Screengrab of Vice President Leni Robredo’s Easter Sunday video message, from Office of the Vice President
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo has admitted that one way to push back against the rise of populism in the Philippines and across the globe is to understand and acknowledge why such an ideology arose in the first place.
During a forum hosted by the University of Cambridge’s MPhil in Public Policy Class of 2021, Robredo said one of the factors that gave rise to populism — or a political strategy that appears to appease the masses and ordinary people — is the feeling of being excluded from discussions about development.
Being aware of such issues, the Vice President said, would greatly help against falling to the same pattern where people would feel excluded and resort to electing populist leaders.
“Many people, you know, becoming… you know the yearning for more traditional values has returned because of the feeling of being excluded. And that feeling is felt by many sectors of society,” Robredo said on Monday.
“I guess it would help everyone a lot if there is a recognition on what gave rise to populism. Because if we will, you know, if there is no awareness of what actually instigated populism in the last few years, we might be falling into the same pattern over and over again. And I don’t think it will contribute in a very positive sense to the political maturity of many of our political systems all over the world,” she added.
She also suggested that it would be good for democratic society leaders to start communicating in a more sincere manner, to get to the people’s grievances instead of heightening the divide between political beliefs.
“Be more open-minded, avoid ideological debates — and above all, avoid attacking this populist leader or demeaning his supporters. And you know, we have an example already of the kind of pushback that… wherein, you know, this is the kind of pushback where benefits are being reaped already,” she said.
According to Robredo, she would not like to believe that there is already a decreasing acceptance of populism as some experts would like to paint following the victory of Democrat United States President Joe Biden against reelectionist Republican Donald Trump.
However, she acknowledged several bright sides that indicate improvement in the way people are handling their politics.
“It’s difficult to say that it is on the decline. But there have been a few silver linings in the last year or so. What happened in the US during the presidential election is one of those […] it’s difficult to say if there’s a recession. What I do know is that there are silver linings out there that, you know, are difficult not to notice,” Robredo explained.
“If you look—again I mentioned this in my speech earlier—if you look at the better-performing countries as far as COVID-19 response is concerned, we see that these countries are led by leaders who are, you know, who are inclusive, who are not populist. In fact, some of the worst-performing countries are actually led by very populistic leaders,” she added.
For the most part of his presidency, President Rodrigo Duterte has been perceived by critics as a populist leader, especially as he appeals largely to the masses and sectors dissatisfied with the past administration.
In a previous speech though, Robredo defended liberal politicians from allegations that liberals’ undelivered promises spawned populist leaders. Robredo is a stalwart of the political opposition Liberal Party (LP),
READ: Robredo quells claim liberals’ unkept promises gave rise to populist leaders
During the same speech, Robredo stressed the need for a unified opposition, not only in the sense of fielding just one candidate per position for the upcoming 2022 national elections, as this would help greatly in the fight against populism.
“And there’s a lot of lessons to be learned in the way they’re handling a very popular leader. And you know, it will take a while—it will take a while before many parts of the moving puzzle fall into place,” she said.
“But I am very optimistic—I’m very optimistic that there is a lot of hope out there. But first and foremost, the opposition has to be united—it has to be united, not just in terms of having a common candidate, but in terms of agreeing to the manner by which, you know, we fight populism. It’s many different things,” she added.
Robredo has been rumored to be LP’s candidate for president in next year’s polls although there were also hints from the Vice President that she prefers a local post — like being governor of Camarines Sur.
Still, her camp has maintained that Robredo remains undecided about her next political move since she is now mostly focused on helping Filipinos survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
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