The Philippine’s War on Drugs in a Human Security Perspective: Security or Insecurity?

Abstract

This study provides an analysis of the war on drugs using a human security perspective Three components of human security are included in the study: economic personal and community security This study looks at how the Philippine war on drugs interacts with the three security components The study utilized document analysis from various data sources such as newspaper articles commentaries public speeches interviews and other sources in order to have a full understanding of the relationship between the drug war and the three security components Data from gathered documents were grouped according to themes and the security component category that they fall into Relevant concepts and theories were taken from the literature review in order to provide explanations in some of the phenomena observed Results showed that the brutal approach to the war on drugs has adverse effects on economic security This is identified through the killing of the breadwinners of poor families and limiting the prospects for employment through foreign investments due to fear of security On the personal security component dialectical roles of the state are observed in terms of providing (in)security Ironies are observed wherein the supposed goal of eliminating drugs – to promote security – actually results to more insecurities due to the brutal approach by the government Non-drug-related citizens and children are also becoming more insecure due to the drug war It is also argued that the new and revised drug operations guidelines show how decision-making is done in addressing the drug problem Because of the absence of a multi-stakeholder approach in identifying solutions to the problem community security has been difficult to realize in localities And lastly this study concludes that the war on drugs promote more insecurity than security for the people This study also offers a human-rights-centered framework for security and development for Southeast Asia basing from the case of the Philippines

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chih-Chieh Chou (Supervisor)