AS WE continue to watch the drama surrounding Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment case, one cannot help but see a divided society. There’s no need to rehash what everyone already knows about the case. Instead, we should take the current political climate as symptoms of deep-seated fissures in the country.
One of the reasons Rodrigo Duterte, the Vice President’s father, was elected president in 2016 was because he represented an alternative to “Imperial Manila.” He was a tough-talking mayor from Davao, ready to shake things up with an inured and apathetic political establishment.
Like Donald Trump in the United States and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Duterte presented himself as a leftist-populist who would try new things.
Sara has inherited some of her father’s reputation, and in many ways presents herself as the alternative to the Marcos coalition. However, it’s also worth pointing out that the political situation today is very different from what they were pre-2010 and during Duterte’s administration. He tried some new measures and they have not made any serious changes in my opinion.
Still, the Dutertes themselves are not the issue, but a symptom. They could all disappear tomorrow but others could very well take their place, which is to say another alternative to the status quo, and this dealing with this problem is more than most realize. If these divisions are allowed to fester in the future, they could be used as leverage against the Philippines.
We now live in an age of great power competition, and great powers will use blocs and cliques within enemy or neutral countries to influence or even control them. If these political divisions persist or get worse, make no mistake that the Great Powers will use them to their advantage, if not to influence our policies then to destabilize our society.
In that sense, VP Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment trial is more than just a trial. It’s a warning of things to come./PN
