Policy Framing and Comparative Discourse Analysis

Quezon City and the City of Baguio enacted anti-discrimination ordinances to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) persons. The 2014 Quezon City Gender-Fair Ordinance (QCGFO) and the 2017 Anti-Discrimination Ordinance of the City of Baguio (ADOCB) criminalized discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or expression. With similar societal contexts, these two cities legislated two different anti-discrimination ordinances. Using comparative discourse analysis, this case study compares their formulation and framing. Data were gathered and evaluated through library research, documents analysis, and key informant interviews. With contextualization and process-tracing, this article also describes discursive policy frames that were utilized in formulating these ordinances. The QCGFO protects the local LGBT+ community, while the ADOCB considers multiple social sectors. These policies may provide potential opportunities to integrate intersectionality in anti-discrimination policy-making. In all, this study offers exploratory insights on policy framing strategies for anti-discriminatory policies in two contextually similar Philippine localities.

The Credible Commitment Problem in the Third-Party Mediation of the Mindanao Peace Process, 1975–2014

Negotiated settlements of civil wars are challenging since incompatibilities take a long time to resolve. Many scholars have approached this puzzle by identifying information asymmetry and commitment problems as critical deterrents to resolution. Similarly, this article argues that third-party mediation could improve or worsen the parties’ credible commitment problems, as illustrated in the Mindanao peace process mediation that spanned almost four decades. Following a contingency framework in analyzing third-party mediation, this article analyzes existing reports, statements, and peace process agreements using a process tracing methodology. The article argues that the success of a peace process could be attributed to how mediation resolves the parties’ credible commitment problems, which are evident in three aspects of the peace process: getting the parties to negotiate, the use of mediator leverage, and the promise of third-party monitoring and enforcement.

Understanding the Narratives of Pateros Mothers’ Resistance under the Philippine Drug War

This article highlights the case of the Ronda ng Kababaihan, a women’s volunteer organization established to conduct night patrols in their neighborhood after witnessing drug-related killings in Pateros. Guided by the political motherhood framework, this study argues that the members use their traditional roles as mothers to legitimize their presence in the streets and the public sphere, and they practice mothering to maintain good relations with the community, police, and local authorities. Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with mothers and participant observation of nightly patrols of the organization. This study problematizes the debate between the essentialist and constructivist views on motherhood – in understanding motherhood in political terms either as an emotionally motivated and apolitical extension of the domestic duties or as an avenue for the reconstruction of gendered roles and collective identities.

Whither the Daang Matuwid?: Overconfidence in Benigno S. Aquino III’s Perception of Survival (2010–2016)

The study of political decision-making cannot exclude the actors involved in the process. Neither can it disregard the interplay between decision-makers and political institution where they operate. This article aims to explain how perception of survival affects decision-making by focusing on leaders, specifically by analysing Benigno S. Aquino III’s leadership (2010–2016). Built on political psychology, I will show that motivation to maintain power may bias leaders’ reasoning leading to suboptimal decision. Accountability can help leaders mitigate bias, or de-bias, by stimulating their use of cognitive complexity. But the same effort may backfire and make leaders resort to heuristics instead. Where leaders end up in the cognitive spectrum depends on the types of audiences to whom they feel accountable: core (the ruling elites and loyal voters) and external (the opposition and its supporters) audiences. Preoccupation with core audiences can make leaders downplay the opposition challenge. Furthermore, leaders’ perceived understanding of their support base may be erroneous. The result is overconfidence in their perception of survival. I argue that President Aquino’s misperception of survival was rooted in his belief that (1) Filipinos would like to have his legacy continued and that (2) his popularity would help his successor Manuel Araneta Roxas II win the 2016 presidential race. This overconfidence turned out to be detrimental. Roxas’s electoral loss to Rodrigo Duterte put an end to the Daang Matuwid, President Aquino’s good governance platform.