Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Operation Pacific Eagle: Duterte Falls in Line with US Plans for the Philippines

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 16, 2018

Operation Pacific Eagle: Duterte Falls in Line with US Plans for the Philippines

Click here to access article by Elliott Gabriel from Mint Press News.

I have watched with amazement at the antics of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during the past 1 1/2 years. I first witnessed his outrageous anti-American statements which called a member of Obama's administration "a gay son-of-a-bitch" and Obama "a son of a whore". Then there were his visits to China and Russia followed by his statements that he was aligning his country with China and Russia. Following this there appeared almost on cue the appearance of the Islamic army in the Philippines which was followed by Duterte asking the US for help in fighting them! Either Duterte is a very good actor or he is unstable to the extreme, possibly both.

In this second article of a series of three by Gabriel he draws on comments by exiled Filipino revolutionary Jose Maria Sison and Professors William I. Robinson and Roland Simbulan to ascertain what Duterte is really like. The author tends to see Duterte's personality as very much like the Empire's Donald Trump. According to Sison, Duterte's former college professor, Duterte has been under the control of the US Empire all along. And Gabriel reminds us of the history of the Philippines as the first US imperialist launching of what has now become a worldwide Empire.

For more information regarding US-Philippine relations, I recommend his first article entitled "Operation Pacific Eagle in the Philippines: Washington’s New Colonial War" and his last article yet to be posted.