New kind of politics makes presence felt in PH

REPORTEDLY, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s more than 15 million votes—this far in Philippine political history—are the highest recorded number of votes cast for a presidential candidate. The reason Duterte garnered this many votes, analyst say, is that he was the only presidential candidate who offered simple solutions to complex problems.

With Duterte’s landslide victory the Philippine political landscape may never be the same again. Duterte apparently has ushered in a new kind of politics into the country.

Reluctant at first to run due to lack of funds, he wooed the voters with his quick-fix agenda, vowing to eliminate crime and corruption, including illegal drug trafficking, in three to six months. This seemed to be a tall order to skeptics and his critics, but Duterte, a seasoned politician who has led Davao City for decades, felt he needed to give the voters a high for them to hang on to his campaign slogan, “change is coming.”

And change did come on Election Day. From the start of the unofficial, partial counting of votes, it looked like Duterte was indeed destined for the presidency.

Duterte was not anyone’s usual presidential candidate. He made no bones about his socialist bent. He did not hesitate to spew obscenity. He was uncouth, his critics said. His solution to criminality sounded swift, bold, and it scared even law-abiding citizens. He capitalized on the public’s frustrations and discontent with an establishment controlled by the elite, which had become helpless against rising criminality and worsening poverty. His was a straightforward, candid campaign that often was a “brutal” portrayal of the most pressing national issues. This was populist politics, the pundits critiqued.

But with change being indeed the call of the hour, the masa easily believed Duterte could make the impossible possible. What mattered most to them was the promise of effective governance to end corruption in the bureaucracy, the root cause of poverty in the country. They took the “risk.” And made real a phenomenal win.

The presumptive president-elect has been accused of demagoguery many times over, but the populist image worked well for him. Admittedly, social media contributed a lot to his victory, what with adoring supporters flooding it with postings, tweets, blogs, e-mails favorable to him.

Populist politics, henceforth, may now be the new norm of Philippine politics.

—RUFFY MAGBANUA, [email protected]