• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy

Democracy Chronicles

Philippine Midterms to Test Popularity of President Rodrigo Duterte

by DC Editors - May 3, 2019

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Philippine Midterm Elections to Test Popularity of President Rodrigo Duterte

From Voice Of America

Rising inflation, endemic poverty, declining infrastructure and competing claims over territorial waters are among the issues facing Philippine voters when they vote May 13 in midterm legislative elections.

But instead of evaluating candidates on these issues, they are expected to cast ballots based largely on who’s been endorsed by President Rodrigo Duterte – a charismatic leader who remains popular in opinion surveys even though not all Filipinos like his policies.

The elections covering 18,000 seats throughout the archipelago, including local posts, will show the level of public support for the rough-hewn, tough-talking Duterte three years into his term. If his supporters keep their majorities in the two-chamber legislature, he will find it easier to cement such policies as a $169 billion infrastructure building effort, a deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and a fragile friendship with China, with whom it has competing claims in the South China Sea.

“Philippine elections are normally characterized as more personality driven, rather than program or party based, so in that sense the endorsement of the president is also very important,” said Maria Ela Atienza, a University of the Philippines political science professor.

The Commission on Elections will count ballots for six days after the election, in which 63 million citizens are eligible to vote.

Test of Duterte’s popularity

Duterte was elected to a six-year term in 2016 on pledges to eradicate illegal drugs and on his image as a non-establishment politician. He has surprised Filipinos as well as observers overseas by letting police summarily kill drug crime suspects.

He alarms some as well by accepting aid and investment from China while the more militarily powerful neighbor controls Philippine-claimed fisheries around a shoal near Luzon Island in the South China Sea and sends fleets to monitor Manila’s construction on another islet that the two countries contest.

But Duterte’s thunderous remarks have earned him populist appeal, while city dwellers credit him for reducing crime. The president received a 79 percent satisfaction rating in the first quarter of 2019 in a survey by the Metro Manila research institute Social Weather Stations. A pro-Duterte coalition now holds 16 of 24 Senate seats and 248 of 297 seats in the House of Representatives.

An endorsement from Duterte, a 74-year-old former mayor of the Philippines’ second largest city, Davao, matters so much that in some districts more than one candidate has obtained it, said Antonio Contreras, a political scientist at De La Salle University in the Philippines.

Voting also comes down to personal image, Contreras said. The election is not “about issues” but “about personalities,” he said. Candidates with ties to established politicians tend to have more money for advertising and media exposure, said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of left-wing social causes.

Some candidates with labor and women’s groups running for office outside the establishment have been hit by “misinformation,” Reyes added.

“It’s really a difficult fight for alternative candidates, for candidates who are more critical of the establishment, they tend to have less funds and less media exposure because they don’t have money to buy advertising,” he said. “That’s one of the hurdles we are trying to overcome so far as progressive candidates are concerned.”

Other political figures risk their lives. Two relatives of a candidate for local office in the province of Negros Occidental were shot to death April 25. They join at least 15 local officials slain from mid-2016 to mid-2018, possibly in connection with the anti-drug effort.

Duterte’s allies show strength

If pro-Duterte candidates win most of the Senate, the president will be able to push ahead with tax law changes favoring the poor and the renewal of a public infrastructure program — from an airport flyover in Manila to the first railway line on the impoverished southern island of Mindanao. Duterte will step down in 2022; Philippine presidents can legally serve just one term.

Duterte is also expected to sustain the anti-drug crackdown, which local media estimate has claimed at least 5,000 lives in extrajudicial killings, in light of what he calls foreign syndicates entering the Philippines. He could expand as well on a friendship with China, which is helping to fund some of the infrastructure.

PulseAsia Research also called the Metro Manila water shortage a “key” issue. Consumer prices, jobs and “peace and order” also figure as issues that voters might consider, Atienza said.

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Filed Under: International Democracy Tagged With: Asia, Philippines

About DC Editors

We are your source for news on the all important effort to establish and strengthen democracy across the globe. Our international team with dozens of independent authors are your gateway into the raging struggle for free and fair elections on every continent with a focus on election reform in the United States. See our Facebook Page and also follow us on Twitter @demchron.

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Home | ALL NEWS | WORLD | Philippine Midterms to Test Popularity of President Rodrigo Duterte

Primary Sidebar

Advertise button

A Dangerous Reprise Of American Exceptionalism In Ukraine

By Jamie Lampidis May 15, 2022

The stakes are too high to cave into Putin’s phantasmatic imperial play, and too high to believe that this war can be won by arming Ukrainians.

On The Coming End Of Roe v. Wade

By Peter J. Dellolio May 11, 2022

Anyone who says that the evolution of law has nothing to do with politics is either very corrupt or very stupid. Laws evolved through the centuries.

democracy chronicles newsletter

DC AUTHORS

Goodbye Roe v. Wade, Goodbye Rule Of Law

By Andrew Straw May 5, 2022

Congress should impeach judges who act like that because it is not good behavior, and they were asked not to act that way when they were confirmed.

PODCAST: Debating The Future Of Debates

By Jenna Spinelle May 4, 2022

We love a good debate — and have certainly had plenty of them on this show. But how effective are they in today’s media and political landscape?

What “Pro-Palestine” Student Groups Get Wrong

By David Anderson, J.D. May 3, 2022

Back then – as now – this fit into a “colonialist” narrative of European Jews oppressing Arabs – an easy, eye pleasing but intellectually lazy fit.

Examining Government As A “Necessary Evil”

By Gary Berton April 29, 2022

Thomas Paine defines government as separate from society, and indeed if society functioned perfectly there would be no need for government.

Ukrainian And Polish History: Fighting The Empires

By Maxim Sidorenko April 26, 2022

On February 24th, Russia started an unprovoked war against Ukraine. It has become one more attempt of the empire to demolish the Ukrainian state.

PODCAST: What Student Debt Says About Democratic Institutions

By Jenna Spinelle April 26, 2022

In a new book, Josh Mitchell draws alarming parallels to the housing crisis, showing the catastrophic consequences student debt has had on families.

Aging White Men Who Commit Voter Fraud Have Nothing To Fear

By Steve Schneider April 22, 2022

The sentences stand in contrast with the actions of the Governor who recently got the state legislature to create an election integrity police force.

MORE FROM OUR AUTHORS

VISIT OUR POLITICAL ART SECTION:

dc political art

DEMOCRACY CULTURE

North Korea Cracks Down On 'Capitalist' Pop Culture

North Korea Cracks Down On ‘Capitalist’ Pop Culture

May 6, 2022

North Korea has increased its campaign against “capitalist” style clothing, others, in broader crackdown on foreign pop culture.

DiCaprio, Ruffalo Urge Brazilians To Vote, Irking Bolsonaro

DiCaprio, Ruffalo Urge Brazilians To Vote, Irking Bolsonaro

May 6, 2022

Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo joined other celebrities making a final push for voters in Brazil to register to vote.

Mock M&M Election Teaches Alaskans About Ranked Voting

Mock M&M Election Teaches Alaskans About Ranked Voting

April 26, 2022

There are paper cups with eight different kinds of M&M near the entrance to Amalga Distillery in Juneau for a mock ranked choice vote.

How Moral Echo Chambers Increase Likelihood Of Radicalism

How Moral Echo Chambers Increase Likelihood Of Radicalism

April 21, 2022

Moral convergence – group of people who share moral standards – emerges in online situations where communities share similar values.

Dr. Oz Seeks To Make History In US Senate Bid

Dr. Oz Seeks To Make History In US Senate Bid

April 16, 2022

Trump’s endorsement of Dr. Oz in the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania adds a new wrinkle to the tight race for GOP nominee in a month.

MORE CULTURE

VISIT OUR US DEMOCRACY SECTION:

American Democracy