Integration Essay

On September 21, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation No. 1081, which put our

country, the Philippines, under his authoritarian rule (Brillantes, 2017). Recently, President

Duterte has been creating buzz worldwide for his alleged authoritarian rule over the Philippines.

Upon assuming his presidency, he started a merciless campaign against drugs, including dealers,

and users all over the country. He received a lot of backlash from local and international

communities, most especially human rights groups. In return, he responded with hostile and

profane words. Furthermore, in his recent speeches, he said that martial law may be needed to

rescue his nation [the Philippines] of a population of over a hundred million people from falling

into crimes, drugs, and “terrorism-induced anarchy.” (France-Presse, 2017). Jose Manuel Diokno,

the dean of law at the De la Salle university, said that “I think the situation today is the closest

we’ve been to an authoritarian form of government in 30 years…. There are so many parallels

between what’s happening today and what happened before (during the Marcos dictatorship).” He

also added that Marcos used “threat of communism” as a justification of his authoritarian rule, and

that Duterte is doing the same, but using drugs and criminality as his justification (France-Presse,

2017). As stated by Vergel O. Santos, a journalist, “Authoritarianism may not be Mr. Duterte’s

political goal, but it defines his manner and his temperament. And with no institution or political

force strong enough to counter him, authoritarianism is where the Philippines seems to be heading.”

(Santos, 2016).

Authoritarian rule has been mentioned and justified even from the oldest recorded work of

political philosophy, Plato’s “The Republic”, thus making it the oldest recorded argument for

authoritarian leadership (Buenaagua, 2016). In this book, Plato stated that some people are born
with different characteristics that would define their life as an individual, and only a few people

have enough skills or have potential to lead themーthe philosopher-rulers. They are an elite class,

and the person chosen to lead would rule them using the virtue called wisdom. Since rebellion

from the other classes, like the producers and auxillaries might occur, the philosopher-rulers would

tell the state the “noble lie”. The first one is the “myth of the metals”, which state that the gods

created human beings using soil and metals to show the “natural hierarchy” of the society; gold

for the philosopher-rulers, silver for the auxillaries, and bronze for the producers. The other one is

the “Allegory of the Cave” which simply states that only philosopher-rulers have the “true

knowledge” of truth. These lies are told so that no one would question the rule of the philosopher-

rulers (Plato). These days, “fake news” instead of these lies have been circulating around the

internet, which are allegations without solid evidences. The Mocha Uson Blog is an example of

these fake news blogs. Gullible people who have no time to check sources have been victimized

by her posts, and in my opinion, because of her posts, people support President Duterte more, and

they begin to resent anyone that go against him. I don’t disregard his charisma and impact to the

public, but I believe that this blog is also a factor in his agenda to make people support him more.

In addition, Niccolo Macchiavelli’s “The Prince” which is the first modern work of

political science, justified absolute authority. He said that the end goal in politics is to stay in power.

He mentioned that power is justifiable when it comes to the preservation of the republic, and

removed ethics in the field of politics. Any means is justifiable to succeed in this field. He added

that political affairs always entail the use of coercion, violence, and betrayal, and that the leader

needs to appeal to the masses, but he should be feared more than he is loved. He also said that “the

end justifies the means”, which means that the prince could do anything just for the well-being of
the state (Machiavelli). I think that many of his arguments of what a prince should have are

applicable to President Duterte. His “War on Drugs” is famous for doing anything just to eliminate

people that are alleged to use or sell drugs. From when he stepped into office, until February 2018,

around 20,000 have been killed in this drug war (Regencia, 2018). 16,355 of these are homicide

cases, and that they are “under investigation.” An investigator has also stated that some police

officers are involved in these killings (Regencia, 2018). Many human rights groups have been

criticizing President Duterte because of this, and his “defacto endorsement of extrajudicial killings”

as said by John Gershman, an expert on Philippine politics (Xu, 2016). He believes that drugs are

detrimental to our society, and he is willing to do anything just to eliminate this problem.

John Stuart Mill, in his work, “Utilitarianism”, is more into the pursuit of the common

good, which is the sum of the personal goals of the individual. Furthermore, he believes that a

despotic ruler is a prerequisite for a modern society. He believes this because he thinks that the

individual’s pursuit of pleasure will do the advancements. From a despotic ruler, and a barbaric

society to liberty, wherein they developed their thoughts and ideas, to progress to a modern society

that demands constitutionalism and political rights. The society revolves around the individual. He

argues for a representative government with a compromise between democracy and elitism;

weighted voting, wherein qualified individuals get higher weights than others. In addition, he

thinks that the PR system (or proportional representation) can ensure that everyone, even the

minorities are represented in the government (Mill). Personally, I think that his ideas are close to

the modern society. I do agree with him that having an absolute power is not effective in the society

since this power may be abused, just like how an authoritarian government works. Furthermore,

what he told about the democratic system of the US is still relevant today. The “tyranny of the
majority” made Donald Trump win presidency. I also believe that proper representation of people

should happen in a society since the minority groups like the lumads, LGBT+, and others

experience condemnation from majority groups. For an instance, in the Philippines, Christian

groups rallied to say no to the SOGIE Bill (Calvelo, 2018). I think that these minority groups still

lack representation in the government. In addition, pursuing the common good in the Philippines

is still nearly impossible, given different backgrounds and beliefs of people.

Lastly, in “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, they have

expressed ideas about communism. They believe that the communism is the end of history. They

said that there are two classes in the world, the proletariat or the working class, and the bourgeois

or the capitalist class, and that this is not limited into the locally, but it is global as well (like there

are also proletariat and bourgeois countries. The proletariat class suffer because of the bourgeois

class. Communism would eliminate this class division, and people would work based on their

ability and what they would need. There would be no alienation as well. Marx believes that the

individual would have no freedom in a capitalist society since they would prioritize necessities in

life (Marx and Engels). Personally, I’m not into Marx’s ideas about communism. I think that

capitalism has its disadvantages, but since I’m not knowledgeable in economics, I can’t offer an

alternative solution to capitalism. Anyway, a stateless society seem impossible, I feel like this is

progressing backwards; many of the political thinkers that were discussed in class discussed about

how being in a state leads to a good life, like Plato, Aristotle, and many more. I also think that the

leaders of this proletarian revolution would in turn be dictators as well. I think that Marx’s ideas

are only relevant up to how the working class is being oppressed by the capitalist class, but I do

not think that his solution to this problem would be effective. President Duterte has mentioned that
 he is not a fan of communism (ABS-CBN News, 2016). But multiple groups, like the Communist

Party of the Philippines are still present in the country. Furthermore, I think that achieving Marx’s

envisioned “communism” is still very far away from his ideas, like the proletariat revolution, since

I don’t think that proletariat countries can revolt against the bourgeois countries as of now and a

few years from now.

References
ABS-CBN News. 2016. “Duterte: Communism Is an Ideology Long Gone.” ABS-CBN News.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/27/16/duterte-communism-is-an-ideology-long-gone (May 23,

2018).

Brillantes, Gregorio C. 2017. “Gregorio Brillantes' Brief History of Martial Law.” Esquiremag.ph.

https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/notes-and-essays/a-brief-history-of-martial-law-a1789-

20170921-lfrm3 (May 22, 2018).

Buenaagua, Arvin. 2016. “Duterte, Marcos and Our Secret Longing for Dictatorship.” UP sa

Halalan 2016. http://halalan.up.edu.ph/viewpoints/by-alumni/237-duterte-marcos-and-our-

secret-longing-for-dictatorship (May 22, 2018).

Calvelo, George. 2018. “Christian Groups Say No to SOGIE.” ABS-CBN News. http://news.abs-

cbn.com/news/multimedia/photo/03/07/18/christian-groups-say-no-to-sogie (May 23, 2018).

Engels F & Marx K. “The Communist Manifesto.”

France-Presse, Agence. 2017. “Duterte Offers Authoritarianism as PH Panacea.” Inquirer News

Duterte formally asks Congress to extend martial law in Mindanao til end of 2018 Comments.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/884740/duterte-offers-authoritarianism-as-ph-panacea (May 22,

2018).

Heydarian, Richard. 2018. “Duterte Fuels Authoritarian Revival.” Nikkei Asian Review.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Duterte-s-Philippines/Duterte-fuels-authoritarian-revival (May

22, 2018).

Machiavelli, N. “The Prince.”

Mill, J.S. “Utilitarianism.”

Regencia, Ted. 2018. “Senator: Rodrigo Duterte's Drug War Has Killed 20,000.” Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/senator-rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-killed-20000-

180221134139202.html (May 23, 2018).

“Opinion | Duterte's Descent into Authoritarianism.” 2017. The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/opinion/dutertes-descent-into-authoritarianism.html (May

22, 2018).

Plato. “The Republic.”

Xu, Michelle. 2016. “Human Rights and Duterte's War on Drugs.” Council on Foreign Relations.

https://www.cfr.org/interview/human-rights-and-dutertes-war-drugs (May 23, 2018).