The war within the ruling political class

Antonio Contreras

I SAID it before, and I will say it again. Former president Rodrigo Duterte and, to some extent, his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte, have grossly overestimated the power of the Duterte brand. He singlehandedly gave the dominant political assembly of traditional politicians in the House of Representatives the upper hand. And now, even members of the progressive Makabayan bloc appear to be headed for some kind of modus vivendi with the forces loyal to Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez if only to infuriate the former president further.

It was a fatal miscalculation for Rodrigo Duterte to take a path that led to a head-on collision with the House of Representatives. He was probably thinking that when he won in 2016, he did not have many allies in Congress. That is partly true, but he also did not have enemies in the House then. He forgets that in politics, alliances are important, and not having any is an impediment, but having a lot of enemies would be more fatal. I am not exactly sure who the advisers and political communication strategists of the Dutertes are, but whoever they are, one thing is certain. They are stuck to the 2016 playbook of capitalizing on the imagined strength of Rodrigo Duterte’s novelty and his gift for making the political class squirm with his cursing and verbal calisthenics. They forgot that this is 2023. He no longer has the presidential bully pulpit at his disposal. And there are now other political personalities with their own ambitions raring to oppose him, who are not from the ranks of the traditional political opposition that he was able to intimidate.