Affective Communication and Economic Nationalism in Commonwealth-Era Philippines

This article examines how Filipino advocates of economic nationalism, operating through the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA), used emotional appeals to shape nationalist identity and consumer citizenship during the Philippine Commonwealth. Earlier works document NEPA’s marketing of Philippine goods and advocacy for economic self-reliance but have not analyzed fully the affective registers in its rhetoric. In particular, little is known about how NEPA mobilized love, pride, shame, and guilt to forge a moral Filipino subject. To address this gap, I analyze NEPA bulletins, poems, and radio broadcasts using Sara Ahmed’s theory of affect and Michel Foucault’s insights on subjectification. The findings suggest that NEPA framed patronage of Philippine goods as a sacred duty, promoting love and respect for the country and kin and foregrounding guilt and responsibility in its advocacy against Filipinos’ supposed lack of discipline. It deployed emotions as techniques of government to advance self-regulation and shaped Filipino identity through regimes of feeling that resonate with contemporary debates on patriotism and consumer citizenship.