Dynastic clashes in fragile states

THE dispatch of former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte to the Hague to face an International Criminal Court trial has ramifications beyond a dynastic clash between the Marcos and the Dutertes. The integrity of the country could be at stake. The event should be seen in the context of attitudes of Catholic elites in the north towards the heterogeneous south where separatist sentiment seems alive and well.

Politics in the southern province of Mindanao, where Duterte comes from, has been described as a “mosaic of interconnected disputes” in a research paper. This island is home to 93 per cent of Filipino Muslims. They identify as Bangsamoro, and they view their history as resistance to Spanish and American colonisers and their subsequent marginalisation. In 2017, underlying tensions erupted with the capture of the city of Marawi by Islamic militants.

Last year, Duterte himself pushed the idea of a separate Mindanao nation. He drew a parallel with the independence of Timor Leste and how a political divorce could be achieved peacefully using UN mechanisms. It should be noted that his supporters in Mindanao and parts of the Visayas are diehards. His clansmen have a tight grip on the politics of the region. His son, Paolo Duterte, the Davao congressman, seems keen to do battle with northerners, whom he thinks are out to get his sister and his father. The Dutertes also enjoy considerable support within the ranks of the national police and the armed forces, not least because some of them were complicit in the killing spree that epitomised the ex-president’s edition of the country’s war on drugs.