MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Artist-activist group DAKILA, Active Vista, InciteGov, and various human rights advocates and organizations launch today the StopTheKillings.Ph, a digital advocacy platform open to the broad spectrum of activists, development workers, artists, writers, and individuals who call to end the bloody madness of the War on Drugs.
“The Filipino citizens have been greatly affected by the state’s War on Drugs campaign with the rampant killings nationwide since the early days of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency. In the time of pandemic — when our countrymen are already dying due to the COVID-19 virus and hunger — drug-related killings went up by 50% during the early months of the community lockdowns, according to the Human Rights Watch report. This, despite the supposed suspension of Oplan Tokhang, allegedly to focus on the health crisis,” DAKILA Campaigns Director Sunshine Serrano starts.
“In our nation’s observance of the All Souls Day, we believe that it’s high time to revive the conversations on the war on drugs again and bring them back on the headlines of news and in our consciousness. It is in not forgetting that we can continue demanding for justice, accountability, and policy change,” she added.
StopTheKillings.ph is a multi-objective hub to commemorate, memorialize, and humanize the victims and the narratives around Duterte’s War on Drugs campaign. It’s a repository of resources, accessible calls to action, petitions, and a platform for advocates, experts, and organizations’ connection and collaboration.
Not just numbers
According to Human Rights Watch, almost 8,000 drug suspects have been killed during police operations since Rodrigo Duterte became president; human rights groups and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), on the other hand, believe the actual tally is triple that figure.
While defining the correct figures is paramount in upholding the realities of the drug war, DAKILA and InciteGov believe that one unnecessary death is too many. “We have to remember that these are not just statistics and data. They were our fellow Filipino people who have names, and behind each name was a life, a story that ended too soon,” DAKILA Outreach Director Nini Onate says.
“It’s a constant intent for us to tell their name, stories, and narratives in pursuit of bringing back the humanity that was taken from them.”
The website houses a Wall of Names, a memorial for the casualties of the drug war including drug suspects, cases of mistaken identity, bystanders, and families of alleged drug criminals being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
It also includes Stories section that houses “retold and reinterpreted the stories of the victims of the “war on drugs” to illustrate to us the irrevocable truth: that the Philippine Drug War has needlessly destroyed lives and families of thousands of Filipinos, and that we must amplify our voices to stop the killings.” From all kinds of artistic disciplines, these works convey the stories of the victims in a way that news headlines, reports, and data do not allow. The website also calls for multimedia contributions creatively resisting the drug war violence.
#StopTheKillings #StartTheHealing
Stop the Killings PH project believes that our national healing is built on accountability and restorative justice. It calls for the jailing of the architects of the bloody campaign and pushes for more humane ways of addressing the drug issue.
“To achieve genuine justice and healing for us as a nation, we demand that all the architects and perpetrators of the drug war be held to account, either in local courts or international court. We also demand a restorative justice and harm reduction approach by junking the current war on drugs and replacing it with policies that address the drug issues holistically, from its root causes to its effects on individuals and communities,” Serrano explains.
She also hopes for the project to be a valuable tool as the International Criminal Court is set to start a full investigation into the possible crime against humanity of murder allegedly committed under the name of the bloody campaign and as the country nears #Halalan2022.
“The launch of the project is just the start of our fight for a more humane nation. We call on everyone to visit the website to learn about the realities of the drug war. We are also calling for multimedia contributions for the website and collaborations beyond online bounds. Finally, we hope this initiative will inspire you to choose human rights champions in the coming 2022 elections and fuel you to join us in the larger movement against violence and killing.”
Stop the Killings PH is open for everyone who wants to learn about the drug war issue, contribute materials, and be an advocate. To know more, visit StopTheKillings.ph.
