Polytechnic University of the Philippines

College of Communication
Department of Communication Research
NDC Campus Anonas Street Sta. Mesa, Manila

Duterte: Drug War to Continue despite Kian’s Death

Output − Media Analysis 2

Gigawin, Rayvelyn G.
BACR 2-2/ 2019-12456-MN-0
rayvegigawin@gmail.com

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

CORE 30033 Media Construction and Deconstruction
First Semester AY 2020-2021

January 2021
Reconstruction of Media Text

2016 – the start of Pres. Duterte's administration, as well as the start of his plan to get rid of drug
use and addiction here in the Philippines. Along with these pronouncements, he tied his personality with
the catchy promise: ‘change is coming’. He starts his term with his “Oplan Tokhang”, and one of the victims
is Kian Delos Santos in early as 2017, a year after the project was initiated.

Kian’s case is one of the noisiest cases on the EJK that combined the cries for justice and the calls
to stop killing the innocents caught in the crossfire. The age of the victim and his last words ‘Sir huwag po!
Tama na po! May test pa ako bukas!’ evoked familiarity with both the segments of the poor (who have no
power to resist the abuses conducted by state forces while also crippled in poverty due to lack of education)
and human rights groups (who are wary about the war on drugs from the start). Last Aug. 22, 2017, PTV
News published on their website that President Duterte wants a thorough probe on Delos Santos’ case. The
news headline is the media text that I both deconstruct and reconstruct.

To do the reconstruction, I use Fairclough’s (1995) second dimension of his CDA Model that I also used
in deconstruction1—Discursive Practices.

Discursive practices focus on analyzing the encoding and decoding processes of text. To make it easier to
understand, refer to the figure below:

Figure 1. Analysis using Discursive Practices

According to the figure presented, PTV is the author of the text, while I am (hypothetically) one of the
consumers who decodes the text. PTV encodes what Pres. Duterte have said to the reporters on Malago,
Malacañang, and then present it to the consumer to decode the message based on his/her existing belief.

The reconstructed media text I will present you is based on how I consumed the news article produced by
the PTV:

1
See Analyzing PTV’s Headline using Fairclough’s Model of Critical Discourse Analysis, pp. 6
Figure 2. Analysis using Discursive Practice

The most important elements to focus on in this discussion are [1] media text, [2] consumer, [3], and
producer.

‘President Duterte wants thorough probe into Kian’s case, won’t tolerate police abuses’ is the original media
text that I have consumed. Later on, by doing some re-reading on the news article itself and comparison
from other reports, I came up with this reconstruction: Duterte: Drug war to continue despite Kian’s death.
This media text will be further discussed later.

As you can see from Figure 2, the producer I place there is an Investigative Journalist because of the level
of sensitivity of the topic and content. Hypothetically speaking, I am the author of the text, and to present
it truthfully, I need to conduct an in-depth information gathering for the creation of the news article about
Kian (war on drugs victim). Suggestively, an investigative journalist has the greater capacity to receive,
collect, create, and present accurate investigation. In addition, instead of placing an
‘organization/corporation’ from media industry, I specifically set investigative journalist (a person) to be
the author, because it signifies a person’s great responsibility on creating a report; particularly when a
person’s name is publicly displayed together with the article. It is in difference to what the previous
headline’s author, the PTV, represents organization that is under the administration. Thus, to remove
(unwanted) organizational biased report, I choose to use a specific person in authoring a very significant
issue.

On the other hand, I place Filipino Citizen as the consumer of the media text, because the people who
experienced and witness this reality is us, Filipinos. We have faced this kind of issue since 2016 at the start
of Duterte’s administration, where most of the heinous crimes happened to us and perceived by some as
robbing our basic human rights—the right to live. Like the way on how I specify ‘who’ the producer will
be, I correspondingly signified the consumer in precise way, as well through indicating ‘who are the
receivers’. If the consumer is identified, the social construct will be easier to recognize because of the shared
meaning and values embedded on them, and the identification of actors would allow for determination of
commonalities that could be present in their perception of any information. Therefore, in this case, I
highlighted the consumer as Filipinos not just because they are the ones that experienced the events, but
also to highlight them as consumer of these information.

Scrutinization of the Reconstructed Media Text

Duterte: Drug war to continue despite Kian’s death

The previous text we use has the subject, ‘President Duterte’, who wants a thorough probe in Kian’s case,
as well as he does not want to tolerate police abuses. Alternatively, I put ‘Duterte’ similarly as the subject,
but I remove ‘President’. Stating his title (president) will not make a significant difference even if I include
it, because he ‘Duterte’ already reflects power and authority in Philippine society. The big difference
between the headline I reconstructed and the headline I used in deconstruction is the emphasis on ‘action’
that Duterte really wants. The former headline states that there are two things that Duterte wants; first, a
thorough probe in Kian’s case; followed by not tolerating police abuses. However, the media text I
reconstruct does not say the same thing; instead, I put that Duterte still wants to continue the drug war
despite Kian’s death.

Reading the entire news article created by the PTV (Aug. 22, 2017) made me realize that it is more factual
to put ‘drug war to continue’ and remove ‘wants thorough probe’ because as stated from the article, “He
reiterated that his order to the authorities was to neutralize criminals who resist arrest, but if the investigation
would prove that there was a “rubout”, those responsible would be put behind bars.” (PTV News, 2017)
Supposedly, the topic of his speech is to give justice for Kian by giving a thorough probe in the
investigation, but he only mentioned it in the beginning, then he reiterates that his order will continue the
operations, completely ignoring the case of the 17-year-old victim. I also remove ‘won’t tolerate police
abuses’ and replace it with ‘despite Kian’s death’, since Duterte does not want to give pressure on his police
force. He intended not to visit Kian’s wake for it might cause suppositions since he emphasized that it may
pressure the police. “I would be putting so much pressure on the police… I cannot do that because the
organization sa PNP is under me. I would be the last person to condemn them without a valid investigation,”
he said. (PTV News, 2017). The thought that he does not want to pressure the police force already claims
toleration. Hence, placing ‘despite Kian’s death’ is more likely appropriate as part of the headline of the
said article. Both the former and reconstructed headline demonstrates Duterte’s power, but different in each
way. PTV’s headline tells us that Duterte as the symbol and literal source of power, the one that would
deliver justice for Filipinos, and impartial in treating the police force even though they are under his
authority. In contrast, the reconstructed headline strongly disagrees on what the former headline claims.
Instead, it shows the questionable integrity the president has, which is problematic for a person in ‘power’
like him that holds the highest seat on the Philippines. Mentioned above that Duterte entitled PNP as an
organization under him – capable of executing the order he gave them which reflects the same authority
that could demean a common Filipino if the pronouncement and usage of power is menacing to both his
constituents and his perceived enemies. Therefore, immoral practice of power in society could affect the
normative aspect of the entire society and could transform into a terrible condition that will be the perpetual
cause of social injustices and would give a scary omen that Kian would not be the last victim in the war on
drugs.

References
News, PTV. (Aug. 22, 2017). President Duterte wants thorough probe into Kian's case, won't tolerate
police abuses. Philippines: PTV News. Retrieved from President Duterte wants thorough probe
into Kian’s case, won’t tolerate police abuses | PTV News
Richardson, J. E. (2007). Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. New
York: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.