To better understand artistic production under Duterte, I recently watched KAMANDAG NG DROGA, directed by the national artist Carlos J. Caparas. It's a piece of shit. And I might as well get some clout from watching this piece of shit, so here's a plot summary.

Paraphrasing Roger Ebert, KAMANDAG NG DROGA is a Mocha Uson Facebook post stretched into a two-hour film of people dying from drugs. As a cultural product that shows how propaganda of the Duterte regime dehumanizes drug addicts, it's interesting. As an artistic product, it's shit

The film opens with a drug addict, Jimmy, on top of an electrical pole because he was high on drugs. His parents plead with him to get down. An extra in the background says, "Kaya ikaw, huwag ka magdo-droga, ha?" Jimmy touches a transformer and is electrocuted to death

Christopher de Leon and Lorna Tolentino play the parents of a teenager, Edgar. de Leon's character hates drugs, but is then revealed as a drug addict. Edgar gets addicted to drugs. He overdoses, and dies when Lorna Tolentino removes his oxygen mask out of pity.

Another teenager character, Val, is the promising lead singer of a band. She gets addicted to drugs. She ends up in a vegetative state after overdosing at the end of the film.

In KAMANDAG NG DROGA, everyone is part of the drug trade. A sakristan does drugs. Fishermen do drugs. Students do drugs. The police do drugs. When PDEA catch the police officer protecting a cartel, they tell him, "lagot ka kay Duterte."

A group of concerned citizens, including a priest, rally outside a drug lab. The priest confronts the drug cartel's bodyguards and tells them, "Alagad ako ng simbahan, ngunit handa akong kalabitin ang baril na ito, at ilagay ang batas sa pagitan ng mata mo."

Mocha Uson cameos as a character whose brother is drug-addicted. She goes to then-chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption Dante Jimenez (playing himself) to get help. Dante Jimenez then breaks the fourth wall and tells the audience the VACC supports the war on drugs.

Persida Acosta appears to tell the audience about the work of the PAO. Koko Pimentel appears to congratulate a character for his anti-drug efforts, kasi "nakakatulong sa krusada ng pangulo." The film is interrupted several times by real-life speeches from Duterte