Nobody expected that the “ragtag team” of social media volunteers supporting then candidate Rodrigo Duterte could do a better job than the more moneyed network of communication specialists working for the other candidates for president.

In this seven part series, first published on Facebook, veteran journalist Edwin Espejo wrote about how the then political opposition to President Duterte tried to decapitate the so called people behind his successful and innovative campaign.

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Decapitating the ‘trolls’ of Duterte
Second of a series
By Edwin Espejo
June 29, 2021

 

Nic Gabunada and Sonny Dominguez at the Miting de Avance of Duterte in Luneta

Gabunada provided the network that allowed the Duterte multi-media teams to access the national television networks and major newspaper outlets.  And together with Allan Peter Cayetano’s own media team, the Duterte communications group evolved and gained strength as the Duterte campaign gained traction and began to attract large and cross sections of the Philippine body politic. 

Many were later humbled and dumbfounded by the speed and breadth that the Duterte media group was able to connect and reach the Filipino consciousness.

All the messaging and campaign lines would not have resonated if there was no groundswell of support from the people.

Most of all, and more importantly, Duterte was his own walking PR man.

Duterte, to the dismay of a professional PR consulting firm that later came on board the Duterte-Cayetano campaign team, stuck to his narrative of drugs, crime and corruption spewing one-liners, anecdotes, humor and shocking his critics with curses.  Duterte would have none of the daily message boards which were put on the table by communication specialists

It was his curses and public rants that connected him to an audience that described protest voters in a TV program hosted by Tina Muñoz-Palma.

Yes, a large segment of the 2016 Duterte votes was a repudiation of the previous administration’s inadequacies and disconnected leadership.

Duterte’s votes in 2016 were a product of a mass movement phenomenon.  Many called it a social and political aberration.