Is deliberately ignoring former President Rodrigo Duterte a potent way to politically shame him?

Intriguingly, centenarian political fox Juan Ponce Enrile seems to think that it is. (Political survivalist Enrile turned 100 yesterday, by the way.)

Answering broadcaster Korina Sanchez-Roxas last week on what he would have done to counter Duterte’s bravado drug allegations against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., wily Enrile quipped: “BBM (Marcos) responded as he did. I would have ignored (him).”

Enrile didn’t elaborate on why he thought ignoring Duterte was the better way to cut down the former president than directly clapping back at him. 

But we can readily see where Enrile’s nasty bite about ignoring Duterte is coming from: Nothing highlights the transient nature of power and the inherent weakness of those who once wielded it than deafening silence.

Enrile, in short, reminded us that deafening silence isn’t only about nasty political shaming but also about how useful silence can be in a war of political positioning. 

Enrile, in effect, is saying that by ignoring Duterte we can picture the former leader as a forlorn inhabitant exiled to the wasteland of political has-beens so that even if he shouts to the high heavens we will pay him no mind. 

Meanwhile, another aspect of our broad theme on political shaming came from former Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan who recently cautioned moderate opposition forces about their immoderate remarks regarding squabbling Marcos and Duterte fans.  

Tweeting his displeasure over internet memes and social media posts bearing the satirical phrase “tama nga kami” (we were right) put out by opposition supporters to obliquely shame both Marcos and Duterte followers, the opposition leader said: “We need to persuade and convince. We do not need to ridicule and insult.”

“Kailangan natin makipagusap at makinig, hindi itong manginsulto at makipagaway (We need to communicate and listen, not insult and pick a fight),” he said.

Enrile and Pangilinan, of course, aren’t peas in the same political pod. Enrile tells us more about old guy politics while Pangilinan is more about younger guy politics. 

Still, both help us to know that political shaming is still a relevant political issue amid the brutal falling out between Marcos and Duterte fans.

For instance, Enrile — who is doubtless adept in political maneuvering and survival in the corridors of power — is probably reminding Palace courtiers that maintaining silence sometimes prevents being baited into making a political has-been relevant again. Enrile here means to say it is also useful to study well the circumstances of an issue. 

Pangilinan, on the other hand, practically tells us the same thing: If not used well, political shaming comes at a political cost, especially where mass politics is involved. 

Pangilinan’s call, mind you, is no mere opportunism as some would have it.

Pangilinan’s stand reminds us of noted Italian militant Antonio Gramsci’s great insight on political shaming, especially about shaming those “unsophisticated and unprepared people who are convinced by ‘authority’ and by ‘emotion.’”

Gramsci says in his Notebook 11: “A broader methodological criterion, namely: It is not very ‘scientific,’ nor it is simply not ‘very serious,’ to choose from among one’s adversaries the most stupid and mediocre ones, or to choose the least essential and the most occasional of their opinions, and then presume to have ‘destroyed’ the enemy ‘completely’ just because one has destroyed a secondary and incidental opinion of his — or to presume to have destroyed an ideology or a doctrine with a demonstration of the theoretical deficiencies of its third- and fourth-rate proponents.” 

As such, Gramsci says, “One must make an effort to understand what they meant to say and not dwell maliciously on the superficial immediate meanings of their expressions. It has to be so if the proposed goal is to raise the tone and intellectual level of one’s followers, as opposed to the immediate goal of using every means possible to create a desert around oneself.”