Childism and its threats to Filipino children during the Duterte administration’s COVID-19 response
Article

While the policy responses of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration have been subject to much criticism, little has been said about Filipino children and their families who were directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. What is common, however, is the explicit use of the child as a metaphor to criticize Duterte’s actions. This metaphor is inherently childist and prejudiced towards children and their well-being. Thus, this paper examines the views of the media and the general public regarding Duterte and his administration, highlighting expressions of childist language. It also uncovers the systemic neglect of children under the Duterte administration, through a desk review of documents, reports, and implemented mandates that directly impact children and their families, specifically in the context of COVID-19. With these, the paper illustrates how childism and the metaphor of Duterte as a child poses a threat of neglect towards the Filipino child, resulting in policies crafted by a government and society that is prejudiced against children. Ultimately, a call to elevate the discourse is presented, urging greater care in how we contextualize children, as they are often overlooked but significantly affected by policy decisions. Reducing the pandemic response of the Duterte administration as “infantile” subverts the imminent threat of further neglecting the needs of children, which has yet to be addressed by robust government action that highlights a more responsive shift towards children’s development.

“I’m a licensed professional teacher, of course, I’m un(der)employed”: Teachers’ identities and social suggestions from transitivity in Facebook posts
Article

Neologisms and ingenuities can either impinge on language atrophy or induce much more open public discourses. A viral short linguistic template “I’m/We’re X, of course, I/we Y” on social media has afforded open discourses, albeit stereotypically. Using 343 clauses posted on a public Facebook page, this study combines the transitivity processes of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) with critical discourse analysis. Results show that Filipino Licensed Professional Teachers (LPTs) stereotypically view themselves as The Employed, The Un(der)employed, The Determined, The Practical, The Deprived, The Frustrated, The Needy, The Dictated, and The Questioned. These identities reinforce the emergence of the themes: un(der)employment; currency of the license; alleged backer system; and the exodus of LPTs to other countries due to unavailability of teaching items. The study contributes to the greater appreciation of the potent power of short linguistic expressions for wider discourses. While conducted in the context of the Philippines, the insights of this study may hold a universal relevance for the discourses of social inequality, nepotism, bureaucracy, and neoliberalism in the academe.