There are roughly less than 50 days left until President Duterte’s term ends, and what’s yet to come as the new administration takes place is still waffling that left people even more branched with having perplexed feelings about the recent 2022 Philippine presidential election.
These documentary films enable us to go back to the past few years that Duterte’s term led us to where we are now, and to recall and remind ourselves of what the administration steered its nation to be impelled with the information that we’d been fed. Mainly, Duterte’s war on drugs and his battle with the information the press gives out.
In hopes of stirring up memories from the past again and again, and helping our fellow people dissect misinformation into smaller pieces, we will be able to grasp and truly know our history and study further of what our next move as a nation should be by feeding ourselves with proper information and to not forget our past but learn from it. Repeating the same mistakes will just deem us to repeat the same mistakes all over again until we fully digest what it means to be duly informed.
A Thousand Cuts| Frontline
Not only did President Duterte’s target to eliminate drug users by using his so-called “War on Drugs” as his prime objective during his regime, but also targeting journalist and 2021 Nobel peace prize winner for freedom of expression, Maria Ressa. This documentary follows Ressa and her colleagues' battles as to being put on top of President Duterte’s pursuit when it comes to filtering news and media misinformation.
On a President’s Drug Orders (Duterte’s Drug War) | Frontline
A more in depth look on President Duterte’s drug war, this documentary takes us into the cramped jail cells of Caloocan City and an intimate glimpse of the life of the poor who live in fear when they encounter law enforcement. While the murder number goes up the locals worries on how killings are professionally done which they suspect that behind those killings are the police death squad.
Timbre
Nightly killings had been more common than ever in an all-out government endorsed war on drugs campaign. This 23 minute documentary by Edrea Camille L. Samonte and Nicole Pamela M. Bareo, follows a family who lost a loved one during the regime’s systematic and aggressive attacks towards innocent people being killed without any substantial evidence and the unfair judgment by suspecting unknowing victims. As the Mom struggles to fight for justice to be served for her son. You can also watch it free at Cinemacentenario.
