Davao City, in the early 1980’s has been known the world-over as the “killing field” of the Philippines, in juxtapose to the pogrom in Cambodia, which later became the safest place to live in.
The Communist Party of the Philippines and its New Peoples Army had virtual control of the city and sown fear as they engaged in extra-judicial killings and mass slaughter. The regime fell from its own weight when both the urban and rural partisans had grown to seven “fronts”, a term used by the CPP/NPA for battalions. With an army of that size, the communists had to tax not only the rich but also their mass base and engaged in extortion to sustain their forces. They did this with impunity and part of its cruel enforcement is cold murder.
The mass base had seen the orgy of killings which later did not spare them for failing to pay “people’s tax”. When the poor masses cannot bear it anymore, they rose against their oppressors in a counter-revolution popularly known as “alsa masa”, meaning people’s uprising. The NPAs were virtually vanquished overnight ending their rule over Davao City and the Davao region.
The blight that hounded Davao City did not however end with the defeat of the CPP/NPA. The drug syndicates crept furtively into the city and even established a drug laboratory. The menace that druglords created in the city was as worse as the communist insurgency as they targetted mostly the youths.
When Rodrigo R. Duterte was elected mayor of Davao City, he waged an unrelenting campaign against drugs in conjunction with anti-Drug Enforcement Agency of the Philippine National Police. He personally led the raid of the shabu drug laboratory being operated by Chinese chemists who fought it out with the raiding team.
But Duterte confronted the drug problem with a two-prong approach. An all out war against the members hardcore syndicates and establishment of rehabilitation centers for addicts. The heads of families who were addicts and doubling as drug pushers where even given an allowance of ₱2,500.00 a month for the basic needs of their families.
Along with the emergence of drug syndicates were the resurgence of crimes among these kidnapping for ransom, robbery and carnapping among others. Duterte established 911 security apparatus with a network of high definition CCTV cameras all over strategic places in the city complete with ambulances and emergency crew and tripping points in porous sections in the city.
Kidnapping, murder and all forms of crimes were solved in less than 24 hours and soon Davao City became peaceful and orderly.
The campaign against crime was unrelenting and we took cognizance of the action of the Davao City government under the leadership of Mayor “Baste” for continuing with the legacy of his father and of his sister , now Vice President Sara Durets, in supporting our police forces. Davao City maintains its status as the most peaceful place to live in the Philippines and in Asia. (Jun Ledesma/Photo by CIO)