“Without love or mercy, I was nothing but ashes now.

” -NIght by Elie
Wiesel.

In the Philippines president Duterte has launched a war against

drugs. He has said for drug dealers to turn themselves in, or be killed. But
Duterte hasn't only been arresting/killing drug dealers. Drug users have
also fallen victim to Duterte's wrath. An effective way of dealing with a
problem, but a seriously inhuman one. Duterte said at a campaign rally, "If
I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. All of
you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you. I have no
patience, I have no middle ground, either you kill me or I will kill you idiots,"
According to ​Newsweek​ as of June 30, 2017, Duterte's war has killed over
7,000 people. Most by “unnamed gunman” and 3,166 by police. This is only
the people killed by Duterte's wrath. Many more have been arrested. The
biggest problem is the people who have been arrested have to be tried in
court. They cannot be admitted into a bigger prison until they have been
tried. So the jails are being overflowed and the prisoners are living in
seriously inhuman conditions. They are cramped into cells and hallways,
and I have even seen a picture of prisoners sleeping in a stairwell. These
people have been starved and have almost no hope. No one in a high
ranking government position will stand up to Duterte. Fortunately, the
international community has looked down on Duterte's methods, but there's
nothing they can do without causing an international conflict.

Prisoners inside of Quezon

City Jail sleep on the floor
with almost no cloths on.
 The quote above is a good representation of how these people feel.
There's almost no hope for them, and Duterte has shown almost no mercy.
With an almost an ensured sentence of life in prison, these people have
nothing left to live for. Elie wiesel felt a similar way, which is why he said “I
am nothing but ashes now” The conditions that he went through were not
all that different from what the prisoners in the philippines are experiencing.
Most of the prisoners are just victims of addiction and have done nothing
wrong, but Duterte has made them out to be bad people so he can murder
people. The same thing happened to the jews in the 40’s. Not to say that
what’s happening in the philippines is equal, if not worse, than the
Holocaust, because it’s not. But there are similarities. Both the Prisoners
and the Jews were wrongly accused of being “bad people” who
need/needed to be exterminated.