Weak State, Strong Presidents: Situating the Duterte Presidency in Philippine Political Time

Abstract

The Philippine presidency is the first and most durable in Asia. As a political institution, it has been rendered enough constitutional power to have a formal semblance of a “strong presidency” but apparently not enough to totally control strategic interests in Philippine society. Applying the concept of “political time,” this article will discuss the rise of the 16th president Rodrigo Duterte within the cycle of presidential regimes in the Philippines. Furthermore, it will analyze the nature of presidential power in the Philippines by identifying the strategic moments that lie between structural regimes and agential choices. Lastly, it will delineate the emergence of regime narratives as “governing scripts” that bind together a coalition of interests within a particular institutional context.