Abstract
Utilizing the lens of Philippine historical conditions, the series Patay Kung Patay (Dead Means Dead, 2015–present) imagines zombies as revolutionary actors who confront the nation’s legacy of colonialism and rise up against the brutalities of cacique democracy. But Patay’s portrait of social upheaval is fractured by contradictions. Consciousness is often understood to be foundational to revolution. What does the series imply, then, when it imagines agents of radical social transformation as unconscious beings that lack free will? The series also largely addresses urban-dwelling, college-educated Filipinos with discretionary income. As such, Patay arguably commodifies the plight of the rural working class, turning a tale of socioeconomic revolution into the stuff of fantastical entertainment.
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Notes
- 1.
Aries Joseph Hegina, “Duterte: I won’t rule with ‘zombies’ around,” Inquirer.net, March 6, 2016. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/771175/duterte-i-wont-rule-with-zombies-around. Support for this project was provided by a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York.
- 2.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency reports that 5526 Filipinos have been killed in anti-drug operations between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2019. The Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights, however, estimates that as many as 27,000 lives have been claimed by the “war on drugs.” Sofia Tomacruz, “Duterte gov’t tally: Drug war deaths top 5,500 before SONA 2019,” Rappler, July 21, 2019. https://www.rappler.com/nation/235712-duterte-government-tally-drug-war-deaths-before-sona-2019; Davinci Maru, “CHR Chief: Drug war deaths could be as high as 27,000,” ABS-CBN News, December 5, 2018. https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/12/05/18/chr-chief-drug-war-deaths-could-be-as-high-as-27000
- 3.
Quoted in Marichu A. Villanueva, “Duterte likens drug addicts to zombies,” Philstar Global, August 24, 2016. https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/08/24/1616655/duterte-likens-drug-addicts-zombies
- 4.
Duterte vs. Zombies is one of several mobile games that celebrate Duterte’s “Dirty Harry” persona. These games, in which the figure of Duterte is pitted against monsters and/or criminals, have been downloaded by millions of users. Human rights advocates have petitioned the removal of these games from the Apple Store and Google Play, writing that these “games valorize and normalize the emerging tyranny of Duterte’s presidency and his government’s disregard for human rights principles.” “Philippines: Human Rights Groups Ask Apple to Reject Games Glorifying Duterte’s War on Drugs,” Advox: Global Voices, October 19, 2017. https://advox.globalvoices.org/2017/10/19/philippines-human-rights-groups-ask-apple-to-reject-games-glorifying-president-dutertes-war-on-drugs/
- 5.
Initially meant to be a six-issue series, the narrative has now been expanded to eight installments. This essay discusses the first five issues. In an email message, Mike Alcazaren, one of the series’ creators, writes that the final book will be a double issue (issues 7 and 8). Mike Alcazaren, email message to Lara Saguisag, October 9, 2019.
- 6.
Much has been written about the ways zombie narratives function as political commentary. Some notable recent publications on the subject are Sarah Juliet Lauro, The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2015); David R. Castillo, David Schmid, David A. Reilly, and John Edgar Browning, Zombie Talk: Culture, History, Politics (London: Palgrave, 2016); Sarah Juliet Lauro, ed., Zombie Theory: A Reader (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017); and Elizabeth Aiossa, The Subversive Zombie: Social Protests and Gender in Undead Cinema (Jefferson: McFarland, 2018).
- 7.
Katrina Stuart Santiago, “Comics for these times,” The Sunday Times Magazine, June 5, 2016. https://www.manilatimes.net/comics-for-these-times/265944/
- 8.
Lauro, Transatlantic Zombie, 93.
- 9.
Aiossa, Subversive Zombie, 21.
- 10.
Benedict Anderson, “Cacique Democracy in the Philippines: Origins and Dreams,” Discrepant Histories: Translocal Essays on Philippine Cultures, edited by Vicente L. Rafael (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995), 3–47.
- 11.
Anderson, “Cacique Democracy,” 3–4.
- 12.
Mike Alcazaren, Noel Pascual, and AJ Bernardo, Patay Kung Patay #1 (Alcazaren Brothers/ Flipbooks, 2015).
- 13.
For the history of land ownership and failed attempts at land reform in the Philippines, see Anderson, “Cacique Democracy” and Danilo T. Carranza, “Agrarian reform and the difficult road to peace in the Philippine countryside,” Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, December 2015. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Carranza_NOREF_Agrarian%20reform%20and%20the%20difficult%20road%20to%20peace%20in%20the%20Philippine%20countryside_Dec2015_FINAL.pdf
- 14.
Anderson, “Cacique Democracy,” 3–4.
- 15.
Nick Aspinwall, “Duterte Turns Death Squads on Political Activists,” Foreign Policy, June 10, 2019. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/10/duterte-turns-death-squads-on-political-activists/
- 16.
Alcazaren, Pascual, and Bernardo, Patay #1, my translation.
- 17.
The graffiti is captured in an undated photograph by Ruth Lumibao, as part of her report that marked the 13-year anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre. Ruth Lumibao, “When harvests grow on bloodied fields,” Bulatlat, November 17, 2017. https://www.bulatlat.com/2017/11/17/harvests-grow-bloodied-fields/
- 18.
Mike Alcazaren, Noel Pascual, and AJ Bernardo, Patay Kung Patay #2 (Alcazaren Brothers/ Flipbooks, 2015).
- 19.
Mike Alcazaren, Noel Pascual, and AJ Bernardo, Patay Kung Patay #3 (Alcazaren Brothers/ Flipbooks, 2016), my translation.
- 20.
Mike Alcazaren, Noel Pascual, and AJ Bernardo, Patay Kung Patay #4 (Alcazaren Brothers/ Flipbooks, 2016), my translation.
- 21.
Christine Bacareza Balance, “Dahil Sa Iyo: The Performative Power of Imelda’s Song,” Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory vol. 20, no. 2 (2010): 121.
- 22.
Balance, “Dahil Sa Iyo,” 121.
- 23.
Áine Mangaoang, “Dancing to Distraction: Mediating ‘Docile Bodies’ in ‘Philippine Thriller Video,’” Torture vol. 23, no. 2 (2013): 53.
- 24.
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, “The Mark of Sakay: The Vilified Hero of Our War with America,” The Philippine Star, September 2, 2008. https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/arts-and-culture/2008/09/08/398993/mark-sakay-vilified-hero-our-war-america. In this essay, Nakpil offers a counternarrative of Sakay that pushes back against the persistent colonial histories that tend to diminish and demonize the revolutionary leader.
- 25.
In reprintings of early issues, Dolores is given more dialogue. In the first edition of Patay Kung Patay #1, Dolores is silent as she casts the crumbled remains of a human heart into the air. In a later edition, the same scene shows Dolores uttering the words, “Tiempo muerto.”
- 26.
Alcazaren, Pascual, and Bernardo, Patay #1, my translation.
- 27.
Kaiama L. Glover, “New Narratives of Haiti: or, How to Empathize with a Zombie,” Small Axe vol. 16, no. 3 (2012): 202–203.
- 28.
Vicente L. Rafael, “Welcoming What Comes: Sovereignty and Revolution in Colonial Philippines,” Comparative Studies in Society and History vol. 52, no. 1 (2010): 169.
- 29.
Quoted in Rafael, “Welcoming,” 169.
- 30.
Rafael, “Welcoming,” 170.
- 31.
Quoted in Rafael, “Welcoming,” 171.
- 32.
Mike Alcazaren, Noel Pascual, and AJ Bernardo, Patay Kung Patay #5 (Alcazaren Brothers/ Flipbooks, 2017).
- 33.
Alcazaren, Pascual, and Bernardo, Patay #5.
- 34.
For more on the Philippine komiks industry, see Mynardo Macaraig, “‘Komiks’ Industry Fights for Survival,” ABS-CBN News, October 17, 2010. https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/10/17/10/komiks-industry-fights-survival. Also see John Lent, The First One Hundred Years of Philippine Komiks and Cartoons (Tagaytay: Yonzon, 2009).
- 35.
On his Facebook page, in a reply to a comment requesting a reprint of the first issue, AJ Bernardo indicates that the current budget for the series was meant to cover the cost of printing the last issue. He did not offer any guarantees for reprints of preceding issues. AJ Bernardo’s Facebook page, May 24, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/aj.bernardo.52
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Saguisag, L. (2020). Zombie Komiks in a Cacique Democracy: Patay Kung Patay’s Undead Revolution. In: Picariello, D.K. (eds) The Politics of Horror. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42015-4_10
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