Branjelina Invades Philippine Politics
John Smith (Brad Pitt) dropped a wine bottle while having dinner with his wife, Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie). Her reflexes catch the bottle just before its contents spill over their expensive carpet. Their eyes lock. In one instance, both realize they have been playing a long-standing marital game of deception. Their hidden identities are revealed. They are paid assassins posing as husband and wife.
A gun battle ensues, each one trying to kill the other with firepower stacked away in the secret compartments of an oven and dressing room. Small caliber pistols and automatic rifles fail to kill either spouse. A prolonged physical fight leaves both badly bruised and bloodied but unbeaten.
The 2004 movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, made both screen actors more famous and wealthier than they already were. His golden locks and her gorgeous looks were magical. Their onscreen chemistry oozed. In real life, as in the film, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie became Branjelina, a trademark high-flying couple fans couldn’t get enough of. They were the 21st century version of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Enter President Ferdinand ‘Bong Bong’ Marcos Jr. and Vice-President Sara Duterte --- Branjelina’s version of Philippine politics. Their political tandem was dubbed the UniTeam, a moniker that easily stuck with voters. Their alliance enjoyed all the trappings of a perfect union. Both had a robust political base from the north to the south; both had easy name recognition as offsprings of former presidents. His father, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., was president from 1965 to 1985. Her father was then-incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte, best known for his trademark vulgarity and expletive-laden speeches. Okay, Bong Bong doesn’t look like the golden-haired Brad Pitt, who is not known to swear publicly. Nor does she have Angelina’s pouting lips. But Sara was a mean, gun-toting female when she was mayor of the southern city of Davao. And like her father’s antics, she threatens and cusses.
Both son and daughter cruised to an easy victory in May 2022. He garnered 31.6 million votes, while she won by 32.2 million. Together, they commanded 61% of all votes cast --- “the first-ever tandem to win a clear majority in the Philippines’ single-round, first-past-the-post-electoral system,” wrote political analyst Richard Heyderian.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything.
Unlike the film, Bong Bong and Sara aren't shooting each other yet. So far, it's been a war with words full of acrimony, malice, bile, and vitriol. Daddy Duterte appeared on stage in a Davao City "prayer" rally in late January protesting Cha-Cha, another moniker for Charter Change ---- a legislative attempt to amend the 1987 Constitution. Duterte opposed the move on the grounds that amending the Constitution would lift term limits of local officials --- a form of bribery that would perpetuate politicians in power. Shifting to a parliamentary system under Cha-Cha would in turn secure the Marcos family’s hold on power, Duterte elaborated. Unable to restrain himself, no less averse to praying, Duterte proceeded to call Bong Bong a "drug addict" (always bangag --- high on dope) and attacked the president’s wife as power-hungry. The president retorted and lashed at his predecessor as a "fentanyl user," the drug that allegedly caused foggy-brain issues. "He has been taking the drug for a very long time now ... after five, six years, it has to affect him," added Bong Bong.
That's the trouble with arranged marriages. Choices of partners are not autonomous; rather, the union is based on the unchecked presumption that socio-cultural-political-economic compatibility would endure. It's an archaic assumption that dates back to some 14th-century ritual.
However, some marriages do succeed. Love and romance can develop between the arranged partners. Easy enough to happen, of course, when the fat dowry and the six-figure salary lurk in the background. Or when a commonality of values, interests, and aspirations bind partners and grow to love, trust, and respect each other.
Whereas pure-choice marriages are all about fireworks. The calculus in pro-choice marriages of empathy and communication, the emotional foundations for the union, can come later after prolonged dating and even experimental cohabitation. Nobody checks the other’s pedigree or bank account while holding hands. But love and lust dissipate the fires, the argument goes, when the burden and tedium of domestic logistics overtake the satin sheets and candlelit bathtubs. “Take your toothbrush out of my bathroom space!” always dampens morning sex.
Why should political marriages be any different? Choosing a political union is a no-brainer when parties enter convenient alliances that promise election blockbusters. Like Bong Bong and Sara, their presumed compatibility stemmed from belonging to the most powerful dynasties in the Philippines. Whatever personal chemistry there might have been between them, or the congruence of political programs and policy prescriptions, was overshadowed by the larger consideration of electoral success and the spoils of office that awaited their victory.
True enough, the cracks started to show barely a year into the union. There was no chemistry whatsoever. She wanted the Ministry of Defense cabinet portfolio. He gave her the position of Education Secretary instead. She wanted to keep her confidential intelligence funds and augment them by another PhP500 million (approx. US$9 million). He did nothing to halt the Senate investigations that exposed her profligate spending. Her Php125 million (approx US$2.2) spending spree in 11 days made stunning headlines. Consequently, her request was denied, and she lost her secret stash altogether. Battle lines were drawn all within 18 months of the most celebrated political marriage.
The larger backdrop to this sordid story --- the metastory, if you will --- is the country's dysfunctional democracy. It's an American inheritance from the post-World War II period when the Philippines gained independence in 1946. The mindless grafting of American institutions onto the political system without due regard for the Philippine socio-historical context created the perfect storm for a democracy only in form but not in substance.
The scholar William I. Robinson called it "polyarchy," a term borrowed from political scientist Robert Dahl. Robinson argued that Philippine politics is a system of rotating elites who alternately control the power centers in the country. Alongside the recruitment and formation of private armies, these elite groups are self-perpetuating through a combination of naked brute power and control of state institutions. The elites comprise a very narrow upper class of wealthy landowners, exporters, and commercial and industrial groups, the same elites created by the Spanish colonialists (known as ilustrados), then later adopted and further cultivated by the American colonial administrators. These unfortunate legacies of Spanish and American colonialism form the bedrock of the current socio-political system --- a configuration of a few families with self-imposed entitlements and presumptions, and the attendant arrogance that only their family/clan/dynasty is worthy of inheriting and preserving the mantle of power.
Two political parties, the Nacionalista and Liberal Parties, adopted the American two-party system. So much so that former president Ronald Reagan triumphantly declared in 1982 that "the Philippines has been molded in the image of American democracy."
But that is where the similarity ended. Philippine political parties are indistinguishable in terms of ideology and policy platforms. Nothing akin to the rambunctious debates among anti-abortion Republicans and pro-choice Democrats in the United States. A 1965 CIA report stated: "The firmly established two-party system is a strong asset. The similarity of the parties, while depriving the voter of clear choices between programs, nevertheless encourages moderation, readiness to compromise, and lack of dogmatism in the political elite." Philippine party members switch loyalties according to political expediency, like Donald Trump, who “changes opinions like the rest of us changes underwear,” said Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen.
Filipino politicians today are the quintessence of political promiscuity in the current political system, where multiple parties have displaced the two-party system. Maybe polyamorous is the politically correct term these days. They flit and flirt with so many different parties, each a hollow organization that sprouts mostly during election periods bearing the personalistic stamp of its founder and frontrunner. Bong Bong formed the Federal Party of the Philippines during the 2022 elections. Previously, he was affiliated with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (Movement for a New Society) and the Nacionalista Party. Sara Duterte has her Hugpong ng Pagbabago (Alliance for Change) at the same time, swore allegiance to the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Strength of Christian Muslims Democrats), whose president is Martin Romualdez, first cousin of Bong Bong Marcos. Sara's father presides over the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban (Philippine Democratic Party – Strength of the People) with a renegade faction that supported the failed presidential bid of boxer Manny Pacquiao in 2022.
Don't be fooled. Or be led to believe that the Bong Bong-Sara feud is a fight to the death. It may look like that for now. But the next presidential election is still four years away. There is plenty of time to readjust tactics and strategies that may very well include the possibility of accommodation, even a reconciliation. Political survival is a far greater imperative than political annihilation. And more seductive, too.
Like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who were at a stalemate when pointed guns at each other, ready for the kill, neither could pull the trigger. Instead, they stared at each other dewy-eyed and sentimental, all the rancor melting away as both realized they liked and needed each other, perhaps for their respective assassin skills. Thus ensued one of the steamiest choreographed sexual intercourse onscreen. And couples counseling thereafter.
By the way, Mr. and Mrs. Smith 2.0 is already streaming on Prime Amazon. Both protagonists are still married and spies but played by new actors. My argument stands: we haven't seen the last of Sara and Bong Bong.