The lifeblood of Philippine democracy is under threat
It’s disturbing that one of the key pillars of political life in the Philippines — its traditionally vibrant and critical media — has been under such pressure in the Duterte era.
If there’s a silver lining for the Philippines’ beleaguered democracy, it’s that the increasingly autocratic President Rodrigo Duterte is limited to a single six-year term by the country’s constitution.
But each silver lining has a cloud. Based on current polling, there’s every chance that one of Duterte’s allies will take over the presidency at the elections scheduled for May 2022. His daughter Sara remains the most popular potential candidate, followed closely by Bongbong Marcos, son of the former dictator Ferdinand. The most viable anti-Duterte liberals are all polling in single digits.
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Liam Gammon is a research fellow in the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and an editor at East Asia Forum (www.eastasiaforum.org) in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific.
