![[OPINION] War of the words: Thoughts on the Marcos inaugural speech](https://marcosregime.com/files/2022/07/1656924005_OPINION-War-of-the-words-Thoughts-on-the-Marcos-inaugural.jpg)
‘The speech was rich with indicators as to how Marcos plans to bundle his administration transferring forward’
Are you conscious anyone who made some extent of not watching Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s speech for his presidential inauguration? Yeah, me, too. Nonetheless concerned residents of all political leanings did sit by way of it, for all sorts of causes: cheering Marcos on, sating their very personal morbid curiosity, fulfilling a grim civic accountability, or looking for clues as to what could come subsequent.
After having watched the official footage myself, I can say that doing so could be very very important for people anxious a few Marcos presidency, and nonetheless reeling from an electoral consequence due in no small half to historic distortion campaigns. The speech was rich with indicators as to how Marcos plans to bundle his administration transferring forward.
Completely different articles will in all probability make very important analyses of his phrases on native climate resilience, monetary restoration, and the like. Nonetheless, on this piece, I want to draw your consideration to a pattern Marcos takes on when presenting his technique to these targets.
Quite a lot of events all by means of his speech, Marcos promised to get points executed with out delays or excuses. He moreover acknowledged that his administration plans to take full accountability for working and ruling the nation. Residents mustn’t have to worry about taking the federal authorities’s options on themselves.
On the ground, these phrases would possibly sound reassuring. Nonetheless they sound alarm bells inside the minds of residents who’re already observing a curbing of civil liberties, and unjustified specializing in of oppositional voices. It is not onerous to see that authoritarian methods will probably be provided as “getting it executed.” People who question these methods may be accused of getting in the best way during which of progress and sabotaging nationwide unity. A further polished spin on “puro reklamo, walang gawa,” in case you’ll. On a related remember, critics will probably be accused of usurping authorities options, when an accurate citizen should quietly obey. That’s the closing narrative that oppositionists have to be able to counter.
On a further specific remember, we’ll see that the Marcos camp stays to be mustering its rhetorical weapons in opposition to former VP Leni Robredo, no matter having ostensibly defeated her inside the newest elections. Marcos’ current messaging looks like a shot fired on the coronary coronary heart — the still-beating coronary coronary heart — of the Pink movement, as embodied inside the anthem “Rosas.” Set the Marcos speech alongside the lyrics to that observe. “Rosas’” chorus famously begins, “Hindi ko maipapangako…,” whereas the Marcos speech ensures to complete duties it does not matter what. “Rosas” focuses on praising the braveness, discernment, and goodness that allows Filipinos to (doubtlessly) steer their nation’s future. The inaugural deal with states that residents needn’t worry themselves about authorities options. The vote counts may be accomplished, nevertheless to Marcos, the battle isn’t over the least bit.
The question for oppositionists now might be: should they critically change their method to bypass Marcos’ narrative, or should they think about displaying that his narrative is flawed? The reply depends on many components. Firstly, will Marcos have the power to supply tangible (or as a minimum flashy) outcomes? Merely as importantly, will the opposition have the power to exhibit that offer of suppliers needn’t happen on the expense of democratic norms?
What’s particular is that the opposition ought to develop to be larger not merely at taking the Marcos camp considerably, nevertheless understanding the patterns in its rhetoric. The controversy is not nearly correcting specific individual objects of disinformation by way of appropriate data, nevertheless about how data is used to tell tales. I argue that we should at all times already be apprehensive that assaults on democracy may be handed down as a result of the story of the federal authorities getting points executed. The opposition should focus its phrases and deeds on shifting this storyline.
As I understand it, the opposition has always wished a authorities that listens to its people. Nonetheless, one function that the opposition failed on Might ninth was that its private listening course of received right here too little, too late. From this key speech, we’ll see that the Marcos camp stays to be listening to the opposition, if solely to find out strategies to outflank it. Till the opposition moreover learns to listen to further systematically, it is probably that these strategies will present all too worthwhile. – MR
Jamina Vesta Jugo is a doctoral candidate in Political Science on the Faculty of Goettingen and a part-time lecturer on the Ateneo de Manila’s European Analysis Program.
