tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/philippines-martial-law-31823/articlesPhilippines martial law – The Conversation2022-06-13T20:36:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841052022-06-13T20:36:15Z2022-06-13T20:36:15ZWith Marcos Jr.’s election, Filipinos need to brace for a bleak future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468544/original/file-20220613-14-jm6fqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3860%2C2295&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the late dictator, gestures as he greets the crowd during a campaign rally in Quezon City, Philippines, in April 2022. He won the May election.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been elected the <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/ferdinand-marcos-jr-declared-philippines-president-20220525.html">17th president of the Philippines</a>, 36 years after his father, the known dictator and plunderer Ferdinand Sr., was ousted in <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/people-power-philippines-world-bright-spot-1986/">a peaceful revolution</a>. </p>
<p>Marcos Jr. won the presidency with 31 million votes, trouncing his closest rival, Vice-President Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who received 15 million votes.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in cream-coloured clothing, one a teenaged boy, smile at the camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468538/original/file-20220613-18-4a8phb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ferdinand Marcos Sr. poses with his only son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 1972 in Manila, Philippines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jess Tan Jr.)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/five-things-to-know-about-martial-law-in-the-philippines/">Ferdinand Marcos Sr. established martial law in the Philippines from 1972 to 1981</a>, a period of brutal repression with more than 11,000 <a href="https://hrvvmemcom.gov.ph/list-of-victims-recognized-motu-proprio/">documented human rights violations</a>. Critics of Marcos were imprisoned, tortured, raped and executed. His family and their cronies are thought <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2016/11/12/hail-to-the-thief">to have plundered about $10 billion</a>, and they evaded <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/specialreports/379847/infographic-the-hunt-for-the-marcos-ill-gotten-wealth/story/">legal claims for the Marcos family’s ill-gotten riches</a> in Philippine and foreign courts even after Marcos Sr.’s death in Hawaii in 1989.</p>
<p>Critics accuse the Marcos family of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/12/philippines-marcos-memory-election/">whitewashing their family’s crimes and martial law atrocities</a> through social media platforms. In a narrative of denial, Marcos Jr. promises to restore <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220508-golden-age-marcos-myths-on-philippine-social-media">the “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity</a> that his father had begun, raising questions about whether that means a future of martial law.</p>
<h2>Revisionist history</h2>
<p>The revisionist <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/705489">“narrative of nostalgia” has three parts, according to Filipino academic Victor Felipe Bautista</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The supposed glorious past under a benevolent President Marcos;</p></li>
<li><p>The fall that interrupted the Marcos regime supposedly orchestrated by Corazon Aquino, the widow of Marcos’s political arch-rival, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08934219409367581">Benigno Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on the Manila airport tarmac</a> upon his return to the Philippines in 1983;</p></li>
<li><p>The dark present, when Marcos is said to be a “<a href="https://maharlika.tv/2022/04/12/fake-news-and-black-propaganda/">victim of black propaganda</a>,” meaning subtle propaganda <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2086855?origin=crossref">that does not come from the source it claims to come from</a>. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The Marcos Jr. propaganda operations include collective memory experts <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2021/08/why-do-filipinos-keep-voting-for-authoritarian-leaders/">who use revisionist nostalgia as a tool for steering public opinion</a>.</p>
<p>Critics suggest <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-27/marcos-return-triggers-panic-buying-of-philippine-history-books/101106564">massive and well-resourced efforts to change and control the narrative through historical revisionism</a> has been key to Marcos Jr.’s electoral victory. I complement this with a view that the Philippines’ colonial legacy equally influenced the results of the recent presidential election.</p>
<h2>Colonial class divides</h2>
<p>In many post-colonial societies, colonial powers and their elite, modern-day counterparts maintain class divides. Those divides allow them to control the masses as a steady source of extracted surplus and cheap labour and, for local politicians, a traditional source of votes.</p>
<p>Development in the Philippines has always been tied to colonial relations. <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-the-philippines/">Ties with the United States remained strong even after formal independence in 1946</a>, which is evident in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2756118">bilateral agreements</a> allowing American firms to own and operate public utilities and extract natural resources.</p>
<p>Post-colonial relations with the U.S. and development aid <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/return-marcoses-and-us-philippines-alliance">helped generate the fortunes of a Filipino landed oligarchy</a>, dispensed infrastructure and agricultural loans and provided military aid during the martial law years, setting the stage for the Marcos years <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/seeking-return-disputed-golden-age-philippine-voters-back-son-dictator-marcos-2022-05-06/">as the Golden Age in Philippine history</a>. </p>
<p>Returning from their exile in the 2000s, members of the Marcos family were elected to various <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/162459-timeline-marcos-political-comeback/">political positions</a>. Efforts to change the anti-Marcos narrative and alter the political culture in the Philippines via <a href="https://snuac.snu.ac.kr/2015_snuac/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/09-%EC%9E%90%EC%9C%A0%EC%A3%BC%EC%A0%9C273-304-5%EA%B5%903%EC%99%84%EC%99%84-20211231.pdf">the new technologies of social media</a> grew rampant. </p>
<p>Before long, photos of bridges, roads and buildings built by Marcos Sr. began to flood social media to suggest the Philippines was on par with emerging industrializing nations at the time of his administration. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466152/original/file-20220531-16-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">From a Facebook page commemorating Ferdinand Marcos Sr.</span>
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<p>“If my father was allowed to pursue his plans, I believe that <a href="https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2011/02/23/659708/bongbong-we-could-have-been-singapore">we would be like Singapore now</a>,” said Marcos Jr. in 2011. </p>
<h2>Western appeal</h2>
<p>To young voters born after the martial law era — <a href="https://opinion.inquirer.net/149856/understanding-the-youth-vote">the country’s largest voter demographic</a> — Singapore evokes images of globalized progress: glitzy designer malls, savvy digital technology and western-style posh lifestyles that promote capitalist consumption. Young Filipino voters also seemed to delight in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuEgAUC-LFE">“cool” Marcos vibe of speaking with American accents</a> and stories of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTOjBlfyYq0">the privileges that come with wealth</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fuEgAUC-LFE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Marcos Jr.’s son speaks about improving his father’s style on the BongBongMarcos YouTube channel.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Marcos messaging — also carefully curated in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/bongbongmarcos/videos">more than 200 BuzzFeed-style posh, familial and cheerful YouTube videos</a> — sought to temporarily bridge the traditionally sharp social divides in the Philippines. This served to momentarily placate centuries-old <a href="https://www.newuniversity.org/2022/01/13/the-effects-of-colonial-mentality-are-long-lasting-on-filipino-youths/">internalized local racism, self-othering and a deep-seated sense of colonial, racial and class inferiority</a> among Filipinos compared to westerners and their local wealthy counterparts, such as the Marcos family. </p>
<p>For a deeply class-stratified and colonized society, the Marcos propaganda machine has enhanced aspirations for western markers of progress and modernity.</p>
<p>But these efforts haven’t just been an attempt to whitewash the plunder of the Marcos family and the brutalities of martial law. </p>
<p>The propaganda also conjures up a vision of a neocolonial, modernized and consumption-driven future. In a nutshell, Marcos has escalated western aspirations and solidified the racialized and marginalized class identities <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/14/a-history-world-seven-cheap-things-rak-patel-james-moore-review">that capitalism — an economic system organized around a minority class and its pursuit of profit</a> — is dependent upon.</p>
<p>Marcos Jr.’s references to a Golden Age in the Philippines invites a nostalgic look at the past. But it also warns of a darker future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernadette P. Resurrección does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s references to a Golden Age in the Philippines invites a nostalgic look at the past. But it also warns of a darker future in keeping with how his father ran the country.Bernadette P. Resurrección, Associate Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1825032022-05-11T17:42:13Z2022-05-11T17:42:13ZA member of the Marcos family is returning to power – here’s what it means for democracy in the Philippines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462327/original/file-20220510-18-1j774w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C341%2C5982%2C3646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Politics is the Marcos family business.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ferdinand-bongbong-marcos-jr-and-his-family-take-part-in-news-photo/1395951494?adppopup=true">Ezra Acayan/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some 36 years after the <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/people-power-philippines-world-bright-spot-1986/">People Power Revolution</a> restored democracy to the Philippines, a member of perhaps the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/08/why-late-philippine-dictator-was-no-hero#">most brutal</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61212659">and corrupt</a> political dynasties in the nation’s memory is set to return to the Philippine presidency. </p>
<p>Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/10/philippines-presidential-election-result-ferdinand-bongbong-marcos/">has won the presidential election</a>, according to preliminary results. It will return him to the Malacañang Palace where he lived as a child and from which his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/26/world/marcos-flees-and-is-taken-to-guam-us-recognizes-aquino-as-president.html">parents fled in 1986</a>. His running mate, Sara Duterte, the daughter of current President Rodrigo Duterte, is also <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Philippine-elections/Philippine-presidential-election-How-the-night-unfolded">set to win the vice presidency</a> by a landslide.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ferdinand Marcos, dressed in white traditional Philippine shirt, raises his hand and speaks into a microphone to supporters; beside him in a green jumpsuit is his son, Bongbong." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462323/original/file-20220510-26-r56oh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like father, like son?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/philippine-president-ferdinand-marcos-waves-goodbye-to-news-photo/1337631331?adppopup=true">Alex Bowie/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Both candidates hail from political dynasties with long histories of abuses of power. The human rights offenses of the first Marcos regime, from 1965 to 1986, are well documented, involving an estimated <a href="https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/04/12/featured-columns/columnists/3257-fact-checking-the-marcos-killings-1975-1985/255735">3,257 deaths</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/five-things-to-know-about-martial-law-in-the-philippines/">over 50,000 victims who were tortured and detained</a> during the martial law period alone. Also well documented is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/10bn-dollar-question-marcos-millions-nick-davies">estimated US$10 billion Marcos plundered</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the outgoing Duterte administration is notorious for its <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-brutal-personal-costs-of-the-philippines-human-rights-abuses-100694">so-called “war on drugs</a>,” during which his infamous death squads killed more than <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippines-duterte-says-will-never-apologise-drug-war-deaths-2022-01-04/">6,200 as of 2022</a>.</p>
<p>The election has been mired in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/02/1090474739/philippines-presidential-election-resurfaces-old-scandal">tax scandals</a>, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/25/philippines-election-corruption-bongbong-marcos/">bureaucratic corruption</a> and <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Philippine-elections/Philippine-activists-warn-of-voting-anomalies-ahead-of-election">voter suppression</a>.</p>
<p>But despite these scandals both past and present, dynastic families remain in full force in the Southeast Asian archipelago. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/ase/faculty_display.cfm?person_id=1091464">scholar of Philippine history</a>, I know this “rule by dynasty” dates from the days of American colonial rule. But it has been enhanced by a more modern curse: media manipulation and disinformation.</p>
<h2>The political economy of dynasties</h2>
<p>The tenacity of political dynasties of all political orientations to outlast the Philippines’ halted revolutions – both <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-35526200">in 1986</a> and a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/05/world/people-power-ii-doesn-t-give-filipinos-the-same-glow.html">later uprising in 2001</a> – shows that popular mobilization did not lead to a more democratic government.</p>
<p>The late <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/world/asia/benedict-anderson-scholar-who-saw-nations-as-imagined-dies-at-79.html">political scientist Benedict Anderson</a> famously called the Philippines a “<a href="https://newleftreview.org/issues/i169/articles/benedict-anderson-cacique-democracy-and-the-philippines-origins-and-dreams">cacique democracy</a>” – a fusion of popular electoral power and feudal, dynastic rule.</p>
<p>While landowning elites existed during the 19th century, this “cacique democracy” – cacique referring to local political bosses in Latin American countries – developed during the American colonial rule of the Philippines <a href="https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/the-philippines-an-overview-of-the-colonial-era/">between 1898 and 1942</a>. The aim was to cultivate an Indigenous leadership that could collaborate with American colonial rule.</p>
<p>To establish loyal allies among the local population,<a href="https://newleftreview.org/issues/i169/articles/benedict-anderson-cacique-democracy-and-the-philippines-origins-and-dreams"> the U.S. expropriated 400,000 acres</a> owned by the Catholic Church between 1898 and 1941 and auctioned it to landowners and economic elites. These same leaders, bolstered by their consolidated agricultural economic base, formed a new political class in Manila, as they participated in the new legislature of the colony.</p>
<p>With their wealth and political influence strengthened under American occupation, these ruling families held disproportionate sway over the development of the fledgling nation <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/philippine-independence-declared">following independence in 1946</a>.</p>
<p>These “caciques,” or native feudal lords, went on to become the ruling class of today. The Marcos family is descended from regional landowners in Ilocos Norte, in the north of Luzon, the Philippines’ most populous island. But unlike his forebears, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. rose from regional leader to national prominence, first as the president of the Philippine Senate in 1959, then as national president in 1965. Through his own charisma – and the popularity of his wife, Imelda Romualdez Marcos – the family consolidated their political base.</p>
<p>At the opposite end of the political spectrum <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/members-of-the-aquino-family/reference">are the Aquino family</a>, hailing from a clan of elite landowners in Central Luzon, whose patriarch was one of the original members of the republican government formed after the 1896 Philippine Revolution. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., a senator and outspoken Marcos critic, was <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/143594-look-back-ninoy-aquino-assassination/">assassinated in 1983</a>. His wife, Corazon Aquino, was elected on the back of the mass fervor of the 1986 Revolution, and later their son reached the presidency.</p>
<p>Dynasties have long dominated Philippines politics. But the fact that the Marcos name not only survived the overthrow of its patriarch but managed to become rehabilitated in the following decades hints at the tenacity of dynastic politics in the Philippines.</p>
<h2>Media and disinformation</h2>
<p>Despotic power cannot be shored up by birthright claims alone. So it is no coincidence that the return of the Marcos family has coincided with large-scale attacks against journalism, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/01/17/578610243/a-fraught-time-for-press-freedom-in-the-philippines">waged by the national executive and its allies</a>.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Philippines was <a href="https://rsf.org/en/index">ranked by Reporters Without Borders</a> 147th out of 180 countries for press freedom. This is a stark contrast to the period before the election of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1965, when <a href="https://cpj.org/reports/2005/08/neumann-sidebar/">the country’s press was considered the most free in Asia</a>.</p>
<p>During the six years of Duterte’s rule since 2016, the president developed a reputation as someone who used social media disinformation – especially via Facebook – to cultivate support for his brutal “war on drugs.” At the same time he frequently attacked the work of journalists and critics of his regime.</p>
<p>Duterte made a deliberate attempt to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/09/rodrigo-dutertes-war-press-freedom-maria-ressa-truth">undermine the free press</a>. In December 2020, after months of systematic targeting by President Duterte, the Philippine Congress <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/world/asia/philippines-congress-media-duterte-abs-cbn.html">voted to shut down ABS-CBN</a> – the country’s largest broadcasting network. </p>
<p>The Philippines remains one of the most dangerous places for reporters. As recently as December 2021, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/12/10/killing-journalist-criminal-libel-philippines">journalist Jesus Malabanan was shot by gunmen in his own home</a>. Malabanan, a well-respected reporter who worked on Reuters’ coverage of the Philippine drug war, was the 22nd journalist murdered during the Duterte regime.</p>
<p>The weakening and intimidation of independent journalism and media paved the way for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/business/philippines-election-disinformation.html">disinformation to flourish</a>. </p>
<p>Bongbong Marcos’ presidential run has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/business/philippines-election-disinformation.html">widely criticized for media manipulation</a>. And disinformation has been central to the shift in public opinion toward the family.</p>
<p>In 2019, Rappler, the independent news website founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa, ran <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/245290-marcos-networked-propaganda-social-media/">a three-part investigation</a> that revealed the extent to which Marcos deployed digital propaganda to propel himself into public favor through the use of disinformation spread on other social media platforms, and through various fan pages and other viral content. The first Marcos regime was recast in misleading propaganda that portrayed the era <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/245540-networked-propaganda-false-narratives-from-the-marcos-arsenal/">as a time of progress</a> while denying its human rights abuses.</p>
<p>And in 2020, <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/bongbong-marcos-cambridge-analytica-rebrand-family-image/">Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Barbara Kaiser alleged that Marcos had reached out to the firm</a> – known for its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html">harvesting of Facebook users’ data</a> for political campaigns – in an effort to further bolster his family’s image. The Marcos campaign denies this connection.</p>
<h2>Never again?</h2>
<p>The election of Bongbong Marcos comes close to 50 years after his father declared martial law, on Sept. 23, 1972.</p>
<p>That original Marcos era – with its extrajudicial killings and rampant corruption – has been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-05/bongbong-marcos-philippines-election-social-media/101035620">subjected to revisionism</a>, with many Filipinos looking back at the Marcos years as a time of stability and growth while ignoring the abuses. The $10 billion plundered by the Marcoses – which once dominated headlines – gets talked about less. Imelda Marcos, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/06/opinions/philippines-election-marcos-bongbong-imelda-andelman/index.html">herself a notorious kleptocrat</a>, has been transformed into an object of fascination.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters gather holding signs saying 'Never Again to Martial Law.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462320/original/file-20220510-14-3sexqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-Marcos and -Duterte protesters hold a vigil in Manila, Philippines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/anti-marcos-and-duterte-protesters-hold-a-vigil-in-liwasan-news-photo/1396462191?adppopup=true">Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile the voices of survivors of the martial law era and the activists who oppose authoritarian rule have grown less effective in the face of President Duterte’s popularity. Their message of “never again” failed to disrupt the Marcos family return to power. </p>
<p>In 2018, on the 35th anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, Imee Marcos – Bongbong’s sister – stated that “the millennials have moved on [from Ferdinand Marcos’ history], and I think people at my age should move on as well.” </p>
<p>The electoral victory of her brother seems to have have proved Imee Marcos correct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian De Leon receives funding from the Fulbright Commission and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Bongbong Marcos is the projected winner of the Philippines election. That the son of a brutal dictator has won shows how wedded the country is to dynastic politics – and image manipulation.Adrian De Leon, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/923322018-02-25T21:51:57Z2018-02-25T21:51:57ZWhy did it take so long for Canada to kill the Philippines helicopter sale?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207743/original/file-20180224-108116-q5fg1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Honeylet Avancena as he arrives at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila in November 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canadian trade minister Francois-Philippe Champagne recently announced the cancellation of a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/liberals-appoint-new-chair-of-crown-corporation-that-facilitated-helicopter-deal-with-philippines/article37972729/">$300 million trade deal</a> to transport 16 helicopters to the Philippines in early 2019. </p>
<p>The cancellation was spurred by a Canadian government review that found the helicopters were likely <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/195527-canada-review-helicopter-deal-philippines">to be used for anti-terrorism</a> and internal security purposes and not for humanitarian missions as agreed upon. Canada had previously sold eight Bell helicopters to <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/966666/ph-inks-p12-b-contract-for-16-bell-choppers">to the Philippines in 2015.</a> </p>
<p>But it wasn’t Canada that finally scrubbed the deal. Enraged by the delay and review of the sale, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/philippines-president-kills-controversial-helicopter-deal-with-canada-1.3796452">ordered the cancellation</a>.</p>
<p>The unexpected loss of 16 helicopters presents a temporary roadblock for the Philippines as it fights the violent insurgency in Marawi and a deadly “war on drugs.”</p>
<p>It means the Philippines must now scramble to find alternative sources to boost its capacity to tackle mounting internal security problems.</p>
<h2>The Marawi insurgency</h2>
<p>Since May 2017, the city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao has <a href="http://time.com/marawi-philippines-isis/">become a battlefield </a> as the Philippine military fights against Islamic State militants consisting of Abu Sayyaf, a jihadist militant group, and Maute Group, a local violent mafia group. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207742/original/file-20180224-108134-1p6qon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Troops patrol the decimated streets of Marawi city in southern Philippines in October after months of the siege by pro-Islamic State group militants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An attempt by the Philippine military to capture the former Abu Sayyaf leader, <a href="http://time.com/marawi-philippines-isis/">Isnilon Hapilon</a>, the head of a southern militia who has pledged loyalty to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has led to a bloody five-month struggle. More than <a href="https://asiapacificreport.nz/2017/10/23/urban-battle-for-marawi-finally-over-1000-dead-says-philippines/">1,000 people have been killed </a> and nearly 2,000 hostages rescued from militants. </p>
<p>Though active warfare has subsided, Mindanao remains under martial law. It’s been extended for another year amid controversy over <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/world/asia/philippines-martial-law-duterte.html">the potential violation</a> of the Filipino 1987 Constitution. </p>
<p>Currently, Marawi lies in ruins and about 200,000 of the city’s people <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21736571-half-population-city-marawi-still-living-tents-and-sheds-philippines">have been displaced</a> by the conflict.</p>
<h2>War on drugs</h2>
<p>Aside from fighting insurgents, Duterte is also notorious for using the war on drugs to promote peace and order. Since assuming the presidency in June 2016, Duterte has mobilized the Filipino drug enforcement agency as well as police forces to eliminate all drug users and small-time peddlers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/08/world-must-pressure-philippines-drug-war-accountability">Nearly 12,000</a> deaths are estimated to have occurred in the last 19 months. Duterte’s indiscriminate, extra-judicial killings and use of mercenaries in the anti-drug operations have faced condemnation from human rights organizations and countries that include Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207745/original/file-20180224-108122-1kvep2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters carry a banner as they march for a rally in Manila in July 2017 to denounce the killing of thousands of victims in the so-called war on drugs of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit/duterte-berates-canadas-trudeau-at-end-of-philippines-summit-idUSKBN1DE0JE">public criticism</a> of Duterte’s war on drugs during the ASEAN summit in November 2017, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a federal agency, was quietly negotiating arms deal with the Philippines. The Liberal government’s eagerness <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-checkered-history-of-arms-sales-to-human-rights-violators-91559">to negotiate arms sales with countries with poor human rights records</a> through the Canadian Commercial Corporation raises serious ethical questions. </p>
<p>After the Philippines military revealed the purchase, there were several missteps by Minister Champagne that showed inconsistency in the government’s position.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207741/original/file-20180224-108116-ay9npz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe Champagne rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 8, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, he defended the $300-million helicopter deal and insisted that the Montreal-built choppers were for search-and-rescue missions and disaster relief in the Philippines. </p>
<p>Later, he said the initial contract was signed under the auspices of a previous agreement and that neither <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/philippines-to-cancel-helicopter-deal-with-canada-duterte-says/article37917169/">he nor any other ministers were asked to sign off on it</a>. He also said that the plan was to move forward with the trade deal signed by the previous Conservative government in 2012 on the basis that the helicopters were to be used for <a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/feds-order-review-of-controversial-helicopter-deal-with-the-philippines">non-combative purposes</a>.</p>
<p>But the timing of Trudeau’s public criticism of Duterte’s extra-juridical killings in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3859723/rodrigo-duterte-justin-trudeau-human-rights-concerns/">November 2017</a> at a Manila summit and the re-signing of the helicopter deal with the Philippines in <a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/feds-order-review-of-controversial-helicopter-deal-with-the-philippines">December 2017</a> shows a clear disjuncture in public speech and arms trade policy.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207744/original/file-20180224-108122-1a5x7ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacques St-Laurent, president of Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, stands in front of a Bell 412 helicopter at the company’s plant in Mirabel, Que. in May 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Ryan Remiorz)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It doesn’t take a security expert to point out that in the Philippines under Duterte’s leadership, the helicopters were likely to be used for <a href="https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/02/17/helicopters-for-our-modernizing-afp/">combat purposes</a>. There has been major news coverage of the Philippines’ bloody internal conflicts and extra-judicial killings. It would be naïve, if not disingenuous, for the Liberal government to defend its position by arguing that the helicopters would be used only for search-and-rescue and disaster relief.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/philippines-to-cancel-helicopter-deal-with-canada-duterte-says/article37917169/">Duterte said</a>: “And if I cannot use the gunships, the helicopters, then I might as well surrender this government to them.”</p>
<h2>No dent on Duterte’s popularity</h2>
<p>Duterte’s mass support hinges on his tough talk and open opposition of the entrenched elite in Manila. His decision to cancel the helicopter deal with a Western state such as Canada is likely to broaden his support base and fan rising nationalist and anti-elite sentiment in the country.</p>
<p>Duterte’s administration has pledged to invest <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-defence/philippines-signs-233-million-helicopter-deal-with-canada-to-fight-rebels-idUSKBN1FQ1GZ">PHP$125 billion</a> (CDN$3 billion) in the next five years to modernize its armed forces, especially equipment and armaments for internal security operations to defeat domestic threats as well protect its maritime borders. </p>
<p>Without Canada’s supplies, it is likely to turn to China and Russia for alternatives. Those countries, whose relations with the Philippines have vastly improved in recent months, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apec-summit-philippines-russia/well-buy-arms-from-russia-philippines-duterte-tells-putin-idUSKBN1DA1K7">have donated a total of 11,000 assault rifles and trucks</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, the Philippines government has begun aircraft negotiations <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/195840-philippines-military-bell-choppers-cancelled">with these countries</a> and it’s also acquiring three frigates from South Korea, air defence radars from Israel, and armoured vehicles, a long-range patrol aircraft and assault rifles and grenade launchers from Russia.</p>
<h2>Implications for Canada</h2>
<p>The cancellation of the controversial helicopter deal shows clear lapses in Trudeau’s administration.</p>
<p>The government has now ordered a shakeup of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/liberals-appoint-new-chair-of-crown-corporation-that-facilitated-helicopter-deal-with-philippines/article37972729/">appointed a new chair</a> to take over the Crown corporation and ordered it to become less reliant on selling arms. </p>
<p>A previous trade agreement made between Canada and the Philippines remains intact, with Canada still expected to transport a helicopter to the Philippines <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/195969-no-cancellation-pnp-bell-helicopter-contract">later this year</a>.</p>
<p>But it’s time for the Liberal government to walk the talk. If it plans to promote Canada as a global champion of human rights, it should stop supplying arms to countries with questionable human rights and practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Netina Tan receives funding from SSHRC and IDRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marvin Mercado does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Canadian deal to sell helicopters to the Philippines has finally been killed. What took so long, and why was it the Philippines, not Canada, that ultimately scrubbed the deal?Netina Tan, Associate Professor, McMaster UniversityMarvin Mercado, Graduate Student, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/802482017-08-04T12:24:03Z2017-08-04T12:24:03ZPhilippines’ ongoing war on drugs shatters hopes of peace for a generation<p>When he was elected president of the Philippines in July 2016, President Rodridgo Duterte <a href="https://theconversation.com/philippines-hopes-new-president-can-fashion-peace-from-a-war-of-many-sides-60606">promised</a> to negotiate peace agreements with the major insurgent groups that have destabilised much of the country for decades. </p>
<p>His government announced it would commence peace talks with the representatives of the <a href="https://www.ndfp.org/about/">National Democratic Front</a>, the umbrella organisation that represents both the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army. Duterte also committed himself to a peace agreement with the Philippines’ largest insurgent group, the <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/moro-islamic-liberation-front-philippines-biggest-muslim-rebel-group-supports-fatwa">Moro Islamic Liberation Front</a>.</p>
<p>At the time, these seemed like breakthroughs in the making. But the early optimism has dissolved, and the peace talks have stalled. While the government does seem genuinely willing to negotiate, the president seems to be been prioritising another one of his election campaign promises: eradicating crime and drugs.</p>
<p>This notorious “war on drugs” has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/rodrigo-dutertes-first-year-a-human-rights-disaster-the-world-prefers-to-ignore-80442">extraordinarily bloody</a>, and criticised by human rights organisations and foreign governments alike. Nonetheless, it is supported by a <a href="http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/166092-philippines-drugs-war-pulse-sws-public-perception">majority of the population</a>. </p>
<p>The popular narrative of the effects of drugs – in particular, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/philippines-meth-trade/3739546.html">shabu</a>, or methamphetamine – seems to be exaggerated. Shabu use, urban legend says, results in not just theft and robbery, but paedophilia and arson; horror stories abound of addicts slaughtering entire families. The president himself has been <a href="http://www.manilatimes.net/the-ill-effects-of-shabu-addiction/284322/">quoted</a> likening shabu addicts to “the living walking dead … of no use to society anymore”. </p>
<p>This rhetoric normalises a culture of impunity for the police and vigilantes, many of whom resort to extreme violence. Many innocent people have been targeted, both intentionally and unintentionally; journalists, police, politicians and other critics have been <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/28/philippines-dutertes-first-year-human-rights-calamity">threatened, intimidated, fired or arrested</a> for alleged links with drugs. Yet during my own research, many Filipinos told me they <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/883724/82-of-metro-residents-feel-safer-because-of-war-on-drugs-ncrpo">feel safer</a> and that crime seems to have gone down. </p>
<p>The “war on drugs” may seem distinct from longer-running security issues, but it isn’t. The crackdown is contributing to a culture of unchecked violence, which is increasingly accepted as a necessary measure. If this normalisation continues, lasting peace will never be achieved.</p>
<h2>Getting it wrong</h2>
<p>For all its conciliatory talk, the government is still using tough tactics to deal with violent insurgents. So far, they have not paid off. </p>
<p>In May 2017, the military launched an operation to apprehend <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/isnilon-totoni-hapilon">Isnilon Hapilon</a>, the leader of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36138554">Abu Sayyaf Group</a>, a faction of bandits designated as a terrorist organisation. But when the army swooped in, Hapilon was protected by scores of armed men who quickly took strategic positions throughout <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/25/asia/philippines-marawi-isis/index.html">Marawi City</a>. Instead of capturing Hapilon, the military raid seemed to kick-start the group’s unanticipated plan to seize the city.</p>
<p>Duterte was on a state visit to Russia at the time. The operation unravelled, and martial law was declared not just in Marawi, but on the entire island of Mindanao. The government has claimed it had intelligence about the group’s plans, but has issued contradictory statements on the rationale behind the siege, citing both jihadism and the drug trade.</p>
<p>Reports state that a few hundred jihadists managed to hold onto several neighbourhoods in defiance of government troops; they held off the military with improvised explosive devices, a sophisticated network of underground tunnels, and snipers placed in strategic locations across the city. This is a remarkable change in tactics for the Philippines’ insurgents, and clearly echoes recent urban battles in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>The ongoing Marawi City crisis has scotched the government’s ceasefire with the New People’s Army. The deal was ultimately <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/world/asia/philippines-cpp-npa-communist-ceasefire.html?_r=0">breached by both sides</a>; in response, the Communist Party’s central command ordered increased operations in other parts of the country. </p>
<h2>Generation gap</h2>
<p>This decision is partly grounded in history. Communists still harbour bitter memories of the last period of martial law, imposed by dictator Ferdinand Marcos. True, the post-Marcos 1987 Constitution has more checks and balances in place than its predecessor, but martial law in Mindanao has already been extended to December 31, and may yet be extended to the entire country.</p>
<p>But outside the insurgent movements, many Filipinos see martial law as a necessary means with which to solve various problems in Mindanao. Aside from the insurgency, the region is home to many powerful families and clans with private armies and large weapon caches – something exemplified in the Marawi Crisis, where small groups of “terrorists” enjoy access to remarkably advanced weapons.</p>
<p>The problem is that martial law has hardly been a storming success. The government’s airstrikes have caused both civilian casualties and immense material destruction. The armed forces have attempted to secure the area around Marawi City, but it seems likely that Hapilon and the Maute leadership have escaped. Nor has the army managed to prevent new fighters from entering Marawi City; on the contrary, the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf seem to have no problem recruiting ever more members.</p>
<p>Other groups are having problems, too. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s leadership has expressed concerns over its lack of control over the younger generation; the disconnect between what the Communist Party leadership says and what the New People’s Army is actually doing could mean that the Communists have lost control of their armed affiliate.</p>
<p>The success of any peace process is measured not only by what agreement ultimately gets signed. What will matter is whether it can be implemented, and the extent to which it addresses both the roots and consequences of the conflict. Only then will any further violence be avoided, and permanently. The prospect of any such peace in the Philippines remains slim. To <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/160400-duterte-no-peace-communists-generation">quote Duterte himself</a>, “There will be no peace for a generation.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rikard Jalkebro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The crackdown is contributing to a culture of unchecked violence, which is increasingly accepted as a necessary measure.Rikard Jalkebro, Teaching Fellow, School of International Relations, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/659722016-12-20T07:39:17Z2016-12-20T07:39:17ZHow the Philippines’ incomplete ‘People Power’ revolution paved the way for Rodrigo Duterte<p>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/world/asia/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-confirms-killings-davao.html?emc=edit_th_20161217&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=64524812&_r=0">confirmed that he killed three men</a> during his time as mayor of Davao city, despite officials trying to downplay an earlier admission. Duterte’s comments might yet hurt his popularity but that seems unlikely. </p>
<p>Duterte’s national crusade has resulted in an alarming daily average of <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/145814-numbers-statistics-philippines-war-drugs">34 drug war-related murders</a>. Despite this death toll and international condemnation, public satisfaction with his anti-drug war is at a <a href="http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/11/17/SWS-satisfaction-rating-Duterte.html">significantly high rate of 78%</a>.</p>
<p>How can this be explained in a country that a mere 30 years ago brought down a dictator without resorting to violence? How could a nation that inspired the world with its peaceful <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12567320">“People Power” revolution</a> now welcome a return to the <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/146939-martial-law-explainer-victims-stories">state-sanctioned murders</a> of the <a href="http://www.gov.ph/1972/09/21/proclamation-no-1081/">martial-law era</a> of 1972-1981? </p>
<p>Duterte’s rise is an evolving lesson in the vulnerability of democracies in the face of a neglected public. The democratic institutions of the Philippines have little power when faced with a populist president determined to channel frustrations into immediate actions.</p>
<h2>Unfulfilled promise</h2>
<p>In 1986, millions of Filipinos ended Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship through sustained civil resistance against government violence and electoral fraud. This culminated in a massive peaceful protest in the capital along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA). The event is now popularly known as the <a href="http://www.philippine-history.org/edsa-people-power-revolution.htm">1986 EDSA People Power Revolution</a>. </p>
<p>Marcos was ousted after 21 years in power. He had been democratically elected as president in 1965, but essentially <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/ferdinand-marcos-9398625">ruled as a dictator from 1972 to 1986</a>.</p>
<p>To the disappointment of many, an <a href="http://search.proquest.com/openview/1f66dfe4fefaa2c9c5e9c9f712c2e318/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819646">elite-dominated democracy</a> replaced Marcos’ authoritarian rule. From 1987, a small number of families started to restore their control of the government and rotate the seats of power among themselves. They included the Marcos family, who <a href="https://theconversation.com/former-dictator-marcos-might-be-buried-as-a-hero-in-the-philippines-despite-human-rights-abuses-66078">returned from exile in 1991</a> and were welcomed by their allies. </p>
<p>In the public imagination, the promises of the People Power Revolution went beyond restoring democratic institutions. The narrative went like this: a return to democracy would secure prosperity and security for everyone. The overall framework and various social justice provisions of the <a href="http://www.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/">1987 Philippine Constitution clearly reflect this</a>. </p>
<p>But three decades later, the post-EDSA pact is far from being fulfilled. </p>
<h2>A neglected public</h2>
<p>The post-EDSA leadership has failed to solve many of the problems that concern Filipinos. Despite promising national growth rates, <a href="http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/58564-oxfam-rising-inequality-world-economic-forum">the gains appear to have largely benefited the rich</a>. More than <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/775062/12m-filipinos-living-in-extreme-poverty">26 million Filipinos</a> remain impoverished. And <a href="http://business.inquirer.net/210532/ph-has-worst-unemployment-rate-despite-high-gdp-growth-research">unemployment rates</a> are said to be the worst in Asia. </p>
<p>This widening gap between rich and poor, recurrent domestic economic crises, <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/759557/ph-slips-in-global-corruption-index-report">epidemic levels of corruption</a> and failed attempts to significantly reduce criminality, have left the public deeply frustrated. Surveys in recent decades have consistently shown that these are the <a href="http://www.pulseasia.ph/september-2016-nationwide-survey-on-urgent-national-and-local-concerns-and-the-performance-ratings-of-the-duterte-administration-on-selected-issues/">most urgent national concerns for many Filipinos</a>.</p>
<p>The 1986 revolution, once a symbol of the promise of democracy and prosperity, is now synonymous in the Filipino popular imagination with <a href="https://www.google.hu/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=worsening%20state%20of%20public%20transportation%20philippines">the dysfunctional transport system</a> in Metro Manila. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.newmandala.org/it-takes-a-nation-to-raise-a-dictators-son/">National commemorations of the EDSA consensus</a> have become officially important, but in the public imagination they tell the tale of how promises are meant to be broken.</p>
<h2>Democracy’s discontent</h2>
<p>Amid political and economic exclusion and malaise came Duterte. He offered empathy to the economic strugglers and protection from the violence of criminals and politicians. His was a twin campaign narrative of care and power. His supporters often highlighted how they felt that Duterte truly cared for them. </p>
<p>And he was not just all talk. Duterte is seen as a man of action: decisive and quick. His “authenticity” is manifest in his <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/130827-rodrigo-duterte-message-care-power-supporters">everyday language coupled with humour that comes from the streets</a>.</p>
<p>Duterte articulated the public’s deep-seated feelings of precariousness and powerlessness using rhetoric they could relate to. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6t3UnoJymM">His campaign rallies</a>, which many proclaimed as <a href="http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/135378-rodrigo-duterte-digong-story-teller">a marvel to behold</a>, showed the rapport between the candidate and his supporters.</p>
<p>Many felt that Duterte rose from the ranks of ordinary citizens despite coming from a traditional political family and holding <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-dutertes-drug-war-taps-into-the-philippines-zeitgeist-66081">various political offices for 30 years</a>. This is especially evident in his <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/787975/duterte-ushers-in-cohesive-south">overwhelming support in the southern Philippines</a>, as the first president from a region long neglected by the capital. </p>
<h2>How did it come to this?</h2>
<p>When democracy doesn’t deliver, its legitimacy becomes difficult to defend. And when successive elite-dominated governments have used democracy for their own ends, the balance tilts towards authoritarianism. </p>
<p>Under post-EDSA democracy the <a href="http://www.philstar.com/business/2016/08/25/1617137/forbes-record-number-filipino-billionaires-2016">richest families amassed more wealth than ever</a> while <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/134464-sws-poverty-poll-first-quarter-2016">poverty</a>, <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/07/04/16/hunger-affects-31-million-families-in-ph-survey">hunger</a>, <a href="http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/05/06/1319831/mm-has-worlds-highest-homeless-population">homelessness</a>, and <a href="http://www.philstar.com/metro/2015/08/03/1483869/philippine-crime-rate-46">crime</a> continued to afflict ordinary Filipinos. It’s not difficult to imagine why some are <a href="http://nottspolitics.org/2016/03/21/marcos-and-duterte-authoritarian-nostalgia-in-the-philippines/">nostalgic for the authoritarian past</a>. Although national statistics show otherwise, people felt those were the country’s golden years.</p>
<p>Extrajudicial killings are a regular feature of post-EDSA governments as they were of the martial law years. Examples include the <a href="http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/81659-still-no-justice-mendiola-massacre">1987 Mendiola massacre</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ab1ux2DiHw">2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre</a> and <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1943191,00.html">2009 Maguindanao massacre</a>, to name a few. </p>
<p>Perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Even before Duterte, <a href="http://www.interaksyon.com/article/109374/philippines-has-worst-impunity-problem---study">the Philippines was known as the country with the worst state of impunity</a>. Government critics were the usual victims until Duterte took aim at alleged drug dealers and users. </p>
<p>In my fieldwork in a massive poor urban community in Quezon City, residents have welcomed Duterte’s war on drugs. They now feel more secure in what they call their “drug-infested community” even though drug use has <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-big-is-the-drug-problem-in-the-philippines-anyway-66640">substantially declined compared to previous decades</a>, according to one village official. </p>
<p>Residents argue that their perceptions of community security are just as important as the numbers in government records. For people to feel safe in a <a href="http://www.philstar.com/nation/2015/02/19/1425462/pdea-92-metro-manila-barangays-drug-affected">city where 92% of villages face drug-related crimes</a> and in a <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/118004-crime-drugs-philippines">nation where crimes against persons and property are rising</a> is no easy thing. </p>
<p>When Duterte’s campaign translates to perceived everyday safety, it is no wonder that drug-war murders have not met considerable resistance.</p>
<p>Anyone with experience of the country’s institutions of justice knows how elusive criminal justice is. Around <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/sonny-angara/sen-angaras-privilege-speech-on-ejk-hearings-as-delivered/1161244923965055">80% of drug cases end up being dismissed</a> and it may take a decade to achieve a conviction. </p>
<p>There are many reasons for this, but Duterte’s narrative that drug lords are so powerful that they can influence even the judiciary is not far-fetched. <a href="http://www.philstar.com/inbox-world/640998/do-you-trust-justice-system-philippines-why-or-why-not">Most people do not trust the judiciary</a> and many are convinced that power and money are needed to claim justice.</p>
<p>Previous administrations also made a mockery out of the national justice system; even convicted corrupt politicians enjoy their freedom while innocents languish in jail. A corruption whistleblower, Jun Lozada, was <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/808692/jun-lozada-convicted-of-graft-gets-10-years">recently convicted</a>, while ex-president Gloria Arroyo was <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/140200-supreme-court-ruling-gloria-arroyo">acquitted and set free</a>. </p>
<p>The legislature has been used to turn issues of justice into a public circus, such as in the impeachment of <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/special-coverage/corona-trial/6099-corona-found-guilty">Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Corona</a> and the hearings on allegations of graft and corruption against <a href="http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/07/14/ombudsman-files-corruption-charges-jejomar-binay.html">former vice president Jejomar Binay</a>. </p>
<p>Is it surprising then that Dutarte’s supporters find calls to follow the rule of law and due process hypocritical? When institutions do not work, it becomes unreasonable to rely on them. </p>
<p>Duterte’s narrative plays on the temptations for a disgruntled public to claim swift justice. In the context of his rise to power, it’s no surprise that calls to respect human rights or the rule of law fall on deaf ears. </p>
<p>The election of Duterte may be seen as the nadir, but possibly also a turning point, in the long-standing democratic deficit in <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/philippines/democracy-human-rights-and-governance">Asia’s oldest democracy</a>. His rejection of the rule of law and liberal democracy represents a rupture in the post-EDSA consensus. </p>
<p>It’s not a stretch to say that the Philippines’ elite democracy had it coming. The failure to deliver on the promises of the People Power revolution made the rise of Duterte politically possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cleve Arguelles receives funding from the Central European University and the University of the Philippines.</span></em></p>The people of the Philippines brought down a dictator without resorting to violence 30 years ago. But continuing disappointment with their democracy means they now support a populist president.Cleve V. Arguelles, Instructor of Political Science, University of the PhilippinesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/660812016-10-07T06:56:24Z2016-10-07T06:56:24ZHow Duterte’s drug war taps into the Philippines’ zeitgeist<p>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has attracted international condemnation with his violent crackdown on alleged drug takers and his dismissive attitude towards his country’s traditional allies. But his popularity at home remains incredibly high – he seems to have his finger on the nation’s pulse. </p>
<p>Every day during the first 100 days of Duterte’s administration, <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/145814-numbers-statistics-philippines-war-drugs">an average of 36 Filipinos</a> have been killed. About half of these extrajudicial killing are in the country’s capital Manila. </p>
<p>In the Philippines’ so-called “war on drugs”, suspects die in “encounters” with police, are shot by motorcycle-riding vigilante gunmen, or are killed by trained and unofficial police death squads. Their taped up bodies are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/04/philippines-secret-death-squads-police-officer-teams-behind-killings">left with a cardboard confessional sign</a> strapped around their necks, saying “pusher” or “drug lord”, or dumped under a bridge or neighbouring town.</p>
<p>The guilt of victims is assumed – never proven, seriously investigated, or even questioned.</p>
<h2>The sad, the bizarre, and the misguided</h2>
<p>Not surprisingly, there have been reports of many heart-wrenching cases of violent death. A <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/26/asia/danica-may-garcia-philippines-drugs/">five-year-old girl was killed</a> in late September after gunmen aiming to kill her grandfather opened fire. A father and son caught smoking <em>shabu</em>, the most widely available methamphetamine in the country, were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/asia/philippines-duterte-drug-killings.html">beaten and then shot dead</a> while in police custody.</p>
<p>Photos taken by Raffy Lerma on July 23 of <a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/96101/the-story-behind-the-viral-photo">Jennilyn Olayres embracing her murdered partner</a>, peddycab driver Michael Siaron, on the street became iconic as Filipinos immediately associated with Michaelango’s famous Pietà sculpture showing Mary cradling the crucified Jesus. A cardboard sign next to his body carried the chilling message <em>Pusher ako, wag tularan</em> (I’m a pusher, don’t do what I did). </p>
<p>President Duterte dismissed this case as “overdramatised”, suggesting one had to be hard hearted to “win” a war against drugs.</p>
<p>There have been bizarre incidents among the bloodshed as well. One case saw a suspected drug taker who “<a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/815099/drug-suspect-rises-from-the-dead">rose from the dead</a>” become inevitably associated with the TV zombie craze. The Philippine media reported that a man found lying in his own pool of blood stood up once he felt safe in the presence of reporters who came to cover the apparent killing. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/118004-crime-drugs-philippines">Crime has been linked</a> to illicit drug use in the Philippines, but the country is certainly not about to degenerate into a “narco state”. No drug gangs are directly challenging the authority of the state as in Mexico, or Columbia before that. Even so, there’s a growing fascination with such states in the country. </p>
<p>Filipinos have become obsessed with the Netflix series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2707408/">Narcos</a> about Colombia’s drug lord Pablo Escobar. Showing death can imitate fiction, <a href="http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/09/20/1625562/bato-colombia-present-philippine-style-drug-war">one Philippine commentator surmised</a> police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is responsible for the anti-drug campaign, was inspired by the television programme to fly to Colombia recently to find out how that South American country had “won” the war on drugs. </p>
<p>He found the country’s President Juan Manuel Santos <a href="http://www.philstar.com/supreme/2016/09/24/1626768/review-narcos-state-mind">has been advocating</a> a more humane solution to the problem.</p>
<h2>War on the poor?</h2>
<p>Since becoming president in late June, Duterte has implemented his “Davao model” of giving police and vigilantes a license to kill drug suspects nationwide. </p>
<p>The name comes from the town where he was twice vice mayor (1986-1987 and 2010-2013) and thrice mayor (1988-1998, 2001-2010 and 2013-2016) before he became president; Davao is the largest city in the conflict-torn southern island of Mindanao. And Duterte’s anti-drug policy left over 1,400 people dead there. </p>
<p>Duterte used his “tough on crime” approach to win the May 2016 presidential election as a political outsider, promising to restore law and order with strongman rule. Columbia University academic Sheila Coronel has called Duterte the “<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/09/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-manila-drugs-davao/500756/">bastard child of Philippine democracy</a>”.</p>
<p>In a report about the widow of a victim of the anti-drug drive, reporter Jamela Alindogan of Al Jazeera, who has been a leader in the international coverage of the killings, summed up the view of many critics, noting there were fears that “<a href="http://video.aljazeera.com/channels/eng/videos/hundreds-killed-in-philippines-drugs-crackdown/504729794300">the war on drugs is a war against the poor</a>.”</p>
<p>Foreign human rights groups and most Western governments have been outspoken in their criticism as have some Philippine activist groups. But <a href="http://www.newmandala.org/storm-bullets-wave-apathy/">protest has been limited</a> in the face of police terror directed primarily at the poor.</p>
<p>Duterte has played to the deep resentments of those marginally better off after 15 years of solid economic growth. And he’s done so despite the “straight path” anti-corruption platform of the previous administration of president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. </p>
<p>“<a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/94530/dutertismo">Dutertismo</a>” as the Philippine sociologist Randy David has termed it, has been driven by middle-class worries about rising crime and a broken justice system, as well as crumbling infrastructure and continued corruption. </p>
<p>Academic Nicole Curato has applied the term “<a href="https://theconversation.com/philippines-cannot-build-a-nation-over-the-bodies-of-100-000-dead-in-dutertes-war-on-drugs-64053">penal populism</a>” - appeals to voters who feel threatened by crime and not protected by the police or the courts - to the Philippines to describe a fantasy “that sets apart the virtuous public from the degenerates who do not deserve due process.”</p>
<p>This “<a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/05/08/duterte-and-the-politics-of-anger-in-the-philippines/">politics of anger</a>” leaves little room for treating drugs as a health problem, and as symptom of social problems rather than its cause. The latter approach would allow for the rule of law and for rehabilitation to deal with the problem, thereby avoiding the criminalisation of the poor. </p>
<p>But the fact that there’s been so little protest against Duterte’s “war on drugs” is a sad indicator of the expendability of life at the bottom of the social hierarchy in the Philippines.</p>
<h2>Silencing opponents</h2>
<p>Duterte has also mobilised nationalist antipathy against foreign interference, and that of the US in particular, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/04/asia/philippines-duterte-us-breakup/">to deflect criticism</a> from his violent drug crackdown.</p>
<p>Indeed, his popularity seems part of the national zeitgeist. Last year, Filipinos flocked to the local film <a href="http://henerallunathemovie.com/#Synopsis">Heneral Luna</a>, which celebrates the life and death of the strong-willed General Juan Luna. Commander of the revolutionary army, he fought against US occupation in 1898 but was betrayed by his compatriots. </p>
<p>When running for the country’s highest elected office Duterte said a president must be willing to risk his life to defend the people, tapping into the mood created by the film. He pledged his willingness to die in carrying out his promise to eradicate drugs.</p>
<p>Given Duterte’s super-majority in Congress, only a handful of politicians have spoken out against the killings. One who has <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/143360-de-lima-duterte-attacks-very-foul">consistently criticised Duterte’s bloodbath</a> is former Commission on Human Rights chairperson, former Justice Secretary and now Senator, Leila de Lima.</p>
<p>She has <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/148226-public-trial-leila-de-lima">paid for her outspokenness</a>. She was removed as head of the Senate committee investigating the killings. And Duterte’s congressional allies retaliated with hearings in the lower house that saw former convicts testify that she had granted them privileged conditions in prison while she was Secretary of Justice, in return for drug money <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/147599-leila-de-lima-soce-contributors-2016-elections">contributions to her senatorial campaign</a>. </p>
<p>Duterte claimed <a href="http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/09/23/1626562/de-lima-screwing-not-only-her-driver-also-nation">de Lima has drug connections</a> through her driver who had become her lover, a double sin in starkly class-divided patriarchal society.</p>
<p>De Lima has received death threats and has been <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/147003-leila-de-lima-fear-security-transfer-temporary-home">forced to leave her home</a>. </p>
<h2>Dissolving democracy?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/145814-numbers-statistics-philippines-war-drugs">more than 3,600 people killed</a> in the anti-drug war <a href="http://pcij.org/stories/war-on-drugs-no-eo-signed-by-du30-a-chaos-of-numbers/">already exceeds the 3,240 people</a> Amnesty International estimates were “salvaged” (a Filipino term for extrajudicial killings) during the nearly 14 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos.</p>
<p>There’s a discrepancy between Duterte and his police chief’s claim that there are more than three million drug addicts in the Philippines. The government’s own Dangerous Drugs Board estimates there are in fact <a href="http://pcij.org/stories/war-on-drugs-no-eo-signed-by-du30-a-chaos-of-numbers/">1.24 million illegal drug takers</a> in the country. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Duterte’s defence of his anti-drug campaign has become increasingly unhinged. In a recent outburst, he compared his campaign to the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-duterte-hitler-idUSKCN1220H9">He later apologised</a>. </p>
<p>The reasons for Duterte’s rise to power and the silence, if not acceptance, from Philippine society about his violent crackdown on drug takers has historical roots. </p>
<p>Not even modest steps toward transitional justice were attempted during the early post-Marcos period, which was marred by repeated military coup attempts. And this established a pattern of informal immunity from prosecution that, with few exceptions, has continued since then.</p>
<p>Democracy has not yet died in the Philippines; the press remains uncensored and opposition criticism is still tolerated. But civil liberties, particularly the right to life, lie buried beneath the corpses of thousands of victims of Duterte’s 100-day “war on drugs”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark R Thompson receives funding from the Hong Kong government to study the problems of democracy in Southeast Asia.</span></em></p>Duterte used his “tough on crime” approach to win the election as a political outsider, promising to restore law and order with strongman rule. His approval rating has since soared to over 90%.Mark R Thompson, Professor of Politics & Head of the Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong KongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/660782016-10-04T06:17:34Z2016-10-04T06:17:34ZFormer dictator Marcos might be buried as a hero in the Philippines, despite human rights abuses<p>The Philippine government’s decision to bury former president-turned dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Cemetery for Heroes (<em>Libingan ng Mga Bayani</em>) marks the climax of over half a century of the Marcos family’s presence in national politics.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/14/asia/philippines-marcos-burial-protest/">Protests over Rodrigo Duterte administration’s decision</a> and a Philippine <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/811432/ph-court-hears-petitions-against-marcos-hero-burial">Supreme Court challenge by anti-Marcos activists</a>, human rights lawyers, and victims of the dictatorship illustrate the contested nature of Ferdinand Marcos’ legacy. </p>
<h2>Slide into autocracy</h2>
<p>Elected to government in 1965, Marcos was the only president of the Philippine Republic to be elected to a second term in office when he ran again in 1969. On September 21 1972, he <a href="http://www.gov.ph/1972/09/21/proclamation-no-1081/">declared martial law</a>, citing street protests by student activists and a rising Communist insurgency. It would last until 1981.</p>
<p>Congress was padlocked. Opposition leaders, student activists, and media personalities who opposed Marcos were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/24/archives/mass-arrests-and-curfew-announced-in-philippines-mass-arrests.html?_r=0">arrested by the military and detained in military camps</a>. Newspaper offices, and television and radio stations were closed down. And a nationwide curfew was imposed. </p>
<p>Marcos’ one-man rule was marked by kleptocracy, and human rights abuses that included <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/146939-martial-law-explainer-victims-stories">warrantless arrests, disappearances, torture, and the murder of political opponents</a>. Civil liberties were suspended; the media was effectively controlled; and corruption was rampant, with the regime’s cronies getting juicy contracts for government projects. </p>
<p>Marcos was finally brought down by the Phililpines’ first <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12567320">People Power Revolution</a> in February 1986. He and his family fled to Hawaii but nothing has come of the numerous investigations of their kleptocracy, which is thought to have amounted to billions of dollars.</p>
<p>All this might suggest that the idea of moving his remains to <em>Libingan ng Mga Bayani</em> would be met with widespread condemnation, but some Filipinos are supportive of the suggestion. Some analysts say Filipinos easily <a href="http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/02/25/Marcoses-in-power-EDSA-Revolution.html">forgive and forget</a>; others called it <a href="http://thewip.net/2011/09/07/philippine-historical-amnesia-reflections-on-marcos-authoritarian-rule/">historical amnesia</a>. </p>
<h2>Ongoing involvement</h2>
<p>Imelda Marcos and her children came back to the Philippines from Hawaii in 1991, bringing with them the embalmed body of the late president, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/29/obituaries/ferdinand-marcos-ousted-leader-of-philippines-dies-at-72-in-exile.html">who had died in 1989</a>. Marcos’ body remains in public view in a mausoleum in his home province in northern Philippines.</p>
<p>Since then, Imelda and two of her children, Ferdinand Jr (nicknamed Bongbong) and his elder sister, Imee, have been elected as representatives to the Philippine Congress for their province. Two other children, Irene and Aimee, remained out of politics, concentrating instead on local arts and culture. </p>
<p>Bongbong later took the big step of running in the national elections, winning a seat in the Philippine Senate in 2010. Observers started predicting a Marcos return to power when he stood for vice president in this year’s election but he came – a close – <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/787873/leni-robredo-is-vice-president">second</a>. </p>
<p>Then, barely a month into President Duterte’s term, the new president announced plans to move Marcos’ remains to the national cemetery for distinguished military officers, former presidents and state-honored artists. </p>
<h2>The makings of amnesia</h2>
<p>How can the idea of moving Marcos to the <em>Libingan ng Mga Bayani</em> arise in light of his crimes against his nation? </p>
<p>It seems that despite technology opening up the world of information, many young Filipinos are unaware of what happened under the dictatorship. They don’t seem to see the difference between the corruption and human rights abuses under Marcos and what took place under administrations that followed. Indeed, they appear to see governments in broad general terms – good or bad. </p>
<p>Leaders are no longer elected because of their capability to rule but <a href="http://bulatlat.com/main/2016/04/30/its-all-about-popularity-name-recall-and-money/">because of populism</a> among the electorate. Presidents as well as national and local leaders are elected as the better alternative to their predecessors, rather than as successors for their country’s development. </p>
<p>The fact is that few lessons learned about the dictatorship were handed down to the next generation. No government truth commission or <a href="http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=marcos&8217-long-shadow&id=126038">any other investigating body</a> was formed to look into the cases of Marcos’s victims. </p>
<p>In 2013, a <a href="http://hrvclaimsboard.gov.ph/">Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board</a> was set up to recognise and provide reparations for violations during Marcos’s 1972-1986 rule. But, to date, out of the 75,000 claimants who have come forward, only 11,000 have been compensated. </p>
<p>Nothing was done to punish those who were liable for the crimes committed during martial law. A government office - the <a href="http://www.gov.ph/section/briefing-room/presidential-commission-on-good-government/">Presidential Commission on Good Government</a> - was formed in 1986 to go after the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos (estimated to be US$5 to US$10 billion) and his cronies. But, <a href="http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/123664-recovering-marcos-ill-gotten-wealth-30-years">after 30 years</a>, it has reportedly recovered US$3.6 billion.</p>
<h2>Missing memories</h2>
<p>The dark side of Marcos’s rule has also been absent from history books. A <a href="http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/556745/lifestyle/artandculture/never-again-book-aims-to-keep-public-memory-of-martial-law-atrocities-from-fading">book providing a balanced account</a> that addresses both victims and enforcers of the martial law years was finally published this year. </p>
<p>Filipinos celebrated the democracy that was returned with the ouster of the dictator and his family in 1986. But they didn’t ensure its capacity to withstand the amnesia that followed the trauma of 22 years of Marcos rule. </p>
<p>And when the celebrations finally ended in 1991 with the return of the dictator’s family, those Filipinos who, six years before had stood before tanks and faced the guns of the military in a peaceful revolution were left looking askance.</p>
<p>The lessons of the martial law era are still being learned. Meanwhile, indifference to the darkest days of the Philippines continues among some of the nation’s citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jose Victor Torres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government’s decision to bury Ferdinand Marcos in the national Cemetery for Heroes illustrates the contested nature of the dictator’s legacy.Jose Victor Torres, Associate Professor of History, De La Salle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.