My take on Rodrigo Duterte

[Lee]

 

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SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III disclosed last week that former president Rodrigo Duterte was not sure to attend a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing on the previous administration's antidrug campaign scheduled for Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. Yet, lo and behold, the 79-year-old statesman made a surprise appearance during the probe.

Rodrigo has made unpredictability an indelible trademark. I can only speculate why he has purposely made himself unpredictable. I suspect this has to do with his experience as longtime mayor of Davao City. Historian Reynaldo Ileto has convincingly explained in his book, "Knowledge and Pacification," that a small-town mayor operates under a situation where powerful forces abound, putting them under constant threat of being squished if they make a wrong move. Thus, mayors learn early on to mask their moves with unpredictability to throw off powerful forces operating in their jurisdiction in order to accomplish certain objectives.

After earning a law degree in 1972, Duterte spent most of his pre-electoral politics years as an assistant city prosecutor for Davao coming face-to-face on a daily basis with the malevolence of his beloved city. His experience as a prosecutor probably hardened Rodrigo and shaped his draconian attitude toward justice, peace and order. Residents of Davao City swear by the necessity of such measures, exhibiting an uncanny fondness and fierce loyalty toward their rugged and unpolished leader. Pre-Duterte Davao City has been described by longtime residents as anarchic, chaotic and violent, a vestige of Mindanao's (Spanish and American colonial) frontier past. Before Rodrigo stepped into the picture, Davao was a forgotten city, directionless and too far from the radar of national politics centered in Manila.

Yet, he still had to maneuver deftly in order not to arouse any intervention from "Imperial Manila," leaving his social engineering project in Davao City undisturbed. Thus, Rodrigo correctly pointed out that nobody in the capital was interested in his war on drugs (and criminality) while he was a mere Davao City mayor. It was only during his road to becoming the most popular president in history riding on the success of the war on drugs replicated at the national stage, that the country's oligarchic forces began to unite against him.

If ever the slogan "unity" had any potency in contemporary politics, it only came in the form of oligarchic unity against the Duterte success.

Senators of the Republic, with their invariably middle-class backgrounds, are shocked by the measured crudeness of Rodrigo Duterte's leadership style and are even more aghast at the incredible support he continues to enjoy from the Filipino people. The reason is simple: most Filipinos, unlike the politicians of this country, did/do not enjoy the security provided by their gated community homes. Ordinary Filipinos invariably come face-to-face on a daily basis with violent crimes that envelop most urban areas in the country.

Personally, I grew up in Barangay Pio del Pilar in Makati — we lived there from 1978 to 1992 — amid rampant drug abuse and violent crime. Living in a three-door apartment complex, our communal driveway served as the venue for regular pot sessions involving our next-door neighbor who was addicted to marijuana initially but graduated to shabu. My mom would often find marijuana plants surreptitiously mixed with her potted plants. It was quite a colorful childhood, I must admit.

I was shooting hoops with a neighbor one evening. As I was running after a loose ball, a couple of men whom I recognized as another neighbor and his buddy started mauling the guy I was shooting hoops with. Another time, a drug-crazed neighbor who was protected by his cop brother-in-law suddenly stabbed with an ice pick a guy playing 3x3 hoops in broad daylight with more than a dozen onlookers. Luckily, the stab wound was neither deep nor fatal.

Another drug-crazed neighbor got into an argument with his in-laws while brandishing knives and bolos over remittance money from his estranged overseas Filipino worker wife. Outnumbered by his in-laws, the drug-crazed man retreated, stumbling onto a street-food vendor who he then tried to stab. Alert, the vendor blocked the thrust with a pail and quickly took out his own butcher's knife and ran after the attacker.

I guess by the time Rodrigo Duterte ran for president, the Filipino people were just fed up with violent street crimes invariably involving a drug-addled assailant.

I certainly was.

Thus, when Duterte as president talked about street crime, substance abuse and crimes associated with illegal drugs, millions of Filipinos understood what he was saying.

Filipino social scientists talk about the cultural meanings of being human in this country. For brevity, let me just say that being human has two aspects: the physical likeness ("anyo") of a human and behaving like a human ("asal"). Thus, there are three levels of humanity for Filipinos:

1. Humans ("tao") who have the physical likeness and behavior of a human.

2. Those who have the physical likeness of a human but behave like animals, wantonly disregarding social norms, customs and traditions, as well as social values and social order are called animals ("hayop").

3. The "aswang" or "salot" has the physical likeness of a human but preys on the human "ginhawa" tucked away near the liver area.

Drug-crazed criminals are often viewed as aswang or in the words of De La Salle University history department chairperson Dr. Jose Rhommel Hernandez, "salot na halimaw." As such, it is the obligation and duty of the bayani to kill the salot, and protect and preserve society, explaining why Duterte's popularity actually soared alongside the rising casualty count associated with the war on drugs.

I really found the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing held last Oct. 28, 2024 quite amusing. Duterte's critics have said they will use the statements he made before the Senate against him in some future legal action, maybe with the local courts or with the involvement of the International Criminal Court. But all I saw was a very public reminder why the Filipino people made Rodrigo Duterte the most popular outgoing president in 2022.

My take on Rodrigo Duterte

 

 

[Mike J]

As I wrote in an earlier post, people either seem to love Duterte or hate him. 

[BrettGC]

All I know is that Davao City used to be a pretty wild town.  I remember serving on HMAS Perth (DDG-38 - modified Charles F Adams class for the naval types) in 1994 and Davao City was one of our scheduled PI port visits.  Even though it was 6 years after his election the city was still deemed to be too dangerous by the Australian naval attache and others in Manila so about 2 weeks before we were due the visit was changed to Cebu City.  By 1996 Australian warships were visiting again.  This all went out the window again when Abu Sayef jumped on the bandwagon during the "War on Terror" and despite the vast differences in their activity levels in the different areas of the island Australia decided to play it safe.  

As to D30's methods, rightly or wrongly, I'm a firm believer in the judicial process and I'll leave it at that. 

[Possum]

I have very mixed thoughts about Duterte. I knew he would be a typical strongman type of leader before he was elected. We've seen them before in many other countries. I imagined he'd be like Ferdinand Marcos without the kleptocracy. Once elected he did as promised and started killing drug dealers without a trial. In one speech to the assembled congress he said it would be nice if an earthquake took down the building . [I liked that one] But he also said things like" I wanted to call him: ‘Pope, son of a whore, go home. Do not visit us again." After the rape and murder of an Australian missionary he said "I was angry because she was raped. That’s one thing. But she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been first." Cute. The explosion of the POGOs and increased alliance with the Chinese went a little too far too.

Where we live we noticed shorter lines at government buildings. Not everyone was allowed to go to lunch at the same time. The Presidential Complaint Commission worked well for us. You made a complaint and it was resolved in short order. The mayors toed the line a little better when it came to following republic laws as they feared him. Things were still corrupt but not as in your face as before.

I do know that the Filipinos my wife knows all wish they had someone like Duterte back as currently there doesn't seem to be a government outside the NCR. The rest of the country has reverted to independent fiefdoms controlled by political dynasties which will be reelected in the coming elections next year.

Having worked and lived in many countries I have seen this play before so though it's frustrating in the extreme at times I accept it and try to find the humor in it, for now.

[craftbeerlover]

45 minutes ago, Possum said:

In one speech to the assembled congress he said it would be nice if an earthquake took down the building . [I liked that one] But he also said things like" I wanted to call him: ‘Pope, son of a whore, go home. Do not visit us again." After the rape and murder of an Australian missionary he said "I was angry because she was raped. That’s one thing. But she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been first." Cute. The explosion of the POGOs and increased alliance with the Chinese went a little too far too.

 

Edited Friday at 05:05 AM by craftbeerlover
might be crossing the line of talking politics here

[Lee]

My take.

Recently during a Senate hearing, Duterte confessed to keeping a seven-member “death squad” that had carried out his orders to liquidate criminals when he was mayor of Davao City.

This statement stirred up a bunch comment as one would expect.

Duterte has a long history of making nonfactual statements or exaggerated claims and then sitting back and reveling in the publics reaction.
Spokesman Ernesto Abella has said that Mr Duterte is using "heightened bravado" while making similar comments in the past.
 

Lets look at some of these comments.

 2016

Mr Duterte joked about a 1989 rape and murder of an Australian missionary. He said that as mayor of the town where it happened, he should have been "first in line".

May 2017
Mr Duterte's words were: "I will be imprisoned for you. If you rape three (women), I will say that I did it. But if you marry four, son of a whore you will be beaten up."
Chelsea Clinton objected to his rape comments which to me is a bit ironic considering what her father did while he was in office. 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40072315

Sept 2017
Duterte claimed that Sen.Trillanes had hidden off shore accounts in Singapore; later admitting that he made it all up.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/931821/rodrigo-duterte-antonio-trillanes-iv-offshore-bank-accounts#ixzz8qJInQVMH

Oct 2019
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines said at an event in Tokyo that he had “cured” himself of homosexuality with the help of “beautiful women.” 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/world/asia/duterte-gay.html

Oct 2017
Duterte demanded that Piston comply with the laws and the government's policies, saying he does not care if its members are poor. 
 “I am the president. Either you kill me or you follow me. If the law is not followed, son of a b****, we have to kill each other,” he said. 
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/10/17/1749971/duterte-threatens-drivers-operators-modernize-jeepneys-or-get-towed

Aug 2018
President Rodrigo Duterte said that Davao City had the highest number of rape cases in 2018 because “there are many beautiful women” in his hometown.
: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1026984/duterte-on-davaos-high-number-of-rape-cases-many-beautiful-women-there#ixzz8qJMd6nJE

Are RD comments crass, boorish, and inappropriate? Certainly. These 3 adjectives also describe the ex-president and his style perfectly.
Still beloved by 10's of millions Filipinos, he knows that he's untouchable. Any comments that he has made now or in the past can easily be explained away as bravado. 

As Duterte has opined recently, why hasn't the DOJ filed a case against him? 

That would require proof of his guilt other than his "public confessions" and some type of assurance/leverage that he wouldn't get on the stand and start talking about crimes that other Congressman and gov. officials have committed over the years.

Edited Friday at 10:49 AM by Lee

[Lee]

To many Filipinos RD might be the first PI president to at least pretend to care about the common folks since Cory was in office.

Viral online comment about those hearings.

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A particular viral post highlighted the fact that Duterte's triumph in fending off the Marcos demonization plot could pull down the current president's political support:

"I've witnessed the Arroyo, Aquino and Duterte administrations, but this is the first time I've seen an administration (Marcos) that seems to empower criminals and drug addicts while trying to undermine a president who spent six years weakening their influence.

Who are we really protecting here?

"The millions of innocent people whose safety and security are threatened by the presence of addicts and criminals, or the human rights of the addicts and criminals?"

 

https://www.manilatimes.net/2024/11/01/opinion/columns/congress-anti-duterte-investigations-backfire/1995503

[BrettGC]

14 hours ago, Lee said:

That would require proof of his guilt other than his "public confessions" and some type of assurance/leverage that he wouldn't get on the stand and start talking about crimes that other Congressman and gov. officials have committed over the years.

Back when the International Criminal Court was allowed in to investigate - the history of the investigation is an entire topic on its own - they did uncover evidence that made them want to look deeper.  Despite his reaffirmation of the ICC the knock-on effects are exactly the reason Bam Bam "won't lift a finger" to assist them.