Pod series on Duterte War on Drugs becomes first Asian podcast archived by US Library of Congress

A six-part serial audio documentary on President Rodrigo Duterte's signature campaign to rid the Philippines of illegal drugs has become the first Philippine-made podcast — and the first from Asia — to be included in the US Library of Congress (LOC) Podcast Preservation Project.

"Tokhang sa Tokhang," produced by Quezon City-based PumaPodcast/ PumaPublic Productions, captures and reflects on conversations with a wide range of resources including drug users, police, drug enforcement officials, journalists, legislators, widows, and families orphaned by killings related to anti-drug operation.

Together with "Tokhang sa Tokhang," the Library of Congress Podcast Preservation Project will also archive a few more from PumaPodcast's plethora of offerings, including its "COVID Diaries" series, and its general feed of news and explainer podcasts.

"Tokhang sa Tokhang" is now available to researches and policymakers onsite at the offline research facilities of the LOC and ultimately, it will be made available for direct download through the LOC's online platforms.

In the meantime, the series, as well as the rest of PumaPodcast's work are available for streaming and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, Stitcher, and more podcasting platforms.

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library and the official resource for American policymakers. It is America's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress.

In January 2020, it started acquiring podcasts in its mission to collect and preserve sound recordings. They started reaching out to podcast producers as early as 2019, recognising the crucial role of audio and podcasts in capturing the zeitgeist.    

According to press statement from PumaPodcast, they received a letter from the manager of LOC's Podcast Preservation Project, saying they "identified PumaPodcast's works as among those we would like to include in our collection. We consider them to be an important part of the cultural and historical record."

The project's managers affirmed that PumaPaodcast projects are the first out of the whole of Asia to be included in their curated content. — LA, GMA News