PHILIPPINES

Duterte's drug war (2016-2022) was a war on poor men. The extrajudicial killings targeted alleged drug users and dealers — overwhelmingly young, poor, urban men — creating a climate of terror in communities like Tondo, Caloocan, and Davao where a knock on the door at night could mean death. The survivors carry PTSD in communities where the state itself was the perpetrator, and the transition to post-Duterte governance hasn't included accountability or psychological support. The Catholic Church, while vocally opposing the drug war, offers men confession and mass but not the therapeutic intervention that communities processing mass violence actually need. Meanwhile, Filipino men in the Gulf states — construction workers, drivers, domestic workers — face the kafala system's exploitation: passports confiscated, wages withheld, and no legal recourse in countries where their labor builds skylines their families will never see.