The Duterte haters
By Menelito Mansueto (MSU-IIT)
Phavisminda is very close to my heart because it is in this organization that I delivered my first ever paper presentation. It was in 2008. I was a master’s student. My graduate school mentor, the late Dr. Eddie R. Babor, was then the President of the philosophical association from 2006-2010. According to Dr. Babor, “philosophy conferences are his typical break from work and serve as his summer vacation,” as the yearly conferences at that time usually occurred in between the months of April and May.
In the past, philosophy professors from the Visayas and Mindanao were united and very familiar with each other, probably because there were simply quite a few of them. The atmosphere was also very respectful and amiable, even if there were some, let us say, cultural differences. But now, at present, many things have changed. It is, however, beautiful to witness that philosophy enthusiasts in the country have grown both intellectually and in terms of the number of practitioners. The discipline is prone to radical elements who are naturally embedded in the study of philosophy. However, this side of philosophical study can easily be exploited to cater to certain political objectives, or say, an ideology.
Filipinos will then be interrupted from their normal life as election season comes every three years, as we need to elect new officials to replace those who will be ending their electoral terms. Philosophers, of course, observe the everyday affairs of human societies. Philosophers are considered the vanguards of society and its political life. As Aristotle has said, man or the human being is a political animal.
In 2016, Filipinos elected their first ever President from Mindanao in the person of Rodrigo Roa Duterte. The President often refers to his mother as a martial law crusader in Davao. Not wanting to do anything with the Marcoses, Duterte chose Allan Peter Cayetano as running mate. Leni Robredo won. Forward to 2022, Marcos, Jr. became the eventual President through the Uniteam. Marcos could not have won without Duterte. The Uniteam has since collapsed. Duterte’s politics has caused the political divide even in academia.
The problem with some academics is that they have become very close-minded as if like horses with blinders, to the point that they do not see anything good in humanity except what they believe, or think to be good, worthy, and valuable. They will refuse to believe in any philosophy except their own philosophy. Such an attitude is very awful. They live in their own small world, refusing to see a larger and brighter picture of reality.
They would do everything to appear convincing and disregard their own inconsistencies. I can give you one example. The article which came out in Phavisminda journal, included in their latest issue last 2022, which is 3 years ago, entitled “Chantal Mouffe on the Radical Politics of Rodrigo Duterte,” which came out controversial and was subsequently cited in an article in Kritike authored by UST Faculty Kyle Alfred M. Barte, which was titled "A Critique of Christopher Ryan Maboloc’s Appropriation of Chantal Mouffe’s Theory of Radical Democracy,” released last December 2023. The authors of the Phavisminda article had claimed as their main source of information a virtual interview of the Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe herself, an interview that was never publicized ever since. As far as I have understood what a publication means, it is derived from the root word “public.”
How could a publication allow an exclusive interview with no digital footprint to be used as a main reference in research? It involved such a questionable method of practice that editors and reviewers might have failed to notice. I believe that they should invite Ms. Mouffe again to be their Resource Speaker at their national conference. If they had caused Ms. Mouffe to spend time deciphering the work of Christopher Ryan Maboloc, the more so that they could invite the philosopher to speak for at least what is 20 minutes as Keynote or Plenary, and some five more minutes for an Open Forum.
I wonder how prestigious universities, institutions, and organizations with the most brilliant minds could allow such foolishness of this nature. Mouffe must probably have known Duterte right now that the latter is in the ICC and very popular globally. That must be a very exciting and interesting conference, especially if in person, comparable perhaps to Zizek and Peterson’s public debate. That’s not unlikely. The Duterte haters will always have something to say.
