On Revolutionary Government and Making Governments revolutionary

There are three (3) things which some people use in invalidating the idea of creating a revolutionary government under Mr. Duterte.

The first is constitutionality. There is no provision in the Constitution that legally allows Mr. Duterte to declare a revolutionary government. Revolutionary governments, they say, proceed from a revolution. A revolution is a qualitative break from traditional government. How can Mr. Duterte declare a revolution when he heads the traditional government?

The second is impossibility. Mr. Duterte is just a face, an image, of an administration that is now being managed by minions of a former dispensation, wholly chastised for its wanton disregard of law, decency, morality and corruption. Mr. Duterte appears to be in charge when in truth and in fact, former members of the Arroyo administration are in control of government. We are living in a post-Arroyo era where its poster boy, Mr. Duterte loves the spotlight but hates the work. This is problematic because the Presidency is judged for its performance, and its performance depends on how the Head manages the myriad of administrative clutter and preponderance of bureaucratic files. An insider says that the President hardly reads documents presented before him. He should be circumspect enough to identify the fraud from the truth. Mr. Duterte should be more careful on signing papers since several PPP projects are now in full swing.

Lastly, even if Mr. Duterte do break out from government and declare a revolutionary government, Mr. Duterte does not deserve to lead it because he lacks a deeper ideological understanding of the ramifications of leading such a government. Plus, he surrounds himself with people who are clueless of what creature a revolutionary government is.

Maybe what Mr. Duterte meant when he floated this idea is to make the present government revolutionary or transformative. If this is what he meant, then, expect no substantial change in policy and the way this government is being run. Why?

A revolutionary government is a qualitative break, a radical departure from the traditional processes of governance. In this governmental model, the transformative power lies not with the Executive (or at the very least, transformation is limited) but is based on the direction the Legislative intends to take.

We operate based on law. Our system exists because of processes created by law. Existing laws promote a parasitic environment where the rich maintains their wealth through manipulation of the resources of the state. The very laws which enable us to survive for a century and a half are the very laws that condemn us to an uncertain future.

This state has been engineered to allow those with enormous capital to grow their capital more while those without capital are doomed to paupers. It is inequality in the access of capital that is the core problem of this country and this cannot be solved through propaganda. This existing system must be broken and smashed into pieces to enable us to create a new one.

We must smash our set of laws and create new ones based on Filipino values, processes and a new form or mode of production, dissimilar with what we have today.

We must weaponize the State against oligarchical rule. We must use the State as the hammer to smash elitist rule in this country. It is the only way for us to create a more equitable society.

Some say, we must create from the ashes of the old Republic. Kant describes as a republic as a state with democracy and law. However, our present Republic does not exercise democracy and though there are laws, these laws do not serve even fundamental interests of the majority of the People.

For us to attain a new one, we must dive into the depths of anarchy and allow the system to rot and break into several pieces. During an era of leaderless-ness, we then would be able to determine the true kind of leadership we need in re-establishing a state that promotes the genuine interests of 101 million Filipinos.

From a parasitic state to a nation-state--that should be our direction. Mr. Duterte does not have the qualities necessary to lead us to this ideal because he is just a stooge, a warlord of a group of Oligarchs warring over state resources with other Oligarchs. Instead of leading us to a strong nation-state, Mr. Duterte is even causing disruptions and disunity among us. He is just living in his fantasy world where he thinks of himself as a military leader commanding armies and state security agents in a Quixotic journey to nowhere.

We are being misled to belief that change is coming when in truth and in fact, we are just in a state of free fall, while elites fight each other for more than a trillion pesos up in grabs.

Prof. Walden Bello says that Mr. Duterte is leading us to perdition with his idea of a dictatorship. I dare say, Mr. Duterte does not need to declare such because we are now living under one.

What will finally make Mr. Duterte realize that he is just being used by the elite as the ultra promoter of oligarchical democracy? When the economy just screeches to a halt and the horde of impoverished Filipinos suddenly appears right before the very gates of Malacanan.

That is expected.

Let the business of revolution be left to the hands of revolutionaries. And let pseudo revolutionaries suffer their sure fate of damnation.