Politics of “I Will”: Penal Populism of Duterte’s War on Drugs, Political Polarization, and the Perceptions of the Working Class

ABSTRACT Of all Philippine presidents, Rodrigo Duterte showed a bizarre and unorthodox style of leadership. With the hopes to end the problem of illegal drugs in the Philippines, his administration launched a ground-breaking anti-drug campaign in the name of “oplan tokhang'' which enforces police forces to “knock and plead” to houses of alleged drug users and ask them to surrender. Sixteen million Filipinos saw him as an antidote and the messianic leader for the narco-state the Philippines has apparently spiraled into. This study aims to explore the legitimacy of Duterte’s policy on war on drugs and how it creates political polarization in society through the perceptions of the working class toward safety and order in the country. This phenomenological inquiry analyzes the accounts of the select Filipino working class (n=25) through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Based on the findings, Duterte’s tough-on-crime style of leadership has rather imparted fear and anxiety contrary to the goal of the penal populist policy to bring order and security to the country. It was also revealed that political polarization is present in the Philippines due to the implementation of the said policy, which chronically happens on social media platforms, specifically on Facebook where supporters and non-supporters often exchange heated arguments regarding “tokhang.” While it is true that the main essence of democracy is the free and continuous flow of opinion, political polarization has created a drastic problem that is harmful to a country like the Philippines. Keywords: Institutionalism, Penal policy, Political polarization, Populism, War on drugs