The Philippines are one of the oldest democracies in Asia and are said to have the most vibrant civil society of the continent. Nevertheless, taking a closer look that goes beyond the usual policy indices, shows a more critical picture: paternalistic politics, exclusive identity construction and an endless civil war on the southern island of Mindanao. This paper will examine the filipino case more closely, focusing on two elements critical to democracy in the Philippines: the social practices of daily decision-making and politics and the national approach towards identity construction. First, the paper will retrace the evolution of different layers of identity in the Philippines – family before ethnicity, before religion, and before nation – that encouraged the outbreak of violence in Mindanao in 1968. Second, it will explain why the democratic system prevalent in the country today has consistently and dramatically failed to manage the conflict, and even contributes to its persistence through paternalistic politics and nonimplementation of national laws and development plans. Bringing these two levels of analyses together, the article describes some central reasons for the persistence of violence – marginalization of minorities, closure of the political arena for protest, failure of the nation-state to represent all citizens, and annulments of national peace agreements.
