‘Let me educate you’
It did not take long before the loyal members of the Duterte political base began to distance themselves from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. From the very start, I already saw it coming.
I know a lot about the social media infrastructure of the Duterte base. After all, in my not-so distant past, I was a part of this infrastructure until I could no longer countenance the unwarranted murders not only of decent political discourse due to misogynistic outbursts of former president Rodrigo Duterte but of drug suspects who were executed extrajudicially.
I know those who would never support then candidate, now president, Marcos. There were also some of them who were consumed by their own personal ambitions, including those who relished their newly found power as social media influencers — from those who had hundreds of thousands of followers and had the right to boast, to those who simply rode on the coattails and became part-time social media personalities playing minor roles.
And I knew them all well enough to have predicted that sooner or later they would gravitate back to their Tatay figure. And as it turned out, it was sooner than later, and this included even those who were given space in the Marcos inner circles of power, but were later asked to resign, which is the face-saving word for being fired.
What is more surprising for me was the departure from the ambit of the Marcos loyal base of people who I knew worked hard for his candidacy, and now have joined the critical voices against the President. Most prominent of them is former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez and US-based vlogger Eden Contreras aka Maharlika. Their stories would be an entirely different matter compared to the DDS-turnedMarcos-supporter-turned-critic, and one would be free to speculate on the causes of the falling-out.
The DDS, including those who worked for Marcos and the former Marcos loyalists, now serve as the social media backbone for the newly emerging political force that draws its fire from the former president who seems to have risen, like a fire-breathing dragon, from retirement. Apparently, the former president is now consumed with paranoia created by the specter of being arrested and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and amplified by worrisome moves from the Marcos government, further aggravated by moves in the House of Representatives with whom Duterte had a public spat, to urge the Marcos government to cooperate with ICC.
This, and the open policy reversals affected by the Marcos government on major issues such as the stance in the West Philippine Sea, the tenor toward the United States and other traditional allies, all of which were practically abandoned by Duterte in favor of China, and the approach to the problem of drugs, crime and the leftist rebels, were enough reasons for the former president to turn ballistic. He is now even advocating that Mindanao should secede from the Republic.
A special place should be reserved in this political space for the President’s sister, Sen. Maria Imelda Josefa “Imee” Marcos, who has openly disagreed with her brother on many occasions, publicly clashed with her cousin, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and displayed unassailable affiliation and kindred ties with the Dutertes. She was even there during the so-called prayer rally in Davao, sitting onstage while the Dutertes took turns lambasting her brother, with Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte demanding that the President resign, and the former president calling him a drug addict. It is too early to tell which way, eventually, Senator Marcos would go, more so if it turns out that her perceived desertion of her brother may prove politically costly for her reelection during the midterms. Senator Marcos will definitely weigh the consequences of being abandoned by the Marcos loyalists, even as it is not yet certain if she is fully trusted by the DDS base.
It is against this backdrop that the political opposition during the last 2022 elections should seriously reflect on and rethink their strategy. And they must really be mindful of the possibility that if they do not play their cards right, they would be rendered irrelevant and insignificant, and displaced by the emerging pro-Duterte alliance. A more practical suggestion was offered by lawyer Tony Laviña, who grudgingly admitted that in the battle between the Marcos-Romualdez and Duterte axes of power, the more strategic move for the political opposition is to side with the former.
After all, President Marcos seems to have pleasantly disappointed those who expected him to be a Duterte 2.0, or to become a mere reincarnation of his dictator father. Marcos has proven to provide more democratic space, compared to the certain draconian closure of spaces in a second Duterte presidency of daughter Sara Duterte.
Beyond this, however, the opposition will have to think seriously of other options on how to remain relevant and potent not only for the midterm elections next year, but for the 2028 presidential elections. This will not be achieved if they are unable to learn from their dramatic losses in past elections and unlearn their usual modes of engaging the electorate.
They will continue their losing streak if they keep on mouthing the arrogant, elitist mantra that was summed up in their “let me educate you” spiel, now rearing an ugly reincarnation in “tama nga kami, tanga nga kayo” memes, once again embodying everything that was wrong about their campaign. They cannot move on if they are trapped in their idolatry of their defeated candidate by boasting to the majority who voted for Marcos that 36 percent of people think Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo would have been a better president.