MANILA (Reuters) – Relatives of some of the thousands killed in the Philippines war on drugs staged their journey of loss and recovery in a theatrical performance in Manila on Wednesday, ending a therapy program one month for poor families in grieving urban areas.
Bereaved mothers, wives and children took the stage in a high school in the capital’s business center in front of a crowd of 500 people, most of them students. They danced to pop songs and performed monologues and political sketches.
“If you look at the performers, there are so many smiles. They were dancing for joy, “said organizer Flavie Villanueva, a former drug user and priest, who criticizes President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign.
“The first time they came to see me, there were only tears, anguish and anger,” said Villanueva, who launched “Paghilom” – “healing” in Tagalog – in 2016 to comfort bereaved families.
According to government data, more than 5,600 drug traffickers and suspected users have been killed in anti-narcotics police operations since Duterte took office in July 2016. Thousands more have died in circumstances mysterious, some shot dead by masked gunmen riding on motorbikes.
An rights group said the police had summarily executed suspects. But police said they acted in self-defense after the suspects resisted the arrest.
“Through” Paghilom “I let all my tears escape,” said Analyn Mamot, 33, whose husband, an illegal drug addict, was killed by unidentified gunmen two years ago. “Now I feel new, as if a new personality lives in me.”
Report by Eloisa Lopez; Writing by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky