Why did BBM Win?

BBM Won Because the Yellow Narrative Had Underperformed and Had Run Its Course. 

The yellow narrative had two chances to prove its worth. The first chance was the Cory administration.  Cory Aquino proved to be a feeble and indecisive leader: she was not respected by the military and could not win their support. The seven coup d'états ravaged the economy.  Political infighting plagued her fractious cabinet: yet she chose to ignore the squabbles. The result was a directionless government.  

Her legislative initiatives were blocked or watered down by a recalcitrant Congress, particularly her land reform program. To be sure, Cory had her share of legislative accomplishments: she promulgated two milestone legal codes, namely, the Family Code of 1987, which reformed the civil law on family relations, and the Administrative Code of 1987, which reorganized the structure of the executive branch. Another important law that Cory enacted was the 1991 Local Government Code, which was a giant leap in Philippine devolution. 

However, corruption and cronyism, hallmarks of the Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. regime, still got the better of her administration. To top it all, mismanagement, and a lack of vision in the energy sector, epitomized by the mothballing of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) with no practicable alternative, resulted in a debilitating power crisis which hobbled the economy down the stretch of her term. 

Benigno Aquino III "Pnoy" Administration

The second chance was the Benigno Aquino III administration. Benigno Aquino III got elected to the presidency not because of his skills and qualifications, but because of sympathy votes in the wake of his mother’s death on August 1, 2009, and the media exposure he got from repeatedly reading medical bulletins regarding his mother’s condition. 

In fact, he became so popular being his mother’s medical spokesman that, Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II,  the erstwhile front runner, gamely gave way to him as the Liberal Party standard bearer in the 2010 Philippine presidential elections. Aquino won that election by getting 42.08% of the vote. 

Under Aquino III, the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 was enacted, which mandated a 12-year basic education in the country. Aquino III signed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 which made contraception universally accessible. “Pnoy”, as he was informally called, launched a “public-private partnership program” which aimed to accelerate infrastructure development. One month after assuming office, he created a truth commission to investigate corruption accusations against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, his predecessor.

Modernization of the AFP

Aquino III signed the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Act, or RA 10349, to strengthen the AFP's capability to address counterterrorism, maritime domain security, and internal threats, and to protect defense modernization against administration changes . Furthermore, Aquino III signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which allowed the US to deploy troops in the Philippines for extended stays and which authorized the former to build and operate facilities in Philippine bases.

In September 2014, Aquino III succeeded in getting the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to renounce violence after decades of armed conflict. He then proposed to Congress the creation of an autonomous Muslim region, in the country’s south, to be called Bangsamoro. This paved the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM.  BARMM was established following the ratification of its basic law, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, after a plebiscite held on January 21 and February 6, 2019, under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Despite these achievements, the popularity of Aquino III’s government declined in its last three years.  For instance, there was widespread negative public reaction to his administration’s handling of funds related to relief and rehabilitation of Typhoon Yolanda victims, which killed more than 7,000 Filipinos in 2013. It was reported widely that hundreds of millions of pesos in funds intended for the victims did not reach them because government offices used them up for operations or kept them in banks. 

Mamasapano Encounter

His popularity took a nosedive following a disastrous police operation against Muslim terrorists in Mamasapano, Maguindanao del Sur, on January 25, 2015.  The “Mamasapano Encounter” resulted in the killing of 44 Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) personnel. 

Three months before his term ended, amid public outrage over the Mamasapano operation, Benigno Aquino III’s approval and trust ratings plunged to their lowest levels since 2010, according to a Pulse Asia survey. From 59 percent in November 2014, his approval rating dropped to 38 percent in March 2015 while his trust rating fell from 56 percent to 36 percent.

It is a common perception that popular discontent with the Aquino III government mainly caused the political rise of former Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a political antagonist of Mr. Aquino.

In the waning days of the Aquino III administration, due in big part to the public’s yellow fatigue, the much-celebrated Ninoy-Cory cult, paid for in blood by Ninoy Aquino, had lost its hitherto splendid glow. 

In the unforgiving language of the streets and the internet, yellow had mockingly become “dilawan”. From a color that originally stood for freedom, justice, solidarity, and all things nice, yellow had morphed into a pejorative term. 

"Dilawan" was now used to denigrate members of the Liberal Party and those associated with the two Aquino regimes, who were perceived, with good reason, as undermining the popular regime of Rodrigo R. Duterte.

This is the reason Leni Robredo did not adopt yellow as her campaign color. 

BBM Won Because as the Yellow Mystique Waned, the Marcos Family Were Steadily Clawing Their Way Back to Power.  

The Marcos family started preparing for their reinstatement not a long time after EDSA. After Marcos Sr.’s demise in Hawaii in 1989, President Corazon Aquino permitted them to return from banishment on November 4, 1991.

They were essentially permitted to come back without having to atone or pay compensation. They lost no time refitting into the mainstream. Soon enough, they were being accorded the status and privileges they formerly had. 

Since those days, the Marcoses have never looked back, save for a dubious defeat by BBM in the 2016 elections. They, including the clan’s third generation, have demonstrated that they have the resources and political savvy necessary to win in the electoral arena. In the succeeding elections, Imelda Marcos won a congressional seat in Leyte, while two children and two grandchildren strengthened the family’s control of Ilocos Norte’s local politics:

Elective Positions Won by Marcos Family

Imelda R. Marcos: Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from Leyte's 1st district (1995-1998).

Imee Marcos: member of the Philippine House of Representatives from the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte (1998–2007); Governor of Ilocos Norte (2010–2019); member of the Philippine Senate (2019–present). 

Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.: Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte (1980–1983); Governor of Ilocos Norte (1983–1986); member of the Philippine House of Representatives from Ilocos Norte's Second District (1992–1995); Governor of Ilocos Norte (1998–2007); Senator of the Philippines (2010–2016); seventeenth president of the Philippines (2022- present)

Matthew Joseph Manotoc (Imee Marcos’ youngest son): provincial board member of Ilocos Norte  (2016-2019), and governor of Ilocos Norte (2019-present). 

Ferdinand Alexander "Sandro" Araneta Marcos III, (eldest son of Philippine President Bongbong Marcos and First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos): representative of Ilocos Norte's 1st congressional district (2022-present). 

BBM Won Because President Rodrigo Duterte Facilitated the Resurrection of the Marcos Narrative by Consenting to FEM’s Burial in Libingan Ng Mga Bayani

Of all the post-EDSA presidents, it was Rodrigo Duterte who was the friendliest to the Marcos family. During a campaign sortie in Ilocos Norte in February 2016, Duterte was said to have asserted: "Speaking of loyalty and friendship, I am proud to say that my father was a close ally of President Marcos until his 

A little-known fact is that President Duterte’s father, Cebuano born lawyer Vicente G. Duterte, was a cabinet member of President Ferdinand E. Marcos during FM’s first term, having served as Secretary of the Department of General Services.

Add to this Duterte and the Marcoses’ long history of supporting each other’s political candidacies, and you have a rock-solid alliance, exemplified by the “BBM-Sara” tandem in the 2022 presidential elections. 

The previous presidents were hostile, as in the case of the two Aquinos, cautious as in the case of Fidel Ramos, cozy, as in the case of Joseph Estrada, and accommodating, as in the case of Gloria M. Arroyo. 

But Duterte stands out among the former presidents as being the one to promote the Marcos political brand, albeit subtly. For sure, President Rodrigo Duterte, on November 18, 2021, called then-presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos a “weak leader” and a “spoiled child” in a speech in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro.

Reburial of Ferdinand E. Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani

But actions speak louder than words. Barely three months into his term, on August 12, 2016, Duterte all but signified his support for the Marcos family, and fulfilled a presidential campaign promise, by allowing the body of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Politically and psychologically for the Filipino people, this single act by Duterte was pregnant with meaning. 

First, it put an end to the EDSA narrative by converting Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s image from a reviled and deposed dictator to a venerated former president. 

Second, it gave the Marcos family moral and political legitimacy, something they had hankered for after coming back in 1992.

True, the political offices they had won the years before had been expressions of acceptance and forgiveness from Filipinos who had turned a blind eye to their past record or were too young to remember. Worse, the Marcoses could have easily been correctly deprecated as a commonplace political dynasty in Ilocos Norte, with all its ugly connotations. 

The Reburial of FM Changed Everything

But the reburial changed everything. Like it or not for the critics, it ended an infamous Marcos era, and offered a fresh start to another one, bannered by FM’s only son.   In other words, the historic Marcos 2nd entombment at Libingan ng mga Bayani on November 18, 2016, was both closure and commencement. Out came the old, and in came the new. 

Third, the burial came at the nadir of the yellow narrative, after two unappreciated administrations by mother and son, which undoubtedly helped the Marcos redeemer Rodrigo Duterte, enter Malacañang. 

By allowing the burial, Duterte was astutely aware that he would not lose his popularity, because he intuitively knew that the Aquinos were politically kaput, and that the burial would set the Marcoses for a grand political comeback, something akin to Nixon in 1968, Churchill in 1951, Lincoln in 1860, and Napoleon in 1815. 

The Rise of BBM

True enough, BBM, the “loser” in the 2016 vice-presidential contest, saw his popularity rating skyrocketing in the span of the Duterte administration, while the “winner”, Vice-President Leonor “Leni” Robredo languished in limbo that entire time. 

This paved the way for Leni Robredo’s ignominious defeat by BBM in the 2022 presidential polls, which produced the first majority elected Philippine president since the EDSA Revolution, with 58.77% of the vote. This was a humongous mandate, especially considering there were ten candidates.

BBM Won Because of Sara Duterte

It is hard to fathom the enormity of Sara Duterte’s role in BBM’s victory. The most discernible thing is that Sara helped deliver the Mindanao votes for BBM: the “Uniteam” won in 25 of 27 provinces in Mindanao and 32 of its 33 cities.

BBM and Sara Duterte lost in only two Mindanao provinces: Sarangani which voted for Manny Pacquiao (98.24%), and Lanao del Sur and its component city, Marawi, which voted for Faisal Mangondato (77.86%).

Uniteam’s overwhelming victory becomes more significant considering that Mindanao was the lone island grouping in the country that solidly voted against Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in the 1986 snap Presidential elections.

Sara Duterte certainly was also an immense boost for BBM in Luzon and the Visayas, but not as much as in Mindanao.

Sara's Greatest Contribution to BBM Campaign

But perhaps Sara Duterte’s greatest contribution to Bongbong Marcos victory is her decision not to run for president. This historic decision, the reason or reasons for which have never been ascertained, will be pondered and debated by political analysts and historians in the years to come. 

Had Sara run, I’d bet she would have trounced BBM, but not by as wide a margin as BBM crushed Leni Robredo. That’s another story, nonetheless. 

All things considered; the 2022 Philippine presidential election was a mismatch. 

 

 

 

Mathematics, English, and Science Retraining for Philippine Public School Teachers

In the summer of 2001, the UP Diliman Extension Programs in Pampanga and Olongapo (UPDEPPO) held what is called a MENSA (Mathematics, English, and Science Advancement Seminars for Philippine Public School Teachers) seminar for 160 public school teachers from the province of Bataan.

 I am now proposing to the Department of Education (DepEd) to implement the above project on a national basis, adopting it as a nationwide program. 

This is now imperative, as our teachers and students are being left behind globally in mathematics, English, and science instruction.

The abovementioned MENSA seminars were the first of their kind in the country and was sponsored and funded by the provincial government of Bataan, under Gov. Leonardo “Ding” B. Roman. 

Earlier, then Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Felicito Payumo expressed his intention of making SBMA, not just an investment center but also an educational and training center, with UPDEPO fulfilling this role.

Gov. Roman then invited UPDEPPO faculty, (myself included) to a meeting at the Bataan Provincial Capitol where he requested us to hold the seminars for Bataan’s public school teachers, whose teaching skills, he underscored, needed improvement.

In response, we in UPDEPPO proposed MENSA.

 The MENSA trainings were facilitated by top-caliber PhDs from UP who gave an intensive weeklong “retooling” training to the 160 Bataan teachers.

The idea was to expose the teachers, many of whom taught in remote Bataan barangays, to the most up-to-date methods and content in the subjects concerned. The subjects covered were Mathematics, English, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.

Gov. Roman noted the low UP College Admissions Test (UPCAT) passing rate of Bataan students. He then agreed with Chairman Payumo’s proposal to have Bataan’s public school teachers  “retooled” in SBMA. 

Chairman Payumo, for his part, suggested that UPDEPPO’s building in SBMA be used for the “retooling” seminars.   

The seminars gave the organizers many valuable ideas about the conditions of the participants. The most important of these was that the teachers were more concerned about learning content rather than method. 

In response, the participants were given cutting-edge information and teaching technologies in their respective fields.

As a testimony to the effectiveness of the UP-facilitated MENSA seminars, Bataan representatives won first prize in the editorial writing competitions at the Central Luzon public schools press conference, shortly after the training.

To reiterate, I am now proposing to the Department of Education (DepEd) that it utilize the MENSA program, as implemented in 2001, by UPDEPPO, to train teachers in other parts of the Philippines. In other words, MENSA should be adopted by DepEd on a national basis. 

This endeavor will have the following goals:

1. To gain a better understanding of the situation and needs of  Filipino public school teachers as they teach math, English, and science;

2. To make policy recommendations with the above information as the basis;

3. To train trainers that will replicate the seminars in the various provinces, and towns of the                        Philippines;

4. To give the participants a global perspective in which to situate their roles as teachers.

To conclude, the best way to keep the Philippine labor force competitive is to retrain Filipino public school teachers in the latest English, science, and mathematics content and methods. This should be done on a national scale, and at the primary and secondary levels. 

Priority should be given to public school teachers. If we want to advance the English, science, and mathematics proficiencies of our youth, the most cost-effective way is to start with their teachers.