Political Violence & Democratic Deconsolidation in the Philippines Under Duterte

• In Event: Compromising Democracy: Agents of Democratic Regression in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Scholarly and practical interest in pathways to authoritarian rule have been rekindled since the electoral rise of several “strong men” to highest office in the Philippines, India, Brazil, Turkey and the United States of America. The populist appeal of autocratic rulers in democracies is of increasing concern, as is their impact on democracy itself. In cases like the Philippines, where an estimated 30,000 people were killed in the “war on drugs” under President Rodrigo Duterte, the importance of violence is self-evident but poorly understood. His public approval has remained high—as high as 91% in his fourth year as president. Midterm elections in 2019 cemented the ruling administration’s overwhelming majority in Congress and among local officials. However, when taken together with signs of democratic erosion—virtual obliteration of the opposition, capture of the judiciary, attacks on the media—the ostensible popularity of the president requires critical examination. I argue that state-sponsored, “anti-crime” violence exerts a coercive effect, contributing to a process of democratic deconsolidation in the Philippines. Through patterns of escalation and de-escalation, violence is used to exert social control through the centralization of power and heightened local surveillance, demobilizing dissent. In addition to the on-going national “war on drugs” campaign, I present evidence of why violence for social control effectively demobilizes society using three cases of similar programs of violence: the Red Vigilante Group that plagued Gapan City from 2001 to 2003; the Underground Death Squad of Tagum City from 2004 to 2013; and, the Davao City Death Squad from 1998 to 2016 linked to Duterte himself. This paper theorizes on the mechanisms in which new and unfamiliar forms of political violence undermine democracy.

Author

• Sol Iglesias, University of the Philippines