EDITORIAL — Blind followers

In the highly regimented military and police services, members are supposed to follow the orders of their superiors. Discipline and adherence to the chain of command are critical in carrying out tasks efficiently and ensuring the success of operations.

But the orders of superiors can sometimes be unlawful. Members of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines must be familiar with the laws of the land and their services’ rules and regulations to know where to draw the line in following orders.

The ongoing pursuit of justice and accountability in the so-called war on drugs waged in the previous administration should provide lessons on blind obedience.

Rodrigo Duterte, during his six years as president, often reassured the PNP that he was taking full responsibility for his brutal crackdown on the illegal drug scourge. 

He would take the heat for the police and be the only one to go to jail, he said as law enforcers carried out his campaign promise to kill drug dealers and other crime suspects.

Facing a congressional investigation following his retirement, Duterte provided nuancing in his order to shoot drug suspects, claiming that police could choose to kill only in self-defense against those who fought back or nanlaban.

But this was rarely the case – as illustrated in the killings of teenage victims Kian Lloyd delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman.

Duterte had quickly distanced himself from those killings, and the police perpetrators now face life in prison.

Those cases, however, are the exceptions rather than the rule in the pursuit of justice in the drug war. And the policemen who were sent to prison are low-ranking.

The International Criminal Court, which now has custody of Duterte, is going after the top officials in charge of the drug war, including those behind the crackdown in his home city of Davao by alleged death squads when he was the mayor.

A common argument of those accused of involvement in extrajudicial killings is that they were simply following orders and presuming regularity. But law enforcers must be among the first to understand that there’s a line they cannot cross when an order leads to serious violations of the law. 

They must draw a line especially when it comes to taking a life.