Let them Eat Rats! The Politics of Rodent Infestation in the Postwar Philippines

This article is a preliminary exploration of the politics of the “war on rats” as the Philippine state evolved from its weak position in the postwar period to gain relative strength since the late 1960s. Initially when the central state was virtually incapable of combating rat infestation, rats figured in a rich narrative; but this narrative was replaced by a dull argot of science and development as technocracy and military expansion dominated rat campaigns. Relatedly, as the central state deepened patronage ties with rural warlords, particularly in Cotabato, wars between rival ethnoreligious groups erupted in which, uncannily, local understandings of this conflict called upon the old discourse on rats.