So To Speak: Dutertism is not an ideology. It’s obedience with a slogan.

By Sonia P. Soto

Senator Robin Padilla finally said out loud what too many politicians only whisper.

He declared: “Para sa akin, ideology ang Duterte. Hindi persona lang. Ideology ng pagbabago.”

And in the same breath, he made the “ideology” unmistakable: “Walang pwedeng mag-utos sa akin. Si Digong lang. Basta sinabi ni Digong, susunod ako.”

Let’s not pretend this is philosophy. This is followership—the political posture that replaces judgment with obedience and calls it “change.”

An ideology is supposed to be a set of ideas. Padilla’s version is a single instruction: sumunod. A platform can be questioned. A doctrine can be debated. But a command cannot—because the whole point is to stop thinking and start saluting.

And notice the trick: he insists it’s “not persona,” then immediately proves it is—because his “ideology” has one source of authority: one man who can “utos.”

That is not ideology. That is a personal rule packaged as national direction.

“Ideology ng pagbabago” is not a principle. It’s a blank check.

“Pagbabago” sounds wholesome because it is conveniently empty. Empty words are useful: they can justify anything—policy, impunity, vengeance, opportunism—depending on who holds the mic that day.

If Dutertism is indeed an ideology, then define it like an adult:

What are its core beliefs on due process?

On human rights?

On checks and balances?

On accountability when the state abuses power?

Padilla does not answer those questions because the “ideology” doesn’t need answers. It needs loyalty.

This is the most dangerous political conversion in the Philippines

We’ve seen personality politics. What Padilla is normalizing is worse: the attempt to convert a leader’s name into a permanent identity that followers inherit and defend—like a brand you don’t argue with.

He doesn’t say, “I support a policy agenda.”

He says, I take orders.

That is how democracies degrade without a coup. Not with tanks. With senators acting like messengers of one political household.

The civic punchline

If Duterte is an “ideology,” then this is what it really means in practice:

The leader’s instinct becomes the law. The follower’s loyalty becomes a virtue. And dissent becomes betrayal.

That’s not “pagbabago.” That’s the oldest scam in politics: obedience dressed up as renewal.

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