The 2019 midterm elections in the Philippines: Party system pathologies and Duterte’s populist mobilization
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891119896425 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
The 2019 midterm elections
in the Philippines: Party system
pathologies and Duterte’s
populist mobilization
Julio Cabral Teehankee
De La Salle University, International Studies Department, Philippines
Yuko Kasuya
Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
The May 13, 2019 midterm elections were generally seen as a referendum on the first three years
of the presidency of Rodrigo R Duterte. The elections tested and consolidated the political
strength of Duterte as the country’s populist strongman president. Most of the national and local
candidates he endorsed won their contests for the 18,066 national and local positions. The
election also resulted in a victory for the administration’s nine senatorial candidates (out of 12
seats) and a majority of its governors, mayors, and local legislators. The results follow the historical
patterns of midterm elections in the post-authoritarian period. But unlike previous Philippine
presidents, Duterte did not personally endeavor to consolidate his political support under his
dominant party solely through the systematic mobilization of patronage. Duterte eschewed
patronage-based political party building in favor of populist mobilization or the rallying of mass
supporters toward contentious political action with minimum institutional intermediation. With a
record high trust rating, Duterte was not only an active endorser of candidates, but he was also
both a staunch defender of his allies and a relentless attacker of the opposition. In the end, the
biggest winners in the 2019 midterm elections were not the candidates but Duterte himself.
Keywords
patronage, Philippine elections, populism, populist mobilization, Rodrigo R. Duterte
Corresponding author:
Julio Cabral Teehankee, De La Salle University, International Studies Department, 2401 Taft Avenue, Manila 1004,
Philippines.
Email: julio.teehankee@dlsu.edu.ph
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2020, Vol. 5(1) 69–81
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891119896425
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