Jesus, that was rough.
Delikado focuses on the work of indigenous land defenders in the Philippines, protecting their island against illegal logging. All the odds are stacked against them, and the film follows the huge sacrifices they make in trying to protect their land and people.
Let’s just start here – everyone knows that the law is only the law for the powerless. You don’t curtail people who are powerful and you don’t get between the rich and their money, those are the only rules that get enforced. So the fact that the logging is illegal, that is only a word used to give authorities permission to shake down poor people with no other choice for getting income. But actually impacting the bottom line of those whose wealth relies of the destruction of our natural resources? That’s never going to be on the table.
In response to the complete impunity abundant all around them, local people form PNNI, an organisation which co-ordinates citizen’s arrests of loggers, and the confiscation of their equipment. Kap and Tata go out to the forest barefoot and silent in small teams, and scout logging sites. When the loggers go for a fag break or a slash, Kap and Tata sneak up and swipe their chainsaw. They have so many that PNNI headquarters has a fence made out of rusting chainsaws.
If it’s safe to do so, and as the film progresses it becomes so less and less often, they make a citizen’s arrest. This involves making a record of the incident and explaining to the logger that what they are doing is illegal, and what penalties they can face under the law. Then they turn them loose, just without their chainsaws. It’s surprising how gentle and empathetic the guys are with the loggers. Given how strongly they feel the destruction of their land, given how many have lost friends at the hands of illegal loggers, you would expect they would see them as their enemies and treat them with contempt. But it’s the exact opposite. They tell them they understand what it is like to live in poverty, they understand what it is like to feel there is no other way. They tell them about the penalties but what they are really telling them is, the men who hired you, who will get rich off this, they won’t go to jail, but you will. The risk of being out here is all on you.
Bobby is the PNNI lawyer. He makes sure the team always keeps on the right side of the law. Everyone understands that the loggers could cut down thousands of trees with no reaction from the police, but if even one of the PNNI steps out of line on an action, they would come down on them like a ton of bricks. The classic old ‘the law is powerless to help you, not powerless to punish you’.
Watching Kap and Tata and the rest go on these raids is stomach-churningly tense. The loggers have lookouts, the lookouts have guns. Kap and the rest are there in t-shirts and flip-flops, with a spanner for dismantling the chainsaw. The bravery of these men, to try to sneak past armed guards all to defend the trees, it’s incredible. No one can question their dedication.
And the danger is very real. Under Duterte life is cheap in the Philippines. He openly advocates for extrajudicial killing, and he simply labels his enemies as drug traffickers to ensure that they can murdered without question. As long as there is money in it for him and his cronies, people can log as they like.
The Mayor of El Nido in Palawan is Nieves, a staunch ally of PNNI, indigenous people’s land rights and environmental protections. The saying goes that there is no such thing as an honest politician, and it is proven true as much because of what happens to the ones that are honest as to what happens to the ones that aren’t. Nieves has the gall to stand up against indiscriminate tourist expansion, advocating for sustainable eco-tourism that is proportionate and appropriate for the area. She pointed out how the inward expansion was necessitating roads which was contributing to vast swathes of illegal logging. No good news if, like the Governor, you ran a logging business, or like the President, you have money in tourist resorts. Nieves gets to find out what happens if you get between rich men and their money.
Delikado shows the price of concerted community resistance, and how having the law on your side can only take you so far. It gives a face and a family to those who risk death rather than let our natural world be lost forever. We owe them a huge irreparable debt.