INTERNATIONAL ILONGGO | Is Duterte a fascist?

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BY JED JALECO DEL ROSARIO
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
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SO PRESIDENT Duterte recently admitted that he’s a fascist. He made the claim in a tongue in cheek way, but that hasn’t stopped people from getting worked up about the comment. “Is Duterte a fascist? Is he like Mussolini and Hitler?”

To answer this question, it’s important to review what the term means. Fascism is a type of “third way” political ideology that rose to prominence shortly after World War I. It takes its name from the Fasces, a roman symbol which consists of several rods bound together in the form of a bundle with an axe inside of it.

The Fasces is meant to symbolize the power of the state, namely its ability to gather various individuals and factions and turn them into a single, powerful force. Genghis Khan reportedly created a similar symbol, except he used arrows instead of sticks.

Fascism has a few key elements. First of all, it emphasizes strong state power. Next, it rejects both capitalism and communist economic theories in favor of “mixed” economic policies. Thirdly, it is militaristic, in the sense that it believes that the armed forces should have power over the civilian sphere. Fourthly, it is anti-cosmopolitan, in the sense that it emphasizes state nationalism.

This is a very short and very brief description of what Fascism is (and I’m sure a lot of people out there would like to correct or add to this), but it is enough for the purpose of this article. So let’s go through these one by one.

First of all, does Duterte want strong state power? The answer depends on how you interpret his actions. On the one hand, there is his war on drugs as well as various comments he’s made that could be interpreted as overstepping his presidential mandate, namely threats about a revolutionary government. There is also the martial law in Mindanao (but I consider that justified measure considering the mess in Marawi).

On the other hand, Duterte is also a strong supporter of Federalism, and that could lead to a weakening of the state’s power. So, in my opinion, the best answer for the first question would be a “Maybe,” though I’m sure a lot of people would insist that the correct should be “Yes.”

Next is the question of economic theory, and based on his policies so far, Duterte seems to favor a mixed economy with a strong emphasis on investment, but then again, almost all countries of the world favor mixed economies. So if we’re going to judge people by their economic policies then most countries in the world today would be considered fascist.

On the third question, is Duterte a militarist? Most people would probably think so, given what most would call his heavy-handed approach, as well as his threats of martial law against what he perceives to be a threat to the country. So in that regard, he gets a “Yes.”

Finally, there are Duterte’s well-known comments about autarky and nationalism, so he gets another “Yes” on point No. 4. However, I’d like to add the caveat that most leftists conflate fascism with nationalism as a way to demonize the latter by associating it with the former.

So is Duterte a Fascist? I would probably describe him as being “Fascistic” or having Fascistic tendencies, but not an actual Fascist (since I doubt he even cares about the official ideology as practiced by actual fascists in the 20th century). And that’s an important point to remember about Fascism, a person can be Fascistic without actually being a Fascist, and when leftists accuse people of being Fascists what they actually mean is that they are Fascistic.

However, Duterte’s fascistic tendencies are not the big issue here. The big issue is if Duterte is Fascistic then so are the millions of Filipino voters who voted him into power, and if most of the country is fascistic then the Left will just have to get used to it./PN
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