Coattailing for Regime Continuity?: Unraveling Duterte's Legacy in Marcos Jr.'s 2022 Electoral Victory
The electoral victory of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been attributed to a range of factors such as misinformation, patronage, and populism. We argue that Marcos' electoral victory should not be treated as an isolated instantaneous event, but rather a result of a shift in the country's political narrative due to the legacy of his predecessor. The shift to illiberal populism is tied to the public's continued support for Duterte's flagship policies as well as in the proliferation of populist rhetoric on social media. Using a non-probability survey of 1500 Filipinos, we find that support for President Duterte and his policies as well as trust in social media are significantly correlated with votes for Marcos Jr. It appears like Marcos Jr.'s investment in a social media campaign has paid off not just in terms of votes received but also in strengthening his image as a populist leader.
Legal Hybridity, Trust, and the Legitimacy of the Shari'ah in the Bangsamoro
Legal hybrids have the potential to address justice and development issues in both conflict and post conflict settings. Using the Philippine Shari'ah court system as a case study, this study demonstrates that state hybrids suffer from legitimacy and capacity issues that also constrain their ability to deliver effective justice services and respond to conflict challenges. Forging cooperative networks between secular courts and Shari'ah courts and between local justice personnel and central justice authorities can enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of a formalized legal hybrid. This can assist in addressing the justice deficit that fuels the cycle of conflict and sustain peacebuilding efforts post conflict.
Public Support and Judicial Empowerment of the Philippine Supreme Court
Courts have become an increasing focus for political contestation in Southeast Asia. Yet little is known about the basis of their political power and legitimacy. Drawing on recent scholarship in the field of judicial politics, and presenting a case study of the Philippine Supreme Court after the transition to democracy in 1986, this article explores the conditions under which the Court has exercised its powers in the context of a democratizing state such as the Philippines. More specifically, it will show how strong public support has enabled the Court to exercise its judicial review powers and its authority over contending political actors. In drawing attention to the understudied link between public support and judicial assertiveness, the paper aims to advance existing scholarship by going beyond existing indicators of judicial independence and to provide new insights into the dynamics of evolving constitutional practice in the region through the interaction of the courts with the public.
Political Remittances on the Rise During Pandemic? Evidence From Survey Data on Overseas Filipino Workers
Migrant workers are exposed to different governance conditions and economic, political and social institutions in their host countries (i.e. destination of work). There is growing evidence that these may also influence migrants (and their families' and communities') political behavior and choices. Under these conditions, migrants' perceptions of satisfaction with home country public services could be formed relative to their experience of public services in their host countries. There is a growing strand in the migration literature that considers these acts of transmitting political principles and expectations of governance practices as part of "political remittances". This study examines survey data on 248 Philippine migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to answer the question: Are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) perceptions of Philippines' pandemic management influenced by their host countries' pandemic management response? Utilizing ordered logistic regression on survey responses of OFWs during the pandemic period spanning November 1 to December 7, 2020, this study finds evidence indicating that more successful pandemic management in the host country may trigger responses demanding improved pandemic management in the Philippines.
An Annotated Bibliography on Justice and Legal Pluralism in Mindanao Briefing Paper No. 1: Ways for Women to Participate in Peacebuilding (Philippines)
Legal pluralism is a lived reality in Mindanao yet there are very few scholarly and practice-oriented works on the subject. The discourse on plural legal orders is a site of contestation among political interests both in Mindanao and within the Philippine state. The interests on 'alternative' modes of justice have been driven by both domestic and international initiatives on legal reform and access to justice. There is a need to deepen studies on legal pluralism in Mindanao, including more empirical studies on the functional administration of justice, the roles, backgrounds and motivations of justice providers and users, and the interaction or interdependency among the various normative orders within the local level and between the local and central state justice systems. The provision of effective justice among the people in Mindanao is a crucial task of post-conflict reconstruction that includes careful balancing and management of these complex plural legal systems.
Emergent political remittances during the pandemic: Evidence from a survey of overseas Filipino workers
This article examines the experiences and assessments of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on the Philippine government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is part of the growing migration literature exploring the formation of political remittances, defined as political principles, norms and practices migrants acquire during the migration process and what these imply for democratization, particularly in migrants' home countries. Data for the study came from an online survey of OFWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the ordered logistic regression suggest that overseas Filipinos' experiences of successful pandemic management and aid distribution in host countries may influence OFWs to expect and demand similar measures in the Philippines.
Shifts in the humanitarian space? Examining NGO–military engagements during the 2017 crisis in Marawi, Philippines
The increase in military deployments for operations other than war, and their co-location with humanitarian actors prompt an examination of how operational engagements are blurring boundaries between the two. Military-initiated coordination structures that bridge civilian and military spheres of activities are seen as signs of the securitization of the humanitarian space. Examining the dynamics between deployed Philippine military units and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the humanitarian response to the 2017 Marawi siege, the former physically separated and subsumed humanitarian actions to kinetic goals. Using data from 48 interviews of commanders, NGO representatives and local government officials in 2018-2019, military-NGO interface was limited by military restrictions on mobility and by having a separate coordination platform benefiting soldiers and evacuees, respectively. Humanitarian NGOs are more willing to work with and are differential to the securitized space compared to human rights-based NGOs.
Election-Related Violence in the Philippines: Trends, Targets, and Perpetrators
Election-related violence (ERV) is a recurring concern in the Philippines — one that strikes deep into the hearts of the country's democratic institutions. As such, a thorough analysis on the nature of ERVs in the country is necessary for the development of policies that combat such violence. While there has been a number of ERV studies post-Marcos, this is the first that looks at electoral violence data at both the individual and aggregate levels. This study examines incidences of Election-Related Violence (ERV) in the Philippines from 2013 to 2019 using a novel dataset, the ASOG ERV Database, constructed from online media reports. The findings highlight key characteristics of ERV in the Philippines from 2013 to 2019.
(In)Security and Hybrid Justice Systems in Mindanao, Philippines
Hybridity is often conflated with the fragile state or the 'absence' of the state in a conflict environment.1 The emergence of hybrid institutions is also explained primarily in terms of the lack of capacity and legitimacy of state organs and its personnel or in the condition of a power vacuum.2 A sense of power disequilibrium or societal imbalance and disarray inheres from this presumption. Hybridity, however, serves a function that sustains conflict resilience and at the same time address immediate justice needs. Hybrids arise to provide a state of equilibrium and to provide order in an otherwise messy condition—while also contributing to the messiness. My study of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Philippines, points to how hybrid justice mechanisms have developed to cope with insecurity arising from actual and perceived injustices in the community.3