"A farewell to a tyrant and a welcome to another"
For six years of pretension and outright oppression, the Filipino people felt how the Duterte regime is as same as that of his predecessors- sworn to upheld the rotten order than breaking the shackles of interest.
Duterte used Demagoguery tricks to deceive the masses with his phony "war on drugs", "war on terror", "Build Build Build" and even "claiming himself to be a leftist" with his "promise of change" in order to impose his tyrannical rule, terrorize the populace, centralise and monopolise corruption, reward cronies with privileges and lucrative government contracts, cultivate loyalty within the military and police, and amass enormous wealth and power.
However, the "developments" being bragged proved to be otherwise: that liberalising policies on imports and favouring foreign direct investments with tax exemptions being babbled throughout as "developmental" while the problems of cheap labour and contractualisation are not being addressed. Even the agrarian question continues to aggravate as farmers end displaced by landgrabbers in connivance with authorities, worse, to see community cultivation activities be disrupted such as what happened in Tarlac with participants arrested. Unemployment, and Debt continues to rise no matter how authorities trying to keep people with "job fairs" with unsure job security or justifying the need for exorbitant loans as necessary for a still-developing society.
But regardless of the order's "efforts" this doesn't stop people from questioning or criticising the regime as political scandals, economic crisis, and repression aggravate tensions between Duterte and the folk. To keep the social volcano from bursting, Duterte utilized state terrorism at new levels of intensity and boldness. It is estimated that 30,000 individuals, mainly poor folks were killed by police and state-sponsored vigilantes during Duterte's "war on drugs" campaign to regulate the illegal drug trade. He continues to take pride in disregarding human rights by claiming "he values human lives than human rights" few years ago. This wave of repression also followed through Executive Order 70 (2017), which established the National Task Force (NTF)-ELCAC, along with the passage of the 2020 "Anti-Terrorism Law," making Duterte and his attack dogs targeted the opposition, particularly progressive groups, with a campaign of "red tagging," criminalization and lawfare, arrests and prolonged detention, and extrajudicial killings.
Again, the past administration showed a series of pretension and demagoguery to fool the people with promises of security and development. But from his sham "war on drugs", debt-driven "golden age of infrastructure", to that of "war on terror" that points against the opposition, these examples showed Duterte's rule, prior to his end of term did benefit interest seekers especially that of himself, his family, and his camarilla now supporting the elected Marcos.
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As expected, the inauguration of Bongbong Marcos as president is all but "proving" that the disgraced family is seriously geared to return to power.
By the support of its allies in the government and its diehard supporters, as well as that of fraudulent means, the regime has added 6 years of living dangerously, as shown by the regime's promise of continuing the legacy of its outgoing predecessor. Even the inaugural speech has proven that the regime trying to whitewash the dictatorship as it praises its legacy, of its so-called achievements, even telling the folk that Bongbong "shares the same dream as the ordinary Filipino" despite the fact that millions have enough of crushing taxes, low wages, high prices of commodities, and human rights violations; as well as promising that he will "get things done" despite no concrete program of action except that of "unity" and "continuity" of programs from the past administration.
And, despite his "looking ahead" theme, it is impossible to ignore the fact that people voted for him out of nostalgia, believing he will follow in his father's footsteps in restoring order and stability at the price of democratic rights and civil liberties. Will the people, however, honestly look ahead? Perhaps yes in the sense that they call for "moving on from history," but also no in the sense that they seek a thermidor after decades of a "yellow-tainted past." Those who voted for Marcos saw their memories as the foundation for looking forward in a continuing past. They believe that restoring the pre-1986 past is preferable to seeing a corrupted future, regardless of what "critics" say- or should say they chose orderism for they prefer the "decency" and "discipline" of their youth than that of today's democracy. Ironically, the latter is the misused term as tyrants like Marcos sr. was claiming he's saving democracy to justify martial law.
However, that same "past" would say continues to remain significant regardless of various efforts in trying to make the country geared towards the present if not the future. That as more infrastructures been built with most soon to be done, this doesn't end the ages-old poverty as those from the countryside still struggle for land and justice against the entrenched interests trying to exploit the land for their profit. Even the workers in the industrial zones, either with limited tenure, low wages, or both while its despotic managers threaten them with dismissals. This may sound contrary to the hopes brought by the new administration just like its predecessor, despite trying to placate people with "paper reforms" and "crumbs" while kowtowing to entrenched interests both local and foreign- and unsurprising if the regime would also babble words like "oligarch", "reform", "revolution", "change", or any other term meant to snare people from the growing opposition against them.
And, like his father, who swore to uphold the order while professing to be for the people, Marcos will undoubtedly carry on his predecessor's legacy of all-out liberalisation, unrestricted borrowing, and subservience to both United States and Chinese interests. Regardless of the controversies that surround him (especially that of the US court decision involving the Marcoses), both countries recognized the result- while Marcos wants to keep existing agreements with the US particularly regarding defense and internal security, he also wants to allow China to do its brand "developmental work" in the country- which means plundering resources and disregarding sovereignty over the disputed isles in the West Philippine Sea.
It is also not surprising that as he continue to carry on his predecessor's legacy so is the clear threat to people's rights and freedoms. From institutions like the NTF-ELCAC, to that of attempts to revise history in favour of their narrative, another six years of living dangerously has clearly shown making the folk having the urge to resist.
Whether the regime ignores reality or leaves it out in favor of their narrative with its pronouncements, the masses will have to take it with a grain of salt while continuing to seek truth from facts. Loyalists may continue to blather their comments as gospel truth two and fro through its influencers and their social media trash, but the message of "unity" to be honest may find it "catchy"- but not in their perspective. After all, the concerned folk will never yield. The sugar-coated messages and pretentious hopes, as well as the continuity of exploitation and oppression cannot stop people from carrying actions in various forms all against this scandal-filled regime.