Philippine Democracy Online

By Oliver Perater Just recently, I encountered the term ‘Aestheticizing Politics’ in the work of Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. It means making political actions seem as if they are works of art. Benjamin warns us of the tendency of the ruling class and elitist educators to aestheticize politics, making politics a spectacle to manipulate the masses. Aestheticizing politics is one of the best means of the ruling class to maintain hegemony which is necessary to stay in power. It shows to the oppressed the elegance and grandeur of the political theater and distracts them from seeing the power structure that dominates society and the global order. Duterte’s trial in ICC has been subjected to aestheticizing by some elitist educators, some politicians, and mass media to support the ruling class they probably and ambitiously aspire to join. They invoke a magnificent notion of elegance, solemnity, and majesty, trying to present the ICC rituals as if the...

By Leo Lusañez When I was in AdDU, I was surrounded by people who had ideals. Feminists, activists, progressives, student council participants, even firebrands and agitators who have, at some point, probably considered climbing up the nearby mountains to rebel against a government so endlessly beset by corruption and drama. Admittedly, I was one of them. Not the "climb a mountain" sort, thank God, but I certainly had fire. Despite my timidity and stage fright, I proudly identified myself as a liberal and was even accused of being too Westernized by some of my classmates - and fairly enough, because I eagerly read Western thinkers at the expense of my own heritage. I did well in school - not well enough to march with the cum laudes, but I did well all the same, considering my interests laid elsewhere. I was certainly no reject with no critical thought - I can assure you of that. And like many of them, I obsessed about shaping the whole world. As I grew up, I noticed that while...

  By Dr. Godiva Eviota-Rivera President Rodrigo Duterte’s language speaks for our struggles that have been silenced for a very long time, a deafening kind of silence caused by the oligarchs and powers that be. It is true that President Duterte is one with the people in their everyday struggles. The man is with us, and those who have been dreaming to emancipate themselves from induced hardships, fighting for our rights and dignity to ultimately determine who we are as a people.  President Duterte expresses a sincere, open and straight-forward approach in his kind of leadership, and a language full of empathy compared to a governance that employs confusing political and imposing moral tactics —- scattered versions of truth to deceive us, intolerable sarcasm to agitate foulness, obviously unfounded judgments against Mindanao’s capacity for change  or transformation, all meant to weaken our strength and resolve. We can't be fooled again. If they think our voice can be silence...

  By Janua Cunanan I don’t understand why the people who believe in the very essence of democracy are the same ones who question the masses going to the streets to fight for their causes. How is it that when they express their views online, you call them trolls, telling them straight to their faces, “Lowkey keyboard warriors lang kayo. You don’t have the numbers kasi bayarang trolls lang kayo.” And when they take to the streets, you mock them, saying, “Akala ko ba ayaw ninyo ng rally?” Let us not be consumed by ourselves and our own personal opinions. Let us not frown upon the very fact that, at the very least, Filipinos are beginning to understand how democarcy truly works. But you know what’s even sadder? These are the same people who always believed in the essence of democracy, freedom of expression, and all those freedoms granted in the Constitution. Yet now, they are the ones who belittle acts that embody it. - Janua Cunanan teaches political science at Ateneo de Davao Univers...

By Leo Lusañez  The procedural aspects of Duterte's trial can be left to the lawyers and other people who possess more expertise on the subject. However, as citizens, it is permissible - indeed, even encouraged - to discuss the substantive aspects, as well as the implications. Those in the north ridicule those who stand with Duterte by accusing them of petty and unproductive tribalism. However, lest we forget, this very tendency is innate in every nation - moreso one as diverse as ours, and this is not something that can be cured by the increasingly tired and wasted cries of common good or liberal democracy, for these are the very tools the north has used for centuries to assert their ascendancy over their brethren. The northerners have yet to understand that their lust for power is generational in nature, and goes beyond the Dutertes. And because it is generational, any argument appealing to national unity does not just fall on deaf ears - it is gaslighting of the highest order. T...

Menelito Mansueto, Editor of Philippine Democracy Online.  Born in Bohol, he has studied at Holy Name University, Christ the King Seminary, the University of the Philippines in Diliman, and the American University of Sovereign Nations. He has taught at Colegio San Juan de Letran in Manila, the University of Santo Tomas, FEU Diliman, Bohol Island State University, and currently, at Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology. Prof. Mansueto is the Managing Editor of the SES Journal of Applied Philosophy. He is the author of the book Decolonial Turn in the Philippine South.