The Implications of Duterte’s Midterm Victory
from Asia Unbound

The Implications of Duterte’s Midterm Victory

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is interviewed by reporters after the handover of a draft law of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in a ceremony at the Malacanang presidential palace in metro Manila, Philippines on July 17, 2017.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is interviewed by reporters after the handover of a draft law of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in a ceremony at the Malacanang presidential palace in metro Manila, Philippines on July 17, 2017. Romeo Ranoco/Reuters

More on:

Southeast Asia

Philippines

Although in his first three years in office President Rodrigo Duterte has proven divisive internationally, this week’s midterm elections show that he retains enormous power over Philippine politics. In fact, after his allies’ sweeping victories in both houses of congress, he probably now has more control than any Philippine leader since dictator Ferdinand Marcos.


What will Duterte do with the victory? Given the events of past three years, it is easy to imagine him using magnified powers to move the country farther from an illiberal democracy and closer to an outright autocracy, while also taking steps to entrench his influence well beyond the end of his term in 2022. On foreign policy, however, Duterte’s big win will have less impact. For more on the implications of the Philippine midterms, see my new World Politics Review article.

More on:

Southeast Asia

Philippines

Creative Commons
Creative Commons: Some rights reserved.
Close
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License.
View License Detail