The role social media operations played in the Duterte campaign has not been analyzed enough. The impact of social media in the last elections is probably both profound and irreversible.
When the Davao mayor finally decided to throw his hat in the ring, by substituting for a party-mate, he was way behind his rivals in every department. He had no political party organization to speak off. There was very little time to set up parallel organizations.
By conventional calculations, there was no way this maverick campaign could catch up with the main rivals. Roxas enjoyed both the support of the sitting president as well as an immense party organization with a large war chest. Binay has been campaigning for years. Poe had the advantage of name-recall as well as the support of most businessmen.
But the Duterte campaign relied on an untested weapon: social media.
While his rivals maintained squads of trolls, they were used mainly for negative campaigns against other candidates. By the end of the campaign period, Duterte had an army of supporters in cyberspace. They were not paid hacks but genuine (and highly emotional) supporters doing their thing of behalf of renegade presidential aspirant.
Duterte’s social media reach explains why he topped the race among overseas voters even if he was relatively unknown at the start.
The tone and message of the Duterte campaign was well crafted to resonate in social media. The candidate was packaged as the man who cares for the common folk and, more important, is capable of protecting the vulnerable by every means possible.
His campaign logo was the front end of a fist, communicating the candidate’s cardinal virtue: firm leadership and strong enforcement to deal with our nation’s many problems, primarily the epidemic of drug use and the frightening rise in criminality.
But social media is simply the vehicle for reaching out to our teeming millions. It was the candidate to supply the content that will keep the social media abuzz.
Duterte was brilliant is supplying that content to keep the smartphones firing. He seemed to have programmed a new controversy every week, delivering enough fodder for on-line argumentation and strong partisanship. The intermittence of his controversial utterances was simply uncanny.
His political rivals, the monsignors of the establishment, the self-appointed guardians of public morals and the dogmatic feminists all fell for the bait. In the closing weeks of the campaign, Duterte completely occupied both traditional and social media space, blacking out the other candidates.
All the old paradigms of Filipino electoral politics fell by the wayside: the role of local ward leaders, the need for massive electoral funding and the requirement of party support. The Duterte campaign brings Filipino electoral politics to a new episode that our political scientists need to study exhaustively.
Already weak, the last election very likely was the last nail on conventional party politics. Henceforth, every candidacy must have enough color to subsist on social media.
Cusi
Among the more energizing choices for Cabinet positions of the incoming administration is that of PDP-Laban vice-chairman Al Cusi.
Cusi served the Macapagal Arroyo administration meritoriously first as Manila Airport general manager and as chief of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA). In March 2010 he was appointed to head the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
As CAAP head, Cusi acted promptly to save the country from an impending EU downgrade. He was well on his way to winning an FAA upgrade by improving security for our airports. On the pretext of being a “midnight appointee,” the Aquino administration forced him from that post. The quality of our airport services deteriorated immensely after that.
After his government stint, Cusi put his acute management skills to building Starlite ferry services. Convincing the banks to support him, he embarked on almost single-handedly modernizing the country’s ro-ro fleet.
Al Cusi invested in state-of-the-art, custom designed ships. The new fleet he was assembling surpassed international safety standards. When Yolanda struck the Samar-Leyte area, Cusi volunteered his ships to deliver relief goods to the victims.
For years, many of our ferry operators, much like our jeepney operators, resisted upgrading their fleets, fearful that the domestic market cannot support investments in efficiency and safety. Cusi broke from the mold, convinced our passengers deserved ships compliant with international safety standards. Among these is the use of double-hulled ships to better ensure maritime safety.
Al is an exceptional team-builder with a tireless, innovative mind. That is exactly what we need at the Department of Energy, the post Cusi accepted.
The challenges at that post will be great. We continue to have among the highest energy prices in the world even as our supply seems constantly tenuous.
If our economy is to continue its pace of growth, investors need to be assured of the country’s energy security. If we want manufacturing to lead that growth, energy prices must go down somehow through better-supervised competitiveness, transparent power markets and the efficient sourcing of supply.
Immediately, the rotating brownouts crippling Mindanao’s economy must be ended. The tenuous power supply in the Visayas must be addressed. The thin reserves for the Luzon grid must be immediately supplemented if we want our economy to expand at seven percent or higher.
Managing our extremely complex energy sector requires the astuteness of a diplomat, the rigor of an engineering mind and the shrewdness of a finance person. Al Cusi is all of those.
Al must call all hands on deck to build a truly modern energy sector that offers consumers the best possible deal and the environment the best prospect for sustainability.