In 2017, James Whitlow Delano visited Manila’s slums to photograph young women and girls who lost partners to former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal campaign against suspected drug dealers. Delano has returned twice to see how their lives have changed.
Lourdes de Juan at her home in Payatas, Metro Manila, where her husband, Constantino, was shot dead by masked men in 2017. Constantino, a methamphetamine user, was a victim of the former president Rodrigo Duterte’s "war on drugs." De Juan, who has seven children, learned of Constantino’s death while serving 18 months in prison for drug offences. She now works in a coffee shop opened by a local Catholic church in the Philippine capital to provide jobs for widows of victims of extrajudicial killings. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. A bullet hole in the sofa Constantino was sitting on when he was killed, which the De Juan family still use. Duterte’s drugs crackdown, which began in 2016, claimed the lives of thousands of people. The government says 6,200 people were killed, but the international criminal court, which is investigating the deaths, says the number is at least double that. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. A portrait of Constantino sits on the urn containing his ashes in De Juan’s home. The family had to fight to have the cause of death recorded correctly on his death certificate. While authorities in Manila initially recorded his death as being from three gunshot wounds, the Philippine Statistics Authority stated he had died from a heart attack. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. De Juan’s seven children on the sofa where their father died. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. De Juan with five of her children at their home in Payatas. "I want to leave this place," she says, "find a safe place to live so the children can finish their studies." She admits it will not be easy to move. "We have lots of good memories here." Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. De Juan at work at the Silingan coffee shop in Cubao, Quezon City, Manila. She plans to start selling cooked meals from her home when her eldest daughter, Tricia, who has two young children, returns to school. "That way, I can look after the young ones while she is at school." Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. While De Juan was in jail, the children were looked after by Constantino’s mother, Remy Fernandez, who is now nearly 90. One of De Juan’s children, RJ, was born in prison. Fernandez says she feels more relaxed now that her daughter-in-law is out of prison and working. "Life feels lighter," she says. "Now I worry less about security but more about there being enough food." She adds: "I just want to live longer to see the children finish their studies." Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. The staircase at the Silingan coffee shop. As well as serving drinks, the shop also sells goods made by staff. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Jocelyn Banting, 19, with her daughter, Pao. When Banting was 14, her partner, Alan Uba, AKA "Boy Muslim," was gunned down. At the time, she was working in a bar at the Navotas fish port in Manila. She was also a sex worker. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Banting pictured in 2017, aged 14, outside her home in the Market 3 slum in Navotas. Soon after the picture was taken, she was jailed for drug possession. Not long before, she had given birth to her daughter. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines. Banting’s mother, Lenie, now 51, pictured in 2018 with court documents as she tried to get her daughter released from adult prison. She looked after Jocelyn’s daughter while she was in jail — Pau thought her grandmother was her mother and called Jocelyn "ate" (older sister in Tagalog). Lenie is now in jail awaiting trial for drug charges. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2018. Banting was released after serving 18 months in prison. She now lives in this tenement near Smokey Mountain, the former city dump in Tondo, Manila, with Pau and her partner, Julius, and his family. She hopes to marry Julius and start a family with him. Her mother is now serving time in prison on drug charges. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Banting shows a tattoo of the former name of her daughter, Samera. The tattoo covers scars from a self-harm wound. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Girls play on a homemade pool table in a common area of the tenement. Now with a new partner and reunited with her daughter, Banting says she is grateful to have survived Duterte’s five-year campaign. "All I hope for now is for my mother to get out from prison," she says. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Jasmine Durana, 20, holds Hirven, her second child, in Navotas, Manila, where she lives. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Durana in 2018 crossing the Navotas River, near her home. Her husband, Toto, was killed by masked men after they stormed into the house she shared with him and her month-old daughter, Hazel. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines. A barangay (barrio or district in Tagalog) in Navotas. After Toto was killed, Durana moved back to her parents’ home. She now lives in a cramped two-room makeshift house with her three children, mother, siblings, nieces and nephews. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Hazel in the family home. "Taking care of three young children alone is so difficult," says Durana. "It is hard for us now because I have no job and sometimes no money to buy food for the three of them." She has to rely on the money her mother, Vicky, earns as a cleaner. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. Durana packs to go to Puerto Galera, a town on the Philippine island of Mindoro, after being offered a job as a masseuse in a resort. Having left school when she was nine after a leg injury prevented her from attending, she was nervous about taking the job, but said the family needed the money. She had previously worked in a massage parlour but some clients expected sex, which she refused. The friend who recommended the new job assured her that it did not involve sex work. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022. It did not take long after arriving in Puerto Galera for Durana to realise she would be expected to have sex with clients. She left the resort and returned to Manila the next day. "Without a job, how can I ever provide for my children?" she asks. Image by James Whitlow Delano. Philippines, 2022.
October 13, 2022
