Heading 1

Documentary film:

Philippines' war on drugs: Nightcrawler Diaries 2017

​

When President Rodrigo Roa Duterte launched his war on drugs, I was among those who began documenting the mounting deaths of alleged drug suspects, racing all across the metro with other night-shift photojournalists every time news came of a police operation or a newly discovered dead body.

I did not limit myself in taking still images, I decided to also take video footage of the crime scenes, as well as interviews with witnesses, neighbors and other ordinary Filipinos touched by the shootings happening in their midst. 

​

The video clips have largely remained unseen. They are an elements that add layers to the complex story of the state campaign against criminality that also happens to be, at this time, widely supported by many ordinary Filipinos.

​

The documentary emerged from my own perspective as a photojournalist working on a nightshift,  families and relatives mourning alleged drug suspects, most of them from the city’s poorest quarters, who fell victim to summary executions--and, on the other hand, testimonies from other people in the same communities expressing relief at the elimination of what they consider to be public menaces. Put side by side, they offer a compelling, thought-provoking, multilayered picture of how, beyond the daily headlines and statistics, a controversial government program is impacting the lives of ordinary citizens, for good or ill.