The article problematizes state penality as a mechanism of repression of precarious workers through a war on drugs in the Philippines. The narratives of 27 arrested ‘drug personalities’ in Metro Manila tell of how methamphetamine energizes bodies and motivates minds for productive work. Bidding to be classified as willing and able workers and family men, the study’s participants orient to a moral stratification that pits the ‘moral versus immoral’ and the ‘hardworking versus lazy’. Qualifying their drug use as strategic and calculated, they uphold the neoliberal values of individual choice and accountability. Their support for the anti-drug campaign stems from their recognition of a drug problem and the socioemotional toll of the dysfunctions of living in the slums. While trade liberalization facilitates methamphetamine inflow, a war on drugs fuels an authoritarian populism. As the state reaffirms symbolic mission to protect its citizens, it blames precarity to a problem population.

Drugs and Philippine Society is a collection of critical essays that look at drug use, drug wars, and drug policies in the Philippines from different angles, from the perspectives of scholars, social and cultural workers, artists and activists present and past. In doing so, it seeks to uncover societal prejudices about a long- misunderstood subject—and unmask the many contexts of how drugs are used and misused in the country.

 

 

Aside from a foreword by Sheila Coronel and a critical introduction by Gideon Lasco, the anthology gathers photographs of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs since 2016 and its effects on Philippine communities to further contextualize the urgent need to rethink drug policies not only in the country but around the world.

The edited volume assembles chapters on topics that focus on crime and criminal punishment in the Philippines based on research works conducted by social scientists. These include chapters on indigenous justice systems, the colonial history of criminal punishment, the legislation of the death penalty, an ethnography on drug users, drug trafficking and markets in Asia and the Philippines, crime victimization and fear of crime among Filipinos, inmate gangs in Philippine prisons, community-based programs against drugs, and representative perspectives on the war on drugs from law enforcement, jail system and the arts.

This article argues that the interfraternity wars or “rumbles” that occur at the University of the Philippines Diliman must be understood as dynamic violent interactions between male-exclusive organizations equipped with the capability for group cohesion and defiance and is oriented to hegemonic masculinity. Analysis of 264 incidents reported from 1990 to 2013, indicates a shift in the pattern of rumbles: while there is an overall decrease of incidents, rumbles have concentrated in fewer fraternities over the years. The study further analyzes the narratives of 15 fraternity men (14 alumni and one student) about their own experiences of rumbles in the past, the emotions and sensations involved in being “at war” with rival fraternities, and their own criticisms about the culture of violence among fraternities. The study demonstrates how fraternities are at risk for hypermasculine behavioral paths that regard rumbles as a means to assert dominance over other fraternities and circumvent routes to hegemonic masculinity. The study also links micro-level factors of situational interactions and organizational features to larger cultural scripts regarding masculinity and future national leadership. Finally, the study provides insights in preventing fraternity-related violence in the campus and points to the challenges of gender socialization of UP students in relation to imaginaries of national service and future national leadership.

The article argues that understanding hegemonic masculinity can be amplified by looking into the situational contexts of men’s interactions in fraternity initiations based on the analysis of narratives of 15 fraternity men. Fraternity members from a Philippine university reached for hegemonic masculinity through the masculine exemplar of toughness to demonstrate preparedness for academic success, dominance in campus positions, and future national leadership. Through violentization (Athens, 2015), their initiations simulate the power clash between harsh patriarchs and supportive brothers that place young men’s bodies as objects and subjects of testing and indoctrination. Individual and collective efforts to critique and eschew the hypermasculinity of initiation violence achieved limited success although the pursuit of alternative socialization rituals remains a challenge.

The Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso (1835 – 1909) is the single-most important figure in the founding of criminology and the study of aberrant conduct in the human sciences. The Cesare Lombroso Handbook brings together essays by leading Lombroso scholars and is divided into four main parts, each focusing on a major theme. Part one examines the range and scope of Lombroso’s thinking; the mimetic quality of Lombroso; his texts and their interpretation. The second part explores why his ideas, such as born criminology and atavistic criminals, had such broad appeal. Developing this, the third section considers the manners in which Lombroso’s ideas spread across borders; cultural, linguistic, political and disciplinary, by including essays on the science and literature of opera, ‘La donna delinquente’ and ‘Jewish criminality’. The final part investigates examples of where, and when, his influence extended and explores the reception of Lombroso in the UK, USA, France, China, Spain and the Philippines. This text presents interdisciplinary work on Lombroso from academics engaged in social history, history of ideas, law and criminology, social studies of science, gender studies, cultural studies and Jewish studies. It will be of interest to scholars, students and the general reader alike.