What Would Happen if Duterte Implemented a “Revolutionary Government”?

Philippine President Duterte threatened to implement a “revolutionary government” in response to rising Hybrid War unrest against his government, remarking that “Once your destabilization is already creating chaos, I will not hesitate to declare a revolutionary government until the end of my term…This revolutionary government would reform the federal system, ratify a new constitution, slash corruption, improve and modernize security and put an end to the grip of the cartels. All this can be yours, Filipinos, if you just give the president absolute power”. In a sense, the Philippines already has a semi-revolutionary government by the simple fact that Duterte was voted into office, since he’s moved rapidly to revolutionize his country’s foreign partnerships and push through the dual domestic stabilization initiatives of the War on Drugs and “federalization” in order to deal with the non-state threats of drug traffickers and insurgents.

Therefore, what Duterte probably had in mind was the Cold War-era stereotype of an openly authoritarian government that stops at nothing to advance its political goals, such as the ones that he enumerated in his earlier-quoted statement. There are obvious arguments for and against this happening. On the positive side of things, Duterte does indeed need to be able to safeguard the revolutionary success that he’s had thus far, though from the negative perspective, doing so in his threatened “revolutionary” way would almost certainly result in American efforts to “isolate” him from the region through sanctions and other measures. This could include the more overt extension of support to so-called “democratic freedom fighters” that will more likely than not be Color Revolutionaries and Hybrid War terrorists, up to and including Daesh and any regional franchise that supposedly affiliates with it.

It’s extremely unlikely that the US would support Duterte in the event that he unveils his so-called “revolutionary government” due to the existing heavy pressure that they’re putting on him for the supposed “human rights violations” that have occurred in his War on Drugs, which is why one should expect this to only intensify if that happens. Such a move wouldn’t only be aimed towards promoting regime change, but towards crafting the conditions where Duterte feels compelled to request anti-terrorist support from the US troops based in the country, essentially making them the guarantors of stability in his country and thereby putting the US in a position to capture control of its policies by proxy through this cunning Hybrid War scenario. “Revolutionary government” or not, Duterte’s going to feel the heat from the US, and it’s just a question of whether he’ll be in a better position to counteract it if he has absolute power or if he abides by the constitution’s limitations to his authority.


By Andrew Korybko
Source: Oriental Review

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