Liberal democratic Duterte

LIBERAL democracy, the country’s official state ideology since the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship, is often described as dying under President Rodrigo Duterte. But it is not. The truth is, it is also Duterte’s guiding ideology.

It clearly animates Duterte’s economic policy: With TRAIN that gives tax cuts to the wealthiest at the expense of everyone else who have to pay new and higher taxes; the proelite Private-Public Partnerships that would ensure the Build Build Build program turns into spectacular business for Big Business; the planned sale of Lumad ancestral domain; and the fiscal austerity in the areas of mass housing and health. There’s no departure from the labor export policy because joblessness, low wages and awful quality of life continue to compel people to leave. Meanwhile, the small, elite-dominated and import-dependent economy cannot survive without OFW remittances. It is like an addiction.

It is still supreme in the area of culture ruled by ideas and values such as commercialism, commodification, colonial mentality, hero worship, victim-blaming, regionalism, tribalism, racism, homophobia, misogyny, cynicism, and fatalism. These ideas and values are misportrayed and pushed as supposedly Filipino values. Innovation in culture is acceptable only up to the extent that innovations raise the profit margin, cement the dominance of the old power centers, and do not challenge the status quo.

In politics, democracy is reduced to a numbers game. That’s nothing new. It has been the case since 1987 when the people who restored Congress were hoodwinked by a restored cacique class. The numbers game has reached even the Supreme Court where cases involving democracy itself have been dismissed by strong majorities. Since 1987, the political opposition has always been weak, debilitated by traditional politicians’ balimbing mentality. The Liberal Party cannot complain that PDP-Laban nearly emptied its roster of leaders: It also raided the ranks of Lakas and Kampi in 2010.

With his TRAIN Law alone, Duterte could be considered the most successful liberal democratic president since the downfall of Marcos. What sets him apart is that he capitalizes on the weaknesses of the same liberal democratic ideology: its hypocrisy, and its lack of political will to push the envelope on further cementing liberal democratic forces in power. No president can lay claim to placing a third of the country under martial for such a long period as Duterte has done, purportedly to secure the state — with Congress approval and the assent of the Supreme Court majority. That’s liberal democracy for you.

Duterte isn’t the first liberal democrat to either tolerate or prop up the Marcoses. Fidel Ramos let them back into the country. They were allowed to run in elections, using illgotten wealth the liberal democratic regimes failed to recover. Estrada was pardoned by Arroyo only weeks after he was convicted for plunder. Aquino filed weak, easy-to-lose cases against Arroyo.

The past liberal democratic leaders didn’t push the envelope on the extermination of perceived threats to the ruling system — be they addicts, pushers, journalists, or communists. Duterte did and he thus has endeared himself to the ABC classes pining for their liberal democratic peace. In fact, they will reject accusations of any form of press crackdown and use this commentary as proof of a living and vibrant liberal democracy.

Liberal democratic foreign policy lives on with the full range of onerous treaties with the US still intact and in force. All the treaties and agreements have amounted to nothing in terms of the promised guarantees of US protection and aid in the face of external threats.

The Congress and the Supreme Court have backed Duterte to this day because he still preserves the essential power relations and holds back all manner of national resistance through deception, threats, and wars.

Today’s social and political climate should thus be very receptive to alternatives. More and more people are giving up on “liberal democracy lite” and Duterte’s version of it. They’ve professed faith in both, but people have only been disappointed, frustrated, and shamed by the refusal or inability to deliver meaningful change.

Let’s seize whatever remains of the much-vaunted democratic space in order to find the vision and the path to take moving forward. Duterte is encouraging the people’s appetite not just for waging resistance but for attaining genuine national independence and authentic substantive democracy.

Now’s the best time to study and preach national democracy which for all intents and purposes is the main and most potent alternative to liberal democracy.