RAFFY: When you drive
around the streets of Manila,
I don't remember by place,
landmarks, I remember
crime scenes.
There was one there
and there, there.
RAFFY: I have to
fight becoming numb.
That's why I go to
wakes, to funerals.
To I guess know more
about these victims.
Try to find the story.
RAFFY: Every day you
cover these scenes,
chips away at your humanity
but it's more important to
cover these killings
than to do nothing at all.
In photojournalism, I believe
that you have a purpose of
documenting history
unfolding before your eyes.
In the Philippines we have
a president who's instigating
that it's okay to kill
and now every day someone
is going to get killed and
we don't really know
who is doing the killings.
We can't just be
passive about it,
we have to actively challenge
what's happening because we
know it's wrong.
We know it's wrong.
RAFFY: Some call us the
nightcrawlers of Manila,
just a loose group of
journalists who share the same
passion in telling this story.
The drug war, the
injustice that's going on.
WOMAN: This is Selene,
on that morning three
people were killed.
She just found out
her husband was dead.
VINCENT: These are
somebody's fathers, brothers,
sons, mothers, sisters.
They're human.
VINCENT: It's really crazy.
We have never seen
anything like that.
RAFFY: I've been a
photojournalist for many years
but in this drug war,
in the first 100 days,
I was shocked.
In the beginning we were
mostly staff photojournalists.
We knew that the drug
war was the big story
so we built our networks,
separate teams covering
different areas of Metro Manila.
You were chasing time.
It was one body after another.
MAN: Let's go, let's go.
RAFFY: I remember people
getting killed around Metro
Manila, North, East, South.
I didn't know where to go.
Speeding through
streets and a pack of
journalists by your side.
The destruction, the
devastation, chasing...
chasing bodies.
All these families, you
could hear their screams.
Well, I could
remember July 23,
from afar I could already see
that there was a strong image.
There was a police
cordon around and they were
at the center of everything.
But I could still remember
there was a police officer
calling out to us to
stop taking photographs.
It was the way
Jennelyn Olaires was
holding onto her partner.
How she cradled Michael Ceron.
I knew if that
picture would be used,
there would be impact.
RAFFY: The president about
the photo in the newspaper.
♪ ♪
CARLO: Children are gonna
be the ones who are gonna reap
all this culture of impunity.
Directly or indirectly.
I decided to explore the
ones who were left behind,
the orphans.
CARLO: She is this amazing
strong headed 12-year-old.
Her father was
killed in front of her.
Whenever I go there I just
listen to their stories,
talk to them and
slowly they develop
a relationship with
you as well.
CARLO: So it went
through the couch and
this is where the bullet hit.
CARLO: They have no
livelihood at all.
They're struggling,
struggling to survive.
It's, yeah, it's
difficult seeing that.
(speaking in native language).
CARLO: You get attached.
I feel responsible for them.
 REPORTER (over TV):
 The national police claims
 the volume of crimes
 in the Philippines
 dropped in 2017 by 21.8%.
 REPORTER 2 (over TV): The PNP
 spokesperson Dionardo Carlos
 says the numbers show
 the country has become
 a safer place in 2017.
 REPORTER 3 (over TV):
 President Duterte orders the
 police to return to
 his war on drugs.
 REPORTER 4 (over TV):
 Cops conducted simultaneous
 operations on illegal drugs,
 13 are killed and
 15 are arrested for 49
 anti-drugs operations.
 MAN (over TV): People accused o
 selling drugs are being killed.
 REPORTER 5 (over TV):
 7,000 have been
 killed in the drug war.
WOMAN:
That's mine. That's mine!
RAFFY: Well, it's now getting
harder to cover the killings
with all these
negative stories.
Police, government, they
want to change their image.
 REPORTER 6 (over TV): Officers
 have repeatedly been accused
 of hunting down and executing
 people but they insist
 all the killings are the
 results of shootouts.
RAFFY: They say these
alleged drug pushers
and users fought back.
It's so easy to place a gun.
How do we know?
And the police are saying these
are not the doings of police,
many were killed by vigilantes.
Things don't add up.
Who are the vigilantes?
We have so many questions.
VINCENT: There's three
crime scenes right now.
(crying).
(crying).
VINCENT: Unknown gunmen
on motorcycles shot him.
VINCENT: And it's so fucked
up that the family has suffered
this long.
It's so heartbreaking man.
(crying).
(crying).
(sighs).
VINCENT: The victim's
name is Jonathon Vilia,
24-years-old.
 REPORTER 7 (over TV):
 Rodrigo Duterte is the first
 candidate to effectively
 harness social media,
 the same network that put
 him in power is targeting
 journalists and anyone being
 critical of the president.
 REPORTER 8 (over TV): All he
 seems to want to do is to make
 journalists understand that
 they should be very afraid.
RAFFY: Now I am looking
for a powerful photo
that can really stop this,
but I know it might cost a life,
even our lives, but we
have to do whatever it takes.
RAFFY: The media is
being bullied and we
should defend the truth.
MAN: Defend! Defend!
Defend press freedom!
GROUP: Defend! Defend!
Defend press freedom!
(speaking in native language).
RAFFY: Media should
now fight back too.
MAN: Defend! Defend!
Defend press freedom!
GROUP: Defend! Defend!
Defend press freedom!
 REPORTER (over TV):
 Human rights groups here
 and abroad voice concern
 over creeping media
 repression in the Philippines.
 Many of these online attacks
 were led by influential
 bloggers and propagandists.
 REPORTER 10 (over TV):
 Despite the threats,
 journalists are
 standing their ground.
RAFFY: We know that all
of us photojournalists are
united against the
killing but, of course,
it's still not
enough to make them stop,
so I gave my resignation letter.
We will still do
damage one way or another.
(gunshot).
(gunshot).
(gunshot).
RAFFY: At the start when I
entered this drug war I was
trying to capture
those moments that
could really move people.
I didn't put much thought
into defiance until now.
Until now.
Police were not
there to immobilize him.
To be able to immobilize a
person you fire a shot but if
you finish a whole clip...
We will be vigilant.
We will be going back
again in the streets.
We will be watching them.
MAN: They hurry to the scene
to try to get a shot of the
body and the details of the
story before the authorities
can clean up the site.
Journalists Filipinos call
The Nightcrawlers of Manila.
CARLO: Things like
this are still happening.
It may have died in
the mainstream news
but it's still happening.
If you listen
closely to the story,
this is the actual couch
where her father died.
You'll see the
bullet hole right there.
RAFFY: Because of these
photos people began talking
about the drug war
and the brutality of it.
MAN: They rarely
publish something like this.
We have to get
these photos out.
 REPORTER (over TV):
 We're joined in New York
 by an incredibly brave
 award winning
 photojournalist Raffy Lerma.
 Do you think your photos
 could stop the killings?
RAFFY: It's not me alone,
it's not two photos alone.
We will be there, we
will do our work but
it's the work of everyone,
it's a collective effort.
WOMAN: We are very lucky
to have seven journalists
from the Philippines.
RAFFY: Thank you for coming.
I know the photos
are a bit heavy.
I've seen (inaudible) and
they're stopping the US
journalists because of that
but it shouldn't be that way.
We shouldn't be
scared of them.
They can say whatever they
want but will it stop us?
No.
MAN: Why did we have
to cover this one?
You are just presenting...
narratives will
always be narratives
but the point here is this,
the Filipinos are divided in
the kind of thought they have
towards the president so why
we should not care about him?
These people here, they
have the one-sided thought,
saying all this
negativity will.
MAN 2: What's the real thing?
What's the real thing?
MAN: This negativity here.
The story behind all this,
give us a
sufficient (inaudible) and
not all of this right now.
WOMAN: Okay, okay.
RAFFY: I have a
question for you.
How will you solve it?
RAFFY: But how many
people are killed?
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
RAFFY: The majority of people
still support the drug war but
after the six years of
President Duterte you just
have to ask yourselves,
what did you do?
The end will not
justify the means for me.
We allowed the killing of
thousands for achieving what
we want and that's wrong.
RAFFY: I've asked
myself so many times why?
Why do I do this?
Every day that you wake up,
okay it's a struggle now.
But there's a big
part of you saying,
yeah you have to continue.
I hope in time people
will eventually realize
killing is not the answer.
If not, how could
we, as a country,
change and move forward?
(gunshots).
(music plays through credits).
Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.
