Filling the Duterte vacuum

Whether or not Vice President Sara Duterte is removed from office, the general perspective that this is merely political drama and not a feat of justice needs to be given serious attention. Rather than treating the Dutertes as a phenomenon of fanaticism and delusion, the opposition needs to focus on aspirations among the country’s poor majority.

While dismantling the Dutertes’ influence and holding them to account for the atrocious crimes and social costs of their administration, the opposition also has to prepare to quickly fill in the vacuum. This can only be filled by a political figure who understands not just the cadence of the Duterte rhetoric, but pays attention to the true nature of its content.

The truth is, opposition allies and supporters have stopped paying genuine attention to the legitimate anxieties that voters believed Duterte could address, because they’ve been lumped with the extreme DDS, or Die-hard Duterte Supporters. Not every Duterte voter is a DDS caricature of a cussing misogynist.

Scholar Dr. Veronica Gregorio conducted a study among overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Duterte supporters in Singapore and found that they voted for the former president despite, not because, of the rape jokes and sexual remarks. That is an important distinction that gets lost amidst anti-Duterte discourse. OFW men could not share in the shock over these remarks because they were “typical,” while OFW women found his sexual remarks “forgivable,” considering it a trade-off for a safe society under the war on drugs. OFWs thought the jokes were unnecessary but tolerated them because they were eager to cooperate if it ensured progress.

The human rights narrative on the war on drugs also focused on community care and how addicts are humans too—a policy that does not acknowledge the fear among those who felt drugs were an urgent problem. In Digong, there was a feeling of acknowledgement.

Is the opposition prepared to relay that they are ready to confront mundane everyday struggles with the same political prowess as they do Sara’s impeachment or Digong’s case at the International Criminal Court?

Obviously, the impeachment holds consequences for the 2028 elections, but impeachment in itself will not be enough to dismantle the Dutertes’ influence. How the electorate will respond to the impeachment in the midterm elections—whether as a clear sign to break away from Duterte or a reason to increase their support—depends greatly on who controls the narrative of justification and who the proposed alternative is.

This is not to say that the impeachment call has no valid grounds, but we look to the lessons of Edsa People Power Revolution II, where an elitist discourse justified the removal of Erap Estrada, and planted resentment among the poor who supported him.

If the electorate is willing to put a Marcos back in power despite a family history of corruption and violence, then legal grounds are not the way to escape the Duterte-Marcos trap. The justification cannot come from a politics of decency or even explicit facts, but must be communicated through the logic Duterte believers have used to negotiate their support.

While the narrative of impeachment matters, even more so is the assembly of a viable alternative that does not represent restoration to what is widely considered traditional politics. To transcend Dutertismo, there has to be reckoning and humility to incorporate these nuances in opposition strategies. To only focus on the role of disinformation is to negate the electorate’s agency in which there is much to learn from. This is not only about winning but being genuine about the progress the opposition claims to represent.

This is the chance for the opposition to break away from its old habits that often represent a restoration of the way things were instead of change that the electorate clearly desire. A Sara impeachment can sway the public imagination only if the opposition demonstrates will power to resolve everyday problems as they are experienced by the most marginalized.

We are not terrified of the same things. If cussing and assassination threats make the elite despair over what has become of our politics, the electorate is horrified by something else. Voting for Duterte was an attempt to solve the routine bureaucracies and unaddressed social ills rarely felt by elite groups.

If Sara’s impeachment cannot transcend the narrative that it is mere politicking by filling in the vacuum meaningfully, it will fail in its role in the bigger picture. Greater investment must be made to connect with voters on a deeper and more practical level that reflects their lived experience. Unless the opposition can look beyond the spectacle of the Dutertes, and toward the nuanced rationalization of their supporters, it will not be able to seize this window of opportunity to pivot the public imagination away from the grips of fascism.

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Eugenie Huibonhoa is a freelance writer and researcher, and a former staffer at the Senate of the Philippines specializing in political communication. She holds an MSc in politics of conflict, rights, and justice from SOAS, University of London and is a 2023 Asia Pacific Obama Leader.