Still breathing a sigh of relief. At least that’s me, half the time, three years in.
Having shifted quite easily from campaigning heavily against a Marcos return in 2022, to watching BBM perform his Presidential becoming, it was only a matter of time before I realized I had eased into this new status quo with a voice in the back of my head: thank heavens it’s not another version of Duterte. At least not a fascist of the same scale, at least not going off the rails at midnight press cons, at least not falling back on threats and fear mongering to justify violent anti-people government policies, at least not shameless and disgusting in all the worst ways populists across the world are.
Yes, BBM is still a Marcos, yes. And yes, he is still not taking responsibility for the murder of citizens and the plunder of national coffers during his father’s time, yes.
But.
This Marcos is not a Duterte. Not so far.
Not when there is a concerted and deliberate effort to surface the kind of preferential treatment that was given China for six years under Duterte. A pivot that we were told was important for the economy and for peace in the West Philippine Sea, but which really meant watching as China colonized our seas, taking over our resources, shamelessly and blatantly targeting Filipino citizens who dared cross the illegal boundaries they’ve drawn.
A pivot that meant our communities being changed, our buildings taken over by Chinese workers who weren’t oriented towards assimilation—not even kindness—towards Filipino neighbors; a pivot that meant jobs that would otherwise go to Filipinos would go to Chinese nationals, brought to the Philippines in droves, to do both legal and illegal work; a pivot that meant watching our cities changed by online gambling hubs, buildings taken over, huge compounds built—if not a whole island in Cavite.
And because the President was Duterte, who could get the biggest media entity shut down while enabling propagandists predisposed to below-the-belt rhetoric, as well as doxxing and other cyberbullying tactics, we generally fell silent. After all, we also didn’t have enough information—yet another strategy for populism: normalize the lack of transparency and you don’t only get away with murder and corruption, you also deny the public information.
Which is yet another line drawn between the past and present leaderships: at least now we are back to having access to information. Still not all of it, and certainly still as controlled by government, but at least questions are not simply dismissed, and those who ask them not wantonly disregarded or threatened, or removed completely from the Malacañang Press Corps. At least we are back to being able to criticize government not just because we have enough information to do so, but because there is no more threat of being name-called or red-tagged by the President, or being labelled terorista-komunista-dilawan-elitista.
At least we are back to public discourse that is heavily polarized, sure, but at least now isn’t dominated by the fascist side, something we had to deal with for six years. At least now the polarization is clear, between the Liberals and their platforms and delusions of changing the world (look! so many followers!) and the Duterte side trying to do better than Mocha/Nieto circa 2016 to 2022). For all its limitations, this has been welcome. After all, and for sure, many of us stopped caring to speak, write, engage at some point during the Duterte years, maybe out of fear, but maybe also out of hopelessness. Under Duterte, it was close to impossible to organize ourselves no matter what we said, and who was on our side. We could only go to big rallies so many times, and realize that none of it made a dent in the government’s policies or rhetoric. The same might be said of having done the 2022 Robredo campaign, when we all began to hope, despite knowing that the campaign itself was just another version of dilawan-elitism that had precisely put Duterte in power.
Which is why it is no surprise, that while half of the time I might be breathing a sigh of relief at this BBM Presidency, the other half of the time has been spent acknowledging the PTSD from having lived under a misogynist, fascist Duterte presidency for six years, which is also to acknowledge the exhaustion.
I tend to think that this might be true for many of us in the educated classes who have the privilege of reflection and rest. I imagine that some of us are more exhausted than others, just as many others have had to deal with this new government if only to keep businesses going, agencies functioning, and our sectors moving.
Is this a swing to BBM? It is not. It is an acknowledgment that right here, right now, we are taking our time in figuring out what to do next. It is an acknowledgment of this particular period, when many of us might be saying quietly to the people we trust: this feels more like a PNoy presidency than anything else.
Yes, neo-liberal policies and American loyalty included; yes, only-son-swagger and all-boys-school breeding included. The difference of course is that while PNoy’s government layered this with elitism, BBM’s leadership is devoid of the same. Instead, there is good ol’ Marcos mass appeal. There is a rhetoric that speaks to the masses, cutting across the Presidency to the presidential sister in the Senate; there are visits to communities in need, giveaways of land titles, ayuda at scale. There is also arts and culture, Malacañang concerts and free puto-bongbong at simbang gabi. There is content and propaganda showing him in his pambahay, eating Jollibee. There are welcome ambush interviews with media, and there is a sense of humor.
None of this makes BBM a good President, of course. And certainly the baggage of his family’s history weighs heavy on all of us. But we cannot deny the sense of relief that it is not a Duterte in power. Neither could we have denied ourselves the past three years of just watching things unfold.
Of course on election year 2025, one realizes that we might now need to admit that we have had enough rest. Because three years from now, another Duterte win—if not a Tulfo one—is so so possible. And three years is barely enough time to try and affect electoral outcomes.
How are we under this BBM Presidency? Well-rested now, I think. So maybe now we can start moving. ***