuse, pornography, suicide, relationship problems and pregnancy at home. teenage girls. Rescue Kabataan organized the program in 31 schools in 16 cities and municipalities.
“God can use Rescue Kabataan to show his love,” she said. “We don’t share the gospel but we show the gospel. »
Each program begins with Mesa-Raymundo telling her story. As a teenager, the pastor’s daughter began smoking, drinking, engaging in promiscuous activities, and using drugs after her father’s death. At first she snorted “rugby” (a type of glue), then moved on to ecstasy and other party drugs. At 19, she was the victim of a gang rape. In her early twenties, she became involved in prostitution.
Mesa-Raymundo later lost her teaching job after having inappropriate relationships with her students. Overwhelmed by everything she had experienced, she attempted suicide three times. But it wasn’t until she overdosed at age 23 in 2011 that she begged God to give her another chance.
With the help of a group of Christians, she was able to not only stop using drugs, but also find spiritual and emotional rehabilitation. During a two-week prayer and fasting retreat, God gave him a vision to help other young people in trouble. That’s when Rescue Kabataan was born.
In 2015, Mesa-Raymundo first told her story to a school crowd of 700 students, encouraging students to bare their hearts as well. This was followed by many more invitations to speak at other schools and the creation of the Holistic Mental Health program.
Rescue Kabataan volunteers range from young professionals to full-time mothers, businesspeople and retirees. They serve as accountability partners for students, sharing God’s love with them.
One success story concerns a ninth grader who started using drugs at the age of seven, under the influence of his drug-addicted parents. “I am ready to be rescued,” he told a Rescue Kabataan volunteer. The group then referred him to the social welfare department, where a social worker helped him recover from his addiction while continuing to attend Rescue Kabataan sessions. His grades, outlook, and life improved dramatically.
See the changes in the Gospel at the House of Hope
In Cebu, Amodia is busy with the daily rhythms of House of Hope. Founded by a former Singaporean drug addict in 1997, the center has been run entirely by Filipinos since 2007. Amodia stressed the importance of the four components of their one-year residential program: spiritual therapy, work therapy, physical therapy and social therapy.
Each day at the House of Hope begins and ends with the Word of God. Residents participate in morning quiet time, daily Bible studies, and evening quiet time. Residents are assigned to different tasks such as gardening, food preparation, and filling five-gallon water bottles for delivery using their water purification system.
Every afternoon they spend time playing sports, while on Sundays residents go to their assigned church. This helps them meet friends outside of the House of Hope community, Amodia said. After residents complete the program, they continue to attend churches.
All of the staff at House of Hope are former drug addicts themselves. Amodia entered the program in 2001 at the age of 24, on his last hope. Two months before, he had completed a government-sponsored rehabilitation program that pushed its residents to perform military-style exercises. However, once he left, he returned to his old ways.
“My family abandoned me,” he recalls. On the recommendation of another former addict, he applied for residency at the House of Hope. There, Amodia met Jesus, who he believed had delivered him from the demons of addiction. After completing the program, he joined the staff.
Amodia sees Jesus doing what government policies cannot do: “The Gospel really changes people. »
