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Duterte’s anti-communist crusade entangles Filipino cultural performance group
- Members of Teatro Obrero described being mocked by police and military personnel and forced to dance during their weeklong period of detention
- They were arrested as part of a sweeping counter-insurgency operation ordered by the Philippine president that also targeted advocacy groups
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Workers’ rights activists in the Philippines have accused authorities of abuse after revealing how they were swept up in President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on a long-running communist insurgency which he has vowed to “destroy” before leaving office.
The performance artists from Teatro Obrero, the cultural arm of the National Federation of Sugar Workers, were arrested in a raid in Bacolod, central Philippines’ Negros island, on October 31.
The group, best known for its cultural performances and re-enactments of what it calls the history of exploitative practices on Negros’ sugar plantations, has been accused by Philippine authorities of having communist sympathies – a practice known locally as “red-tagging”.
During the raid, armed officers wearing masks burst into the room where the group was rehearsing for an upcoming performance commemorating the end of Spanish colonisation, raised their guns and ordered everyone to lie face down on the ground, said Joe Del Mar A. Tano II, a member of the group.
“They made us drop and look down so we wouldn’t see what they were doing inside the office,” said the 18-year-old, who added that he “was kicked by a policeman in the back” when he tried to look up after hearing some younger members of the group crying.
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