‘Shoot them dead’: rhetorical constructions of the COVID-19 pandemic in Philippine presidential addresses

ABSTRACT

Background

This paper argues that public addresses of heads of state are critical for public health policy during pandemics. Drawing insights from studies that investigate metaphors and frames in political and public health discourses, it explores how the Philippine government, especially President Rodrigo Duterte, framed COVID-19. In doing so, it hopes to broaden the understanding of how political rhetoric may be constitutive of public health policy.

Methods

The analysis of the public addresses entailed three interrelated levels: (1) a description of broad historical, social, political, and cultural contexts of public addresses under investigation, (2) an explanation of the communicative situation including the production and consumption of these addresses—processes that mediate between the text and context, and (3) a textual analysis, which substantiates how the discursive patterns are realized through the president’s rhetorical choices.

Results

Our analysis reveals that the president consistently deployed the rhetorical strategies of (1) enemization, (2) legitimization of the incumbent administration, and (3) dismissal of critics. The configuration of these strategies sustains a binaristic discourse structure that lays blame on a political other while the government asserts its legitimacy during a public health crisis.

Conclusions

These rhetorical strategies organize support for public health policy by a populist administration to manage COVID-19. Implications of political rhetoric to public health and risk communication are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Philippine presidential rhetoric
• health policy
• COVID-19
• health communication
• public health

Disclosure statement

The author(s) have no potential competing interest to report. The views provided in this article do not represent the official views of the authors’ institutional affiliations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gene Segarra Navera

Gene Segarra Navera is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication of the National University of Singapore. He writes and publishes in the areas of rhetoric and public address, critical discourse studies, and writing and speech communication pedagogies. He is the author of the book The Rhetoric of PNoy: Image, Myth and Rhetorical Citizenship in Philippine Presidential Speeches (Peter Lang, 2018). Gene is currently investigating the practices of populist rhetoric in Philippine presidential history.

Jan Michael Alexandre C. Bernadas

Jan Michael Alexandre C. Bernadas is Associate Professor of Communication at the College of Liberal Arts at the De La Salle University in Manila. As a health communication researcher, his work aims to contribute to reducing health inequity, specifically in one of two areas: (1) migration health and (2) antimicrobial resistance. He has written and published papers in peer-reviewed journals in communication studies and public health. At present, Jan is working on a funded research exploring the ways into which the public relations profession may inform public health organizations in ethically managing crises in the age of digital media.