Club Online Zoom Event: Election in the Philippines and the Race to Succeed Rodrigo Duterte. A discussion with academic and policy adviser Richard Javad Heydarian. 

 

ONLINE ZOOM EVENT Election in the Philippines and the Race to Succeed Rodrigo Duterte. A discussion with academic and policy adviser Richard Javad Heydarian.

SPEAKER RICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN Tuesday, April 26, 2022 8pm HKT on Zoom

After weeks of carnival-like campaigning with caravans and singing, Philippine voters will go to the polls on May 9 to elect a successor to controversial incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte, whose six-year term was marked by accusations of human rights abuses during his war on drugs and a foreign policy tilt toward China. One of the frontrunners in opinion polls, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the former dictator, has promised to continue many of Duterte’s policies, and he is running in a tandem with Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte-Caprio as vice president. Many Filipinos who recall the abuses of the martial law era are horrified at the prospect of a return of the Marcos family to power. The main opponent appears to be Vice President Leni Robredo, who appears in polling to be gaining grassroots support across all regions and income classes, and who has attracted large crowds. Can she overtake Marcos? Or will another contender emerge from the crowded field to spring a surprise? Moderated by FCC President Keith Richburg.

Richard Javad Heydarian is an Asia-based academic and policy adviser. He is currently an Associate Professor in geopolitics at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, a special lecturer at San Beda University, and has delivered lectures at the world’s leading universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Beijing universities. He is a columnist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, analyst at GMA Network, and has written for the world’s leading publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and is a regular contributor to Aljazeera English, Nikkei Asian Review, South China Morning Post, and the Straits Times. He has written extensively on Philippine politics, populism and Asian geopolitical affairs. He authored “The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt against Elite Democracy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), “Philippine Politics: From Rizal to Duterte” (Oxford University Press, 2020) and “Subaltern Populism: Dutertismo and the War on Constitutional Democracy” (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). He is also a regular contributor to leading global think tanks such as Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Brooking Institution, and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).