Bring out the big guns

Zhandos Bolatbek

The current President of Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, announced that he would put forward an executive order which will deploy army troops in combating illicit drug industry. This is the latest development in Duterte’s ongoing war on drugs, his signature campaign pledge. Supposedly, Duterte started to bring in the “heavy artillery” not because the of the escalation of the war on drugs, but because he claims he does not trust the police, as he believes the police enforcement structure is riddled with corruption. Therefore he ordered that all police units cease to operate in the war on drugs. No confirmation has been made of the exact number of troops which will be deployed in the war on drugs as of now.

The employment of military in the domestic civilian issues runs counter to the Huntington’s idea of “professionalization of the army” (Huntington, 1957). As is usually the case with mixing military into the obligations of police enforcement, they are usually associated with extra-judicial killingsand summary executions, that is, the military shoots suspects to kill on sight regardless of the possible evidence of their guilt. Thus, while police usually have some form of accountability towards the civilians, military usually have very little accountability towards citizens, as they strictly follow the chain of command. And in this case, if the President of the country drafts them into the matters of civilians, there is likely to be a lot of cases of military abusing their right to kill. That is exactly the concern of the watchdog Human Rights Watch which disapproved of the President’s executive order due to martial extra-judicial killings, especially in the fight against Communist rebels. Reportedly, 7,600 people have already been terminated in the course of time since Duterte came to power. The death rate is likely to increase since the army is not used to exercising caution in urban locales during the battles and there are likely to be more innocent civilian casualties caught in the crossfire during the shootouts.

Retaining the professionalization of the army means keeping military out of domestic issues and focusing them solely on external protection, the very essence of the existence of the military. With bringing in the army, Duterte is a small step close to declaring a martial law, the option he ruled out. With the current developments in Philippines, the rate of professionalization of the army is likely to wane while the Rodrigo Duterte stays in power, who much like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, opportunistically hypes the domestic threats and take advantage of tampering with the military and democratic order in their respective states.

Reference:

1.      Huntington, Samuel P. 1957. The Soldier and the State the Theory and Politics of Civil- Military Relations. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

2.      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-war-on-drugs-military-support-executive-order-afp-illegal-kill-a7558596.html