Police Power in the Philippines in the Time of the Pandemic

Abstract

In the essay “Police Power: The Biopolitical State Apparatus and Differential Interpellations,” Banu Bargu developed the notion of the Biopolitical State Apparatus (BSA). This essay deploys Bargu’s notion of the BSA within what it claims is a militarized police power in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Illustrating how the functioning of militarized police power underpins the implementation of public-health policy and the enforcement of laws that complement such power, the essay will further demonstrate through the BSA concept what police power says about the state under the Duterte regime, how this regime relates to the state of exception and posttruth politics, and how its policing operates in contrast to other states.