Dutertismo: Scourge of PH democracy
Liberals [naively] think that politics is like a [self-correcting] pendulum … that after every few years voters will elect sanity back into power,” lamented a director of a major German think tank shortly after Rodrigo Duterte’s election as president, which came on the heels of Brexit and just months before Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency. “What they don’t learn from history is that demagogues can hammer in a nail to ensure the pendulum doesn’t swing back,” he added with rueful confidence, metaphorically warning of various means by which authoritarian populism creates a permission structure for long-term predatory politics.
Having studied the endurance of dictatorships and populism across the world in past decades, I didn’t need much convincing. It was precisely that consciousness of the fragility of democracies that jolted me to the possibility of a Duterte presidency almost a whole year before the former Davao mayor took charge of Malacañang. In an interview with Boy Abunda in mid-2015, I publicly described the then-fringe Duterte as a “dark horse” in the 2016 elections.
Over the succeeding months, I noticed I was among the few political scientists in the country openly disconcerted about the prospect of a demagogic takeover. One thing that troubled me was how easily the longtime mayor weaponized news cycles by making deliberately provocative statements, which earned Duterte almost unlimited free airtime. Soon, I heard rumors that a certain foreign power was likely channeling funds into his campaign via local proxies. Ex-rebels, meanwhile, oversaw his impressive grassroots electoral mobilization across the nation. But it was ultimately the three-way mutual destruction among former Vice President Jejomar Binay (still leading in surveys until January 2016), former Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas, and former Sen. Grace Poe that sealed the deal. By the time the mainstream candidates shifted their focus toward the Duterte threat, it was too late. If anything, then Sen. Antonio Trillanes’ 11th-hour brave exposé of shady Duterte bank accounts—which were vindicated in the latest hearings preceding the overwhelming impeachment anew of Vice President Sara Duterte—spectacularly backfired: the folksy mayor deftly presented himself as a victim of “black propaganda” by the imperial Manila elite.
Over the next six years, the Duterte dynasty and its factotum across different branches of government systematically decimated vestiges of institutional accountability and raw political shame. Mass murder under the so-called “drug war” combined with brazen corruption culminated in a climate of “hyper-impunity,” which made a mockery of our claim to democratic politics.
Luckily, however, Duterte was too incompetent to become a successful dictator: he failed to engineer a favorable political transition, thanks to public infighting within his camp (you know the two protagonists!) and Machiavellian maneuvering by the Marcoses. The ensuing Duterte-Marcos axis—which ironically sidelined Rodrigo Duterte—was so shamelessly opportunistic and devoid of ideological conviction that it was a political divorce waiting to happen—which it did in grand fashion!
The “shooting” incident in the Senate last week, however, was a stark reminder that our democracy is still haunted by the scourge of Dutertismo—a toxic cocktail of murderous demagoguery, performative politics, and vacuous antics—even if Duterte himself is likely going to spend his twilight days in detention in The Hague.
To put things into perspective, dear reader, let’s look at the outrageous inanity of our situation. Almost five months after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest against Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa—something I publicized four months ago!—he managed to seamlessly come out of hiding to cast a vote to bring in a pro-Duterte bloc into power just as Congress forwarded the articles of impeachment against VP Sara, evade arrest in the Senate premises, then enjoy 24/7 interviews, where he openly sought public sympathy and even potential intervention by his former colleagues in the security services; and then vanish into thin air after his allies allegedly orchestrated a fake shooting encounter, which distracted the public and tarnished the country’s image amid an unprecedented economic and energy crisis. Reportedly, an ex-convict-turned-senator—who owes his entire political career to the Duterte dynasty—was likely involved in the ICC-wanted senator’s escape. This is the stuff of banana republics!
Duterte may be gone, and his offspring may never return to Malacañang, but recent events show how his legacy continues to haunt our most fragile democracy. The Duterte dynasty is clearly the problem child of Philippine politics!
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richard.heydarian@inquirer.net
