DUTERTE: HOBBES-MACHIAVELLI HYBRID

By Bayawanon

Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian philosopher in the 16th Century through his treatise "The Prince" once recommended that "the end justifies the means", that it is just fine if the means is not good as long as the end of the of the means would be good.

This might be the battle-cry of the Philippine President Duterte "the end justifies the means", the means in killing bad people like the drug addicts and pushers would be justified when the country would already be purged.

The question would then be like this, how can the society be totally purged when the drug problem and criminality are almost unsolvable? Will the killings not stop until the last drug personality and last criminal fall? If the answer to these queries would be in the affirmative, then the decimation of the so-called bad people of the community would not stop for no one is perfect in this world.

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher in the 17th Century had once suggested in his political theory he dubbed as "The Leviathan", that for a country to be peaceful, the people should surrender/submit their rights to a central ruler or THE ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGN whom he called the Leviathan whose purpose is to rule and to defend the people from the enemies of the state.

This thing is also happening now under the present Duterte presidency, the president is painting himself as the SUPERMAN OF THE PHILIPPINES or as the Leviathan, the sole savior of the people. But the problem is, he is asking the people to surrender their inalienable and constitutional rights to be free.

Are the acts of the president which are Machiavellian and Hobbsian like be justified under a democratic state like the Philippines? The answer would be a BIG NO, for according to a song written and sung by an illustrious Filipino folk singer, Freddie Aguilar, "Ibon man may layang lumipad" which in English means EVEN A BIRD HAS THE FREEDOM TO FLY. If a bird should have a freedom to fly, much more than man should live freely and democratically.

The Hobbsian-Machiavellian hybrid brand of the leadership of President Duterte to me, is actually a threat to democracy and to its aggregates and must be checked by the people, otherwise the same would leave their future to the limbo of uncertainty if not darkness.