Belligerence as argument: The allure of the war metaphor in Philippine presidential speeches

Abstract

This paper examines the “war on drugs” rhetoric of populist Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and argues that such a rhetoric is a reiteration of a kind of belligerent rhetoric invoked by his predecessors. Cognitive linguists like Semino (2008) have noted that the use of war as a metaphor serves as a means by which political rhetors frame their solutions to long-standing and intractable problems. The paper investigates more specifically how the use of war metaphor had been deployed in Philippine presidential speeches especially those of Duterte. Invoking the war metaphor involves not just the government’s strong resolve to address intractable national problems like poverty, the insurgency or drug abuse. The metaphor is also particularly useful when silencing opposing views or critical perspectives while boosting the position of the government as the infallible leader of the nation. The war metaphor then has not only constituted the government’s argument against what it deems as the causes of national problems; it has also launched an argument that has sustained the government’s legitimacy amidst dissent and opposition. The paper will end by reflecting on how the use of war metaphor in Philippine presidential rhetoric is inextricably interlinked with the global discourse on war and how such a framing potentially obliterates fundamental values of freedom and democracy in a postcolonial nation-state.