The Philippines has been in constant turmoil these past few months. Its leader, Rodrigo Duterte and his administration, in the interest of keeping the Philippines safe, has rationalised wanton killing of drug addicts. There are thousands of reported deaths of suspected drug addicts who have not been proven guilty yet have been gunned down by those whose sworn oath is to protect lives. There are news reports from relatives of the slain that the suspects were not drug users —-some were reported as users as vendetta killing; some happened to be in the company of users; some went on some innocuous pandesal buying spree; some never took drugs, they just looked like the part. Of others who were drug users, families lament their deaths because they now have no breadwinners or because they did the drugs in order to work their 15 hour construction shift to put food on the table. For these families, the drug addicts were heroes.

Today, the Duterte administration looks into lowering the age of children who can be charged with crimes and then imprisoned —from 15 years old to 9 years old. And, as the death culture has been conscience shaping, a number of people have voted to lower the age of imprisonment.

A good size of my practice has been with adolescents who are striving to change their lives coming from backgrounds of addiction in their families, destitution, lack of education, depression because of broken families or incest, lives that are cut misshapen by schizophrenia and personality disorders. Before they sought help, they were insolent, breaking the law, causing strife within their families, creating havoc wherever they went. Yet, these same broken souls, when they received a steady dose of love, continued opportunities to improve their lives , programs of counselling & support —-in short, when everyone REFUSED TO GIVE UP ON THEM —-they successfully turned the corner. The process is arduously slow, the effort is monumental, the personal commitment is life long…but it is possible. It has been done by so many and has evidence-based programs such as the Alcoholics Anonymous Rehabilitation Programs to show proof. In my practice, for as long as the client is standing up and swinging that bat, I meet their effort with everything I have got. I owe them that because somehow, somewhere, someone did that for same thing for me, worthy of that kindness or not.

Why shouldn’t any of us take the easy way out and just ‘kill al those drug addicts & children now ? ” Because all of us, though our actions, thoughts and deeds, brought them to that situation. And we now we have a duty to get them out. Years of a war-torn life will have taken its toll, but the human being has shown a resilience to come from behind when all hope seems lost. May be broken but never beaten we are.