The fight vs state-sanctioned murders
We are not fighting to set drug addicts and criminals free. If a man kills his wife, his children, or his neighbors, he must answer for his crimes.
That is what our justice system is for—to punish those who deserve punishment, to hold murderers accountable, and to ensure that the law is upheld.
But what we are fighting for are the innocent lives who have been stolen in the name of this so-called war.
We fight for the father who was gunned down in front of his children because his name was wrongly placed on a drug watchlist.
We fight for the teenager who cried and begged for his life before he was shot in a dark alley, his lifeless body left on the pavement like garbage.
We fight for the police officers who were forced to kill, threatened with losing their jobs, or even their own lives, if they refused to meet their “quota” of bodies.
Imagine this: You wake up in the middle of the night to gunshots outside your house. You rush out, and there on the ground, bleeding, is your own son—a boy who had dreams, who had a future, who was never even given the chance to prove his innocence.
Imagine seeing his name in the news, labeled as a drug pusher, when you know he was just a student coming home from school.
Imagine the anger, the helplessness, the gut-wrenching pain of knowing that no one will be punished for his murder.
Imagine being a poor mother, selling street food to provide for your family. One day, your husband never comes home. You search for him, only to find his face covered in a cardboard sign that reads “Drug Pusher”—a man who was never even given a trial, executed on the streets like an animal. Who will raise your children now? Who will give you justice?
And to those who still blindly support this bloodshed—what if it was your son? Your brother? Your father? Will you still clap when their bodies are thrown into the gutter, treated as nothing more than statistics?
This is not justice. This is not order. This is murder disguised as governance.
We do not seek to protect criminals—we seek to protect the innocent, the falsely-accused, the powerless.
And if you still refuse to see that, if you still justify the deaths of thousands who never even had a chance to prove their innocence, then ask yourself—when did we become a nation that cheers for death instead of justice?
Michael Ocampo
Political Affairs officer
House of Representatives
