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Nightcrawlers: A night in Philippines' war on drugs
The radio crackled. Linus Guardian Escandor II knew what was coming. The station, AM 594 kHz, would report a summary execution. He would squeeze into a pickup truck with four other photojournalists, speed through Manila to some rain-slicked slum or dark alley and arrive while the bodies still lay in the streets. Their hands would likely be tied, their faces wrapped in tape, blood flowing from bullet wounds in their heads and chests. For more than a month, the scene has played out every night — often twice a night, sometimes more. But on this Thursday morning at 2 a.m., it hadn’t yet — so Escandor, a 37-year-old freelance photographer, sat in the press room at Manila’s police headquarters with about a dozen other photojournalists, the TV on mute, just listening to the radio crackle. “In the morning, if you shoot dead people, it's gory, but at night it’s almost beautiful,” he said, clicking through photos on his laptop. “You can hide the blood, because of the shadows. It's psychedelic, the colors.” If you shoot dead people, it's gory, but at night it's almost beautiful. You can hide the blood, because of the shadows. It's psychedelic, the colors. As promised in his election campaign, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is waging a war against drugs, with a shoot-to-kill policy for suspected criminals. Since his inauguration on June 30, the bodies have been piling up, alarming human rights advocates. Photojournalist Linus Guardian Escandor II has documented the killings. When Escandor began working the graveyard shift in 2014, he mainly covered fires and car accidents. Then, this June, Rodrigo Duterte came to power as president of the Philippines. Duterte, a tough-talking, 71-year-old former mayor of the southern city of Davao, had campaigned on promises to eradicate the country’s drug problem within six months. He vowed to let nothing stand in his way — not his opposition, not human rights, not due process. "Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun — you have my support," he said on June 6, in a nationally televised address. "Shoot [the drug dealer] and I'll give you a medal." Since Duterte was inaugurated on June 30, the bodies have been piling up. About 1,900 people have been killed, according to local media, the vast majority of them poor. Among them, more than half were executed by vigilantes, often gunmen on motorcycles. The rest were killed by police. Much more at the link Posted by: badanov 2016-08-27 |
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