LEGITIMIZING FEAR: IMAGES AND SYMBOLS OF DUTERTE'S DRUG WAR

The year 2016-as President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office, the implementation of his drug war has also commenced with the utmost commitment to the total eradication of "drug addicts" all across the nation and ending the era of the Philippines; being a "narcotic state." Along with the execution of the policy comes the emergence of objects: the corpses of drug war victims and the drug watchlist that affect the attitude of people towards the policy and the government. This article argues that meanings that people attach to certain things or phenomena influence the people's collective behavior and actions leading to submission and compliance.

Employing a qualitative research design, the researcher conducted a Key- Informant Interview (KII) guided by a semi-structured questionnaire in data collection where respondents were the Recovering Drug Dependents (RDDs) of Koronadal City, South Cotabato.

The study found out that the politicization of objects in the government's drug war has indeed influenced the behavior of the respondents by being utilized as vessels that evoke certain emotions and feelings from the populace, which drove them into action. It is clear that fear became the central element for the strengthened imposition of compliance and submission among the RDDs. The intrinsic human reaction of evading the feeling of disgust, discomfort, and fear of punishment, death, and pain has enabled the RDDs to be subjected to sovereign authority without the direct deployment of state force.