It’s a ruse. At the State of the Nation Address of Rodrigo Duterte last Monday, there was silence about charter change. Not even a peep about federalism, nothing at all about easing of economic provisions in the current 1987 Constitution. This is as deathly a silence as we can get from Duterte — and we all know he thinks nothing of murder.

This is why we should talk about the SONA, and not just in isolation, but in relation to the bigger picture that is Duterte’s propaganda strategy. That is after all what keeps him winning. It is what keeps him in this position of power.  And we need to get our shit together about this propaganda if we are to even make a dent against it.

Of course three years in and we now know that Duterte propaganda strategy #1 is: use the President’s big mouth to distract the public. But from what? And given this knowledge, what do we do next other than raise our fists in anger? 

On the upside, the State of the Nation Address didn’t pretend to be anything else but a way to put this strategy into effect. Because what did we really hear? We heard everything Duterte’s base needed to hear. This wasn’t for us, the bigger public. This was for the fraction of Fiipinos who voted for him. That 16 million voters that he and his propaganda machinery has consistently and constantly romanced, fed, fuelled, the past three years.

For the 2017 SONA, I said we’ve had a year of candidate Duterte; in 2019, we’ve had three years of it.

Duterte continues to establish himself as the same man this base voted for in 2016. Here’s the strongman ready to end drugs and crime, he is the man who will reveal to all that corruption is so deeply rooted in the system of government that maybe a big earthquake right that moment, right in the Batasang Pambansa, is what is needed for the country to change. Politicians need to be eaten up by the earth in a random act of nature for corruption to end.

His base will of course appreciate this kind of narrative. After all, look at their Tatay Digong, including himself in the list of corrupt, unafraid to die in this massive fictional earthquake in his head. Is it a joke? Is it the truth? It depends on how the public will take it — Malacañang can get away with saying it’s a joke anyway. The point is his base has been fed what it needs to hear. His legend remains.

And then there was the requisite misogyny and chauvinism — part of the legend as far as his base is concerned, but also part of the distraction that will keep the rest of us talking about the SONA for all the vile, vicious, violent things he says. Talking about the rehabilitation of Boracay as if it was a success (never mind the recent floods), he called on “gentlemen” to visit the island, because the girls are waiting there, sunbathing. Let’s not forget the quip about the Environment Secretary ogling Caucasian women — the better to make his base laugh. (One wonders if the secretary himself did.)

The bigger point was to say that the Boracay rehabilitation is a success — even if it isn’t. This also allows him to establish that these “rehabilitation” projects must continue to happen, something that they’ve used in relation to Manila Bay which is really a ruse to ensure that reclamation projects will happen, as promised to Duterte cronies from Ramong Ang’s airport in Bulacan to the Razons in Manila.

It’s this kind of smoke and mirrors that this propaganda machinery is so so good at. It feeds Duterte’s base all it needs to hear to highlight him as a man-in-control, and it feeds the rest of the critical public something to get angry about. In the meantime, on the ground massive violence and anti-people policies are taking effect.

And this is not just about the SONA as it is about pre- and post-SONA events. You have him getting his way with Congress, and his men and women in the Senate getting important committees that will steer us in Duterte’s direction.

Post-SONA though, we’ve seen the President’s true colors. His veto of the security of tenure law reveals how despite all statements about ending contractualization, ultimately Duterte will side with big business and capitalists — the richer of whom keep his government afloat. This decision will affect his followers like no other, and with the veto falling squarely on his shoulders because his Congress and Senate actually delivered on this Duterte promise with a watered down law, he will have no one to blame.

So to balance things out, he needed some strongman action versus corruption — which he presumes matters to his base. And so he closes down all PCSO lotto outlets and legal gambling operations. This of course is the kind of “gambling” that’s so small-scale, it barely even counts compared to the huge casinos of Duterte crony Dennis Uy and the Ayalas, or the illegal jueteng operations all over the country happening under the noses of LGUs (most of which are under Duterte control). And what about those online gaming operations of the Chinese, which is actually illegal in China itself?

Ah, Duterte is counting on his base to forget that these actions are in fact detrimental to them. Duterte is counting on the rest of us to get caught up in raising our fists, screaming our hearts out on social media, where we’re speaking to each other and preaching to the choir. We’re talking irony, facts, double-standards: but really, none of those matter in the time of Duterte.

In the meantime, massive killings are happening in Negros, and EJKs are happening across the country. The violence has been so normalized that we don’t even flinch anymore. Media has ceased to be that ally we could count on for better information, for criticism, for thinking. One guesses they’re just happy to even be surviving these Duterte times.

See, the SONA and everything that’s happened before it and after it is proof positive of how well Duterte’s propaganda machine is working.

Scratch that, it’s proof that it’s all working perfectly. Now how to respond in a way that will even make a dent.***