[Right-Up] Digong and Johnny, Classic Leviathans | Norman Novio
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Digong and Johnny, Classic Leviathans
Juan Ponce Enrile was Rodrigo Duterte’s special guest in the latter’s regular public address on May 17, 2021 and they spent a one hour and 10-minute of scratching each other’s back, flattering each other like toddlers.
President Duterte, who vowed to eradicate corruption until the end of his term, designated as his honorable guest last Wednesday former Marcos architect Enrile who is still facing one plunder and 15 graft charges because of the reported misuse of his priority development assistance fund (PDAF). Allegedly, Enrile endorsed the phony NGO owned by Janet Lim Napoles in exchange for bribes. Enrile’s chief of staff, Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, is still incarcerated at Camp Bagong Diwa for her alleged role in said scam. According to reports your old man Johnny and Gigi are lovers. Just this January, Reyes filed a motion for her temporary release citing that the corona virus might spread inside the prison facility. The Sandigangbayan instantly denied her bid.
The occasion became a grand meeting of the Philippine’s two classic “Leviathans”. Enrile, who is facing charges of graft and corruption and awaiting trial from home due to humanitarian grounds, said from the start that law of force runs in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and the Philippines do not have the capacity to enforce the ruling of the UN Arbitral Tribunal has the economic right to exploit the zone exclusively but not the sovereignty over the disputed waters. He said in 2019, “Because among nations, it is what they call a Hobbesian society. It is the rule of force rather than the rule of law [that matters],” referring to a situation of unrestrained competition expounded by political philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Enrile said that the Philippines, without such a power to enforce the ruling, we have to vow to China, apparently.
Hobbes theorized that the state of nature of man innately disordered and selfish and to end this violent setting, Hobbes suggested the forging of covenant with each other. This contract consists of surrendering of freedom and liberty to an absolute authority, and in this particular case, China. This is called now as the Social Contract Theory. By surrendering to China, these two classic Leviathans believe that it can resolve all of our problems regarding such a contested body of water by way of a covenant or contract.
In 1651, Thomas Hobbes wrote a book called “Leviathan, or the matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil” (“Leviathan” in short) and it says a lot about politics and society.
Hobbes suggested that the natural basic state of humankind is one of anarchy, with the strong dominating the weak, ergo, our one natural right is of self-preservation.
In order to remove that basic fear between individuals or groups, Hobbes suggested that people should ‘contract’ with a protector as their sovereign. Under this social contract individuals give up all rights, while those of the protector are absolute. Hobbes’s key point was that any protector was there by specific agreement with their subjects.
The F/B Gem-Ver fishermen residents of my home town San Jose in Occidental Mindoro, never heard of Hobbes and other philosophers. What matters most to them was what the Chinese did to them that tragic night of June 9, 2019 at Reed Bank.
Duterte, 76, and Enrile, 97, just riveted last Wednesday their Hobbesian leaning into the WPS issue. A theory where the governors and the governed enter a social contract for mutual preservation in exchange of some rights of its citizens.
Biblical sea monsters called Leviathans seemingly appeared in human flesh and addressed the public that day.
Photo: newspatrol.com.ph
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