Research Abstract
The project which is funded by the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA), University of the Philippines Diliman sought to complement our ongoing project on violence, human rights, and democracy in the Philippines. It aimed to amplify the reach of the project’s outputs through a dissemination strategy which involves (1) releasing a weekly, monthly, and quarterly data digest of reported drug-related killings, and (2) featuring the works of Filipino visual artists (photographers, painters, sculptors) who are tackling Duterte’s war on drugs. These works were featured in TWSC’s social media platforms and curated in the project’s website dahas.up.edu.ph. The exhibit titled “The Drug War’s Visual Regime” was launched last October 6, 2021. The data digest, on the other hand, is steadily being released in an infographic format that highlights the number of deaths, the identity of the victims’ assailants (whether or not they are state agents), selected information regarding these victims, and the location of the incident. This comes at a crucial and unfortunate juncture whereby the vigor initially displayed by various sectors (academics, the media, and non-government organizations) of keeping a close eye on the number of drug-related killings have dwindled down over the course of Duterte’s term. In publishing empirically-based research that features stories and images of the victims of the drug war, the project hopes to build and maintain an audience which will remain watchful of the state’s tendency for violence and impunity.