Philippine Democracy Online

The "Davao School of Radical Politics" (or often referred to as the Davao School of Radical Democracy) is a contemporary philosophical and political movement led by Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc, a philosophy professor at the Ateneo de Davao University.   In 2017, Ateneo de Davao University funded Maboloc’s research entitled 'Radical Democracy in the Time of Duterte." Ten papers were published from the said research which became the core of his book of the same title that came out in 2022.  Maboloc developed a "school of thought" that emerged to provide an intellectual and philosophical defense of the political style and policies of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The most prominent figures in this philosophical movement from the Philiippine South include Menelito Mansueto, Gerry Arambala. Benjiemen Labastin, Dr..Joezenon Purog, and Dr. Rogelio Bayod. Core Philosophy The Davao School seeks to provide an "alternative narrative" to Weste...

If the reason for the US and Israel for attacking Iran is to prevent it from building atom bombs, why can't Iran simply abandon its nuclear ambition? It is not as simple as that. ​The fundamental reason why Iran wants its own nuclear capability is to deter its enemies, primarily Israel. Regimes with nuclear weapons like North Korea are rarely invaded or overthrown, while those that gave up their nuclear armaments like Ukraine or their programs like Libya, or lacked them (like Iraq under Saddam) were eventually overthrown with support from Western-led forces (e.g. Iraq). Since Iran has not yet achieved its full nuclear capability, Israel and the US think it is strategic to prevent the same from happening. Iran views a nuclear deterrent as the ultimate form of defense against any military attack by the U.S. or Israel, which is happening right now. Because of the current war, Iran is more encouraged to fulfill its nuclear goals for its own survival. The US calls it an evil regime. Tru...

The way democracy works today or at least after the 2nd world war, we owe it largely to Habermas. His most important idea is communicative action, which looks into what he calls an ideal speech situation that seeks understanding and consensus by means of the truth instead of overpowering someone by force or intimidation. True to the tradition of critical theory, Habermas puts into question the influence of the state apparatus, the economy, and other technocratic instruments which for Habermas colonizes the lifeworld. What is the lifeworld? It refers basically to man's everyday life - family, community, including his beliefs. In the world of indigenous peoples, their lifeworld is colonized by hegemonic Western values that undermine their voice, hence, excluding them from greater society. In modern life, capitalism and consumer culture dictate the way people live their lives. Modern technology is controlled by capitalism (Big Tech) thereby rendering human existence into the calculati...

The "Decolonial Turn in the Philippine South" primarily refers to a recent philosophical and scholarly development, most concretely represented by the 2024 book titled Decolonial Turn in the Philippine South by Menelito Mansueto, a scholar affiliated with Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) in southern Philippines. This work embodies a broader emerging intellectual movement or "turn" in the southern Philippines (especially Mindanao and surrounding areas), where thinkers apply decolonial frameworks to critique persistent colonial legacies, power structures, epistemic violence, and social injustices in the region. What is the "Decolonial Turn"? In global academia, the decolonial turn (building from thinkers like Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, and others in Latin American and Global South traditions) seeks to go beyond postcolonial critique. It emphasizes: Exposing coloniality...

Radical Democracy in the Time of Duterte is a 2022 book by Christopher Ryan Maboloc (published by ElziStyle Bookshop, Cotabato City, with a foreword by Wataru Kusaka).  It is a collection of essays (comprising ten chapters) that the author developed over five years, chronicling and analyzing the six-year presidency of Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (2016–2022).  The book draws heavily on postmodern and post-Marxist political theory—particularly the concept of radical democracy as articulated by Belgian philosopher Chantal Mouffe—to frame Duterte's leadership style and policies. Core Thesis and Framework Maboloc argues that Duterte's approach represents a form of radical democracy in the Philippine context. Drawing from Mouffe's ideas, he portrays radical democracy as embracing: The permanence of conflict and antagonism in politics (rejecting illusions of perfect consensus or a harmonious collective will). The rejection of a homogeneous society or elite-driven libe...

  By Dr. Romulo Bautista Philosophy teachers from various schools in Mindanao have organized themselves into a Social Ethics Society, in order to help solve and/or bring the moral aspect of socio-political-economic problems for solution to political leaders of Mindanao. The Social Ethics Society laments the fact that the elite leadership of democracy in Mindanao has not done enough to improve the socio-economic fortune of the poor in the rural and in the urban areas. In terms of real income, the poor are even poorer today than they were in previous years. Empty of moral component, the political leadership of the elite few is passed from one elite group to another elite group. Contrary to the republican vision of our Constitution, the elite leaders used their delegated authority from the voters who are mostly poor, to further their vested interests at the expense of the best interests of the poor. It is time for Social Ethics Society to teach, educate, and enlighten voters at the gr...