You heard it here first.
This article is kind of wrong and kind of sus.
I actually know a lot of what's going on here. First, many Filipinos just flat out hate their own country out of colonial mentality and their well deserved distrust of politicians. The Filipino dream is to get out of there. Sure, there are DDS supporters, but there are also tons of people who have just given up on the country and didn't vote. Many people did not vote for Duterte. There are even some anti-DDS people who just don't like him because he isn't religious, (his base isn't really that religious, but religious in the Philippines shouldn't be understood in western terms), he's from "the province", sinophobia because he's viewed as pro-china, they just like the Aquinos and like America better. Lots of Filipino just don't like him because of his former, shaky relationship with leftists and unless my reading comprehension is bad, I did not see a mention of even the modest social democratic resistance towards him mentioned.
Sure, there are tons of people who will tell you Duterte cleaned up their cities. There are tons of people who won't talk about it either for good reasons. I've been looking for the poll on the net that says 8/10 Filipinos love him, but another poll said 8/10 are scared they'll get personally affected by the drug war. There's been [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-rights-protests/philippine-protesters-rally-over-controversial-anti-terror-bill-idUSKBN23J1FG](protest over his anti-protest bill he signed ), plenty of local celebrities have been red baited for attacking Duterte indirectly, and TV station contracts (perceived to be biased against duterte) have not been renewed. You can even go check out all those libs in r/philippines complaining about him. Secondly, there's tons of rising sinophobia right now there because of Duterte and the POGO industry.
This piece sounds like it wants to put more USA bases there to attack China. Lots of Filipinos would rather have USA as an ally than China and that seems like what the future of what polarization is like there. Lots of Filipinos will eat USA's propaganda and despite being the most Chinese friendly place in south east asia outside of Singapore, it might not be like that forever.
Thanks for this detailed response. From what you said here, it seems like what is different from the United States in regards to polarization, is that the politics are not as 2 dimensional as the US. That being said, there is probably nowhere with more 2 dimensional politics than the US (I am referring to the mainstream Democrat vs. Republican discourse).
The main thing I take away from that piece is that it is projecting this orientalist representation of Filipino peoples as a monolithic horde and trying to downplay the complex nature of such a large and diverse country. I think Bambu says something in one of his songs like 7000 fucking islands quadruple the tribes and I assumed he was talking about the Philippines in that song. So I don't frankly know that much about it, but the image this projects of Filipinos as a slavering undead horde of Duterte stans just didn't seem to hold water to me.
Yes, you are right that it is orientalist. I think everything written about the Philippines was right, but the way it was framed did seem orientalist to me (mostly the title). It's deceptive propaganda which doesn't lie and hides truths. Sure, formal politics is a bit different in the Philippines with its fickle alliances as opposed to Dems vs Repubs with random progressives and mask-off fascists to add spice, but that think tank piece is just a bunch of words to cover up for the fact the real polarization in the Philippines is between the rich and the poor.
After all, the article is a think tank with links to the Chud Illuminatti Artists guild. Also, you might want to put that link an archive.org link next time. I have nothing to worry about because I am a checks notes lesbian Filipina woman in Florida who gets drunk all day and I post on a liberal website. I am not a radical, this website is filled with liberals who will vote for checks notes Pete Buttigieg. I mean, yeah I have knowledge about Antonio Gramsci, but so does our future president! I can't wait to ride trains!
The only time they even mention the communist guerillas:
By this measure, there is little or no partisan polarization in the Philippines. Parties are marginal players in Philippine politics. Only the small parties of the far left adhere to a well-defined ideology.
But we have soooo much polarization in the US with our liberal-fascist uniparty
Big mind moment going on there.
Also, try replacing "Philipines" for "the USA"
I don't know, but what I do know is that everyone in the Phillipines unanimously agrees about how jolly jack splendid the mass murder of civilians is.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/a-philippine-plebiscite-that-rebuked-president-duterte-and-china/
