Can the Philippines' wild oligarchy be tamed?

In his remarkable book simply entitled Oligarchy, Jeffrey Winters (2011: 36–8) describes the economic elite in the Philippines – one of his case studies – as having been transformed from a ‘tamed’ oligarchy under Marcos’ authoritarian rule into a ‘wild’ oligarchy under a democratic government. A wild oligarchy arises, he explains, when a government is too weak to constrain oligarchs from engaging in pathological excesses such as destabilizing intrigues, extreme corruption and political violence.