Philippines War on Drugs: The Nightshift
Espace d’art actuel Le Radar
OCTOBER 2nd TO NOVEMBER 5th
Curator : Damir Sagolj (Reuters)
Collective exhibition of Filipino’s photogaphers: Ezra Acayan, Alyx Arumpac, Dante Diosina, Kimberly Dela Cruz, Vincent Go, Eloisa Lopez, Czeasar Dancel, Carlo Gabuco, Bro Jun Santiago, Basilio Sepe, Jes Aznar, Raffy Lerma, Jay Ganzon, Linus Escandor
On May 9, 2016 Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed “The Punisher” won Philippines presidential elections promising a major crackdown on drugs and lawlessness.
Soon after the Duterte’s war on drugs started. In the first year of his presidency almost 9000 people, mostly users and small-time drug dealers were killed. The president kept his promise.
A group of Filipino reporters are on the frontline of the bloody war from its very beginning. Night after nigh they gather at the Manila Police District, a meeting point for nighcrawlers, as the group is sometimes called, determined to record what seems like never-ending bloodshed.
Documenting the mass death became more than a job. Their lives turned into The Nightshift – high-speed race through Manila’s street full of dead bodies, crying relatives and policemen who shoot to kill.
But what remains behind the nightcrawlers is priceless – an incredible body of work and the crucial evidence on how brutal Duterte’s war on drugs is.
In association with the WARM Foundation
Exhibition Opening Saturday 7th October 14:30
Cover Photo by Raffy Lerma
