First of Two Parts

This is how bad our country has become. The newest, yet hidden oligarch in the Philippines isn’t even a Filipino: He is the Indonesian magnate Anthoni Salim.

If President Duterte tries to make a list of oligarchs in the country — the few who rule the commanding heights of the economy — he is likely to miss Salim, for he may not have read his name in the country’s biggest newspapers.

Except for the so-called “oligarchs” based in the National Capital Region, I am positive that most Filipinos agree with President Duterte that it is about time we decapitated “Imperial Manila.” Too many decisions about the welfare of the regions are being made by Manila-based politicians and government officials who are often ignorant of the real circumstances of the masses outside the NCR, especially in the predominantly rural territories.

Metro Manila, being the highest seat of power in the country since colonial times, naturally benefits from a centralized system of governance. But the concentration of power in the capital also perpetuates the oligarchic nature of the Philippine economy. The only way to rectify this is by means of an asymmetric model of the federal system—if critics of the prevailing system are to be believed, one that should be anchored on just entitlements for everyone and the right to self-determination, a form of rectificatory justice, given hundreds of years of neglect.

Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian neoliberalism isn’t the answer to poverty and political abuse in the Philippines.

Rodrigo Duterte’s election as president of the Philippines made global news. It’s not hard to see why. Described as an “outsider” and a “maverick,” Duterte is a charismatic enigma.