BEFORE President Duterte went after the drug problem with Glocks, we had no international public-relations (PR) problem. In fact, we had no international PR whatsoever. Nobody knew we existed. So when you don’t do anything about a problem, you do not create another problem like bad PR.
What then do we do with the drug problem?
Its size is accurately assessed at 3.8 million users.
Does it pose an existential threat to our country?
I used to think so. But international opinion thinks we can live with the existential threat as we did in the past six years. “Buhay pa nanam kayo,” UN rapporteurs might say.
Indeed, don’t let the numbers scare you. We are 110 million Filipinos; 3.8 million is a drop in the bucket.
I went over the matrix of thousands of local and national government officials, most of them living, a coupla dem dead, but all of them indisputably involved in the drug trade. However, until recently (in the case of the previous administration) no case was made of drug money electing anyone to national office. And even if drug money dictated election results, our strict antidrug laws did not change. They stay as strict on paper as they are worthless in practice. No raids were conducted with any energy nor was any system pursued with a view to extinguishing the drug trade.
And that is the reason we had no PR problem. We did nothing about the drug problem. We didn’t have hysterical people running around crying, “Shabu, shabu, extrajudicial killing, extrajudicial killing.” So, clearly, the root of our PR problem with the drug problem is Mr. Duterte’s insistence on doing something serious about it.
But is it worth the effort?
Sure, 3.8 million are into drugs.
But who are these people?
Anyone we know?
People who watch this channel can afford to buy a TV. Addicts cannot. The people watching us are clothed in cotton; not covered with tattoos.
[Now don’t get angry. This is not my view. This is just a thoughtexperiment.]
But, clearly, it is not the scale of addiction that is worrisome but the bad international effect on our previously nonexistent international reputation.
Frankly, after Edsa no one knew us anymore. This is why our former president was awkward on the international stage, like an uninvited guest at an exclusive party rather than at a rave where you can dance by yourself. He was always lurking at the extremities of the photo lineup.
Therefore, since doing something about drugs got us into all this trouble with the civilized world, how about going back to doing nothing about it? That worked.
It is just a thought. Don’t get angry.