State Violence in the Philippines and Art as a Means of Self-Preservation Under Duterte

By Carlos Pinon, Spring 2019 Barbara Harlow Intern in Human Rights and Social Justice

Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines on June 30, 2016. Since then, he has stoked a relentless wave of state violence through his campaign against drug users and distributors—an initiative that now yields approximately 27,000 extrajudicial killings of Filipinos by hitmen, police, and vigilantes with impunity.[1] As we currently lack institutional means for tracking state killings in the Philippines, the precise number of “homicides under [police] investigation” as a result of the drug war remains unknown. Of these killings, only a single case has been tried in criminal court.[2]

With a 66% approval rating, Duterte and his supporters have successfully undermined international initiatives to investigate the murders stemming from the administration’s persecution of drug users.[3] In March 2019, the Philippines removed itself from the International Criminal Court (ICC), a decision undertaken to frustrate chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s pledge to expand investigations in 2018. The ICC may nevertheless investigate the crimes that occurred during the Philippines’ tenure on the ICC, offering some hope that perpetrators of killings between 2011 and 2018 will be held accountable.[4]

However, human rights activists have expressed little confidence in the national judiciary to prosecute extrajudicial killings at the state level. Rather than adopting harm-reduction or rehabilitation measures, members of Congress are facilitating Duterte’s criminalization of drugs. They plan to reintroduce the death penalty for drug-related offenses and reduce the age of criminal responsibility from fifteen to twelve.[5] These proposed policies—in accordance with the government’s irreverence for rule of law, international standards, life—have endangered Filipinos and necessitated action on their behalf to redress ongoing abuses.

Duterte has eschewed responsibility by targeting those who intend to exhume truths founded upon extensive violence. Over the last three years, human rights workers, journalists, and political leaders have been subjected to legal action and death threats for their efforts to confront the administration. In August of 2016, former chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights Leila de Lima—one of Duterte’s most prominent detractors—was defamed by the president with spurious claims of an extramarital affair, and she was subsequently voted out of her Senate position.[6] This April, Duterte alleged in The Manila Times that media outlets like Rappler and legal organizations such as the Philippine National Union of People’s Lawyers were conspiring to oust him.[7] Maria Ressa, the CEO of the Philippine National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers who is viewed as a leader in Philippine journalism, was arrested twice this year on dubious charges—the first time for cyber libel and the second for tax evasion. Since the government has attacked Rappler and Ressa with frivolous lawsuits to undermine its mission of combating censorship and misinformation. By the end of March, Rappler was accused of having received investments from the U.S. firm Omidyar Network—a violation of laws prohibiting domestic media from assuming foreign ownership.[8]

In conjunction with his attacks on free speech, Duterte’s efforts to quash reporting on his administration’s violations of human rights include silencing human rights workers. “Letters of allegations” have repeatedly been sent to United Nations rapporteurs, and defenders are subject to attacks as a result of public vilification.[9] These voices are essential in sustaining democratic governance but face the risk of intense scrutiny as they unearth the cruelties dealt toward Filipinos.

Unlike reports published by journalists and activists, art can counter the administration by rendering the weight of oppression comprehensible through emotion. Throughout Philippine history, political works of art have adeptly captured the tumult that accompanied prior liberation movements during times of occupation. This form of expression began in the 1800s with the epic Florante at Laura, an allegory on Spanish colonialism written by Francisco Balagtas during his time in prison.[10] José Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tángere and El Filibuterismo inspired the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1846, establishing a tradition to be followed by authors, playwrights, and poets who protested subsequent American and Japanese invasions.

Some decades after the country’s independence in 1941, literature offered Filipinos a channel through which they could tell stories about Ferdinand Marcos’ authoritarian rule under martial law, from 1972 to 1981. Many who were incarcerated for challenging the dictatorship used art and literature as a way to critique the state and demonstrate its brutality to those outside prison walls.[11] As Barbara Harlow observed with memoirs, political craft not only aligns an individual experience with collective struggle, but helps one maintain “morale and conviction” amid disorder—a fundamental goal for most, if not all, of these works.[12] Altogether, Filipino literature produced a cultural record that remains just as integral as political force in curative resistance.

Today, artists in the Philippines preserve what the late Barbara Harlow might deem their “historical personality”—the foundation upon which existing power structures can be questioned by those beneath them in subjective terms.[13] Much of the literature produced in recent years has been anthologized for a Medium blog entitled The Kill List Chronicles. The aim of this page—whose name references a federal police list of suspected drug users and dealers—is to archive written dissent and trauma as it forms rather than review it in its aftermath. Accordingly, the site’s creators have compiled short-form poetry and prose by writers who continue to process the atrocities around them since July 2016.[14] These writings serve as documentation of Filipinos’ individual reactions to extrajudicial killings, each entry as visceral as the next. Works like “Against New Fascism: Southern Writers on Press Freedom,” illustrate how Filipino writers have remained in solidarity with victims as free speech and human rights are imperiled.[15] Despite being rooted in suffering, the growing body of work found here offers an avenue for collective engagement that may ultimately promote healing.

Harboring the same intentions, creative forms of resistance to Duterte’s regime can be found beyond textual mediums. Notable visual artists such as Nikki Luna combat the culture of misogyny and patriarchal violence emboldened by Duterte.[16] For the piece “Female Fighter,” Luna enlisted a state soldier to shoot M4 bullet holes into the shape of a womb—a direct response to the president’s order to shoot female political actors in the genitals.

Musicians have also formed a part of this movement, many of them affiliated with the collectives Sandata (“weapon” in Filipino) and RESBAK (Respond and Break the Silence Against the Killings).[17]^,[18] As the latter’s name might imply, compositions by these artists often honor those slain by police. These songs are individual stories that recount the perspectives of drug war victims through interviews with close relatives and friends. When speaking of colleague Michael Siaron’s death, rapper Justine Juanillas notes that in its aftermath, his house was torn down. She recounts how Siaron’s death family members moved away, and people acted as if his life had never occurred. Nevertheless, Juanillas’ rap elegies uphold Siaron’s name and legacy. Like Luna’s pieces, Juanilla’s words confront the violence that many Filipinos have ignored.

In his poem, “Thirteen Dreams and One Duterte,” Eugene Gloria writes:

The nature of dreams is to affirm our forced

disappearance.[19]

Using imaginative forms of storytelling, Filipinos engage in the struggle that has subsumed their nation and also envision themselves beyond it. Although change is often perceived to come through civil action and policy, it is imperative that the production of art resisting Duterte’s administration continue as traditional political avenues falter. Violence will take other forms in the future; however, the narratives created now articulate an important moment in Philippine history, defined by inordinate abuse, oppression, murder—all from the worldview of those fighting to reclaim political and personal agency.

—

In writing this commentary, I sought to employ a methodology similar to that used by the late Barbara Harlow throughout her own career. This technique—involving the cross-referencing of non-Western cultural records and documentation that explains the historical conflicts surrounding marginal groups who aspire to freedom—was relayed to me by her dear friend and colleague, Neville Hoad. The art of imagining how Harlow’s approach in centering literature as a tool to understand those undergoing political struggle may be incorporated into issues beyond the scope of her work—a testament to its infinite power and longevity.

Bibliography

[1] Bachelet, Michelle, “High Commissioner Bachelet calls on States to take strong action against inequalities,” United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, March 6, 2019, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24265&LangID=E.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Calonzo, Andreo, “Duterte’s Popularity Hits Highest Ahead of Midterm Elections,” Bloomberg, April 10, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-11/duterte-s-popularity-back-to-highest-ahead-of-midterm-elections.

[4] Singh, Param-Preet, “Philippines Pullout from ICC Won’t Block Justice for ‘Drug War,’” Human Rights Watch, March 18, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/18/philippines-pullout-icc-wont-block-justice-drug-war.

[5] Bachelet, Michelle, “High Commissioner Bachelet calls on States to take strong action against inequalities,” United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, March 6, 2019, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24265&LangID=E.

[6] Gershman, John, “Human Rights and Duterte’s War on Drugs,” Interview by Michelle Xu, Council on Foreign Relations, December 16, 2016, https://www.cfr.org/interview/human-rights-and-dutertes-war-drugs.

[7] “Philippine news and human rights organizations accused of ‘plot’ against Duterte,” Committee to Protect Journalists, April 24, 2019, https://cpj.org/2019/04/philippine-news-and-human-rights-organizations-acc.php.

[8] “Journalist Maria Ressa fighting for free speech after another arrest,” CBS News, April 10, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/journalist-maria-ressa-fighting-for-free-speech-after-second-arrest/.

[9] Gavilan, Jodesz, “UN experts urged to probe Duterte’s threats vs human rights activists,” Rappler, March 5, 2018, https://www.rappler.com/nation/197440-karapatan-united-nations-rapporteurs-duterte-threats-attacks-human-rights-activists

[10] Dalisay, Jose, Jr., “Literature and Contemporary Philippine Politics,” Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, March 2007, https://kyotoreview.org/issue-8-9/literature-and-contemporary-philippine-politics/.

[11] Maranan, Ed, “Shackled Art,” Positively Filipino, September 20, 2016, http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/shackled-art

[12] Hurt, Erin, “Erin Hurt on ‘Resistance Literature,’” E3W Review of Books, 2008, https://www.dwrl.utexas.edu/orgs/e3w/volume-8-spring-2008/the-shape-of-resistance-literature/erin-hurt-on-resistance-literature.

[13] Ibid.

[14] “The New Protest Literature in the Time of Duterte,” The Kill List Chronicles, July 23, 2016, https://medium.com/@kill.list.lit/the-new-protest-literature-7af5e8ca1b0a.

[15] “Against New Fascism: Southern Writers on Press Freedom,” The Kill List Chronicles, January 24, 2018, https://medium.com/@kill.list.lit/against-new-fascism-southern-writers-on-press-freedom-286c08d27979

[16] Lago, Amanda T., “The art of dissent in the time of Duterte,” Rappler, July 01, 2018, https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/arts-and-culture/206120-subversive-art-duterte-administration-second-year.

[17] Celera, Lex, “This Filipino Rap Album Tells the Story of the Country’s Drug War,” Vice, July 02, 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/d3n95w/kolateral-filipino-rap-album-drug-war?utm_source=viceasiafb&utm_campaign=global&fbclid=IwAR1IjBBD1a8UVo4SprBmjsqPpB5YCnDD3S_fqcWOdzbw8xXOgaIAw9imTxA.

[18] Freeman, Joe, and Poppy McPherson, “Philippine Rappers Respond to Duterte’s Killings in Verse,” Time, March 06, 2017, http://time.com/4691516/philippines-duterte-drug-war-rap/.

[19] Gloria, Eugene, “Thirteen Dreams and One Duterte,” World Literature Today, February 26, 2018, https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2018/march/thirteen-dreams-and-one-duterte-eugene-gloria.