Film, play cast new global focus on Philippines ‘drug war’

International pressure on the Philippines’ anti-narcotics campaign picked up steam this week as activists and kin of victims took a theater play to Europe and the International Criminal Court eyes a documentary film’s inclusion in its probe into the drug-related killings.

“Tao Po,” a collection of monologues and documentary stills, highlights the tough choices faced by those widowed and orphaned by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, the police killers following his orders, and the journalists who cover the ensuing bloodbath.

Religious and human rights groups from across the world are sponsoring a six-country tour as part of a campaign to raise global awareness of the draconian program that has killed an estimated 27,000 Filipinos, according to international observers.

Performance artist and activist Mae Paner and playwright Maynard Manansala conducted extensive immersion and in-depth interviews with the kin of the victims, law enforcers, and photojournalists emotionally invested in documenting the killings for the past three years.

“We wanted to highlight the strings of humanity that link all Filipinos in these terrible times,” Paner told ucanews.com. “The individual stories can also help a foreign audience identify with those fighting for justice back home and the English subtitles make it easy to follow,” she said.

The play opened in Geneva on Sept. 26 and was to go to Amsterdam, Rome, Vienna, Berlin and London. It comes with a talkback featuring kin of the slain, journalists, and rights defenders.

The first-person testimonies come from grieving mothers Catherine Bautista and Marissa Lazaro, both members of Rise Up for Life and Rights, a faith-based network launched in 2016 to help families of drug war victims.

Traveling with the play is an exhibit of clothing and portraits of some victims, including children, of a state offensive described as “illegal, immoral, and anti-poor” by Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, whose diocese is ground zero of Duterte’s drug war in 2016.

Nanlaba, a pun on the trademark police claim that all the thousands killed had fought back (nanlaban), loosely translates to laundered tales.

Redemptorist Brother Ciriaco Santiago III, represents the “Nightcrawlers,” a loose network of photojournalists who have made it their mission to document the bloodbath and the lives of the people left behind.

The exhibit’s title calls attention to “doctored” documents and testimonies that the police allegedly created to maintain the claim that all those who were killed deserved to die, Brother Santiago said.

Printing portraits of those killed on everyday clothing gives them faces and honors their lives, he added.

“We do not want them forgotten,” said the religious brother. “We cannot stop documenting. Without this, we cannot seek clear accountability. We don’t know when that happens, but it will happen,” he added.

Brother Santiago said a religious order in Rome is quietly drumming up interest at the Vatican for the play, which will open at the Basilica di San Silvestro in Capite Piazza on Oct. 10.

“Tao Po,” is a common Filipino query raised by visitors to the homes of other people to find out if they are welcome. Among its other layers of meanings is an apology, the equivalent of “I’m only human.” It can also be an appeal to respect other human beings.

The play is a meditation of the many ways Filipinos cope with the madness of the war. A photojournalist risks a stable job in refusing to stop his daily “night crawls.” A nuanced sketch of a police officer shows what can stump even hardened members of a death squad.

A widow teaches “zumba” to support the family; amid dance gyrations, she carries a reluctant conversation, in earthy and sometimes profane language, with the ghosts of husband and son. An orphan brings a trove of candles to a city of the dead, still displaying humor as she talks up her slain parents, and a host of neighbors and acquaintances buried around them.

The play’s opening in Geneva came the day after news website “Dateline” reported that the International Criminal Court wants to use footage from a documentary film as evidence in its ongoing probe into the Philippine killings.

“On The President’s Orders,” filmed in the Philippine capital Manila, features substantive interviews with police officials justifying the killings.

The government admits police operations have killed close to 6,000 mostly poor residents. But co-directors James Jones and Olivier Sarbil got some police officers to admit that colleagues could also be behind some 20,000 other deaths initially blamed on vigilantes and feuding crime gangs.

Duterte slammed the makers of the documentary for producing “black propaganda.” His spokesman Salvador Panelo, said it “reeks of malice.”

Jones, in a video address to a special audience of journalists, urged government officials “to watch the film, engage in debate and understand that people are dying.”

Paner, meanwhile, expressed confidence that her play can bridge churning political waters among Filipinos, those supporting the president’s drug war and the victims.

“The play goes for the heart, the talkback adds context,” she said. “It allows the audience to participate. Face to face, outside of the din of social media, we are more capable of conducting dialogue.”