The bandwagon mentality, the tendency to go with the crowd, is a well-proven psychological phenomenon. And we see it being exploited now, to the extent that the numbers are being padded ridiculously.
It would not have been so concerning at another time, but this time it could be nothing less than existentially consequential. The trick is being deployed in desperate hopes of putting power back in the hands of a political family whose notoriety compares with no one that has ruled the country since the Martial Law years (1972-1986).
The Duterte family had been mere provincial overlords for just over a generation, until its notorious patriarch, Rodrigo, riding on propaganda that made him up to be some sort of maverick and drove up his poll numbers, became president. By the time his six-year term was over, in 2022, he had ceded our strategic and mineral-rich western territorial sea to China, left tens of thousands dead, summarily killed, in an indiscriminate and brutal war on drugs, lined the pockets of family and cronies with plunder, and more than doubled the national debt, to 13-trillion-plus pesos.
Meanwhile, daughter Sara managed to keep the dynasty’s power streak alive by positioning herself closest to the presidency. It had been presumed that, as vice president to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., she would be the coalition candidate in 2028, until they fell out, something not altogether unexpected between partners who cannot afford to let go of power, not even share it, without risking vulnerability to retribution.
We actually had a preview of that vulnerability when, following the falling-out, father and daughter were called to a congressional investigation. The hearings got Rodrigo to own responsibility for death-squad murders. In Sara’s case, they turned up evidence that her office had taken hundreds of millions of taxpayer pesos and covered up the malversation with fraudulent receipts. The findings have triggered a strong clamor for her impeachment — 41% are in favor, 35% against, and 19% undecided, according to a survey. Three articles of impeachment have been filed with the House of Representatives. Once any one of the three or a consolidated case from among them is approved by a third of the House vote, she goes to trial in the Senate and, once found guilty, she goes out as vice president and is barred from ever taking public office again.
The cases against the Dutertes needing little or no proving, their camp has resorted to misrepresentation of motives and manipulation of numbers. At the forefront of the campaign is the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ). It has been herding its flock for rallies calling for a reconciliation between the Dutertes and the Marcoses, careful not to be seen as being for one or the other. But why the Iglesia?
Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) is a century-old breakaway sect from the Catholic Church. Its founder, Eraño Manalo, proclaimed himself the last messenger of God, and its leadership has passed to sons in the two generations after him. In that sense, the Iglesia is itself a dynasty, and a political one to no small degree. It does not field family members, only surrogates, in elections, but appointments to public office are acceptable. Its present executive minister himself, Eduardo Manalo, was President Duterte’s, and is now President Marcos’, Special Envoy for Overseas Filipino Concerns. In case you might be wondering what those concerns are, the Iglesia claims an overseas following of two to six million.
Cultivating a reputation for kingmaking by bloc voting, the Iglesia has not failed to declare for a presidential candidate, and in the 15 elections since the Commonwealth, in 1935, it has made only two wrong picks. It has been able fairly consistently to deliver around 77% of its vote, which came to 1.3 million individual votes the last time.
Its last two presidential picks were Duterte and Marcos, and that explains its keenness to get the two families back together again: unresolved in time, the breakup could force the Iglesia to choose between their two candidates, likely Sara Duterte and Marcos’ cousin Martin Romualdez, the Speaker.
Lately, the Iglesia has been mounting rallies “for peace,” so called to give them a nationalistic and moral dimension, but no one should be fooled. It opposes impeachment for Sara Duterte. Rather, it wants the Marcoses and the Dutertes to reach some deal. Being invested in both, it certainly stands to profit from that, and its show of force only indicates how deeply troubled it is by the rift.
For all its holy avowals, the Iglesia is not averse to doctoring the truth, and doing so no less crudely than Sara’s operators did to cover up the truth with manufactured documents. For its grand outing at Rizal Park two weeks ago, it got the media somehow to swallow impossible counts of its turnout. ABS-CBN News reported a crowd of 1.2 million, this online news site itself had it at 1.58 million, the daily Inquirer at 1.8 million, and GMA News at 2 million. With a national membership of only 2.8 million, those numbers certainly make for a great feat of either herding or hoodwinking.
The last credible million-strong turnout in Rizal Park was for the miting de avance for Cory Aquino, when she took on Ferdinand Marcos Sr., dictator for 14 years, in the election of 1986. That miting filled the park’s entire 58 hectares — from Taft Ave. to the Manila Bay breakwaters and from T. M. Kalaw St. to Padre Burgos St. The Iglesia itself could only appropriate the grounds fronting the grandstand, and no way could even a mere quarter of a million people squeeze themselves in that space without risking death by asphyxiation or crushing.
The reasonable density is two persons to a square meter. But then, neither reasonableness nor truthfulness is the point. – Rappler.com