Writescapade: Duterte was Genius
This post might contain spoilers from the documentary “The Great Hack”. Read at your own risk.
During my previous entry for #Writescapade, I unraveled some necessary terms that I will be using throughout my next blogs. If you haven’t read it, here’s the link for Writescapade: New Beginnings. Now, allow me to discuss a very timely issue on the political aspect of the Philippines.
The reign of our current president is bound to end in a few months’ time. We are about to enter the campaign period of the aspiring politicians in our country, and it would be nice if Filipinos would take a pause to think and reflect how the 2016 Elections went and became a burden for us during the past six years.
According to Dahlberg (2001), new media welcomes the idea of disseminating political views and agendas because this platform is very liberated in terms of limitations. In new media, we are all exposed to the three (3) areas of political life which are: (1) Formal, (2) Alternative, and (3) Citizen-based. These aforesaid areas of political life were all maximized by our current president in order for him to convince people that he is the best option among the other options back in 2016.
Citizen-based
Courtesy: Rappler
Among the other areas of political life, this citizen-based approach is the most familiar for most of us. This area maximizes the use of social media (specifically Facebook and Twitter) in disseminating the campaign paraphernalia of the political candidate.
During the 2016 era, our social medias are bombarded by various campaigns. It ranges from the leftist and rightist post (well, at least, on my end). I don’t want to claim that the same thing is happening on the social media platforms of everyone because Facebook uses algorithms in order to come up with a newsfeed that is curated to your liking.
In order for me to prove this point, I would like to use how the former President of America, Donald Trump, used Facebook’s algorithm to convince the neutral people to vote for him. Back in 2014, a voter-profiling company named “Cambridge Analytica” was able to secure and investment that is worth $15 million. With that, they were able to get the private information of an estimated 50 million Facebook users illegally.
Courtesy: Netflix
In a documentary on Netflix with the title “The Great Hack”, explored how Cambridge Analytica maximized the personal data that they’ve gathered and how they helped Trump with his 2016 campaign for the presidential position. In this documentary, Cambridge Anaytica identified which users are neutral for the upcoming elections based on the information that they’ve gathered through Facebook. Through this process, Cambridge Analytica bombarded these types of people with videos, pictures and other propagandas on their Facebook page which convinces these people that Trump is a way better president compared to Hillary Clinton. They manipulated these people into thinking that Trump should be the next president. If you want to learn more about this issue and how a professor sued Cambridge Analytica for buying the personal information of an estimated 50 million Facebook users, you may watch the documentary “The Great Hack” via Netflix.
So, how is this event relevant to my claims earlier? Duterte did not have an agency that is similar to Cambridge Analytica which is why they created a troll farm. They hired people who will create dummy accounts in disseminating and increasing the reach of their campaign paraphernalia. That is how genius Duterte is.
Alternative
Courtesy: GMA Network
This area of political life talks about the movements and activism. If I were to relate this to Duterte’s campaign, he used the “Anti-Drug Campaign” in order to get the votes of the majority. He promised that he will end drugs in our country within a span of 6 months. It sounds surreal but, the Filipinos did not mind at all. Instead, they took the risk and trust the process that Duterte is the key to solve such problem.
Through this campaign, the issue of extrajudicial killings rose when Duterte got elected as the president. He was persistent with the shoot-to-kill order and other orders such as the “Patayin pag nanlaban”. It was a traumatizing era for some or even most of the Filipinos who experienced this first-hand. One of the victims of this was the late Kian Delos Santos which woke the eyes of some that Duterte wasn’t really clever.
Formal
The formal area of political life focuses mainly on the organized political parties, legislative lobbying, and referendums. I could still remember how the citizens of the Philippines begged for him to run as the next president. For them, Duterte is the key to attain peace in our country since, he managed to do that during his reign as the Mayor for Davao city. Little do they know that having him reign as our president would include mishaps and misfortunes especially right now, during the pandemic.
Courtesy: Rappler
A lot of people would probably say that our President is not clever enough. But then again, isn’t it we? If Duterte isn’t clever enough then, he wouldn’t be the president right now. During the campaign period, Duterte (especially his team) were very clever in convincing the naive Filipinos to vote for him. He straight up said that he will eliminate drugs in our country. There were no concrete plans provided but, almost everyone did not seem to be bothered at all. He knows how to get the votes of the majority and for that, he is clever. He is clever enough to make us feel that we need him and we should vote for him. For that, he was clever and we are dumbfounded.
Let the previous election be the greatest lesson of the Filipinos for the upcoming elections in 2022. Stop voting just because someone is famous or is currently helping the lower class financially. Vote for someone who will care for you and our country even if it’s not the election period.
