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The Other PaulaThe Amazing Beasts of Philippine Politics
May 27, 2026In the United States – and in much of the West – politics is framed as a clash of visions: Right vs. Left, conservatives vs. liberals, Republicans vs. Democrats, capitalism vs. socialism, free markets vs. communism, individual liberty vs. bureaucratic collectivism, “based” vs. “woke.” It’s the great divide between “hard virtues” and “soft virtues” embodied in Trump’s MAGA movement vs. the Obama-Clinton-Biden-Harris establishment and all of Hollywood, Elon Musk’s X vs. the mainstream media conglomerate, and now, increasingly, traditional Western Judeo-Christian values vs the conspiring of the Left’s new world order of postmodernism, DEI, intersectionality, identity politics, and the growing infiltration of political Islam through neo-Marxism and mass migration. People fight and argue viciously, as they should, because something fundamental is at stake: the future of their country, their culture, their freedoms, their children, and ultimately Western Civilization itself. Whether you agree with their positions or not, there is at least the perception of genuine ideological choice, one of real philosophical conflict, real stakes, and real consequences. There is drama because there are ideas. There is polarization because there are convictions.
In the Philippines, politics is vastly different. You’re never in any way, shape, or form, at any given time, choosing between sharply opposed worldviews or competing moral philosophies. There is no meaningful ideological divide. No serious philosophical struggle. No coherent national vision. The average Filipino voter is not choosing between fundamentally different systems or principles, but between different clans, dynasties, celebrities, oligarchs, opportunists, and thieves – each promising salvation while feeding from the same rotten trough. One official plunders with sophistication; another steals with vulgarity. One wraps corruption in technocratic language; another dresses it in populist theatrics. One quotes democracy while building patronage networks; another quotes patriotism while enriching allies and relatives. Politics here is nothing but a contest between rival criminal syndicates wearing campaign shirts. You’re choosing among different factions of the same entrenched system: different families, different personalities, different patronage networks, different styles of corruption. The rhetoric changes, the slogans change, the campaign jingles change. The machinery does not.
Instead of a genuine contest of principles, what you experience is a spectrum of dysfunction: incompetence dressed as populism, opportunism disguised as nationalism, celebrity mistaken for leadership, dynasties marketed as public service. Elections are less about hope and more about damage control, less about choosing the good and more about choosing what appears to be the lesser evil. The whole shitshow that is Philippine politics is not about governance but about performance. Every political event or gathering resembles talent shows, popularity contests, or some religious revival more than serious democratic exercises. Political dynasties recycle surnames like hereditary monarchies pretending to be “for the people.” Celebrities drift into public office with no qualifications beyond acceptable IQ and fame. Voters are manipulated through tribalism, poverty, misinformation, disinformation, censorship, and spectacle, then blamed for the very system designed to keep them dumb and powerless.
At times, Filipino politicians seem less like public servants than creatures lifted straight out of our own folklore. The country that invented the aswang, the manananggal, the tiyanak, and the tikbalang somehow keeps electing their political equivalents. Like the aswang, they feed parasitically on communities already weakened by poverty. Like the manananggal, they sever themselves completely from conscience and humanity in pursuit of power and survival. Like the tiyanak, they disguise themselves as harmless, relatable, even charming figures – only to prey upon the gullible once trust is secured. And like the tikbalang, they deliberately lead the public astray through propaganda, spectacle, misinformation, and endless political theater, keeping the nation lost in circles while dynasties, cronies, and oligarchs continue feeding in the dark.
The terrifying thing about monsters in folklore is not merely that they exist; it is that people eventually learn to live with them, fear them quietly, accommodate them, even normalize their presence. That is what Philippine politics increasingly feels like: not a republic governed by statesmen, but a haunted archipelago managed by predators everyone recognizes yet somehow continues to tolerate.
That is precisely why political cynicism runs deep in this country. Many Filipinos no longer believe politics can produce real reform because they rarely see meaningful ideological differences reflected in governance itself. Corruption is not viewed as an aberration; it is treated as the operating system. Integrity feels exceptional rather than expected. And because corruption is so pervasive, the public discourse collapses into absurdly low standards. Filipinos no longer ask, “What does this leader stand for?” The question becomes, “How corrupt is he compared to the others?” It’s never about virtue versus vice, but gradations of vice. Not statesmanship versus demagoguery, but varying levels of incompetence, greed, and shamelessness.
The tragedy is not merely that corruption exists. Corruption exists everywhere. The tragedy is that in the Philippines it has become culturally normalized, socially tolerated, and politically expected. Integrity is treated as naïveté.
A democracy dies long before elections disappear. It dies when people stop believing genuine leadership is even possible. And in the Philippines, many of us no longer vote with hope. We vote with resignation.
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