Hello friends!
A day late in anticipation of the finalisation of the lineup for next year’s elections in the Philippines. And I’m thankful for that, given Rodrigo Duterte got his name in for the senate with only an hour or two to spare.
I started Dari Mulut ke Mulut in the wake of the 2016 election in the Philippines, which was a baptism of fire of sorts, so I’m going to take the election season slow and steady. I missed the build-up to the vote and I feel a little overwhelmed already. The brilliant press corps of the Philippines has stressed over and over again that nothing is over until it’s over and that’s a good rule this newsletter will be sticking to.
There’s a lot to learn but also a really long time to learn it. It feels like everyone says this before every election, but for the Philippines, 2022 really does feel like it can be a gamechanger in any direction. We’ll be sticking close to the smarties of Manila and the regions to get as across the election as we can.
See you later in the week,
Erin Cook
🇵🇠The line-up drops
And away we go! Yesterday was the last day for substitutions in candidates for the Philippines’ huge May election next year. There’s a LOT going on here that we’ll delve into further (hey, we’ve got six months!) so let’s start with the big headlines.Â
Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte announced his retirement from politics at the end of his term to excited tweets from the world’s journalists as such big news. The response from the Filipino press pack was far more muted — a collective ‘sure, we’ve seen this before.’ So after weeks of mounting speculation, it’s official. Duterte is back for a senatorial run.
He waited until after the weekend announcement from daughter Sara Duterte. The former mayor of Davao, herself in a strange little pickle these last few weeks, confirmed she’ll be running for vice-president alongside the presidential candidacy of Bongbong Marcus. An interesting quirk of the Filipino system is, unlike in many other presidential elections around the world, the president and vice president are elected separately which is something that has dominated much of the Duterte-Robredo years and I’d love to get into further along the track.Â
Duterte Sr isn’t a big fan of Bongbong and is instead backing Bong Go in the race leading to unusually delicate line-walking by the man. Bong Go is a longtime ally of Duterte dating back to Davao City in the 90s and the pair have a complicated relationship we’ll also DEFINITELY get into.Â
Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo, running for the top spot next year, isn’t too phased by all the drama. Yet.Â
This is a long, long road and I’m wary of letting my own-nerd excitement get the better of this newsletter! I’m thinking of a rundown of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates over the coming weeks and then looking towards issues and the campaign trail in the new year.Â
🇲🇲 A homecoming and an escalation
I’m sending this Tuesday, but drafted most on Monday while waiting for the Philippines. And time to delete a whole bunch because Danny Fenster is out! The American journalist, formerly of Myanmar Now and more recently by Frontier Myanmar, was arrested by Burmese authorities while trying to leave the country in May. He was last week given 11 years in prison with a second trial set to begin today for a range of other charges including terrorism. But, suddenly, he’s out.Â
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