Order, Optics, and Oblivion: Curating the Afterlives of Coercive Governance
Order, Optics, and Oblivion: Curating the Afterlives of Coercive Governance
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
The Duterte-era shifts you observed—reduced visible street crime, altered electoral clientelism, and intensified local service delivery—are real social effects produced by coercive governance, but they came at the cost of widespread rights violations and institutional erosion; any curatorial framing must hold both the aesthetic-political gains and the moral deficits in tension.
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Curatorial Frame
This frame treats the Duterte period as a site-specific intervention in the social fabric: a state performance that reconfigured everyday risk, electoral theater, and the metrics of public service. As a gatekeeper and cultural worker I stage works that make visible the paradox—how deterrence produces compliance and spectacle while erasing accountability. The exhibition program foregrounds three registers: (1) deterrence and embodiment (testimonies, surrendered objects); (2) electoral aesthetics (ballot‑box ephemera, altered clientelist scripts); (3) infrastructural legitimacy (photographs and receipts of projects). Curatorial choices must be humane and ethical: center survivors, anonymize vulnerable contributors, and refuse aestheticization of violence.
Comparative Curatorial Table
| Observed effect | Curatorial focus | Ethical constraints |
|---|---:|---|
| Fewer visible crimes; surrender | Testimonial installations; surrendered objects | Do not sensationalize victims
| Less public vote buying | Ephemeral theater of campaign rituals | Avoid legitimizing coercion
| More projects; performance pressure | Documentation of benefits vs. expenses | Trace patronage, not praise
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Disconfirming the Alternative
The alternative claim—that these changes were unambiguously positive because they reduced crime and improved services—fails on two premises. First, it assumes means justify ends: short‑term order validates any method. But large‑scale extrajudicial violence and state terror documented during the campaign show that deterrence was inseparable from rights violations, undermining democratic legitimacy. Second, it presumes sustainability and universality: evidence indicates the violence peaked early and then declined, and clientelism adapted rather than vanished, so gains were uneven and fragile. These counterpoints are supported by empirical analyzes of the campaign's pattern of violence and governance effects.
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Curatorial Narrative Critique
A curatorial narrative must be poignant and ironic: display a municipal playground built during the period beside a ledger of anonymous deaths; juxtapose campaign flyers with police blotters. The narrative voice is erudite but humane—inviting audiences to feel the moral dissonance. Humor appears as bitter irony: a “best‑performing mayor” plaque installed above a list of unresolved killings. The critique insists that aesthetic recognition cannot substitute for legal reckoning; cultural work should catalyze civic memory and institutional accountability rather than offer catharsis alone.
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Expanded Summative
- Acknowledge the observable behavioral shifts.
- Interrogate the methods that produced them.
- Center survivors and refuse spectacle.
- Use the exhibition to demand accountability and archival truth.
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Footnotes
1. Sol Iglesias, Explaining the Pattern of “War on Drugs” Violence in the Philippines under Duterte, Asian Politics and Policy.
2. UP Department of Political Science, summary of Iglesias' findings.
3. PoliticLab, case study: Philippines War on Drugs (2016–2022).
Selected Bibliography (Chicago)
Iglesias, Sol. 2023. “Explaining the Pattern of 'War on Drugs' Violence in the Philippines under Duterte.” Asian Politics and Policy.
University of the Philippines Department of Political Science. 2023. “New Publication: Iglesias, Explaining the Pattern of 'War on Drugs' Violence in the Philippines under Duterte.”
PoliticalLab. 2024. “Philippines War on Drugs.” Case study: Democracy, Institutions & Backsliding.
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During President Duterte's term (2016–2022) many Filipinos perceived a stronger deterrent effect on street crime and vote buying, increased local public projects, and heightened political discipline; these shifts in behavior coexisted with documented state violence, selective enforcement, and democratic backsliding in the Philippines, especially in urban areas like Metro Manila (Mandaluyong).
Introduction
The quoted observation links crime deterrence, electoral behavior, and governance performance under Duterte's anti-drug campaign. This essay synthesizes that lived observation with academic and monitoring literature to show how coercive policy can reshape incentives for citizens and politicians while producing serious rights and institutional costs.
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Comparative Summary Table
| Observed effect | Mechanism | Scholarly or monitoring finding |
|---|---:|---|
| Fewer visible crimes; more surrender | Fear of harsh enforcement; mass surrender campaigns | Large early spike in killings followed by a decline in killings and visible drug activity. |
| Less vote buying and caution in local elections Political signaling; reputational risk and stricter enforcement | Electoral coercion and politicization of security altered local clientelism but evidence is mixed. |
| More projects and performance pressure on politicians Executive example and patronage reallocation | Public goods provision increased in some localities as officials sought legitimacy; governance incentives shifted. |
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Analysis
Deterrence and behavioral change. The campaign produced immediate, visible reductions in street-level drug activity and a wave of surrenders, consistent with accounts that violence peaked early then declined, altering everyday risk calculations for potential offenders. This explains why many people reportedly "changed their lives."
Electoral conduct and vote buying. Strong executive rhetoric and selective enforcement can raise the political cost of overt clientelism, producing more cautious candidates and less public vote buying in some contests. However, scholars warn that coercive governance can also reshape patronage networks rather than eliminate them, shifting transactions into less visible forms.
Governance performance and political competition. The perception of increased projects and benefits aligns with evidence that some local officials intensified service delivery to compete on performance and legitimacy. Performance incentives can improve public goods provision, but when coupled with coercion, they risk being instrumentalized to legitimize rights-violating policies.
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Risks and Limitations
- Human rights and rule of law costs: The deterrent effects occurred alongside widespread extrajudicial killings and democratic erosion, which scholars and monitors document as central outcomes of the policy.
- Selectivity and sustainability: Behavioral changes may be temporary if enforcement intensity wanes; clientelism can adapt rather than disappear.
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Conclusion
The lived observation captures real shifts in crime visibility, electoral caution, and service delivery incentives under Duterte, but academic and monitoring literature qualifies these gains with serious institutional and human‑rights trade‑offs. Any policy assessment must weigh short-term behavioral changes against long-term costs to democratic norms and legal accountability.
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*** credit to the owners of the photo & articles otherwise cited
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Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ curatorial writing practice exemplifies this path: transforming grief into infrastructure, evidence into agency, and memory into resistance. As the Philippines enters a new economic decade, such work is not peripheral—it is foundational.
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A multidisciplinary Filipino artist, poet, researcher, and cultural worker whose practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and writing. He is deeply rooted in cultural memory, postcolonial critique, and in bridging creative practice with scholarly infrastructure—building counter-archives, annotating speculative poetry like Southeast Asian manuscripts, and fostering regional solidarity through ethical art collaboration.
Recent show at ILOMOCA
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Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ started Independent Curatorial Manila™ as a nonprofit philanthropy while working for institutions simultaneously early on.
The Independent Curatorial Manila™ or ICM™ is a curatorial services and guide for emerging artists in the Philippines. It is an independent/voluntary services entity and aims to remain so. Selection is through proposal and a prerogative temporarily. Contact above for inquiries.
Furthermore, the commentary reflects my personal interpretation of publicly available data and is offered as fair comment on matters of public interest. It does not allege criminal liability or wrongdoing by any individual.
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