Award-winning Philippine filmmaker backs Duterte’s deadly war on drugs

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Film director Brillante Mendoza. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:30pm, 17 Nov 2016Updated: 9:20pm, 17 Nov 2016

Award-winning Philippine director Brillante Mendoza has turned his cinematic skills to promoting someone many in the West would see as an unlikely hero – President Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly drug war.

Mendoza has become a celebrated figure in the global independent film industry for his gritty movies exposing social injustice and the sufferings of the poor in his home country. Although critics have condemned Duterte’s anti-crime crackdown, which has claimed the lives of thousands of poor people, Mendoza has filmed government advertisements promoting it and directed the broadcast of a presidential address to the nation.

If there’s one person who understands the situation, it’s the president

Director Brillante Mendoza

“If there’s one person who understands the situation, it’s the president,” Mendoza, 56, said at his Manila production house that is full of posters of his movies and trophies from top film festivals including Cannes, Venice and Berlin. “I know there are a lot of people who are not supportive in totality of what he wants and what he’s doing right now, but if you actually have witnessed the real situation, this is the way to go about it.”

Duterte easily won presidential elections in May largely on a campaign pledge to eradicate drugs by killing tens of thousands of people, warning the Philippines was in danger of becoming a narco-state.

Since he took office at the end of June, police have killed more than 1,800 drug suspects and about 2,600 others have died in unexplained circumstances linked to the crackdown, according to official figures.

The president has repeatedly insisted police are only killing in self-defence and that most of the unexplained deaths are due to criminals attacking each other. But Western governments and human rights organisations have expressed fears about alleged extrajudicial killings and a breakdown in the rule of law. Those concerns have been fuelled by Duterte’s extreme language and comments viewed by critics as incitements to kill.