Dictatorship is something he may not even have to declare. In fact, it’s already in operation to an extent made possible by the enlistment of the right political and security forces. That has been most manifest in his virtual cession of sovereignty to China over Philippine territorial seas and subsequent suspicious dealings with it in business, trade, and loans; his brutal war against illegal drugs, in which more than 20,000 were killed in just about a year; his bombing war against a band of brigands and supposed separatists and Islamic State terrorists in Marawi City, in Mindanao; and his martial rule over the whole island of Mindanao, which has gone on for a year now on various pretexts with congressional and judicial approval.