Colonialism is an evil that manifests itself on several other levels. Political oppression is one of those levels and is an additional theme in the novel. When a country does not have a clearly defined national identity because of centuries of colonization, it can leave itself wide open to corruption. Although the president and the first lady in the novel are patterned after the real-life Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the author explains that the Marcoses are symbols: “They weren’t the only dictators we’ve ever had.” The Marcoses were around the longest, however, and were the most public, as well as the most celebrated and reviled, but they were not the only ones to take part in the “many victims, many assassins, and many political assassinations." In Dogeaters, the corrupt leaders spawn a pretentious and wasteful ruling class, so while the country has been devastated, controlled, and exploited by its colonial past, the national government is guilty of perpetuating the same sins against the Filipino people.

Colonialism has left the nation confused, floundering, and powerless to overthrow the corrupt government that filled the vacuum left by World War II. The horrors that the characters experience on a personal level are a metaphor for political oppression. Daisy Avila, for example, is raped and tortured, while the symbol of the government, General Ledesma, stands by and watches. Joey Sands and Lolita Luna are controlled and exploited by the powerful figures in their lives. Baby Alacran’s body is symbolic of her country, breaking out in mysterious diseases. The first lady’s dream is a stream-of-conscious image of her struggle to obtain and maintain power. In her dream, she is swimming frantically toward her house, which slowly becomes smaller the closer she gets. She pants and struggles to “maintain her strength and energy.” She meets various symbols of power that both reassure her of her power and status and remind her of her need to maintain it. She meets the pope, American actress Cristina Ford, and American actor George Hamilton, who asks her to dance. “I’m a woman always ready to dance,” she replies. She ends up perched on her “throne of bananas,” but the perch is precariously balanced on a mountain of coconuts.

There is hope of ending political oppression, just as there is hope that the Philippines will survive its colonial past. Senator Avila is a symbol of political opposition, and even though he is assassinated in the novel like the real-life opposition Philippine senator Benigno Aquino, he leaves behind an active revolutionary group that opposes the president’s regime. Daisy Avila joins the revolution after she is raped by General Ledesma’s men. Joey Sands defies political oppression when he escapes the authorities, carrying with him a state secret of great importance—he may know who really killed the senator. The government cannot locate him, and the incident becomes a mockery of the power the state believes it has. Individuals like Joey and Daisy are chipping away at the illusion of absolute power by the end of the novel. Perhaps that is why the first lady is screaming from her mountain of coconuts, “Where is the Pope? Where is George Hamilton? Where is that bitch Cristina Ford?”