scholarly journals Rafael Lerma’s Photojournalistic Take on the Duterte Administration’s Drug War: A Counter-Barthesian Semiological Study

Plaridel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-110
Author(s):  
Feorillo A. Demeterio III,
Keyword(s):  
Early Phase ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Iconic Image ◽  
National Police

Rafael Lerma is an award-winning and outspoken Filipino photojournalist who works for the broadsheet The Philippine Daily Inquirer. When President Rodrigo Duterte took office on 01 July 2016 and started to implement his campaign promise to mount a thorough war on drugs, Lerma became one of the photojournalists who consistently documented the grisly track of the said war. His most iconic image—that of a dead pedicab driver being cradled by his grief-stricken widow—did not escape the rambling speech of the President himself during the latter’s first State of the Nation Address. This paper culls 25 of Lerma’s most famous images related to the Duterte administration’s drug war. From these 25 images, six recurrent sociocultural icons have been identified: 1) poverty; 2) the dehumanization/demonization of the casualties; 3) religion; 4) the weakness of governance in the Philippines; 5) Operation Plan Tokhang conducted by the Philippine National Police; and 6) the state and the nation. By subjecting these visual sociocultural icons to an inverted version of the semiology of the early phase of the French philosopher and cultural critic Roland Barthes, the researcher textually explores Lerma’s take on the said war. Furthermore, this paper theoretically tests the capacity of Barthes’ semiology to tackle not only ideological discourses that are tucked beneath some sociocultural icons but more so counter-ideological discourses that are launched by the less privileged sectors of society.

Ambiguous fear in the war on drugs: A reconfiguration of social and moral orders in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Anna Bræmer Warburg ◽  
Steffen Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Social ◽  
Moral Discourses

This article explores the social and moral implications of Duterte's war on drugs in a poor, urban neighbourhood in Manila, the Philippines. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, surveys, and human rights interventions, the article sheds light on policing practices, social relations, and moral discourses by examining central perspectives of the state police implementing the drug war, of local policing actors engaging with informal policing structures, and of residents dealing with everyday insecurities. It argues that the drug war has produced a climate of ambiguous fear on the ground, which has reconfigured and destabilised social relations between residents and the state as well as among residents. Furthermore, this has led to a number of subordinate moral discourses — centred on social justice, family, and religion — with divergent perceptions on the drug war and the extent to which violence is deemed legitimate.

Overcoming and Penalizing Precarity: Narratives of Drug Personalities Arrested in the Philippine War on Drugs

2022 ◽  
pp. 089692052110702
Author(s):  
Filomin C. Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Productive Work ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
Metro Manila

The article problematizes state penality as a mechanism of repression of precarious workers through a war on drugs in the Philippines. The narratives of 27 arrested ‘drug personalities’ in Metro Manila tell of how methamphetamine energizes bodies and motivates minds for productive work. Bidding to be classified as willing and able workers and family men, the study’s participants orient to a moral stratification that pits the ‘moral versus immoral’ and the ‘hardworking versus lazy’. Qualifying their drug use as strategic and calculated, they uphold the neoliberal values of individual choice and accountability. Their support for the anti-drug campaign stems from their recognition of a drug problem and the socioemotional toll of the dysfunctions of living in the slums. While trade liberalization facilitates methamphetamine inflow, a war on drugs fuels an authoritarian populism. As the state reaffirms symbolic mission to protect its citizens, it blames precarity to a problem population.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF PHILIPPINES’ WITHDRAWAL FROM INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ON CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY INVESTIGATION IN PHILIPPINES

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-246
Author(s):  
Aisyah Jasmine Yogaswara
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Related Case ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
National Police

Abstract Rodrigo Roa Duterte is the incumbent president of the Philippines who was inaugurated on June 30th 2016 and initiated the War on Drugs Operation to eradicate drug abuse in the Philippines one day after his inauguration. The operation gave authorization to the members of Philippines National Police to ‘neutralize’ or kill suspects of illegal drugs dealers and users. The operation also related to other crime such as rape, imprisonment, and torture. The crimes are committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population as therefore it can be qualified as crimes against humanity. Philippines’ status as a state party to Rome Statute gives ICC the chance to prosecute Philippines’ nationals if they committed crimes against humanity. However, after the ICC Prosecutor initiated preliminary examination on the related case, Philippines deposited its instrument of withdrawal from the Rome Statute. The purpose of this research is to find out the legal effect of Philippines withdrawal toward ICC’s process of preliminary examination, investigation, and trial, and whether ICC have any jurisdiction over crimes against humanity that is committed after Philippines’ withdrawal becomes effective. Keywords: Crimes Against Humanity, International Criminal Court, Rome Statute  Abstrak Rodrigo Roa Duterte menjabat menjadi Presiden Filipina pada tanggal 30 Juni 2016 dan memulai operasi pemberantasan narkotika yang disebut War on Drugs Operation sehari setelahnya. Operasi tersebut memberikan izin bagi Polisi Nasional Filipina untuk melakukan penembakan di tempat atas tersangka pengguna dan pengedar narkotika. Selain itu, terdapat kejahatan lain terkait operasi tersebut di antaranya pemerkosaan, penyiksaan dan penahanan tanpa proses hukum. Kejahatan-kejahatan tersebut dilakukan secara meluas, sistematis dan ditujukan pada populasi sipil yang menjadikannya dapat dikualifikasikan sebagai kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan. Status Filipina sebagai negara pihak dalam Statuta Roma menjadikan ICC memiliki kewenangan untuk mengadili warga negara Filipina yang melakukan kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan. Namun, setelah Jaksa Penuntut ICC memulai pemeriksaan pendahuluan atas War on Drugs Operation, Filipina melakukan penarikan diri dari Statuta Roma. Tujuan dari penulisan tugas akhir ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana pengaruh penarikan diri Filipina dari Statuta Roma terhadap pemeriksaan pendahuluan yang sedang dilakukan dan apakah ICC memiliki yurisdiksi atas kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan yang masih terjadi di Filipina pasca penarikan dirinya berlaku efektif. Kata kunci: Kejahatan Terhadap Kemanusiaan, Mahkamah Pidana Internasional, Statuta Roma

scholarly journals Collusion or collision? The war on drugs in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Lara, Jr ◽  
Nikki Philline C. De la Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Shadow Economy ◽  
Public Support ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Illegal Drug ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Violent Extremism

The spiral of State-led violence against the illegal drug trade in Southeast Asia did not end nor disrupt this shadow economy and its complex links to state and non-state actors as well as the newly emerging violent extremism. The evidence in fact shows that the violent response to the problem has only fuelled more economic, political, and security concerns. The case is the same in the Philippines where an indiscriminate and violent war on drugs has not lived up to its promises. Yet why is there continued public support for the anti-drug war despite its failures, and from among those that are often victimized by its violence? This paper takes an economic sociology approach to the problem of illegal drugs and turns the spotlight on the threats to embedded social networks posed by this deadly enterprise. Using quantitative and qualitative evidence and case studies of a province and city recognized as a hotbed in the government’s anti-drug war, the study will show how collusion and collision are alternate realities and means of adapting to an illicit enterprise that is bound to many social and economic arrangements, including those brought about by violent extremism.

Remembering love: Memory work of orphaned children in the Philippine drug war

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801732097291
Author(s):  
Mira Alexis Ofreneo ◽  
Nico Canoy ◽  
Luz Maria Martinez ◽  
Pacita Fortin ◽  
Merlie Mendoza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Orphaned Children ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Critical Methodology ◽  
Collective Remembering ◽  
Social Provisions

Summary The “war on drugs” in the Philippines has left a generation of Filipino orphaned children in deep grief and social disarray. Using feminist memory work as critical methodology and intervention design, this study examines accounts of 56 orphaned children and how they exercise agency embedded in the collective remembering of a traumatic past (i.e. rooted in painful memories of tokhang or community police operations) and to identify social structures that marginalize their present and future lifeworld. Findings Findings show three overarching themes namely: (1) reclaiming stripped agency in the loss and injustice of the past, (2) holding on to crippled agency in the sadness and insecurity of the present, and (3) carrying on with agency to hope for healing and justice in a reimagined future. Applications Insights and recommendations to critical praxis of social work in light of an ongoing drug war are further discussed which include strengthening civil societies and intersectoral collaborations, integrating specific social provisions for tokhang survivors in the creation of a national orphan policy, and using digital memorialization. Guided by enacting ethics and politics of caring for and with the marginalized, social workers working alongside expanded communities of care are called to remember love despite traumatic pains and to restore homes for orphaned children in the midst of state insecurity.

The State of Shared Prosperity in the Philippines

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Garcia ◽  
Jamil Paolo Francisco ◽  
Christopher Ed Caboverde
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
The State

Courting Migrants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Feedback Loops ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Qualitative Comparison ◽  
Integrative Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Migration

This book examines state–migrant relations in four countries with a long history of migration, regime change, and democratic fragility: Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the Philippines. It uses these cases to develop an integrative theory of the interaction between “diaspora-making” by states and “state-making” by diasporas. Specifically, it tackles three questions: (1) Under what conditions and in what ways do states alter the boundaries of political membership to reach out to migrants and thereby “make” diasporas? (2) How do these migrants respond? (3) To what extent does their response, in turn, transform the state? Through historical case narratives and qualitative comparison, the book traces the feedback loops among migrant profiles, state strategies of diaspora-making, party transnationalization, and channels of migrant engagement in politics back home. The analysis reveals that most migrants follow the pathways established by the state and thereby act as “loyal” diasporas but with important deviations that push states to alter rules and institutions.

scholarly journals Visions of Peace Amidst a Human Rights Crisis: War on Drugs in Colombia and the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Santino F Regilme
Keyword(s):  
War On Drugs ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Illegal Drug ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Illegal Drugs ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
State Repression ◽  
The Core ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Local Discourses

Abstract Peace is one of most widely used yet highly contested concepts in contemporary politics. What constitutes peace? That broad analytic inquiry motivates this article, which focuses on the contentious discourses of peace within a society besieged by widespread trafficking and use of illegal drugs. Focusing on the illegal drug problem in Colombia and the Philippines, the central puzzle of this paper constitutes two fundamental questions: How do state leaders justify their respective “war on drugs”? How do they construct and discursively articulate ideals of peace in the context of the illegal drug problem? This paper compares the post-9/11 Colombian war on drugs (2002–2010) vis-à-vis the Philippine war on drugs under the Duterte administration (2016–2019), particularly in terms of how their presidential administrations articulate “peace” in the context of resolving the drug problem. The paper examines the varying discourses of peace, investigates how those local discourses relate to global discourses on peace and illegal drugs, and underscores how and under which conditions those peace discourses portray the material distributive conflicts in those societies. The core argument states that the Uribe and Duterte administrations primarily deployed the notion of peace as a justificatory discourse for increased state repression, intensified criminalization of the drug problem, and the reluctance of the state in embracing a public health approach to the proliferation of illegal drugs.

Deportation of “Undesirable” Chinese in the Philippines, 1837–1882

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-246
Author(s):  
Jely Agamao Galang
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
Primary Materials

Abstract Between 1837 and 1882, the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines deported “undesirable” Chinese—vagrants, drunkards, unemployed, idlers, pickpockets, undocumented, and the “suspicious”—to various parts of the archipelago. Deportation, in this context, refers to the transportation or banishment of individuals deemed “dangerous” by the state to different far-flung areas of the islands or outside the colony but still within the Spanish empire. Deportation primarily served as a form of punishment and a means to rehabilitate and improve the wayward lives of “criminals.” This paper examines the deportation of “undesirable” Chinese in the nineteenth-century Philippines. Using underutilized primary materials from various archives in Manila and Madrid, it interrogates the actors, institutions and processes involved in banishing such individuals. It argues that while deportation served its punitive and reformative functions, Spanish authorities also used it to advance their colonial project in the islands. Chinese deportees formed part of the labor supply the state used to populate the colony’s frontier areas and strengthen its control over its newly-acquired territories.

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