Defending Moral Obligation: Duterte’s Dauntless War Against Drugs (original) (raw)
Related papers
Bandit Grabbed the State: Duterte’s Moral Politics
Philippine Sociological Review, 2017
This article argues that Rodrigo Duterte’s outlaw legitimacy is anchored on “social bandit-like morality.” It is characterized by the coexistence of compassion and violence under a patriarchal boss who maintains justice outside of the law. Urban legends have constructed him as a social bandit-like leader. However, the “moral we” who support Duterte’s discipline to save the nation has been constructed at the cost of the violent exclusion of criminalized “immoral others.” Anti-poverty programs that aim to mold the poor into a “moral citizenry” also exclude the poor who do not adhere to civic morality, for being “undeserving of rescue.” Against this background, the majority of the poor accept the war on drugs, believing they were saved for being “good citizens,” while those who were victims were “immoral others” who needed to be punished. However, the contradiction that a bandit, who is supposed to operate outside of the state, has grabbed state power entails risks. Despite the call for a strong state, state institutions have been weakened by his arbitrary decisions to implement his “tough love,” in distorted ways, thus creating sentiments among ex-drug users that their trust in the patriarchal leader has been betrayed. Without a strong legal legitimacy, the Duterte administration may face serious criticism when patriarchal compassion is perceived to be untrue.
The radical approach to politics in the Philippines did not begin with President Rodrigo Duterte. Rather, such can be traced to the struggles of past revolutionary leaders that include the likes of Macario Sakay, Julian Montalan, and Luciano San Miguel. But a deeper plot needs to be uncovered since the Philippine Revolution was not the kind of struggle that it must be-it was predominantly Tagalog and middle-class, as correctly claimed by Orlino Ochosa. In this sense, Duterte is that act of defiance of the Bisaya. It will be argued that the president's radical anti-establishment attitude is symptomatic of the Bisaya's resistance to the traditional centers of power. An alternative narrative to the Western-bred view of liberal critics is necessary. This study theorizes that Duterte's method or style is rooted in some form of tribal politics meant to liberate the Filipino from elite rule.
Duterte and his quixotic war on drugs
2017
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has remained an enduring fodder of international news since he was sworn in as the country's 16th president in June 2016. Despite massive criticisms from within the Philippines and overseas, he seems intent on taking his country down an untrodden, dangerous, lawless and bloody path. The president's relentless campaign to eliminate drugs in the country has resulted in a rapidly rising number of deaths occurring on a daily basis. A little more than six months into the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, records show that his anti-drug war campaign has resulted in over 7,000 deaths, or an average of more than 30 people summarily executed in extrajudicial fashion every day. The populist president, whilst otherwise hypersensitive to criticism, remains unfazed by almost universal condemnation by the international community over the extrajudicial killings in the country. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details L. B. Bautista, 'D...
Revista Neiba, Cadernos Argentina Brasil
A proposta desse artigo é oferecer uma análise das declarações proferidas pelo atual presidente das Filipinas, Rodrigo Duterte, numa entrevista produzida pelo Al Jazeera. Duterte foi eleito a partir de uma campanha focada na retórica das 'drogas', crimes e combate à corrupção, um discurso político insistente na metáfora da guerra às drogas. Duterte tentou legitimar os assassinatos extralegais de mais de 3.500 cidadãos, construindo "viciados" e "traficantes de drogas" como ameaças, inimigos a serem combatidos. Seguindo a Análise do Discurso de Michel Foucault (1971), argumenta-se que, embora a guerra às drogas seja uma metáfora mobilizada dentro de uma estratégia discursiva eleitoral e política, ela também pode ser interpretada como uma política de (in)segurança que produz perseguições. Delineia-se o contexto eleitoral e o nível histórico dessa "guerra às drogas" nas Filipinas, considerando, por fim, possíveis estratégias discursivas no debate sobre Segurança Pública e políticas de (des)criminalização das drogas.
The Politics of Disposable Life in Duterte's Drug War
The supposed inalienability and universality of human rights notwithstanding, it is clear that, where Duterte's War on Drugs is concerned, the category of humanity is selectively applied; one source of legitimation for what has been called "the democide of the poor," for instance, is the notion that those who commit crimes are less than human, that their lives are worth only the prize for their elimination. But how is the worth of a life determined, and what could account for why certain populations are allowed to remain in conditions of suffering, to die or to be killed? How is public consent produced and maintained for what seems to be morally, legally, and rationally untenable? My research inquires into popular narratives that have legitimized and normalized the culture of killing suspected criminals without due process, and locates these narratives within critical discourses on normalized violence and the neoliberal state. I aim to understand, at a theoretical-systematic level, the war on drugs and the responses it has elicited from publics within the interface of structural, symbolic, and everyday violence that conditions precarious subjects under neoliberal governmentality. Using conceptual taxonomies of violence by Galtung (1969), Bourgois (2001), and Žižek (2009), my paper seeks to surface the role of invisible modalities of indirect violence in constituting and normalizing conditions in which inflicting direct, spectacular violence upon certain categories of people becomes socially acceptable. Connecting this to Lorey's (2015) exposition of the three dimensions of the precarious under the neoliberal state, I also argue that the extraordinary violence of the drug war is enacted as an illusion of state power to allay the anxieties that arise from generalized insecurity amid the harms visited by unregulated market forces and the state's inability to deliver political goods to its citizens, which produce a crisis of legitimacy.
In Duterte's Perfect Storm: A Rule of Law Dispatch in the Dire Days of Philippine Liberal Democracy
Ateneo Law Journal, 2021
The presidency of Rodrigo Roa Duterte brought about challenges to the Philippines’ democratic order and the practice of human rights. A good number of scholarly accounts point towards Duterte’s “populist” rhetoric as the upending of traditional democratic values, which includes the flagrant disregard for the rule of law. This paper examines the Duterte regime from a critical view of the conception of the rule of law and the liberal democratic principles ushered in by the post-dictatorship order. While the apparent atrophy of democratic values under the Duterte regime may be simply attributed to mere dismissiveness, this paper looks at how Duterte himself renegotiated the conception of the rule of law through a divergent articulation of its attendant values. Without simply resorting to the call for restoration, this paper is an invitation for a reexamination of the rule of law and its associated institutions and norms to aid in the understanding of the political and legal outcomes in the time of Duterte and beyond.
" A Moment in Philippine Political Time: Conceptions Towards Duterte's Approach
The Philippines has recently come up in several research data as the most socially engaged nation online. This distinction is currently more pronounced in the practice of online activism by Filipinos the world over. Since the campaign period for the May 2016 national elections, Duterte's perceived brutish personality as well as unorthodox approach towards the drug problem and criminality in the country has become a favorite theme on the social media of perpetually online Filipinos. This heated political debate does not only reflect a tech-savvy society but also a highly polarized citizenry that is divided on their views on Duterte's policies. Among Duterte's controversial moves is his aggressive " war on drugs " wherein he encourages the police force to " shoot-to-kill " (instead of shoot-to-disable) drug suspects if they show resistance to arresting officers (the Filipino verb for this kind of resistance is nanlaban, which has now become an infamous term in the country). Corollary to this move is his proclaimed aversion towards both local and international critics, including human rights groups, outspoken foreign officials, the EU, and the UN, among others. From a political anthropology lens, it is relevant in this case to problematize a number of obviously contrasting underlying conceptions at work on the notions on justice, violence, and sovereignty. As universal/international norms are discernibly being undermined and disparaged by Duterte's government and his supporters while asserting national sovereignty (not to mention an independent foreign policy), it is an academically interesting time to explore this Philippine state-citizen nexus by attempting, albeit the great complexity of the matter, to investigate local meanings, political subjectivities, and conceptions of the state, which are shaped by, and in turn, reshape the character of the nation-state. Necessarily, I observe facts vis-à-vis the state's official stand as well as that universal/international norms. I do this using theoretical frameworks that aid in making sense of how these conceptions are reconfiguring the Philippine state structure, and Philippine political society. I specifically draw insights from related overlapping fields of study such as references to key proponents such as Gupta, Bouchard, Mbembe, Weber and Acemoglu, and Nangengast, among others. Aside from my own inputs as a Filipino citizen, I also include the vantage point of several migrant Filipinos in Belgium who happen to be loyal Duterte supporters. Filipino diasporic citizens are ubiquitously engaged both online and offline as do the rest of Filipino netizens. I attempt to unveil cultural and historical undertones that may explain their current political stand and their conceptions of the state in terms of normative views on political violence and justice.
University of Asia & the Pacific Law Journal, 2019
The anti-illegal drug campaign of the Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte has exacted heavy social costs in the Philippines. It has also placed the institutions for accountability and democratic rule of law at a precarious situation. With the collective moral ethos of Philippine society heavily strained by the consequences of the anti-illegal drug campaign, the conceptually parallel ideas forwarded by Catholic social teaching on the one hand and human rights law on the other can potentially provide an oasis for making sense out of the so-called war on drugs. This paper presents the prospects of the intersection between the teachings of the Catholic Church—an institution held in high regard in Philippine society—and the different ideas underpinning human rights law as a potent counterpart to the war on drugs.
The Spectacle of Violence in Duterte's “War on Drugs”
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 2016
This article argues that, in Duterte's “war on drugs”, state power is exercised through the body in a spectacle of humiliation and violence. The analysis draws from the work of Foucault (1979) on the political value of a spectacle of the body to explain the distinctive character of Duterte's violent war on drugs; of Feldman (1991) on the use of the body as an object in which violence is embodied to send political messages; of Agamben (1995) on eliminating life supposedly devoid of value; and on Mumford et al. (2007), who pointed to the popularity of “violent ideological leaders.” I argue that, under the Duterte administration, criminals are humiliated and killed in a spectacle of violence that politicises their lives, sending a message that intimidates others. In the process, law-abiding citizens are meant to feel safe, which is seen as likely to increase the newly elected president's popularity and his power as chief executive. Duterte has thereby politicised life, not ...
Political and Ethical issues in the Philippine War on Drugs
One of the national issues prior to President Duterte’s assumption to office was the prevalence of illegal drugs in the country. Between 2008 and 2016, 14.8 million Filipinos had used illegal drugs at least once (Dangerous Drugs Board, 2016). In his State of the Nation Address on July 25, 2016, Duterte vowed to launch an intensified the battle against illegal drugs. Observers noted the war against drugs is addressed by incarceration, rehabilitation. However, there have been reports of extrajudicial killings of both abusers and pushers. A more humane approach in the drug war is called for.