Posted on 05/16/2022 3:01:36 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Pact between Marcos, Duterte families shaped the vote
Bongbong' Marcos didn't just win the presidential election in the Philippines this week. He won it by a two-to-one landslide, despite the fact that he is the extremely entitled son of a former president who stole at least ten billion dollars and a mother who spent the loot partly on the world's most extensive collection of designer shoes (3,000 pairs).
Moreover, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, to give him his real name, has virtually no accomplishments other than that name. Yet his name and his inherited wealth, originally stolen from the parents of the people who voted for him, have enabled him to hold various political offices almost continuously (apart from five years in exile) since he was 23.
Equally deplorable is the electoral triumph of his vice-presidential ally, Sara Duterte, daughter of the mass murderer Rodrigo Duterte. The latter is leaving the presidency at the end of his six-year term, still wildly popular despite the many thousands of extra-judicial killings of alleged 'drug fiends' that he has ordered.
Indeed, those killings are precisely why Rodrigo Duterte is so popular, and his daughter basks in the reflected glory of his violence. A lot of Filipinos adore politicians and other prominent people who are loud, rude and macho - but it's more complicated than that. Sometimes they elect murderers and thieves; sometimes they elect apprentice saints.
The senior Ferdinand Marcos was legitimately elected president in 1965 but declared martial law when he was nearing the end of his second term in 1972. Martial law lasted for another fourteen years, with Marcos's henchmen dividing their time between stealing public funds and torturing or killing perceived opponents.
After that first President Marcos ran the country's economy into the ground, he was ousted in 1986 in the first of the 'people power' non-violent revolutions. The saintly Cory Aquino, whose husband had been assassinated on Marcos's orders, was elected to the presidency, while everybody applauded the Philippines' restored democracy.
But in 1998 the Filipinos elected Joseph 'Erap' Estrada, a former movie star famed for playing the villain, in another landslide.
After the fall of Estrada there were two modestly competent and non-criminal presidents - and then, in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte. Another landslide, of course, and if Duterte stole a lot in the past six years it has not yet been exposed, but he killed even more people than Marcos Senior.
The Philippines is a leading contender for the title of 'world's most populist country', which is hard to explain because its lost twin behaves in a quite different way. Just to the west of the Philippines is Indonesia, another country of many islands whose people are ethnically and linguistically very close to the Filipinos.
Per capita income is about 30% higher in Indonesia, mainly because of oil, but the economies are basically quite similar. Both countries lived for decades under murderous dictators, and both finally overthrew them in non-violent revolutions, the Philippines in 1986, Indonesia in 1998.
However, since Indonesia became a democracy it has elected only presidents who were neither killers nor thieves, while the Filipinos hurl themselves enthusiastically at any plausible fraud who gains a bit of notoriety. Why?
Two hypotheses, both weak, come to mind. First, the Philippines has an unusually powerful elite of big, rich families with strong regional bases. This week's vote, for example, was shaped by a recent alliance between the Marcos family (northern and central Philippines) and the Duterte family (southern Philippines).
The other hypothesis? Ninety-nine percent of adult Filipinos are online, and Filipinos aged 16 to 64 spend on average nearly four hours a day connected to social networks.
(Gwynne Dyer's new book is 'The Shortest History of War'. The views expressed are personal.)
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Beyond corrupt. Always has been. Promise the very poor and uneducated...they will follow.
Two well known strongman families. A very poor third world country.
And I’m getting the impression the human rights advocate opponent was concerned too much about the Muslim and communist guerrillas fighting in the South.
I’m more concerned with his position on relations with the USA and his views on China. I’ve made several trips to this country due to a wife from over there. The locals just sort of accept corruption like the residents of big cities in the usa. We can’t really project our values onto them. One third of that country is stunted - Which means they were malnourished and never grew to what their full height should have been. They have different values than we do, obviously.
Again, since this is FR, what is his position on the usa and china? TBH I didn’t follow this election and when my wife was, it was on on tagalog tv.
That’s exactly what happened. People voted to rob more well off people. In other words, socialism.
BJ1
Yes, that’s what we need to assess.
We don’t need China getting another nation to sign on.
Indonesia is an Islamic craphole.
Hadn’t heard from the risible Gwynn Dyer for years. Didn’t know the old lefty lickspittle was still alive.
In any case I always enjoy watching “the people” give the finger to all the einsteins who claim to know better than they do, and would tell them who they should vote for.
> Moreover, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, to give him his real name, has virtually no accomplishments other than that name. <
Sounds a little bit like Bush II (yeah, I know he was a governor). Anyway, will Ferdinand Jr. be starting any unnecessary wars like Bush II did?
Filipino men. When they get old they start living in a dream world. Their voters are like battered women-they keep coming back for more. One ex-girlfriend(filipina) said that life under Marcos was very boring. I took it to mean it was safe. When the US & the P.I. couldn’t get together on a financial arrangement for the 2 military bases Marcos threatened to kick us out and make a deal with the Soviet Union-go figure. The next time Mt. Pinitubo blew and we had to leave with no agreement. The P.I. really lost out on that one-or did they? The people like us but the leaders are out for themselves. They resent being a little brother(Dutarte’s words) but with the neighborhood they live in it’s to be expected.
Let’s not forget the elder Bush(VP) visiting there. “We admire your adherence to democratic principals”.
OH BTW-Reagan should have turned on Bush the way Trump would have. Mostly domestic stuff. Kinder and Gentler than WHAT?
In case you’re not on this ping list.
Indonesia is a craphole, because it’s Islamic.
In the land of dopey dreams
Lovely peaceful Philippines
Where the bolo man is hiking night and day
Where Tagalos steal and lie
And Americanos die
There you hear the soldiers sing this evening lay
Damn, damn, damn the Filipinos
Cross-eyed kakiack ladrones
Underneath our starry flag
Civilize ‘em with a Krag
And return us to our own beloved homes
Certainly not as shocking as the corruption related to the stolen 2020 election...
Corruption among the elite is acceptable...
Only the corruption among the poor, uneducated, down-trodden, or patriotic is bad...
I’ve been to the Philippines and worked many years with and for them.
Great people. Anybody that can eat Balut
has some “Grit”.
But their culture lacks the concept
of personal freedom and responsibility
for your failure when you exercise
those freedoms.
They don’t like to stand out from
the “Tribe”.
I think it was the other way around. The leading opponent of this Marcos dude was Leni Robredo. She’s been described to me by someone who knows the political scene over there very well as a dingbat and an empty suit — basically the Filipina version of Kamala Harris.
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