Another demonization flick

For a production that literally crashed at the box office tills as it went by the free US broadcast channel without generating the targeted buzz, much less the interest of viewers, the expensive documentary “On the President’s Orders” surprisingly has a sequel called “The Nightcrawlers.”

While the first screening was about policemen and the war on drugs operations, “The Nightcrawlers” is about the mythical vigilante squad through a production of no less than National Geographic.

Since the first installment did not hit it big on mainstream American television, a bigger audience is needed through a worldwide release of the new demonization campaign.

“When I smoke meth, I feel nothing when I kill,” goes one of the characters in the Nat Geo installment.

The man being interviewed was using shabu and was supposedly a hitman targeting drug users who, of course, was made to appear to have a direct line to Malacañang. The documentary, similar to “On the President’s Orders,” will also have an extensive run in the United States aside from the Nat Geo cable channel.

It narrated the experiences of photojournalists who have documented allegedly “thousands of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, said to be ordered by police at the encouragement of strongman president Rodrigo Duterte.”

The film apparently also targeted the International Criminal Court since the script appeared aligned to the complaint of crimes against humanity against the President that left-leaning groups have taken over from lawyer Jude Sabio, a stooge of coup plotter Antonio Trillanes IV.

The movie’s appeal to the emotion was too evident as it follows the exploits of photographers tagging along with “masked vigilantes” who then brazenly gun down users and pushers in the streets of Manila.

The documentary, of course, won’t say how on earth the vigilantes were identified and what proof can be presented to associate them with the administration, except for the narrative that it was a given part of the anti-narcotics drive.

The flagship campaign of Rody against narcotics is being relentlessly pursued despite the painful backlash of having to weed out the rotten eggs both in government and the police force who benefit immensely from the lucrative illegal trade.

Promotion for the movie stated that “‘The Nightcrawlers’ picks up where another just-released documentary, ‘On the President’s Orders,’ leaves off.”

The only evidence presented in the documentary about the hand of Rody in the supposed rights abuses in the conduct of the anti-narcotics campaign was his speeches, particularly his oft-repeated line about him being “happy to slaughter” three million drug dealers and his supposed admission that, “My only sin is the extrajudicial killings.”

In the new production, a supposed hired gun admitted being recruited by the police. “A vigilante tells us about the time his posse accidentally killed an innocent man and the police helped out by planting guns and drugs on him,” a narrator went.

The storyline also claimed arrests are sometimes made (of the vigilantes) “but we’re told they’re just for show, and the suspects are routinely let free once the cameras stop rolling.”

“The news, it’s all lies,” goes one of the vigilantes.

Supposed sources of the documentary gave an estimate of “6,000 killers” roaming Metro Manila hunting down drug users and traffickers.

Of course, the highlight of the back-to-back demonization movies was to underline the Trillanes figure of 27,000 extrajudicial killings, which is being peddled to have happened during Rody’s term but that was proven time and again to be mere propaganda.

Rody’s adversaries apparently have all the money to burn just to keep up the destabilization effort against the widely popular President.

The detractors even win several awards for their productions but these miserably fail among the Filipino public who know better about what is really transpiring in the country.