Gen Z's support for Duterte's ICC trial faces steep decline. Is social media making us forgetful?
Every week, PhilSTAR L!fe explores issues and topics from the perspectives of different age groups, encouraging healthy but meaningful conversations on why they matter. This is Generations by our Gen Z columnist Angel Martinez.
Almost a year into former president Rodrigo Duterte’s ICC arrest, not much has changed about the country’s state of affairs. We deal with the same issues of corruption and institutional incompetence that plunge the poor deeper into poverty, unable to cope with the rising costs of living.
But one of the few, major shifts I didn’t see coming is where Gen Z stands in the midst of it all. A new study by public opinion firm WR Numero revealed that only 32% of Filipinos agreed with the ICC's investigation into Duterte's war on drugs—a sharp decline from 59% in 2024. Our generation shows a very surprising drop: from 69% during the previous survey period, to 31%.
When I first went through the findings, I was in a state of shock. Studies and personal experience have always suggested that we are the changemakers, sometimes to a fault: a caveat that I figured was better than the alternative. Unprecedented access to information online has exposed us to ideas and belief systems, as well as democratic avenues to debate them. So instead of being advocates for justice, why are we suddenly neutral toward those who stand against it?
Perhaps, that’s the first mistake we tend to make while assessing the root of the problem. We use generational stereotypes as convenient shorthands, positively correlating social media activity with liberal allegiance. (You might recall how pundits and political scientists attributed the victory of progressive candidates to the "Gen Z vote" during the last elections.)
However, Gen Z’s political leanings are a blend of their regional identity, personal information landscape, and gender, among other things. Out of these factors, financial circumstances are the most telling: “When you feel economically vulnerable, populist rhetoric promising swift, decisive action becomes more appealing than liberal discourse about due process,” disinformation researcher Dr. Imelda Deinla told PhilSTAR L!fe.
Deinla and her co-researchers identified five distinct political typologies among Filipino university students, suggesting that our ideologies aren’t as binary as we believe. The largest category, constituting 34.4% of the respondents, was called satisfied democrats: those who “support democratic values moderately and trust current institutions” but may cause democratic decay with their complacency.
Simply put, a lot of us show up for high-stakes events like elections or large-scale protests such as the Trillion Peso March. But some of us tend to opt out of the everyday work: reading the news, fact-checking, and engaging in difficult conversations. Whether it’s out of preoccupation, exhaustion, or inattention, our inconsistent actions can cause real damage.
To make matters worse, some of us take it upon ourselves to “educate” those who don’t share our views. But in reality, we exist on a completely different side of the internet compared to those we wish to persuade. In order to restructure their supporters’ worldview, fake news peddlers often resort to quote cards resembling mainstream publishers or networks, or microinfluencer armies that can give off a sense of authenticity, possibly tweaking algorithms.
“All this is to cultivate distrust in ‘elite institutions’ such as the academe, media, and the court, while positioning informal sources like bloggers and online personalities as more trustworthy,” Deinla said. This "us vs them" narrative can appeal greatly to the everyday Filipino, who may feel not only misunderstood but isolated by the majority of society.
If we take a step out of our echo chambers and immediate circles, we will encounter members of Gen Z across all socioeconomic classes, who are considered the most financially anxious in Southeast Asia. To them, democracy can no longer explain or account for unequal access to public services, seemingly endless economic recessions, and worsening inequality. They have grown impatient and distrustful; their hearts, hardened by time. One might say they’re far too gone to "save."
But at this point, we should assess if that should be our end goal. Failure to "convert" others is not our fault—in fact, it’s not a very realistic approach anymore. “The real issue is structural and economic, not just informational or attitudinal,” Deinla pointed out. Until the future promised to us by the politicians we put into power is finally within reach, certain groups will always stand by strongmen.
Rather than dismiss their valid concerns that are rooted in disillusionment, Deinla suggested looking into the “heterogeneity in their views”: Where are they coming from, and what kind of messaging can assuage them? Some could be reached best by showing results; others, by appealing to a need for security, accountability, and institutional reform.
These won’t happen through one-off viral posts or campaign rallies close to the election date. Four years ago, I was idealistic and, dare I say, naive enough to believe otherwise. But now I’m aware that this isn’t the case. Although the presidential elections are still far away and the "nepo babies" scandal is no longer at the center of news cycles, what we collectively feel about Duterte is enough of a warning sign: to never stop having these discussions, and to realize that the way forward is productive, non-judgmental dialogue.
Generations by Angel Martinez appears weekly at PhilSTAR L!fe.
