PEÑAFLOR, Jarod Landrix C.

POLSC 101 THY-1

2019-03823 Prof. Miriam Coronel Ferrer
Bachelor of Secondary Education (Social Studies) Reflection Paper 1

Contradiction, contestation, and confrontation: Resistance and democracy from below

The masses are not mere subservient followers that abide by the dictates of the elite. The
masses engage in both informal and organized contestations to the unequal power relations that
characterize the status quo. This is manifested by a “vibrant and militant social movement” in the
Philippine civil society as Rivera mentioned. Such vibrancy is demonstrated by how civil society
organizations in the country are situated at various points of the spectrum—some offering
conservative alternatives, some advancing more progressive stances and, even, a radical
program of action. In this paper, I will be anchoring my discussion on the crackdown on activists
under the Duterte administration and how this phenomenon supports the proposition that
democracy in the Philippines is rather contested.
Despite a widescale public health emergency, we have witnessed how the Philippine state
unceasingly utilized its monopoly of ‘legitimate’ violence in stifling dissent. The current crisis,
characterized by a failed pandemic response and a massive economic downturn, has bred the
conditions for people’s intrepid resistance. Notably starting with the issue of the ABS-CBN
franchise renewal, celebrities from the entertainment industry have begun to criticize the
government—with some having been ‘red-tagged’ by the military due to their engagements with
GABRIELA. Even with quarantine restrictions in place, progressive individuals have successfully
staged mobilizations in UP Diliman to protest pressing issues, such as the impending passage of
the Anti-Terrorism Bill. This may have alarmed the Duterte administration, leading them to
unilaterally abrogate the 1989 UP-DND accord.
However, beyond the scenes at the center, the people in the peripheries have seen much
worse. Jory Porquia, an Iloilo coordinator of Bayan Muna, was shot dead in Iloilo in April 2020
while Zara Alvarez, a human rights activist from Bacolod, was killed four months after. Acting on
the search warrants issued by the Manila RTC, state forces led the ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre
last month of nine Southern Tagalog activists who are advocating for the rights of indigenous
peoples, peasants, fisherfolk, and urban poor. This forms part of the string of judicial prescriptions,
that has resulted in the mass arrests of activists all over the country—including Reina Nasino, a
community organizer from Tondo, who was guarded by about 40 police personnel during her
daughter’s burial.
 What can be made clear from this narrative is that the subordinate classes have, time and
again, struggled to assert their place in the public sphere. While it is true that the elite class
continues to dominate formal political processes such as national and local elections, the use of
conventional top-down frameworks will obscure us from recognizing that people from the margins
have tirelessly acted and organized to put forward their class and sectoral interests. Furthermore,
such contestation is not simply embedded in the politics of everyday life but, rather, it has brewed
continuing broad mass response such as what transpires in the ‘parliament of the streets’.
Beyond direct action such as the picketing of hacienda farmers, the strikes of minimum-
wage laborers, and the walk-out protests of petty-bourgeois students, popular participation in the
arena of traditional elite politicians, in some way, has become ideological and programmatic in
nature. Active participants in social movements have recognized the necessity of taking part in
electoral politics with the party-list system being the most prominent method. A notable example
would be the left-wing Makabayan coalition which won more than 10% of the allotted seats for
party-list representatives in the past seven elections. While the intricacies of this system are
considered by some as flawed and disadvantageous, the electoral performance of mass
organizations concretely illustrates the growing influence of democratic forces from below.
Through the lenses of the contested democracy framework, we can recognize the inherent
agency of the masses; it is the confrontational exercise of this agency that has posed critical
threats to the interests of the elite. Contestations of the masses in the legal-democratic contexts
and the subsequent reaction of the ruling class, especially the landowners, compradors, and
monopolistic capitalists, through political power/influence and explicit violence can be considered,
therefore, as an embodiment of class contradictions in our society where wide economic disparity
is entrenched in the social fabric.
Hence, inter-class relations are actually not benign as what the patron-client, factional
framework suggests. Moreover, these contestations cannot be accommodated by the structure
of dyadic alliances wherein politics is basically characterized by the competition of two roughly
cohesive strands of politicians, allies, and followers. The frameworks centering on bossism and
the political machine also cannot sufficiently explain the observed phenomenon as the masses
are still portrayed as powerless due to their being captive of the elite’s coercive, remunerative,
and charismatic maneuvers.
Interestingly, the organic-hierarchical paradigm may be appropriate in explaining the
heightened crackdown on activists. Guided by the grand task of challenging the elite’s hold of
political power, these activists are considered as “destructive and cancerous”; they cannot be
incorporated into the body politic. However, I contend that certain segments of social movements
in the country reject the symbiotic and paternalistic nature of the political system where the
masses are to be perpetually subjugated. Instead, they are ultimately fueled by the desire to break
away from the endless cycle of repression, especially when clashing interests are no longer
reconcilable. Utilizing the contested democracy framework is a recognition of the nature and
motivation of these contestations—and not a mere consideration of the suppression of such
resistance as a decisive end in itself.
Although the dependency analysis is espoused by some in mass-based movements, I
believe that the primary issue tackled in this paper is whether or not democracy in the country is
simply the realm of the elite. While I concede to the idea that Philippine politics remains to be
dominated by the elite and the broader sociopolitical structure remains unaltered, constitutionally-
protected freedoms and political processes allow for democratization efforts, popular
empowerment, and confrontational resistance. The contested democracy framework conveys
hope as it enables us to see the possibilities if the people will recognize the necessity of struggling
against elite domination.

Figure 1. 2020 State of the Nation Address protest