Duterte and the Oligarchs

Screengrab from News.abs-cbn.com.

CHEERS TO some media organizations for explaining what an oligarch is after President Rodrigo Duterte called businessman Roberto Ongpin one during a speech before the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.

On Aug. 5, the Philippine Daily Inquirer ran “IN THE KNOW: Oligarchs and cronies” in its inside pages to go with the banner story “’Oligarch’ on Rody hit list quits as firm’s boss.” The piece provided insights from political scientists and an analyst who defined oligarchs as people who “have money to use to influence government policies” and who “control a country by controlling both wealth and politics.”

The ABS-CBN News Channel also had a report, “Who are ‘oligarchs’?” on Aug. 8 in which other experts explained what the term meant.

The term once came into popular use when the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos justified his declaration of martial law by saying that it was to remove the power of the oligarchs.

But Marcos also installed crony capitalists who were described by some observers as oligarchs.

President Duterte has made similar statements since becoming president on June 30, calling oligarchs “monsters” and promising to destroy them along with drug dealers.