Messaging: “Rise Philippines!”
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
The challenge for good governance is this: the bad guys are organized behind DDS while the good guys are divided by people arguing for their favorite personalities. The only way around this is to develop a messaging platform that does not get bogged down in people politics.
The call should not be “We need Robredo”, it should be “Rise Philippines!” Or something similar.
The subordinate messaging should also not be specifically FOR anybody at this point. But it should be specifically AGAINST DDS, the Dutertes, and corruption.
We’ve discussed two messaging points here in recent weeks:
- “We will give you better jobs and a better life!”
- “DDS are paid to destroy your future!” or “DDS betray your love of the Philippines!”
Certainly corruption is a hot topic now. So a third might be:
- “The corrupt don’t like you!”
Or any number of variations, always personalized to voters.
It would be helpful if pro-democracy influencers developed a messaging page that would illustrate the messages points that individuals could make in their social media posts. Many voices saying the same thing makes it louder.
It would also be possible to post timely topical messages that give a position on certain issues:
- “The ICC provides better health care than Davao!”
- “Senator Marcoleta is a disruptor, he is not anti-corruption!”
- “Investigate Villar’s handling of money as head of DPWH!”
The key is to keep it unified and loud. This is the best way to undermine DDS propaganda and promote the theme that good governance is good for Filipinos. That is, good for “you”.
Don’t go small by arguing with one another.
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Cover photo from 2012 JoeAm article “The Foundations of Patriotism“.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
The universality of human consciousness is that examples of what has been done before are available a template, to be adapted to current situations. History does not repeat, but it rhymes. I will take from my personal heroes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal:
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal:
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms:
Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society:
As seen here, the common theme is better jobs and a better life.
Too often the educated withdraw to their egghead cliques with rounds of back patting each other on ideas that are clever by half. If anyone wants to know how a normal person lives, and what they need, all it takes is to actually go out there and talk to normal people. How can someone aspire to lead others, if one is too intimidated by interacting with the regular people?
What the Filipino liberal and progressive lacks, DDS has in quantity. Digong, Sara and Baste may seem uncouth, and they are, but they speak the language of the masses. They have no issue with mingling and gladhanding along the ropeline. The propaganda of DDS is heavily in the visual medium, short memes that can easily shared. When English is used by DDS propaganda, it is used for maximum effect to underline the point of the primary visual media, in an easy way for any Filipino to understand, because Filipinos ARE NOT as fluent in English as the educated elites think. Remember, the metric of fluency according to PSA is knowing ONE WORD in a language.
The main lesson anti-DDS need to learn is ONE CANNOT LEAD WHO HE DESPISES. Well, we shall see what happens in 2028.
DDS have an advantage in that people love scandal and find achievement boring unless they feel it directly. So DDS stir up scandal by making stuff up or twisting the truth. They are not bound by the shackles of honesty or compassion.
I tend to think the best way forward is to make DDS the scandal and hang corruption around their necks like a whale sized albatross.
I trust that your travels are going well. I’m greatly envious as some very meaningful parts of my life were found “on the road”, the road often reached by air, haha.
Bread and circuses only work in when a social class that has been reduced to de facto servile status has lost hope in getting out of that position. DDS is really good at bread and circuses, because many DDS influencers came directly from the class which they address. Hopelessness does not preclude the existence of disappointment or even rage. The antidote to hopelessness is action. Action is enabled by the realization of agency. In order to wake up that agency, often the person needs to be shown “how.”
As seen by the tentpole policies of the previously mentioned politicians, policy points should be kept short, to the point, and easy for even the uneducated and unengaged to understand. Today’s liberals and progressives are often too educated; education is a positive, but it can also create overcomplication. Vast studies and policy papers are great, but one must remember that without winning actual power to enact the desired policies and projects, all is meaningless. Therefore, it is useful to learn how DDS is able to affect the common Filipino with seemingly simple, but factually true messaging such as on corruption, aspiration, and so on. In a sense the DDS movement outside of the influencer and the leaders is a true grassroots movement built on the collective disappointment and rage of the Filipino. So the job of the anti-DDS is to figure out how to sway the grassroots away from DDS. The Dutertes promise a lot, deliver too little, then cover up their deficit with ayuda and rage-inducing propaganda.
Humans are easily triggered by anger, which is a base emotion. Hope, which is another base emotion, is often more powerful than anger. But the base emotion of disappointment is the most powerful of all. So whoever gets elected next needs to figure out a way to do all they can in order deliver on promises.
All is well. A lot of work to accomplish while I’m here.
Superb advice, to examine why DDS succeeds. And figure out how to replicate it without lying and with passion replacing money.
ahem, it is very difficult to replicate dds, you joeam must know that. not all poorest of the poor support duterte, we dont speak bastardly like duterte and his ilk. we are poor but brought up with good manners and right conduct, further reinforced at primacy school with good manners and right conduct being one of our prime subjects. we dont take what is not ours, we beg instead and if given, we say thank you and god bless. kaya marami sa amin ay beggars, we beg and we haggle, we dont steal. we listen and we hear, but we dont imitate the bad language we hear. finders keepers though we return what we found. it is bad luck otherwise. last time I found money, 3 dollar paper bills! inside a pocket of a dress I bought at ukay ukay store, I jumped sky high! but come down with a thud. thanks but no thanks. I wont sell my soul for 3 flaming dollars! hear me satan! I put the money in the donation box at the nearest church.
I could never replicate a dds but can ridicule one, haha.
Nobody should want to replicate the values of a snake-oil salesman, or DDS, but one can replicate the techniques that make them successful.
To boil it down, pro-democracy Filipino leaders speak to each other, while pro-Duterte leaders speak to the people. Once one understands this central reason why Dutertismo is so successful, the path forward is much simpler. The goal of understanding the “pulse” of the people is easier down by actually talking to as many Filipinos as possible and finding the common themes, rather than trying to divine understanding from the oracle of modern politics aka social media polling.
That nails it!
filipino leaders the likes of leni, risa hontiveros, bam aquino, kiko pangilinan, vic sotto, and ben magalong et al evidently speak to the people and not just to each other. they also serve the people wholeheartedly and determinedly, and also fight humongous onslaught of misinformation mostly that dutertismo is so successful it set the standard! and that fighting it is futile.
dutertismo might have been successful at one stage, with people experimenting what it would be like to have someone feral at the top job, but after the that, dutertismo is now hitting the wall! it is fizzling, their tatay digong is languishing in the hague and pretending to be mentally impaired to avoid justice! tatay’s duterte youth has hit the wall big time, and got disqualified, never to gain its allocated 3seats in congress. and calls for tatay digong to come home has met strong resistance, call for his interim release has also met resistance and not happening anytime soon, calls for coup to bring down the present government has met strongest resistance.
indeed been tru’ a lot, liberal minded filipinos are picking up the pieces and doing well.
this article is timely, hitting both dds and corruption as both are nearly two sides of the same coin.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/10/02/2477003/catholic-schools-told-train-students-resist-corruptions-normalization
Thanks. I hope there is a lot more of that.
you are right, joeam, there is more: party list duterte youth got disqualified and cannot take 3 seats at congresss!
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/960756/comelec-certificate-of-finality-duterte-youth-disqualification/story/
Good. Talk about an abuse of good faith, those people are among the worst.
Was this org translated to stand up Philippines close enough. I guess it is sustainability that is the main problem.
https://incitegov.org.ph/posts?post=113
TindigPH fortifies its ranks amid present threats to democracyPosted on November 22, 2023
Wow, that’s uplifting to know about. I hope it remains vibrant. My recommendation would be to bring more youth into leadership and connect it to the good governance movement by mayors.
OT, but not entirely. I came across this event of1956. I could not help but share with the good souls in TSOH. I took away one brief breath of pure unadulterated, unsullied innocence of youth speaking to values still with us.
Filipino Boy Shows BRILLIANT Insight In 1956 Students Debate! – YouTube
Thanks sonny. It is indeed important not to lose sight of the good amongst us, whatever the age.
About those Mayor’s
https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2024/02/06/574072/mayors-for-good-governance-call-for-focus-on-socio-economic-issues/
Two excellent coalitions.
I fully sympathized with magalong when he said we should focus on socioeconomic issues, kaso, we dont live in an ideal world where magalong’s concern is also foremost concern of everyone.
we have many concerns, magalong should know that now. he even resigned from ICI, independent commission on infrastructure, due to alleged conflict of interest: he cannot be mayor of baguio and be in ICI at the same time, a slave having two masters is not the way to go. though I was disappointed when magalong did not argue that the vice mayor of baguio is equal to the task of taking over the mayor’s job, much like bersamin et al taking control of the country when president marcos is overseas, for magalong to capitulate to the demand and exited ICI without much fight, is not really the magalong I thought he is. well, I have been mistaken before, so.
anyhow, the article linked above was written in 2024, before all this flood scam eventuate, and before magalong’s entry to ICI. so moot na yan, para sa akin. though socioeconomic issues can never be moot, it is always current.
I feel sorry for cebu, unwanted visitor earthquake has come and gone, and left much devastation behind. cebuanos that live outside towns and poblacions are hardest hit, with no immediate relief available, no passable roads that help cannot come at once. food and water is much needed. but I know that my friends up in daanbantayan boil water if they can find it, to make murky water drinkable, though food is still a big problem, raw corn can only last as long. I pray for their safety and for help to come to them soonest.
My FB timeline had a Cebu news report that showed it is possible to get to the Bogo area in the north by first crossing from Cebu City through the mountains then going north along the coast. In Biliran after Yolanda we first got smuggled gasoline by boat from Luzon. It took Petron a week to start getting trucks in. So resourceful people will find a way. Once on Biliran we had so many landslides and bridges damaged that we’d have to drive all the way around the island to get off. There are advantages and disadvantages to island living.
ps, now we have two regularly scheduled ferries between Naval and Cebu City, one a daily run. And the Super-Cat out of Ormoc that we took a couple of months ago. We also have an airport but no planes, lol. My point is that there are ways to get about.
thanks, joeam. yes, once cebuanos get over the fear of aftershocks and sinkholes, they’d put trauma aside and find ways to get out. there is always ways, they never lost hope.