In this second installment of Edwin Espejo’s seven-part series, “Decapitating the ‘trolls’ of Duterte“,  he shifts the focus from the common myths to the actual mechanics of the 2016 Duterte campaign. Much of the public discourse has been obsessed with the narrative of a “troll army,” yet this framing consistently misses the most critical component: the genuine, organic connection between President Duterte’s authentic communication style and the Filipino public. In this post, Edwin breaks down how we actually facilitated the connections that allowed our messaging to resonate, and why the “troll” narrative—then and now—remains a convenient but fundamentally flawed explanation for what was, in reality, a powerful mass movement.

Nic Gabunada

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Decapitating the trolls of Duterte (Part 2 of a Series)
Second of a series
By Edwin Espejo
June 29, 2021

 

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.