The drug war raging in the Philippines has ended thousands of lives.
Around 6,000 people have been killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal shoot-to-kill drug war between July and December. As a result, many parents have not returned home to their children.
There is no official data on the number of children orphaned by the drug war.
A “conservative estimate” for the number of children who have lost one or both parents to the war on drugs could be as high as 18,000, Hope Hervilla, assistant secretary for protective services at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), told the Inquirer.
“This is beyond our expectations. We did not expect it to be this big,” Hervilla explained.
Over 2,000 Filipino drug criminals have been killed in regular police operations, and another 4,000 deaths are under investigation.
Many of the unexplained deaths are suspected to be the result of extrajudicial killings or vigilante murders.
In one study of the drug war’s impact on Filipino families, 32 of 50 victims left behind children. Eighty-two children lost their fathers to the drug war, the study revealed.
DSWD plans to start gathering specific data on drug war orphans this January.
Multiple agencies will meet to discuss the needs of the children, who are falling through cracks in the system. The government reportedly does not presently have a program or agency to help this type of orphan.
“At first they would seem OK, of course, because they are kids—but they are not OK. They will never be OK. Chances are they would nurse deep anger inside their hearts and it would affect them as they grow up,” Dr. Danilo Tuazon, a forensic neuro-psychologist and psychology professor, explained to reporters.
He stressed that children need care and psychological intervention immediately after the loss of their parents, especially if they saw their parents die.
There are concerns that children will seek to retaliate and avenge their parents. “When you are suffering, you want others to feel your pain too,” Tuazon said.
“I will avenge Papa. They killed him. They took him while he was asleep,” said John Ryan, an 11-year-old boy whose father was dragged out of their home at night by the police in mid-November. Ryan’s father’s body was found by the side of the road a few hours later.
The war on drugs has left behind many widows, as well. In many instances, the primary breadwinner has been killed, leaving poor families in even worse situations.
Seventy-eight percent of 1,500 participants in a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey said they feared that they or someone they know will become a victim in the war on drugs.
Nonetheless, 85 percent said they were satisfied with the anti-drug campaign. Duterte, who launched the war, has a “very good” approval rating of 63 percent.
The spread of narcotics, especially “shabu,” a type of methamphetamine, throughout the Philippines is recognized as a serious problem.
Last year, shabu was circulating in 92 percent of Manila neighborhoods.
A man named Roberto Ramos buried his seven-year-old daughter in October. She was found dead in a cemetery with a rag in her mouth. She had been raped and murdered by a drug addict.
“She was a happy girl,” Ramos said at the funeral, “It’s better they all die.”
Duterte shares a similar philosophy, arguing on multiple occasions, “I will kill you if you destroy my country.”
He asserts that unintended deaths or tragedies are merely “collateral damage” in a war for the future of the Philippines.
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