Sibling rivalry

In the southernmost corner of the Philippines, where maybe he thought his boasts would go unnoticed in the rest of the country, President Duterte admitted to being the mastermind of the recent troubles of what he calls oligarchs. Without even declaring martial law, he said, he has dismantled the oligarchy in the Philippines, naming names — Manny Pangilinan, the Ayalas, the Lopezes of ABS-CBN, and the Consunjis.

Mr. Duterte’s imagined thrill in dismantling the oligarchy confirms the suspicion that his “operational code” or belief system harkens back to the bewildering political ideas during his days as a political science student in the 1960s. He has identified with the communists, an imagined Joma Sison think-alike, sharing power with the Left during his first two years. He liked that—people thinking he was some revolutionary maverick who walked with NPA commanders and who could just enter their lairs and obtain the freedom of a hostage or two.

Yet, he also keeps imagining himself as a Ferdinand Marcos do-alike, saving the people from corruption, crime, and, of course, the oligarchy. But Marcos understood what oligarchy meant in a way that Mr. Duterte would never understand. It can be argued that Marcos had to be schooled in the concepts of class conflict and inequality by the very student activists and communists he demonized. For when he declared martial law, he stole their concept of a revolution, recasting it as a “Revolution from the Center” that would transform the Philippines into the New Society. Where Joma captured the imagination of the youth and young professionals during his time with his “Philippine State and Revolution,” Marcos issued his counterpoint, “The Democratic Revolution in the Philippines,” even coming up unashamedly with the rhetorical question, “What is democracy if it were not for the poor?”

But Mr. Duterte, the action man, is bereft of theory, outside of “Build! Build! Build!” and “Kill! Kill! Kill!” although he is fond of retheorizing for the people grade-school concepts like vaccination, going so far as to detail how the snake and the horse supposedly play a critical part in the production of vaccines. Mr. Duterte wraps his mind around a grand concept like federalism. He likes it, and then instigates his minions to make it happen. Unfortunately, federalism takes strategy, systems, structure, skills, and style to happen. Such a project takes more than incentivizing 70 or so representatives of Congress to play out a parody of the legislative process to deny ABS-CBN a franchise.

In imagining he has dismantled the oligarchy, he has borrowed a tactic from his soul brother Ferdinand — the tactic of “substitution.” Here he is at par with Marcos; both see nothing wrong in launching their cronies into the oligarchic orbit.

Mr. Duterte’s minions are pushing Charter change again, sans the obligatory scheming and dreaming required to successfully embark on such a disruptive systemic process. It certainly cannot be done through the bidding of one man acting as if he has the last word on wisdom, science, and patriotism. Marcos, for all his delusions, knew well enough that you needed skilled henchmen to presume to change society. Mr. Duterte imagines he can do the same, except that, instead of an Arturo Tolentino, he has a Bong Go. Instead of a Carlos P. Romulo, he has a Teodoro Locsin Jr. Instead of a Fidel Ramos, he has an Archie Gamboa. Instead of a Gerardo Sicat, he has a Karl Chua. Instead of an Onofre Corpuz, he has a Prospero de Vera.

Ferdinand Marcos played chess, moving all his pieces with cunning. Rodrigo Duterte moves only two types of pieces, his knights in the uniformed services and his pawns in Congress. He jumps all over the place, using these same tools against all comers, whether human adversaries or pandemics like COVID-19.

If and when Mr. Duterte decides to go all the way with the anti-terrorism law and martial law to dismantle the rest of his enemies, I hope he wields them like a Hannibal Lecter wielding a scalpel rather than a Viking warrior wielding a battle axe. Unless gory is indeed the Duterte way to beat the Marcos legacy.

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