Dutertes emerge as Filipino folk heroes
THE Marcos-Romualdez regime’s all-out persecution of former president Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Sara, to ensure that their clan maintains power after 2028 has been an abject failure. It has also backfired, turning Duterte and his daughter into folk heroes. Only analysts living in ivory towers, columnists seeking a post in this administration, or the outrightly clueless writers would have the temerity — or imagination — to claim that the Dutertes are “fallen idols.”
I’ll enumerate the qualities of a folk hero scholars generally agree on to show that the Dutertes are the country’s folk heroes, our first since perhaps President Ramon Magsaysay of the 1950s.
First, a folk hero is seen as a champion of ordinary citizens, standing up against oppression, injustice or corrupt authority. Duterte particularly demonstrated this quality in his war against illegal drugs. The quad committee hearings only served to broadcast to the entire country that he has undertaken this war for the sake of Filipino families victimized by crazed drug addicts.
One may question whether Duterte really meant his bold words or he is merely a master of eloquence. But still, Filipinos have taken to heart Duterte’s statement in the Senate committee hearings: “I am willing to go to hell (or I am willing to rot in jail) if that’s needed for the anti-drug war.” That’s the kind of classic statement of folk heroes: Rizal’s “We know how to die for our duty and our beliefs”; Mexican national hero Emiliano Zapata’s “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees”; and American Patrick Henry’s immortal “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
The Congress hearings even produced a new slogan, now going viral, out of Duterte’s mouth during his interrogation by the legislators: “I am not a Filipino for nothing.” While that koan-like statement may mean different things for different Filipinos, it has made being Filipino a matter of pride, something folk heroes do for their nations.
Second, a folk hero displays exceptional courage and risking their lives for the greater good. This, of course, has been Duterte’s trademark, and no other president has even gotten close to displaying “courage,” whether authentic or not. Indeed, Duterte demonstrated courage in facing his accusers in the Senate committee and House hearings, in which many of his accusers, after the hearings, found their tails between their legs.
Romualdez minion Joel Chua stupidly blah-blahs that Sara is blatantly disregarding authority by blocking her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, an undersecretary, from being jailed in the Women’s Correctional Facility, a prison for convicted criminals, after being cited for contempt by a congressman who is a former or current Communist Party cadre. Filipinos — going by the overwhelming outrage on social media platforms — see Sara as a hero who will stand by, at all costs, her subordinate. “Walang iwanan” has always been a popular Filipino injunction.
Third, folk heroes often originate from humble beginnings, which led them to be extra-sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden. While Sara’s father was a governor of the then-undivided Davao province and his mother a teacher, his lifestyle wasn’t the kind of rich lifestyle of most politicians: he ate at Davao’s “turo-turos,” often wore slippers, and lived, even after stepping down from the presidency, in a lower-middle class house that he bought three decades ago. All of his predecessors lived in veritable upper-class areas.
A folk hero has a mythical dimension as his or her virtues are usually exaggerated, warts and blemishes glossed over for the sake of symbolizing the best qualities of the savior of a nation or a tribe. This near deification of a folk leader makes criticisms against him or her water poured on a goose. The masses do not care about, nor even understand, confidential funds that the House of Representatives’ political assassins foolishly thought would lead to Sara’s impeachment. Neither do the masses care about the so-called principle of command responsibility nor “extrajudicial admission of guilt” that would make Duterte liable for the alleged extrajudicial killings during his war on illegal drugs.
Trump
We would better understand the phenomenon of folk heroes and its political impact if we look at how Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential elections by a landslide, which nearly all analysts and pollsters did not expect.
The Biden administration undertook a relentless campaign to persecute Trump, to demonize him, and even to disqualify him from running. Similarly, just two years in power, the US — because of his wish for the country to be independent of its colonial master — and its minions here undertook a propaganda campaign to demonize Duterte starting in 2016.
After betraying Duterte, the Marcos-Romualdez regime first clamped down on the broadcasting network SMNI, which had been pro-Duterte, and then on its owner himself, the religious leader Apollo Quiboloy. And then came the congressional investigations, the first wave of which sought to link Duterte to crimes by the Chinese-operated POGOs. The second wave was to falsely broadcast to the world (and to the International Criminal Court) that Duterte was liable for crimes against humanity due to his war against illegal drugs.
Then it was his daughter Sara’s turn to be persecuted, with the Marcos-Romualdez lapdogs in the House of Representatives undertaking investigations to prove that Sara had pocketed the secret, confidential funds under her control as vice president and education secretary.
In contrast to the Marcos-Romualdez regime’s failed assault against the Dutertes, the attack by the Democrats undertaken by a weaponized justice department was largely successful.
Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to an adult film star during the 2016 campaign. He was indicted on 40 felony counts for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving office. He was charged for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including conspiracy to defraud the US. In May 2023, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and ordered to pay $88.3 million in damages in the E. Jean Caroll case. And in September 2023, he WAS found liable for financial fraud, resulting in a $457 million judgment. The world’s beacon of democracy certainly proved efficient in weaponizing the legal system to prevent Trump from assuming power.
Champion
He did anyway, getting 2.5 million of the popular votes and 58 percent of the electoral college votes, more than the Democrats’ Kamala Harris.
Of all the many explanations advanced for Trump’s win, the most probable, and following the Occam’s Razor principle (the simplest is the most likely explanation), is that Harris wasn’t really running against just another Republican candidate. She was running against America’s newest folk hero.
To his supporters, Trump was seen as a champion of the “forgotten” working class and those who feel marginalized by political elites and globalization — in a lot of ways, like Duterte. His “outsider” status in Washington politics resonates with many — just as Duterte emerged out of Davao in the northernmost part of the country. Trump built his image as a disruptor of the political establishment, defying conventional norms of governance and media narratives — just as Duterte did with his curses, among other things. Trump’s brash style added to his appeal as a larger-than-life figure. Trump’s public persona — bold, controversial, and unapologetically blunt — has inspired admiration among those who view him as speaking truths that others avoid — just as Duterte has.
Trump had a strong single message in the campaign — he would stop the flood of illegal immigrants to the US, even mobilizing the military, with 77 million Americans (i.e., those who voted for him) agreeing with him even as this would likely violate these illegals’ human rights such as the right to political asylum. Duterte’s singular message in the 2016 election to this day — is his agenda to eradicate illegal drugs in the country. This has incontrovertibly resonated with the nation, especially as Duterte has emphasized that waging war against illegal drugs is waging war against criminals.
The Marcos-Romualdez regime has waged a war against the now folk heroes — Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter — to prevent the latter from becoming president in 2028, and Filipinos have seen through their plot. I certainly don’t think it will succeed.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
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Dutertes emerge as Filipino folk heroes
Source: Breaking News PH
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