Where Nothing Seems to Change: Philippine Identity Report 2010

Abstract

The predominant discourse of Philippine national identity in 2010 is “corrupt”, which is widely discussed in both elite and mass texts. The aspirations for a functioning democracy and good governance contrast with the realities of electoral fraud, bad politicians and the understanding that private interests tend to outweigh the public good. The state of the country’s democracy and economy notably dominate elite discourses, while mass texts tend to focus more on discussing the social conditions of poverty and injustice as well as an optimism for improvement in this realm. This suggests that while there is no overt ideological challenger to the political and economic status quo, the masses’ experience of hardship, with which elites also agree with, warrants more urgent attention. Mass texts do not necessarily express any concrete solutions to these problems, but the constant sources of instability in the country (notably, the ongoing communist insurgency and separatist movements in Mindanao) possibly suggest that practices of dissent to elite projects can be interpreted as attempts to change the status quo. Despite these commitments to democracy, their flawed nature makes it difficult for broader society to view these attempts as legitimate.