Massive Corruption and Bad Governance under the Duterte Administration - 10th in Series

 

BAD GOVERNANCE UNDER THE DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION

PRESIDENT DUTERTE’S STYLE OF SPEAKING

By: Randy David - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:50 AM March 01, 2020

People like listening to President Duterte…

He doesn’t appear to care if what he says is morally offensive or contrary to law. People may disagree with what he’s saying or feel uncomfortable with his crude utterances. But, on the whole, they seem to approve of his brutal candor.

…The more outrageous his statements, the more they strike his listeners as “authentic.” In this, I believe, lies his power to enchant audiences. Authentic is when he sets aside a speech written for him, and then proceeds to so say what he “really” wants to say.

…In a world that is notorious for the value it places on appearances, Mr. Duterte defies what is expected in politics by making a point of going without a mask. Even as the presidency confers on him the authority of the highest office, he prefers to draw from the sheer force of his persona. In Max Weber’s terminology, it is what distinguishes both traditional and rational-legal authority from “charismatic domination.”

Today, this style of governance is better known as “populism.” Its fundamental legitimacy is not measured by its compliance with legal norms or with the patterns set by tradition, but by popular acclamation. What gives this pre-modern form of rule the contemporary garb it has today is the veneer of modernity that the public opinion survey confers upon it.

…The price of authenticity has always been the possibility of a blowback from society’s institutions. This is why politicians who wish to project themselves as harbingers of change surround themselves with public relations specialists to train them in the art of spontaneous but cautious speech, and lawyers to remind them of what they can or cannot say or do.

Mr. Duterte appears to have freed himself from the constraint of these concerns when, as a candidate, he saw for himself that cursing the Pope during the latter’s visit to Manila produced no moral outrage among his amused Catholic fans. His worried camp had drafted an apology on his behalf, but, as it turned out, there was no need to issue it.

The surveys showed that his popularity remained undiminished. In fact, the more he broke the norms of politically correct speech, the more compelling a speaker he seemed to become. The applause he got not only assured him that he was connecting, it also spurred him to be more adventurous in testing the limits of permissible speech in government.

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Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/127722/president-dutertes-style-of-speaking#ixzz6IWgCcfs3

When rulers at the highest levels of government verbally trash the rule of law, morality, and the foundations on which democratic institutions are built, the effect on governance is to degrade it.

Because the words of those in power incite or direct those who do their bidding, in the past four years in the Philippines we have witnessed attacks by various government agencies on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to due process; political assassinations; the wielding of the law as a weapon against the legitimate political opposition; and cronyism condoned and abetted. All the foregoing abuses have directly weakened transparency and accountability in the government and the rule of law, exacerbated political violence and instability, and worsened corruption.

When the rash, irresponsible, or petty, vindictive words of the president are translated into public policy and actions, the effect is to diminish the capacity of the government to formulate and implement public policy that is sound, rational, well-founded, and consistent. Governance suffers as a result.

Responsible as well for bad governance are the governed themselves, who by supporting the president’s populist rhetoric translated into public policy and actions thereby enable and aggravate appallingly bad governance. It is the Philippine electorate who, as the saying goes, shoot themselves in the foot.