Final 5 elements
Within the 2016 presidential elections, the Strong North predictably acted like a motherless little one.
Former vice chairman Jejomar Binay, being a son of Cagayan Valley, obtained Northeast Luzon together with Kalinga, Apayao, and Abra.
Grace Poe, being the daughter of Fernando Poe Jr., obtained the remainder of the pie, apart from Ilocos Norte, which went for eventual winner Rodrigo Duterte.
The vice presidency, nonetheless, was one other story.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. gained huge in all of the provinces in Northern and Central Luzon. Leni Robredo beat him solely in Tarlac, residence turf of then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and by solely 30,000 votes, and in Batanes the place she obtained 4 instances his votes.
In his residence province of Ilocos Norte, Marcos obtained 96.8% of all VP votes.
Within the Ilocos area, Marcos obtained 84.36% if the battle towards Leni was one-on-one. In Cagayan Valley, Marcos’s 2016 votes represented 85% of their mixed votes.
Within the Cordillera, Marcos obtained “solely” 79% of the votes if it have been a two-way combat in 20016. His votes elevated by 10% in 2022.
In the remainder of the Strong North, his dominance was clear.
Table of Contents
The 3Ns
Bongbong was not persistently dominant on coming into nationwide politics.
In 1995, 4 years after the household got here residence from exile in September 1991, he ran as senator and positioned seventeenth.
He was extra profitable when he set his sights decrease in 2010 and 2013, successful as governor and congressman of his residence province Ilocos Norte.
Political advisor and senior lecturer Gerardo Eusebio was a panelist in a November 2013 discussion board organized by the Third World Research Heart at UP Diliman.
He had additionally labored with Marcos Jr.’s 2010 senatorial marketing campaign. Marcos garnered 13 million votes in that race to land seventh. In that contest, Marcos ran below the Nacionalista Social gathering, not his father’s Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), which had change into a ragtag celebration for the reason that dictator’s fall in 1986.
Eusebio recalled that Marcos Jr’s votes have been “positively concentrated in Area 1: Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, Abra space.”
“Metro Manila was probably not, you realize, a powerful Bongbong space. So, doon kami sa Bulacan. We (obtained a) trace na marami uncooked loyalists doon sa Bulacan (there was fairly various loyalists in Bulacan),” he added.
Eusebio stated that Areas 7 and eight, the central and jap Visayas areas, and a few elements of Mindanao have been additionally their strongholds. Bongbong’s mom, former first girl Imelda, hails from Leyte in Jap Visayas.
Eusebio stated most of their supporters have been senior residents, Kabataang Barangay leaders, and Marcos loyalists.
Eusebio admitted that Martial Legislation was the albatross on Bongbong’s neck.
With out that baggage, he stated, the younger Marcos might have positioned fifth or increased.
What a sea change by 2022.
“Bagong Lipunan,” the marching theme of Martial Legislation, grew to become the de facto marketing campaign jingle of Marcos Jr.
But it surely wasn’t a single large leap, not a quantum soar for the son.
It was a sequence of steps that made him win.
‘Marketing campaign to exorcise’
Within the 2013 discussion board, Eusebio scoffed on the declare that the 3Gs (weapons, goons, and gold) gave Marcos, the daddy his electoral victories.
At present, to say that the son gained due to the 4M formulation (man, message, equipment, and cash) can also be simplistic.
It fails to know an important, decisive facet of elections – the voters.
What fueled the Marcos Jr. technique these final six years have been the 3Ns (new media, nostalgia, and negationism).
Even in 2013, negationism or the “narrative of denial” was already being talked about within the historic revisionism of the Marcoses.
“And that is in all probability the problem proper now,” Ferdinand Llanes, a historical past professor at UP Diliman stated nearly ten years in the past, “that accordingly, the Marcoses are exerting each effort to sanitize what is meant to be a unfavorable picture of the Marcoses and Martial Legislation.”
As early as 2008, Marcos’s group had been producing YouTube movies with robust the negationism slant.
One was entitled “Ferdinand Marcos Nonetheless-Working Tasks”. It’s not round however at the moment had garnered 40,000 likes.
One other is the “Untold Story of Martial Legislation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Imb00sqyY)” which continues to be round and has already garnered multiple million views.
Llanes stated that the primary video confirmed the supposed achievements of Marcos just like the Bataan Nuclear Energy Plant, and the North and South Expressways. Geothermal vegetation, San Juanico Bridge, and the Gentle Rail Transit, stressing that Marcos achieved greater than different presidents.
The second was extra controversial as a result of it tried to exculpate Marcos from the assassination of Benigno Aquino.
Llanes talked about two different examples of negationism amongst YouTube movies that have been forerunners of the prevailing movies now on the video platform and the newer Tiktok.
He stated these early movies have been a part of the “marketing campaign to exorcise” the unfavorable facets of the Marcoses just like the ill-gotten wealth and the Ninoy assassination.
“However for the remainder of the inhabitants, particularly the youth, from these born in 1986 as much as the current, hindi na kailangan kasi nasa textbooks,” Llanes stated.
“At kapag natapos iyong bata na magbasa, sa pagko-compare ng presidente, contemplating what’s occurring now, Bongbong Marcos might very nicely win.” Llanes stated in 2013.
PAYING RESPECTS. Presumptive President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. visits his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. on the latter’s grave in Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig Metropolis on Could 11, 2022. Photograph courtesy of Workplace of Bongbong Marcos
Not a dignified alternative
Orville Tatcho, a 31-year-old assistant professor on the Division of Communication on the College of the Philippines Baguio, did a qualitative examine of about 18 millennials and Zoomers in Baguio. Principally academics with some authorities and NGO staff, their ages ranged from 18 to 30.
Tatcho intentionally selected to have half as pro-BBM and the opposite towards him. He needed to know what knowledgeable their selections.
He stated that those that have been pro-BBM have been hesitant to confess it.
Tatcho stated that in his interviews, it grew to become obvious that social media and textbooks have been certainly a giant a part of their selections.
“After all, they don’t wish to admit it outright however social media is a giant issue,” he stated.
“From what I noticed of these declaring Marcos as their alternative, it’s not a dignified alternative. What I imply is, they’re actually shy to confess that they’re pro-Marcos and so they’re actually shy to say that their supply is social media,” Tatcho added.
He would ask for examples because the time period social media was too broad.
“They don’t wish to admit that it’s TikTok or YouTube however they speak about Tallano gold, how the status of the Philippines might be restored, the golden period. So I do know that they’re kind of disinformation victims as nicely,” he added.
Tatcho stated that there are prompts that the nostalgia pre-set by the social media propaganda has affected his topics.
He stated that he didn’t delve a lot on Martial Legislation – “however phrases like ‘in response to my grandparents…’, and ‘Individuals have been disciplined before-’ there’s this rhetoric or narrative of self-discipline throughout that point. I keep in mind one participant making a parallel between Duterte and Marcos [regime]. Kind of how Duterte set the stage for the attainable return of authoritarianism, and on the identical time there’s a story of how the Igorot choose disciplined and orderly society… so he has this declare which kind of implies why it’s higher with Marcos.”
Kurt Zeus Lequit Dizon, a school member of the political science division at Saint Louis College additionally in Baguio, stated that he additionally sensed this amongst his college students.
“They stated that Bongbong is agency like his father, that’s why he’s the very best among the many candidates. However once I requested them to elaborate, they have been dismissive,” he stated.
Dizon stated that he additionally probed TikTok and YouTube to look into how his college students’ opinions have been made.
He stated that no Ilocanos have been talking the language among the many viral movies and stated that his college students adopted so-called influencers who already distilled the messages for them.
“It’s anticipated that they go for publicity and humor as a substitute of insurance policies amongst candidates,” he stated.
Dizon stated that amongst his kin in Pangasinan, a giant qualification is kailian which suggests townmate in Ilocano however extra associated to the generalized “kabayan” among the many Tagalogs or “our personal.”
He stated that this alternative by ethnicity could possibly be harmful as a result of it creates the idea that good politics is feudal.
“It meant that your tribe is superior to others which creates a kind of xenophobia,” he stated.
“It’s like since you’re from the Strong North, you despise the Bicolanos as a result of they’re alleged to help Leni Robredo,” Dizon stated.
Whenever you get your political concepts from social media as a substitute of studying historical past books, that is usually what occurs, he stated.
HOPES. Former first girl Imelda Marcos joins son, then vice presidential candidate Senator Bongbong Marcos in prayer earlier than voting in Ilocos Norte.
Nostalgia and amnesia
When negationism hits its message, historic amnesia follows.
Tatcho stated that the solutions, particularly among the many pro-Marcos topics, confounded him.
“On condition that they have been highschool academics. I’m imagining what they have been educating throughout class. There’s even somebody taking a Grasp’s [class] at BSU, in order that they do have superior training,” he stated.
When confronted about human rights, Tatcho stated that they’d reply again: “We solely hear your model [of the story], what in regards to the different model?” or “You at all times speak about Manila, what about Ilocos?” So that they search for various historical past”
He stated that one NGO employee from Mountain Province informed him that “it’s attainable that there was a mass media shutdown which is why information about human rights abuses didn’t attain them. After all, I must confirm this however she has a hunch on information media blackouts on these points.”
He stated that it was peaceable of their communities in order that they stated that they weren’t bothered in regards to the disturbing occasions within the information.
“After all, others would say that they’ve examine it however largely from social media. Others additionally say that textbooks are extraordinarily one-sided. They framed their arguments as in the event that they have been being goal by completely different sources as a result of all textbooks are anti-Marcos. All presidents have their very own faults, in response to them. So there’s this false equivalence,” Tatcho stated.
To forged doubt on historical past, Bongbong, identical to his father, determined to recast historical past in response to his narrative.
Within the Bongbong Marcos Biography, he tried to deal with his post-EDSA achievements, largely his being a governor and congressman in Ilocos Norte. For somebody closely banking on the achievements of his father rubbing on to him, that could be a tall order.
Earlier than it was corrected, he faked his instructional attainments and likewise didn’t point out that he misplaced in his senatorial bid in 1995 to make it seem like he by no means misplaced an election, together with his vice presidential bid in 2016.
Even earlier than Fb, Bongbong already had a Friendster profile since March 2004 for his senatorial bid.
He had a hyperlink to an Web recreation referred to as “Windmill Metropolis” to make it seem that the Bangui Windmill Farm was his thought all alongside.
Among the many earliest Fb teams arrange by Bongbong’s group, nonetheless, was the Marcos Loyalist, which began in 2013. From solely 10,000 firstly of 2014, it has now grown to 216,000 members.
As a result of it has since change into a public group and anybody can put up, it has change into a belligerent and a loud echo chamber.
However firstly, Marcos Loyalist, like most Marcos FB teams then, was into Martial Legislation.
In a single discussion board, I recognized the posts on that web page in its first two years: 25 pictures of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, 14 of Imelda, 15 pictures of the Marcos couple, 12 pictures of the Marcos household, ten pictures of the younger Bongbong, six of the 50-year-old Bongbong, 5 pictures of the daddy and son, three of the mom and son and 25 pictures of the achievements of New Society.
At first, the members of the web page have been Ilocanos from the Strong North. As a result of now they’ve a roll-call, most are nonetheless from the area however many have been additionally OFWs and a few have been from Mindanao.
So it comes as no shock that, eight years later, when Tatcho requested his topics about Marcos the daddy, he stated that they have been all praises.
“It got here to the purpose the place there’s this one participant who I requested, “Why is BBM so common proper now? The place does the attraction come from?” He stated, “From his father.”
“So with out his father, BBM can’t stand on his personal?” The participant stated “No.”
So that they know, they acknowledge.” – MR
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This sequence was made attainable by Internews.
