Photo: “Jakarta Blok M Melawai Street“, by Vulphere licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Hue modified from the original
Arguelles, Cleve V. “The Populist Brand Is Crisis: Durable Dutertismo amidst Mismanaged COVID-19 Response.” Southeast Asian Affairs 2021 (2021): 257–74.
Abstract
As with the rest of Southeast Asia and the world, the coronavirus outbreak took the entire Philippines by surprise in early 2020. But the response by the Philippine government was quite distinct compared to those of its neighbours. It placed the entire country in a highly-securitized lockdown—one of the longest and strictest in the world. The series of harsh lockdowns has also been coupled with an order from the president for security officers to use lethal force against violators—“shoot them dead!”, as Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte commanded in April 2020. Yet, close to the end of the year it had become clear that the harsh measures taken by the government had failed to keep the outbreak from turning into a full-blown economic, health, political and social crisis. Along with close to 475,000 confirmed cases and more than 9,200 casualties of the coronavirus recorded by year’s end, hunger and poverty among Filipino families and the loss of jobs and economic opportunities reached historical highs. A record 7.6 million Filipino households experienced involuntary hunger a strikingly high 7.2 million Filipinos were jobless and the economy contracted at an unprecedented rate of 9.5 per cent, making it the worst in Southeast Asia. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a most complex and challenging crisis all over the world, but even more so for the national administration in the Philippines.
