NoBox at CND 2017: A Survivor’s Tale on the War on Drugs
At CND last March 2017, NoBox's Inez Feria and Dr. Lee Yarcia share their stories and experiences about their drug policy work and harm reduction advocacy in a side event hosted by Anyone's Child.
My name is Lee Yarcia, and I’m with Inez Feria; we’re both from NoBox Philippines. In our line of work with the communities, we’ve come to understand stories of people, families, and victims of the War on Drugs. I don’t know if you’ve heard that 8,000 people have died in the last eight months in relation to the War on Drugs.
I’ve met two family members, victims of the War on Drugs. One was a father, another was a wife.
It was August 2016, during a police operation. Five men and two women in civilian clothing came to a house where five friends were playing billiards. The policemen raised their guns and pointed at them saying, “Where are the drugs? Show us the drugs!” Out of fear, they just raised their hands and said, “There are no drugs here! We’re not using drugs!”
The police didn’t have handcuffs with them, so they got barbed wire and placed it around the friends’ hands. One of the men was with his sister, and he told her, run away, something violent is going to happen, I’ll take care of myself.
The two men were asked to go behind the house while the police searched: cellphones were taken, iPad, jewelry... but no drugs. They couldn’t find any. And so the policemen went back to the two men, and shot one of them. This man played dead -- and is the reason we know this story now.
Then the police went to the other man, and shot him first in the chest, then another time in the head.
One other man, who heard the killings happening, hugged the legs of a policeman pleading, please don’t kill us, I have a family. The police shot him from the top, here, on the top of his head, and he died instantly.
While this was being narrated by the father of the survivor, he kept telling me that they were very afraid. The police that were supposed to protect them are the ones who are now targeting the poor.
One of men who died had children, and they’re now concerned about how they’re going to raise them. They’re still going to school.
The survivor is a seller of vegetables, and his father was talking about how industrious he is: hardworking, would wake up at 4am to buy the vegetables, and then go around the community to sell it. But now because of the War on Drugs and because he’s targeted by the police, he’s gone into hiding and can no longer work. He gave his statement in the media; the family knows this and they filed a case in court, but it’s changed their lives.
This is just one of the stories of police operations that they will cite as just a police operation, that these people are drug users, and that they fought back. That’s why the four other friends who were in that room are dead -- and the one survivor told us his story.
I’ll give the floor now to Inez to add to it.
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Good morning everyone. Just listening to the stories here and the stories that we’ve heard in the communities in the Philippines -- I mean, it really doesn’t make sense how people’s lives can be so disposable.
They’ve been so dehumanized, they’re practically nothing to people and policymakers. We hear about people who have been killed, but multiply that now by the emotional and psychological deaths that the wives, husbands, and children are going through. Children have seen their parents killed right in front of them!
These people have nowhere to turn to. They can’t turn to the police, that’s for sure. And then you have people who want to help but are afraid, because they’re going to be monitored. It really doesn’t make sense.
Our people voted for a president because he promised change. And my god, we did get change, but not the kind of change that they were expecting. The people now feel so abandoned by a government that promises to protect, but isn’t.
We are here now talking about policies and programs, but if our policies and programs -- that are supposed to be the solution to a drug problem -- is adding to the damages, is adding to the drug problem, then it is not a solution at all. At the very core of this, it’s not simply about policies and programs.
Because it’s not about drugs. It’s never been about drugs. It’s always about the people. And at the end of the day, they’re who we’re supposed to focus on.
Our own drug law in the Philippines speaks of safeguarding the well-being of our citizenry. If we talk about promoting health and welfare, then let’s genuinely be concerned about health and welfare. That’s what we should look at. There are no sides to this.
At the end of the day, let’s look at the people, at each one, upon whom all these policies and discussions are impacting. There’s such a disconnect. And we have to bridge that disconnect.
