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Ramon Casiple
Executive Director
Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER)

Rodrigo Duterte, Jr., mayor of Davao City, was

proclaimed winner of the 9 May 2016
presidential election and assumes office as
the 16th president of the Republic of the
Philippines.
In the process he bested the vice-president,
two senators, and a former senator and key
figure in the Aquino administration. He did it
in a convincing manner, garnering more than
16 million votes or 39 per cent of the 43
million total votes cast.

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Solid Mindanao block and anti-imperial

Manila sentiments
Bisaya ethnic identification
Appeal to Metro-Manilans and residents of
urban areas on drugs, crime, and political will
Net citizens and social media
OFW families as new middle class
The millennial generation comes into its own
The travails of the EDSA elite democracy
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Dutertes victory came exactly 30 years after

the 1986 EDSA People Power revolution.
The 1986 uprising mandated the
establishment of the revolutionary Aquino
government.
Cory Aquino consolidated power through the
enactment of the 1987 Constitution that was
ratified by the people in a plebiscite.
Duterte campaigned for a federal system thru
a constitutional convention.

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The essential weakness of the post-Marcos

democracy was the elite capture of political
power.
The machinery of the Marcos dictatorship
based on political patronage was not
dismantled but taken over. The Marcoses
were allowed to come back.
The vote for Duterte can be considered a
protest vote against the post-EDSA
governance favoring the political and
economic elite.

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Duterte proposed a radical changeespecially

the promise of federalism and stringent law
and order measuresand that this change was
coming.
This populist attracted many voters; and they
voted for him by a landslide margin.
There is rejection of the post-Marcos elite
democracy, and expectation of quick results in
uplifting the quality of lives of ordinary poor
Filipinos.
The people who voted for Duterte expect him
to use the full force of the law in going after
criminals, and to have firm political will to
pursue reform measures.

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The political and economic elite class may try

to co-opt the administration of President
Duterte or resist any weakening of their
privileged status, and may contest radical
reforms every step of the way.
The elite may also sue for a historic
compromise amidst popular pressure. In this
case, the proposed charter change will
become an important process to realize the
compromise.
Duterte is a transition president.

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