Junctures in the time of COVID-19: Topic search and government's framing of COVID-19 response in the Philippines

Abstract

This article argues that, like many in Southeast Asia, the Philippine government's COVID-19 response was marked by policy experimentation and incremental adaptation, having been caught off-guard by the pandemic. Examining 16,281 government press releases related to COVID-19 issued by the Philippine News Agency between February 2020 and April 2021, we find that in its policy narratives the government panders initially to citizen demand, highlighting social amelioration as a pandemic strategy. However, as citizens’ economic anxiety further intensifies, the government's framing of the crisis response becomes pragmatic and turns towards promoting mass inoculation, ostensibly in a bid to convince citizens to choose health over short-term palliative economic measures. The findings nuance policymaking in an illiberal democracy, beyond the conventional populist description of seeking easy solutions or spectacularizing crisis response.