How the pandemic changed politics in 2020

The year 2020 was not a pretty year, even for Philippine politics.

The coronavirus pandemic upended everything and the dynamics and high-drama of the powerful were not spared.

It wasn’t just that senators and congressmen were reduced to debating the nation’s budget through Zoom. It wasn’t just that Malacañang Palace stood empty as Duterte was forced to hold office in the grounds’ clubhouse, his guests required to take swab tests. It wasn’t just that court rooms had to close temporarily.

Here are the many ways a global health crisis realigned the stars for our country’s powerful officials, affecting the lives of Filipinos, for better or for worse.

In September, it looked like President Rodrigo Duterte was willing to leave the speakership tussle to Alan Peter Cayetano and Lord Allan Velasco. But when a Cayetano maneuver threatened the 2021 national budget, Duterte got enraged enough to step in.

What made Duterte outraged and overly protective of the budget? It contained a bulk of funds he needed to usher in a recovery from the pandemic. Duterte and his spokesmen made it very clear that the pandemic made the 2021 budget extra important, making the fallout much more public and dramatic than if it had been any other budget.

Until the pandemic, Vice President Leni Robredo had been just a nuisance to Duterte. He could afford to dangle a role in the drug war just to silence her supporters. But the health crisis, and Duterte’s lack of a firm handle on the government’s response, gave Robredo a chance to prove herself.

Some saw her as filling a gap in government, with her quick mobilization to attend to the needs of healthcare workers and her bullet-point suggestions on how the pandemic could be managed. Back-to-back typhoons only widened that door of opportunity, to the point that Duterte himself could not stand the comparisons, and gave in to the temptation to insult her in public.

Even before the pandemic, Malacañang staff were already declining to give reporters advance information on some of Duterte’s meetings. But it was the pandemic that led to the current norm of reporters never getting Duterte’s daily schedule. Only one event is expected every week: his meeting with coronavirus task force officials where he says some words meant for the public.

Even the frequency of Cabinet meetings was affected by the pandemic – Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque blamed it for the discontinuation of the monthly Cabinet meetings. Duterte won't do the meetings virtually, preferring an in-person setup, Roque said on December 10.

It was also during the pandemic when Malacañang decided to air the President's edited speeches, and only hours after Duterte delivered them. For safety concerns, anyone who meets with Duterte in person must get swab-tested. The result? Filipinos know very little of what the President is up to. 

Duterte appeared all set to scrap a military deal with the United States – the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) – outraged as he was by the cancellation of Senator Ronald dela Rosa’s US visa at the start of the year. But in came COVID-19 and the certainty that an alliance with the superpower would be more helpful than harmful in a global health crisis.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the pandemic was among Duterte's reasons for halting the VFA abrogation.

"We need to cooperate with other countries to fight the pandemic and I think the President thought that it's untimely to end the VFA at this moment," he told CNN Philippines.

Around this time, the promising news about US vaccines was nearly a fixture in Duterte’s speeches. The global health crisis has finally led Duterte to realize the value of diplomacy and preserving alliances, regardless of personal grudges. The VFA is here to stay, at least until June 2021.

The pandemic bought more time for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to lead the fledgling Bangsamoro region (BARMM). With Duterte’s backing, the MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) is asking for another 3 years, or until 2025, to stay in power so they can complete the transition of the new region according to the terms set by the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

The pandemic, which shut down government offices as coronavirus cases grew in BARMM, delayed many transition efforts, say Bangsamoro officials. Extending the transition period means a delay in the first elections for the region, set for 2022.

The pandemic forced mayors and governors to talk to national government more regularly, especially in coronavirus hot spots like Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao City. If in normal times these officials operated relatively independently in their own republics, nowadays Metro Manila mayors meet weekly with Duterte’s Cabinet members. The Cabinet secretaries were even assigned cities to watch over. The national government also had to send their officials to Cebu City and Davao City when their outbreaks made a turn for the worse. 

The pandemic provided a stage for noteworthy mayors and governors to stand out. It revealed differences and conflicts in policies, like when Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto thought tricycles should be allowed to operate to ferry doctors and nurses during the lockdown, at odds with Duterte’s rules. Metro Manila mayors also rejected a proposal from the national government to allow kids inside malls. Filipinos could see more clearly how national-local dynamics affect their lives. (READ: 'Mayor of the Philippines' leaves LGUs blind amid COVID-19) – Rappler.com