This article is an attempt to carve out a research agenda for an enriched populism research in the Philippines. Specifically, it analyzes journal articles drawn from academic database collections, examines its domains of publication, and core analytical approaches. Then, it situated these studies within the broader landscape of the Philippine political scholarship. The results suggest a thriving and flourishing populism research in the Philippines. Yet, it also suffers from the same theoretical and empirical obscurities that typifies global research on populism. The article contends that future Philippine populism studies must (a) adhere to a minimalist theoretical anchor, (b) be methodologically pluralistic and innovative, and (c) be thematically grounded on a host of other significant domains of Philippine politics that go beyond Duterte. Ultimately, the article urges prospective scholars to strongly engage with these arguments and suggested line of political inquiries in order to refine the scholarly enterprise of populism in the country.

Studies on authoritarian values, which have mostly focused on authoritarian regimes and on democracies with spells of authoritarianism, suggest trust in public institutions. However, limited empirical evidence has been carried out in the Philippines where cycles of regime change and authoritarian leadership have characterized its post-authoritarian landscape. Examining multiple public opinion data from the Asian Barometer Survey, this study found that regardless of the political leadership across different regimes, Filipino citizens expressed attitudinal dispositions, i.e. conforming, anti-political pluralism, and support for strong leaders, that constitute authoritarian political values. But instead of a destabilizing effect, estimates from ordinary least squares indicate that Filipino citizens’ authoritarian tendencies enhance institutional trust—seen as an indicator of support for the political system. The findings of this study empirically challenge the view of democratization in the Philippines by foregrounding its ‘populist-authoritarian’ dimension. In addition, they provide evidence of a growing scholarship in comparative political studies that claims that courting confidence for political institutions and regime support does not necessitate a ‘liberal-democratic’ model.

This paper examines speechmaking on a contentious policy by arguably one of the most controversial figures to have assumed the Philippine presidency. Drawing on quantitative textual approaches on a corpus of 845 presidential speeches delivered between June 2016 and July 2020, we provide evidence that Rodrigo Duterte's evocative utterances against drug lords and criminals are not just deliberate illocutionary acts intended to court public support, but also priming tactics aimed towards a politically and economically significant audience whose acquiescence gives symbolic legitimacy to a controversial anti-crime policy. Using quantitative textual approaches and econometric analysis, we find that violent-crime rhetoric is more likely to accompany public pronouncements made before a political audience consisting of law enforcement authorities and government officials, as well as an economic audience made up of business chambers, overseas Filipino workers, and labor groups. Overall, the findings nuance an image of Duterte beyond that of a penal populist.

This study explores how the decentralization law of 1991 in the Philippines has provided the conditions for the interface of higher education and politics by virtue of Local Government Units (LGUs) establishment of Local Colleges and Universities (LCUs). Anchored on educational politics framework, it specifically looks at the experience of Mandaue City which presently has two similarly named local colleges, one is Commission on Higher Education accredited and LGU supported, while the other has been deemed to have "no legal personality" but has persisted to operate nonetheless. This would create a conflict of legitimacy and later on manifest issues and challenges naturally beyond the immediate domain of education, but one that must be harnessed constructively given the realities of Philippine politics i.e. power struggle and political dynamics. The democratic opening engendered by the decentralization law to allow LGUs to establish post-secondary schools are beset with growing political tensions and contestations. Yet, there were also narratives and evidence of positive impact brought about by the decentralization of higher education. Using key informant interviews, focus group discussion and document reviews, this study contends that public educational ventures such as LCUs serve as a microcosm of the larger problem in Philippine higher education: improved access to higher education, but quality is deteriorating. As such, this study hopes to suggest several policy directions and practical considerations for national governments vis-à-vis the LGUs role as enabler and/or regulator of higher education.