The “Crisis” or “Victim” strategy of the Aquinos and Marcoses

In the movie “Our Brand is Crisis” starred by Sandra Bullock as Jane Bodine, is a story about a political strategist working with a Bolivian politician Pedro Castillo win the 2002 presidential seat. The names are fictional, but it’s based on the actual Bolivian election in 2002. Castillo is actually Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, the 74th and 77th President of Bolivia.

Jane Bodine’s strategy is to create a national crisis, make his client’s opponents look bad, and portray his client as the victim. This tactic is so effective that even if Castillo has a bad reputation won the election for his second term.

After learning about this strategy, it made me realized that this has been what all politicians all over the world do, including Filipino politicians, specifically the famous ones such as Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, and Bongbong Marcos.

Ferdinand Marcos
The so called communist insurgency in the early 1970s was a strategy created by Marcos himself. This was a rumor that I heard when I was a boy that ‘the Marcos government setup for him to win his second term, and changed the Constitution so he could extend his reign’.




Cory Aquino
When President Ferdinand Marcos’s leadership was no longer working because of military abuses and first family and crony corruption. The rise of communist insurgency was becoming true this time. I myself as a 12 year old kid then even wanted to become a communist.

There was crisis, both organic and made up by the left. Corazon Aquino grabbed the opportunity of the crisis by depicting herself as the victim. It worked well for her, and finally unseated Marcos in a people power revolution in 1986. Filipinos are emotional, easily swayed towards the “victim”.

Bongbong Marcos
The Marcoses through Bongbong are slowly gaining back to power by portraying himself and his family as the “victims” of the oligarchs or conspiracy of the rich Aquino and friends. His victim strategy is so effective that the Millennials are defending him in internet forums and in social media.

I believe BB’s strategy started through this video circulating in the internet about 4 years ago.

 

Filipinos are the most emotional people in the world, even a survey conducted by Gallup supports this as fact.

That’s why Ginebra is the most popular basketball team in this country because during Jaworski’s time it usually had a tendency to overcome a bad game into winning it. We Pinoys root for a bad team, but works hard to winning a game.

That’s why Manny Pacquiao is the most popular boxer even labeling him as the Pambansang Kamao. Our hearts quickly melt for a “poor boy who became a champion”.

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