Q&A Duterte (Philippine) Presidency

[Miscellaneous]

I've seen some paranormalis users seemingly interested in politics even though it's mainly because of the US elections. So this guy is now our president for 6 years of the Republic of the Philippines! Yay!! (note: idk if I'm even happy. I'm just feeling sarcastic and sassy right now)

You can read about him in these websites I handpicked (because too many websites) if you're interested:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/785602/look-duterte-graces-time-cover-as-the-punisher
Philippines: Rodrigo Duterte's Drug War Claims 2,400 Lives
These 5 Facts Explain Rodrigo Duterte's Victory in the Philippines
6 Things You Need To Know About Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte
All of The Guardian's articles about him in case you wanna both new and old and recent articles about him: Rodrigo Duterte | World news | The Guardian

Because I'm bored genuinely interested if any one of you foreigners (yes, you readers cuz you ain't Filipinos 99% of the time I bet ) are curious what Duterte's rule really is here and if he's really the demon the Western medias paint him as and yadah yadah. So I'm gonna answer questions and will try to be neutral (as in not being/sounding like I'm his supporter or critic/hater) in every one of those Q&A.

 

[Miscellaneous]

No questions? So that means that the western medias are just spewing negative BS and that no one really cares? That or paranormalis is pretty civilized.

 

[TnWatchdog]

I don't have cable...so no Fox, CNN, or other round the clock news coverage for me. I watch the local news and the half hour national news and haven't seen anything about the President there. I have seen there has been some violence there and I watched a show about the lead singer for the band Journey is from there. I will look over your articles to get up to speed.

 

[TnWatchdog]

I did see this story on the news today Miscellaneous...

 

[Miscellaneous]

Yeah that happened somewhere today.

 

[Miscellaneous]

@TimeFlipper as a Trump supporter (and I'm asking this without malice). Do you think that Trump would act/say something similar akin to Duterte if he became president of the US?

 

[TimeFlipper]

@Miscellaneous Firstly, im from the UK
IMHO America needs Trump for two major reasons, the economy and immigration..

The US has a huge deficit and Trump will reduce it thanks to his financial expertise
He will significantly reduce immigration which is vital for every western country, i know the problems that we have in the UK with immigrants.. and that was the main reason why the majority of our voters chose to leave that vile socialist club the EU and their crazy obsession with "open door" immigration..

As for your question, i dont really know anything about Duterte, but if he is financially clever and wants immigration limited, then those two things should be very helpful for him...only in my opinion of course

 

[Miscellaneous]

@TimeFlipper well said! However, I expected a lot of people to know Duterte since he technically just insulted Obama and Clinton backing up Obama saying that Duterte should be more 'respectful' or something of that sort. Also, Trump mockingly said that China's unwelcome deeds with Obama (he wasn't offered any stairs when he touched down on China for a meeting/summit and no red carpet as well as not allowing western media on China to take a picture of Obama) and Duterte's disrespect was 'terrible!' on twitter.

 

[The_Ruffneck]

Seems like a good guy that cares about his country.
His tough drug stance seems to be working.

 

[Miscellaneous]

My country is a mess and I've been reading other people's opinions about Duterte. Some comments I chose to post here from this site: Australia nudges PH on sea ruling

I do not see any reason why the 16 million supporters did not see where Duterte is charting our country except that they are DUMB & FANATICS......

First he shared bed with the communists by appointing ministers in his cabinet and giving assurance to Sison to rule the country with him. Second, he embarrassed the US by insulting Obama and now he wanted to pull out US troops from Mindanao who trained our soldiers supplied us with intelligence and rconnaissance data to combat terrorism. Third he sent Ramos to negotiate with China to SALE SCARBOROUGH SHOAL in exchange for money and cheap chinese made trains. Fourth, he decided not to join the PH-US patrol on south china sea when the PH won the UN arbitration not to anger Bejing. Lately, he is mouthing that he is going to buy arms from China and Russia not from US anymore. Is this not very clear indication that we are heading toward a communist country like Laos and Cambodia who are puppets of China? DUMB FILIPINOS.

Comments on the above statements:

Dumb? Just now Israel and US signed an agreement wherein the US will provide about USD 38B of armaments to Israel for free. Take note that these arms are state of the art.
What has the US given us? It's less than USD 100M, all second hand equipment.
And the US wants us to enforce the ruling with our pitiful assets, against China's might? WE ARE NOT THAT DUMB.

Who stands to gain if the Philippines gets those shoals? Oh yes, our few thousand fishermen. They can fish at the area without restriction, earning about P300M a year. But do we really gain?

The real gainers are the countries that use the South China sea as their trade route, where the value of goods passing thru this area is estimated to be USD 3 trillion a year. If China blocks the sea, the shipping lines will be forced to travel EAST of the Philippines, which is longer, will consume more fuel, and will incur more insurance costs.

You think our President is that DUMB not to see this?

Kind'ly look at the countries which you called as puppets.They are now modernizing and is starting to build a country they call their own.Their army is better equipt and their armories have missiles and batteries which the Philippines do not have.By accepting China as their main trade partner,look at how fast their infrastructure building is going on.They have built a more modern airport and train system more better than the Philippines.In the meantime,how is this country moving on? Look at how bad our airports are.What has happened to the first LRT system southeast asia evr had.PNR remains ever the same since time immemorial.The only airforce in the world with no force.Our navy remains to be the weakest navy in Asia.We are the only country (maybe) in the world who have no modern tanks to repel an unseen invasion.And what do we have? 50 year old hand me downs navy ships.Vietnam era M113's,also a batch of hand me downs from uncle sam,and vintage artillery pieces who have no match if ever we will go to war even with Cambodia.

This is how we are being treated by our friend and ally,the US of A.They cannot even back us up in an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth operation to re-claim and patrol the Scarborough shoal.They knew that those atolls and shoals are ours,because they have used that shoal for target practice when Clark air base was still theirs for their exclusive use. Why cant they tell that to China? Why cant they sell us newer and deadlier navy ships to deter China? Why cant US lend or grant the Philippines Missiles which they are doing to South Korea and Japan? these are the questions that needed answers and which Duterte also needs to balance. If you are in the shoes of Duterte,wherein our territories in the Spratlys and Scarborough shoal is almost entirely being eaten away by China with no help coming from our big and dear brother the,US,what are you going to do? Its as if the Philippines were once again put back in time when the Japanese are invading our country and the US put their entire war machinery in Europe to help their long lost cousin,the UK. This what Duterte is trying to resolve,that is why before he was sworn into office as President,in one interview,he asked the question; to the US,are you with us or not? Its like asking the question of,are you going to help us or not? The ball is now in the US' hands for Duterte to change what he is doing as of now...

And then another one:

No surprise at all. Duterte knows that the arbitral tribunal’s rule on the South China Sea Case is flawed, biased and absurd. It lacks due process of law. The whole case proceeded with only one-side opinions. The arbitral tribunal did not follow the procedures set up in UNCLOS that the Chinese International Law Society filed an amicus brief questioning the tribunal, however, the tribunal did not explain and totally ignore these questions.
Article 121 of the UNCLOS provides that ‘rocks’ that cannot ‘sustain human habitation or economic life of their own’ are not entitled to an exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. The tribunal expands its authority to modify the standard by ruling that the land feature must have an ‘objective capacity which can sustain a stable community of people.’ It also adds that this capacity does not include official personnel. It also ruled that economic activity should not be ‘dependent on outside resources.’
IN THE CASE CONCERNING MARITIME DELIMITATION IN THE AREA BETWEEN GREENLAND AND JAN MAYEN (DENMARK v. NORWAY) in 1993, the International Court of Justice ruled ‘in the delimitation to be effected in this case, there is no reason to consider either the limited nature of the population of Jan Mayen or socio-economic factors as circumstances to be taken into account.’ ICJ’s rule is very clear that ‘limited nature of population’ or ‘socio-economic factors’ will not be used as a reason to deny an island’s title to have territorial sea and EEZ. However, the arbitral tribunal still disregards the ICJ’s rule and concludes an unreasonable award on the South China Sea case.

The whole case was organized by countries outside these areas for their own political purpose. Money has played an important role in this case. According to Philippine’s media, Philippine spent 30 million dollars on this case, 7 million went to the lawyer’s firm in U.S. and 3.16 million went to the arbitral tribunal. Where the rest of the 20 million goes? Philippine should make the spending in public.

During the hearing, the so-called expert witness testified that there are no Features in Spratly Islands qualified as an ‘island’; they all are ‘rocks’. However, the same expert said at least 12 features are ‘islands’ under UNCLOS in his publications in 2014.
In the case Territorial Dispute and Maritime Delimitation (Nicaragua v. Colombia) in 2012, the International Court of Justice ruled small cays with areas less than 1/10th of the area of Taiping Island to be islands. It needs particularly to be pointed out that two of the arbitrators in the South China Sea Case are also the judges in Nicaragua v. Colombia Case. These two judges voted in favor of the rule in Nicaragua v. Colombia Case, but denied Taiping Island is an ‘island’ in the South China Sea case. Why the ‘expert’ and these two ‘judges’ changed their point of views drastically? The arbitration on South China Sea is obviously a political decision and it is not a judiciary rule. There is no reason for China to accept a flawed, biased and absurd arbitration.

And then I'm reminded of this:
“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”. ― Henry Kissinger.

Too many bullshits in this world because of us. We might as well have nuked ourselves to self-extinction long ago. If you look at this dark side of the world/humans, it doesn't look so nice at all.