PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s idea of a “revolutionary government” is nothing else but the one-man dictatorship that he has been repeatedly dreaming of since last year.
Duterte merely wants to concentrate all governmental power to himself as president. He wants to further dismantle whatever little is left of the system of checks and balances provided by a rubber stamp Congress, a Supreme Court dominated by his and former president Arroyo’s appointees, and easily intimidated Constitutional bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman and Commission on Human Rights.
He aims to further intimidate the critical press and overwhelm social media with his fake news-churning troll army.
Worse, in order to impose his “revolutionary” regime on the people, he will have to declare martial law nationwide, He will have to ban all forms of public criticism and dissent: protest rallies, strikes, political demonstrations of any kind. There will be wide-scale and utter disregard for due process, human rights and civil liberties.
Meanwhile, the same old oligarchic interests will remain, with Duterte’s family and friends as the favored cronies.