Rodrigo Duterte Has Won Presidential Election in the Philippines. The right man for the job or a death sentence for Philippine democracy?

[IrishBlood]

The extremely controversial former major is all but guaranteed to win the election going by current vote counts.


Many have compared him to Donald Trump in terms of controversy, but in reality he is far worse, at one point saying he wished he had been able to take part in an infamous gang rape of an Australian missionary in the 1980's, not to mention his all around terrible attitude to women in general.


http://time.com/4322806/rodrigo-dute...election-wins/


His biggest claim to fame is cleaning up crime in the city of Davao, once the most violent city in the country, but now widely considered as one of the safest. It seems common knowledge that Duterte achieved this by hiring ruthless paramilitaries to carry out extrajudicial killings of virtually all known organized criminals in the city.


While morally and legally reprehensible, the tactic appears to have worked, so much so that it is basically his main campaign platform, one that has proven widely popular.


His extreme attitude towards organized crime, combined with his zero tolerance attitude towards corruption (although he seems to have less of a proven track record in that regard) has proven to be a powerful populist message to a significant portion of the Filipino population who are sick and tired of decades of corruption and inefficiency under successive governments as well as some of the worst crime rates in Asia.


It will be interesting to see if Duterte can pull off even a fraction of his ambitious election promises and if he can what would the cost be?

[Caligula's_Horse]

He's probably only going to make things worse. The comparison to Trump is apt in that as far as we can tell, he has plenty of soundbites, but no actual policies ready to be put into practice. And what little can be learned about his plans sounds like it would do more harm than good.
In fact I'd say he seems worse than Trump. For all his bluster, that overstuffed clod of hair doesn't have a history of hiring out thugs to fix his problems with extra judicial killings. I hope for the Phillipenes' sake their governmental institutions are independent enough to resist his influence. Failing that, maybe the army will take him out if he starts going full dictator or does something particularly stupid.

[Chromium]

I often fear that maybe most people in the West aren't really exposed to Asian ideas and opinions- even those from the Philippines which is probably the most 'Western' Asian country there is.

Briefly- I've not met a single Filipino in my life who hasn't privately admitted that Duterte is the best guy to be President.

They'll mock him in public to sound cool and fit in with their liberal white friends but then they'll go back home and vote for the guy. Which is exactly what happened. Duterte has won a massive majority- and why not? He's clean as a whistle, brutally honest and unforgiving even on himself, a workaholic, and a tried and tested politician. I can't understand why Caligula's saying his policies are untested. Duterte's methods work. And they're not unknown to the place either. Singapore is still in many ways a Police State.

Duterte is LKY if LKY hadn't had much of an English education. And no one has ever accused LKY of being a fool.

This shift towards the right isn't just an American or even Filipino phenomenon. The entire World has been shifting Right in a massive way over the past few years. There's Abe in Japan, Xi in China, Modi in India, Orban in Hungary- and the most common thread running through all this is anger at the threat from the West and Islamist attacks- widely believed in Asia to be CIA handiwork. Duterte himself is from the Muslim South of Philippines. He's massively popular with the Army as well if my last trip to Manila was any indication.

Liberalism will fall and i honestly can't say I'll miss it.

[Caligula's_Horse]

I often fear that maybe most people in the West aren't really exposed to Asian ideas and opinions- even those from the Philippines which is probably the most 'Western' Asian country there is.

Briefly- I've not met a single Filipino in my life who hasn't privately admitted that Duterte is the best guy to be President.

They'll mock him in public to sound cool and fit in with their liberal white friends but then they'll go back home and vote for the guy. Which is exactly what happened. Duterte has won a massive majority- and why not? He's clean as a whistle, brutally honest and unforgiving even on himself, a workaholic, and a tried and tested politician. I can't understand why Caligula's saying his policies are untested. Duterte's methods work. And they're not unknown to the place either. Singapore is still in many ways a Police State.

Duterte is LKY if LKY hadn't had much of an English education. And no one has ever accused LKY of being a fool.

This shift towards the right isn't just an American or even Filipino phenomenon. The entire World has been shifting Right in a massive way over the past few years. There's Abe in Japan, Xi in China, Modi in India, Orban in Hungary- and the most common thread running through all this is anger at the threat from the West and Islamist attacks- widely believed in Asia to be CIA handiwork. Duterte himself is from the Muslim South of Philippines. He's massively popular with the Army as well if my last trip to Manila was any indication.

Liberalism will fall and i honestly can't say I'll miss it.

This might surprise you, but the death penalty and using the presence and implied threat of men armed to kill to keep order isn't the part I have a problem with. The issue is doing it extra-judicially, without any real oversight. Once groups of armed men are allowed to go out and murder anyone they as much as suspect is a criminal, it starts getting into their head that they can do whatever they want, and its not long before they start extorting innocent people for money, or plain and simple murdering them on a whim. Its a pretty typical pattern for police forces and armies in areas of the world where the government either can't or won't effectively reign them in.
Having an attack dog is well and good, but only so long as its well trained and has a good leash on top of that, making sure it only attacks what you want it to.

I'm also not saying his policies are untested, so much as that they're either a great unknown, or don't exist at all (on a national scale at least; running a city and running a country are two very different things that require going about it completely differently). From what I've read about the man and his campaign, he seems very much like trump in that he never goes into specifics, which is usually a sign that the specifics are non-palatable, or that there are no specifics to be had. Going around saying "I'll root out corruption" or "I'll make America great again" or "I'll get the smartest people on this" is nice and all, but some plans on how you plan on actually accomplishing those things would be nice. Specifics are what separates empty promises and campaign soundbites from actual policy.
Not being able to work it into a speech is no excuse either. It doesn't have to be worked into a speech, it can even be in some published document 99% of the voting public will never read. The very fact that such a document exists, and journalists and experts haven't torn it to shreds, is indication that a candidate has a serious plan, if nothing else, and in Duterte's case, we don't have that.

[IrishBlood]

Some pretty interesting responses here, do you think Duterte will aim to improve relations with China or do you think they will worsen?

[Chromium]

Some pretty interesting responses here, do you think Duterte will aim to improve relations with China or do you think they will worsen?

He has declared that he'll sail to the Spratly islands himself with a Philippines flag and a gun if the need arises.

I guess that's his Chinese policy right there.

[IrishBlood]

Countries should ruled by law, not by vigilantism. That's a given. However, the Philippines is in many corners a failed state that has allowed crime and corruption to overrun it. When there is already no rule of law and even the judicial system is compromised, I can see why someone like Duterte chose these drastic measures as a solution. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that I understand why he does the things he does.

Is Duterte reprehensible? Yes. Although he's brutally honest about it.

The thing is, if he implements the (totally illegal) methods he used to clean up his home city throughout the rest of the country, then chances are the amount of extra judicial killings could number in the thousands considering that the population is nearing 100 million.

While I doubt I, or many Filipinos, would shed any tears over the killing of career criminals, there will almost certainly be a considerable amount of collateral damage. The country could basically turn into a right wing police state, but considering the pretty terrible state the country is in, maybe that's what the country needs? It's certainly what a significant proportion of the population seem to want anyway!

He has declared that he'll sail to the Spratly islands himself with a Philippines flag and a gun if the need arises.

I guess that's his Chinese policy right there.

Yeah, if it wasn't for his horrendous attitude towards women, I might almost like the guy, you've got to love his brutal honesty

[Roma_Victrix]

Countries should ruled by law, not by vigilantism. That's a given. However, the Philippines is in many corners a failed state that has allowed crime and corruption to overrun it. When there is already no rule of law and even the judicial system is compromised, I can see why someone like Duterte chose these drastic measures as a solution. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that I understand why he does the things he does.

Is Duterte reprehensible? Yes. Although he's brutally honest about it.

[Dromikaites]

As far as the women are concerned he seems to say awful things while doing the right things (the leading women rights activists praise him for his programs while in office in Davao).

Ataturk was also a shameless womanizer. That didn't prevent him from spectacularly changing the status of the woman in the Turkish society. It could be a cultural thing: in certain cultures male politicians need to play the macho part while implementing meaningful reforms in favor of women. "See, I can continue to be the communal bull even if the women are enfranchised! Real men like myself aren't afraid of women's rights so you shouldn't be either if you are indeed a real man".

[IrishBlood]

As far as the women are concerned he seems to say awful things while doing the right things (the leading women rights activists praise him for his programs while in office in Davao).

Ataturk was also a shameless womanizer. That didn't prevent him from spectacularly changing the status of the woman in the Turkish society. It could be a cultural thing: in certain cultures male politicians need to play the macho part while implementing meaningful reforms in favor of women. "See, I can continue to be the communal bull even if the women are enfranchised! Real men like myself aren't afraid of women's rights so you shouldn't be either if you are indeed a real man".

Well in that case, maybe he really is the man that the Philippines needs!

[Roma_Victrix]

As far as the women are concerned he seems to say awful things while doing the right things (the leading women rights activists praise him for his programs while in office in Davao).

Ataturk was also a shameless womanizer. That didn't prevent him from spectacularly changing the status of the woman in the Turkish society. It could be a cultural thing: in certain cultures male politicians need to play the macho part while implementing meaningful reforms in favor of women. "See, I can continue to be the communal bull even if the women are enfranchised! Real men like myself aren't afraid of women's rights so you shouldn't be either if you are indeed a real man".

Actions speak louder than words when it comes to showing your own true character, of course, although words do have an affect on others if you're in a position of authority. Some people idolize you so much that they can often take those words and carry them too far. I don't think womanizing is this guy's biggest problem, though. Obviously his call to vigilante justice and murder is the most troubling thing here. Given how IrishBlood has just pointed out the call to murder even drug addicts, this is not going to end well, methinks.

[Napoleonic Bonapartism]

I have to say vigilante anti-crime squads does sound worryingly close to those far-right death squads you hear about in South America, who attempt 'social cleansing' mostly by murdering homeless people. Even if started with good intentions it can easily take a nasty turn. I'm reminded of this VICE doc about the Colombian sewers, where the homeless are forced to live due to fear of the fascist thugs:

[IrishBlood]

Duterte seems to be keeping his campaign promises and is now calling for the deaths of drug addicts!

https://news.vice.com/article/dutert...l-drug-addicts

[Condottiere 40K]

How will he deal with internal dissent and insurgency?

[IrishBlood]

How will he deal with internal dissent and insurgency?

I might be wrong as it has been awhile since I watched it, but according to this video the leader of the Maoist insurgents seems hopeful for peace and is actually looking forward to dealing with a pragmatic realist like Duterte.

https://news.vice.com/video/the-vice...ew-nur-misuari

I get the feeling that Duterte will deal with the Maoists favorably, but will have a zero tolerance attitude towards the more radical, loosely ISIS affiliated, Islamic militants.

[Col. Tartleton]

I like how the discourse has fallen to the point that actual fascists with blood on their hands are compared to Trump favorably.

[IrishBlood]

The killings have begun!

https://youtu.be/iyTv0qbj4xI

Sent from my Xtouch using Tapatalk

[Papay]

https://www.rt.com/news/350370-us-te...ine-president/

Duterte blames US for islamic terrorism. Very strong anti-US statement.

[Papay]

I bring back this thread because there was a serious incident. Duterte called Obama "son of a wh...e" and Obama cancelled his visit with him

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...bama-son-whore

Does anyone know why Duterte is so anti-American?

[Roma_Victrix]

Apparently because of some bombing incident in 2002 where an American guy injured himself at a hotel and US authorities spirited him out of the country before the Filipino court system could deal with him. He claimed to have worked for the CIA. Perhaps Duterte thinks the CIA has too much influence over the country...or something? He must know something that we don't know. Either that or he's just paranoid and likes to hold grudges over obscure news events at hotels more than a decade ago.