Online networks of the Duterte base were quick to ride on the public rage over Ateneo de Manila University’s (ADMU) delayed reactions and piecemeal information in the aftermath of the deaths of its basketball players Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.

Public Facebook posts about the deaths surfaced various pro-Duterte pages calling out Ateneo for failing the Mindanaoan Baterbonia, according to an analysis of data forensics group The Nerve.

This Luzon-Mindanao divide was prominent in the populist campaign of Rodrigo Duterte during the 2016 presidential election, which sought to sow a rift between the “elite” Tagalog-speaking community and the Bisaya-speaking regions. Duterte, who speaks Bisaya, is the first president from Mindanao.

For their fellow Mindanaoan

Through Probe, The Nerve’s content and narrative analysis solution, the data forensics group looked into more than 21,000 public Facebook posts that talked about the drowning incident from June 8, the day Baterbonia and Adili died, to June 15.

Calls for justice dominated the Facebook posts at 22%, led by many users calling ADMU’s statements after the incident cold and unsympathetic (11% in The Nerve’s analysis).

This is where posts tackling support from the Duterte camp (6%) came in. 

More than 400 of these posts mentioned Vice President Sara Duterte and called out ADMU’s lackluster response. The Vice President also visited Baterbonia’s wake in Davao City on June 13.

Duterte ally Senator Robin Padilla also came to the aid of Baterbonia’s family, mentioned in more than 600 posts in The Nerve’s analysis. Aside from visiting Baterbonia’s wake, the senator also filed a resolution seeking a probe into the incident. 

Lawyer Israelito Torreon, who had served as counsel for Duterte and Apollo Quiboloy, also offered legal services to the Baterbonia family together with Jimmy Bondoc, counsel of fugitive Senator Bato dela Rosa. 

“Rene Baterbonia was a Mindanaoan. He was a dreamer from among our own people. For us, that is not an abstraction. When one of our own falls, the pull to stand up is not professional. It is personal. Kay kami, kabalo mi mudapig sa among parehong Bisaya (Because we know to stand with our fellow Bisaya),” Torreon and Bondoc said in a joint statement reiterating their support for the aggrieved family.

Mindanao was mentioned in around 739 Facebook posts in The Nerve’s analysis. 

In these posts was one dominant narrative: that Baterbonia — a boy who grew up in a poor village in Agusan del Sur, led Davao Region to a Palarong Pambansa championship, and pursued bigger dreams in the capital — was failed by ADMU, an elite institution in Luzon. Luzon was mentioned in at least 96 posts. 

The Nerve noted at least four Facebook posts perpetuating this narrative that shared similar phrasing, being reposted around 46 times cumulatively:

• A post starting with “LOVED AND CARED BY MINDANAO, ONLY IN LUZON, LIFE WILL BE LOST”, reposted at least 20 times
• A post starting with “Inalagaan sa Mindanao, Napabayaan nga ba sa Luzon?”, reposted at least 11 times
• A post starting with “PIN@T@Y LANG SA LUZON PAGKATAPOS MINAHAL AT INALAGAAN NG MINDANAO SI RENE BATERBONIA”, reposted at least 11 times
• A post starting with “MINAHAL AT INALAGAAN NG MINDANAO SA LUZON LANG DAW MAWAWALA ANG BUHAY”, reposted at least four times

These posts and their respective reposts have garnered at least 30,000 engagements in total.

Duterte propagandist Krizette Chu, in a Facebook post that has been reposted at least 25 times on the platform, pushed the narrative further — that ADMU’s response would’ve been different if Baterbonia and Adili came from affluent backgrounds. 

Another set of Facebook posts gave a shout-out to former president Duterte. Calling him “the poor people’s president,” these posts claimed scenarios of what he would’ve done if the incident had happened during his term. One of the early instances of this post was by Facebook user Grace Locsin, who has a history of sharing posts in favor of the Dutertes.

Filling a vacuum

This Luzon versus Mindanao narrative is reminiscent of the “Bisaya na pud (It’s time for a Bisaya)” rallying cry during Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential campaign in 2016, anchoring on what many believe was a lack of Bisaya representation in the country’s leadership. [FROM OUR ARCHIVES: How to win Cebu: Bisaya kinship, social networks in Duterte campaign] 

This campaign has sowed division between Bisaya- and Tagalog-speaking communities that persists even after Duterte’s term.

Now, with a Mindanaoan talent falling victim and the Luzon-based institution that was supposedly responsible for him failing to be fully transparent on the facts of the incident, the resulting information vacuum became ripe for political interests to exploit.   

“The tragic deaths of [Baterbonia and Adili] go beyond the question of negligence. They offer a window into the class divide and institutional failures that have made former president Rodrigo Duterte’s brand of populism not only possible but enduring,” wrote former journalist Joey Salgado in an opinion piece. [READ: [Rear View] Ateneo’s silence is fuel for the DDS] 

The posts by Duterte supporters, he added, “reflect a political operation that has positioned itself, rightly or wrongly, as the champion of the aggrieved masses against the institutions and elites who continue to exploit them.” – Rappler.com

Probe is a content and narrative analysis solution developed by The Nerve’s award-winning team of data forensics experts. This enables brands and organizations to analyze thousands of posts across all online platforms and decode visual narratives with advanced image intelligence. To learn more, email hello@thenerve.co.