The Philippines belongs to the Asian Century

Duterte’s magic from the time he reluctantly campaigned for president of the Philippines has impressed leaders and peoples around the world. He is now regarded as the leader from a third world country who broke the back of the superiority complex of the Westerners by using words that reflect common sense and the daring to say things as they were. Powerful leaders in the US, the EU and the UN took for granted they could inflict cultural and political slights to countries they once colonized.

And now an unknown Filipino leader would arise and challenge its superiority by using cussing to destroy the status quo without guns? Something did happen to make it possible. He may be an ordinary politician but he also had a lot of common sense and extraordinary courage.

For me, it was in 2014 when it all began. Duterte would not have been possible without crowdsourcing from social media.

Crowdsourcing may have come from Iceland but I knew there would be a Filipino version. It was like throwing a piece of paper to the sea and it will find its own way back. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, the phrase – we, the people – became possible through the communication vehicle of social media. Zuckerberg has a billion followers in the Internet.

On the other hand and not many are aware of this, the Philippines was once named the social networking capital of the world. In an article written by Jon Russel it says that “Asia dominates the world’s biggest social networking markets.” In the rankings of countries in the region as compiled by the blog 24/7 Wall Street, the Philippines tops the list with netizens using Facebook “penetration (usage per population). According to the article 93.9 percent of Filipinos nationwide were reported signed up to Facebook. Following closely was Israel with 91 percent and Turkey coming in third with 90.2 percent. And although Twitter is said to be popular with the young it only rated 16.1 percent.

“Facebook is the country’s most popular website, more so than Google, and has a penetration rate of 93.9 percent.  The Philippines is also the eighth most popular country for Twitter use on a global scale, with a penetration rate of 16.1 percent. The popularity of photo sharing has increased by 46 percent in the country in one year, largely due to Facebook. Social networking is so popular among Filipinos, the country has been nicknamed “The Social Networking Capital of the World.”

Given these numbers it isn’t a pie in the sky that Filipino facebook users can call themselves, “we, the people.”

So when Iceland created a template for crowdsourcing for a new Constitution, some Filipinos immediately caught on calling themselves BayanKo.  Why not? And so began discussions of what could be done to use the 93.9 percent penetration in the market they were saying of Filipinos in Facebook. Iceland may have been the first, but the Philippines followed with a bang.

Moreover, for far too long constitutional reformers in the Philippines were blocked by the oligarchy every time there was an attempt to revisit the 1987 Constitution which favored the status quo.

It has been said the people, the crowd, do not want constitutional change. Period. It will be more difficult for their opponents to claim that now. The clamor sparked by Duterte’s victory was indeed crowdsourced. It was demonstrated by more than a million Filipinos who attended his miting de avance and garnered 16.6 million  voted for him to defy machine cheating using Smartmatic PCOS. We will have a new Constitution because it will be powered by the pledge of Duterte.

When that crowdsourced support is used it could and should say with confidence in its Preamble – We, the People – and put up that banner with pride when put for a referendum. 

Asia is the most populous in the world. It was anyone’s guess that Filipinos because of their widespread presence as foreign workers in almost every country where jobs could be found was a powerhouse. The overseas Filipinos partnered with Filipino netizens  pulled in the Philippines into the Asian Century. They had a leader.

When the Asian Century became the popular termfor the 21st-century dominance of Asian politics and culture, the Philippines was and could not be part of it.  It was  subject to American neocolonial policies and ridden with problems from bad politics and a wide gap between the rich and the poor. It was antis situation when  a power struggle between the United States and China ensued. Duterte said speaking to an audience of Filipinos and Chinese “In this venue we separate from the United Sates of America.”  He could have said other things to why this statement was necessary. But the world understood.

They, too would have to cope with the challenges of making the 21st century the Asian Century. It might have been China that made it possible because of its wealth but it was a Filipino leader besieged by intractable problems brought about by colonialism that articulated it. Our heroes in the War of Independence vs. the Americas must be smiling from above. That was unusual courage to say it like it is. Damn. Or in Duterte’s style p..i. m. 

In his book “Orientalism” the Palestinian author Edward Said explains, The applause for Duterte’s statement touched a raw nerve which he referred to as”orientalism” “the West’s patronizing perceptions and fictional depictions of “The East” – the societies and peoples who inhabit the places of Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Orientalism, the Western scholarship about the Eastern World, was and remains inextricably tied to the imperialist societies who produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power, and thus intellectually suspect.”