Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
A long time compatriot on Twitter, an intellectual pragmatist, referred me to a You Tube panel discussion of the American "deep state" featuring a couple of university foreign policy notables, John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs, from the University of Chicago and Columbia University, respectively.
I got about halfway through the video when the intellectual smugness of the two became overbearing, so I turned it off. Their position is that the US has a well-intrenched foreign policy dominion that is constant through all administrations and it is driven by the sole purpose of accumulating and exercising power. I concede that what they say is true. What to do about the beast, if anything, I leave to Americans other than me.
But it struck me that the Philippines may also have a deep state within its governing framework. What is it? Well, it is not a foreign policy state. The Philippines is a pawn of international players, not a pusher. If the Philippines has a deep state, it is domestic.
How do I find this deep state? What are the enduring commonalities within Philippine government that exist no matter who is running the show? That pass from one government to the next?
Here's what I see:
- Funding of dynasties that bicker endlessly, undeterred by compromise. Little lords.
- Oppressive, authoritarian administrative might exercised via minutiae in laws.
- Reactive programs endlessly fixing things rather than building a modern nation.
The Philippine deep state is one of smallness, isn't it? It sure seems so to me.
Why is that?
I long ago recognized that power is the most basic, root human currency. Not money or goods or spiritual righteousness. They are the outputs and tools of humans, not the currency. As the US exploits its power over lesser countries, and tries to make strong ones lesser, the Philippines exploits its power domestically by keeping its citizens suppressed.
It is a highly effective deep state, keeping citizens uneducated and poor, smothering ambition with laws and making sure citizens know who is boss. And the bosses are not the people even if President Aquino pretended they are.
Just look at the way Filipinos are held back! Administrative red tape and harassment (NBI clearances, boy howdy!). PNP as a goon shop, not to protect and serve. Local intimidations, down to the barangay!. Regimented little rote learning schools. Day labor, not careers! Sing the national anthem correctly or be punished! Even religion is worked into government routines! What a great way to subjugate people! Ridiculous paperwork to get anything done and always, always, the glowering presence of totalitarian clerks scowling down to keep the little people little.
The Philippine deep state keeps itself secure so that the entitled may retain their chairs, no matter how incompetently or corruptly they sit in them. Administration after administration. From Aguinaldo to Marcos, Jr.
Filipinos are kept little.
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Cover photograph created by Word Press image generator using the article as the prompt.
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