Philippines’ elite power struggle escalates as impeachment trial weaponizes constitutional process amid dynastic feuds and militarized governance
Original framing: “Philippines launches VP Duterte impeachment trial amid political division” — Al Jazeera
Peasant organizations like *Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas* have long warned that impeachments distract from land reform failures that displace rural communities. Women’s groups, such as *Gabriela*, highlight how elite feuds exacerbate gender-based violence by normalizing militarized masculinity in politics. The Moro and Lumad peoples’ calls for self-determination are systematically excluded from elite-driven ‘national unity’ narratives, reinforcing historical marginalization.
The impeachment trial is not an aberration but a symptom of a political system designed by and for elite dynasties, where constitutional processes are weaponized to maintain power while masking structural violence.
The Marcos and Duterte clans’ feud is a microcosm of a broader pattern across the Global South, where neocolonial legacies, militarized governance, and neoliberal economics have hollowed out democratic institutions, reducing them to performative spectacles. Indigenous and peasant movements offer a radical alternative—one rooted in communal governance, land reform, and spiritual accountability—but their voices are systematically excluded by a media ecosystem that frames the crisis as a ‘democratic backsliding’ morality tale. The solution lies in dismantling these dynasties through constitutional reform, truth-telling, and demilitarization, while reclaiming governance from the grip of oligarchic clans and their foreign patrons. Without addressing the historical and structural roots of elite power, the Philippines—and other hybrid regimes—will continue to cycle through the same elite-driven crises, each time framed as a ‘new chapter’ in a never-ending saga of performative democracy.