THE PHILIPPINES’ FORUM FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS SINCE 1981
October 16-29, 2016 Vol. XXXIV No. 26
STILL IN STORES
Newspaper
www.expatphilippines.ph
President Rodrigo Duterte speaking before the Filipino community in Vietnam last month. Following his visit to the neighboring country, the President reaffirmed maritime and security ties with Vietnam. Photo courtesy of ACE MORANDANTE/PCOO
Decoding Duterte
Political maturity key for sustainability
Understanding the administration’s uncommon sense
By RICHARD RAMOS
By TIMOTHY JAY IBAY
hile it helps that the Filipinos are politically conscious as a whole, political maturity is a more ideal and much sought-after trait needed to develop institutions that transcend the incumbent political figurehead, and bring about genuine stability and sustainability throughout the archipelago. This entails the building of strong and accountable political systems, and less of personalities and parties, in order to bring about sweeping and long-term development that rises above administrations and heads of states and dwell more on party philosophy and ideals for the benefit of the voters. A model of comparison would be the United States’ political system where the Republicans and Democrats have reigned as the two foremost parties for several decades now despite the emergence of new and much smaller parties. page 5
P
resident Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency on the back of his campaign promise to end crime and the proliferation of drugs within “three to six months.” Well, half that timeframe is up. He has since asked for an extension, saying that he underestimated the magnitude of the country’s drug problem. But, if Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa is to be believed, crime rate is down 31 percent from last year, while Duterte’s vice presidential running mate and current Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, during a Senate hearing, compared the country’s public safety under his President to that of Singapore’s. Except, an estimated 3,800 people are
dead as a result of Duterte’s war on drugs – a microscopic percentage of which are under proper investigation – while the President himself declared the country under a “state of lawlessness” following a bombing in his beloved city of Davao. The President has cursed at virtually everyone—the US, President Barrack Obama, US Ambassador Philip Goldberg; the entire European Union, The United Nations and the Pope—while unleashing crass remarks about the Australian Ambassador, the Jews, God and everything in between. Critical response But a clear pattern has emerged when it comes to Duterte’s tirades, as Pia Ranada of Rappler, who has closely followed the Presi-
dent since the campaign trail, points out. His default response to criticism is to fire back—and fire back harder. Apart from his rhetoric – which many see unfit for a statesman – there has rarely been any criticism of Duterte other than that of the extrajudicial killings linked to his war on the drugs. And because he is so impassioned in his crusade against what he calls the drug menace, he doesn’t take kindly to those that question his means—particularly when it comes from outsiders. As noted by Ranada, according to a Cabinet secretary who has known the President for a while, “In Duterte’s mind, issuing public statements against him is a form of ‘grandstanding’ at his expense.” Former president Fidel page 5
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