Stories & Photographs by Jofelle Tesorio

On June 30, Rodrigo Duterte will take over from outgoing President Benigno Aquino for a term of six years. His main agenda is to eradicate corruption and criminality within six months of office. He wants to bring back death penalty and promises to give dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial. “As I have said in the miting de avance, my parting words was that, ‘if you destroy my country, I will kill you. If you destroy the youth of this country, I will kill you’.” This is incoming Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte during a thanksgiving rally in his hometown Davao City. As he sends his message to drug pushers, criminals and policemen who take bribes from drug syndicates, the crowd cheered to their new hero, their David who is ready to slay Goliath. He ups the ante by calling on ordinary citizens to arrest suspected criminals. “Feel free to call us, the police or do it yourself if you have the gun. You have my support,” he encourages. TOUGH LOVE. Incoming Philippine pr...

This is the typical night in a call centre in Manila. A Filipino service representative is patiently giving advice to an American customer regarding car insurance. She is one of the 1.2 million Filipinos employed in the Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing or IT-BPO. For the last seven years, Maria Aguilar, has been working for an American-owned firm. “We have rotation schedules. Sometimes I work in the night shift and sometimes I work in the mid-shift. That would be from 1pm to 10pm," says Maria. Since most clients are from the West, a regular shift is from 9pm to 6am. The names of multinational BPO companies are displayed outside an office building in Eastwood, Quezon City, Philippines. Jobs at the IT-BPO vary—from making and receiving calls to making animation and accounting services. Jaren Atrero works for a Canadian company. “Basically our clients are some who are dealing with engineering, electric, mechanical kind of thing...