It’s become more and more unbelievable, more and more absurd, as Duterte’s military men try to build a narrative plot for what they insist is a destabilization project against the government, one that is also about ousting the President.
Interestingly enough, while they get media mileage for this equally hilarious and dangerous exercise, the nation is falling deeper into crisis — and it’s forecast to get worse. But instead of actually working on this crisis, government is using media mileage to talk about the purported Red October plot. On the surface, this is nothing but the Duterte government trying (and failing!) to use Marcos era tactics to sow fear, insisting that the Left and <insert government enemies here> are about to take over, so that at some point, government can create its own staged proof of destabilization, i.e., a car ambush ala Enrile, a bombing here, a bombing there, and what-have-you.
But we know better now. And the only way we CAN keep this manufactured plot from gaining credibility with the public is to reveal it for what it is: another (failed!) Duterte strategy to create the conditions that would make his dictatorship acceptable and necessary. Certainly by listing down all these groups and people who are purportedly part of “a plot,” they also seek to discourage us all from speaking out.
An important fact about this government: we need to keep track of information that it spews out, because so much falls through the cracks, and it lives off manufactured noise. It’s only when we have a sense of how they’re spinning discourse that we can take a clear collective stance against these dictatorial moves. It’s also a way of stopping it before it escalates.
Here, what looks like the steps this government took towards its failed DIY ouster plot project.