New Filipino President - Dictator?

Indeed. Filipinos voted for him because he’s a reflection of who they are. As @jo said, the country is rotten to the core. They’ve even managed to turn Christianity into something filthy, which is quite an achievement (exhibit A: molester priests, but that’s not even the half of it).

The bottom line is that people like jo’s family are vastly outnumbered by stupid people or bad people. It’s their vote that counts, and the scumbags who are voted into positions of power make sure there are plenty of stupid, bad people around to continue the cycle. It’s very hard for any culture to view itself and its problems objectively, but it’s even harder when people have shit for brains in the first place thanks to malnutrition, horrible education, general anti-intellectualism and deliberate brainwashing.

The interview video is probably interesting, but frankly I’m not sure I can bear to watch it. Listening to Filipino politicians pontificate rots your brain cells faster than doing crack.

There’s no law against anything, really. Lots of Republic Acts, half of which make no logical sense, contradict other Republic Acts, or are downright incomprehensible, but no actual legal system to enforce them. If you want to threaten someone, or actually kill them, nobody will care. There’s a guy down the road from me who has committed multiple cold-blooded murders, but until his latest killing he’d been left to roam around on the basis that he has children to look after. Figure that one out.

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Woah, woah, woah!

Mr. Finley credits Filipinos with inventing the issues of the Catholic church? Or for that matter, of all of Christianity?

The mind boggles. :dizzy_face:

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No.

Filipino Catholicism is a whole different ballgame, as I said. The Catholic doctrine (ie., faith in the salvation from the Church) is inherently iffy and seems to cause a lot of human problems, but what goes on in the Philippines specifically takes it to a whole new level of vileness.

It’s not unusual to hear politicians or gangsters (same difference) who have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar (or in other things) proclaiming that God is on their side, ie., God approves of their thieving or murdering or whatever else it happens to be.

The takeaway message from churches there is that you can do anything you want as long as you go to ask for forgiveness from a child-molester priest on Sunday.

…As opposed to Islamic religion which just resulted in half a city being destroyed down south :hushed:

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With all due respect, in Central America, the pedophile priests were airlifted out, literally, one was plucked from a high school by helicopter sent by the Catholic church. The problem is generalized, trickled down and settled at the bottom. Too much power, too much money involved. So it is important to keep poor people poor by abuse, and Filipinos like everyone else, cannot fight the Machine…

…not that I cringe when I see them reenacting teh cruxifiction for real, but I mean, what have they been told for 500 years? The people who have access to knowledge and the outside world are on top and need things to stay the same or else they will lose their place. Hence, there we are.

Drugs is the blame du jour. I’d rather cahse the money and see which bank in which developed country owned by a white firts world industrialist and politician is the one commmanding the field.

Pedophile priests in Catholic Church congregations around the world.
and soon to be exposed…Pedophile Moguls in Hollywood.
I wonder if these Pedos know each other, it cant be a big community…

I would like to share lots of things but i’m afraid some people will get mad at me.
Up to everyone to find it out, as per news you could only see the surface.

My point was that religion, as such, doesn’t come into the equation at all. It doesn’t matter whether people call themselves Catholics or Muslims - none of them actually believe in any kind of deity except of the Santa Claus variety who gives them stuff (or grants them forgiveness for stealing it) or bails them out of their self-inflicted misfortunes. They bombed the fuck out of Marawi because violence is the go-to solution for anything in Filipino culture, not because God or Allah (or common sense) told them it was a good plan.

The funny part is that - as jo said - all of the skulduggery is hidden in plain view. You can read about who’s stealing what, and by what means, in the newspapers. Nobody even bothers to disguise what they’re up to because the hoi polloi either go along with it (in anticipation of their own turn at the trough), turn a blind eye because they’re afraid of being shot and dumped in the river, or simply don’t have the brains to put two and two together.

You’ve been reading Philip K Dick, haven’t you? :slight_smile:

I doubt it’s western banks involved in the drug trade, at least not directly. They’re perfectly happy making shitloads of money by legal means.

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Most Filipinos seem to love him. And I understand why. Although i enjoyed my time in the Philippines, it’s clear the country has a lot of issues internationally. Drug use rampant, you can see kids with dry glue under their nose. And prostitution is just everywhere, and sadly many underage girls. Sex tourist for underage girls is disgusting and it’s even out in the open.

I personal don’t support his actions. But I guess the political situation created a perfect environment for someone like that.

I could say Philippines was once considered a model of developments in business in south east asian countries. I’m not familiar with stock exchange but you can see Vietnam and Thailand is surpassing the economy of the Philippines.

Can I say Philippines still 3rd world country?

For me she is now 4th …i’m sad seeing this but this was reality, no future all are backwards.

Funny how most of the people who comment here aren’t even Filipino and talk about my country and our President like they know how it’s like to be poor in the Philippines. :slight_smile: Does anyone here even know how to speak Tagalog or Duterte’s native tongue, Bisaya?

To understand why he won, you should be living in the Philippines preferrably near the slums of Manila. You should be within the lower working middle class, or at least, like me, an OFW-Overseas Filipino Worker.

But I also wouldn’t blame most of you for lapping up what the media feeds you. Duterte is also to blame for his reputation. I wish he could speak better, be more Obama-ish in demeanor, but hey, the man knows he can’t pretend to be a reflection of a country that’s simply not at par with Singapore yet.

Most people talking about taiwan here aren’t even from taiwan. But I would never try to invalidate their points for that. But ok, blame it on the fake news and media out to get him. Openly talking about killing suspects without a trial and encouraging such behavior understandably will spark outrage on the human rights level.

Actually, Duterte never openly encouraged killing people just because they were suspects. What he always says, either in Tagalog or in Bisaya, is that his directive towards police forcers is that suspects are subject to shoot-to-kill status if they do not surrender peacefully and choose to fight it out with guns.

Lots of policemen found to abuse their rights were actually relieved from office and were fired (not gunned, mind you). Duterte also banners this whenever he speaks about current supposed EJK (extra-judicial killing) issues, that as much as he will protect the police force, he will also subject them to punishment when they abuse their position.

But, like I said, international media is prone to only get bits and pieces of his filthy speech because it’s what makes people read. Would you like to read a news about him actually being in Marawi while in the heat of fighting? That the terrorists wanted to ambush him in Mindanao, but he still stayed to monitor the situation? Of course not. Because it’s not as fancy as hearing him say he will bathe the streets of Manila in blood.

Also, I have nothing against people’s opinions here. I am simply reacting to the opinions here too. But yeah, most of it are funny. I don’t think they’re invalid. :slight_smile:

https://youtu.be/souaAuPYWbo

Admits to extrajudicial killing and showing others they can do it too.

I don’t doubt his good intentions and the dire situation in the Philippines. I’ve never lived there but I’ve visited many times and even I can see clearly that there are some major problems. But I cant get behind the ends justify the means concept here.

If the man can cook a good inasal or sisig then he has my vote

I’ve been to Manila and know people from the Philippines well. I understand why he won.

I’m interested in the larger question: what brought about the conditions that brought about Duterte?

No, I don’t buy the evil colonialist argument that schoolboy Marxists regurgitate. History doesn’t support it.

As someone who voted for him, even if his supposed links to the so-called Davao Death Squad makes me uncomfortable about his eligibility as President, it was the lifetime of bullshit Filipino Presidents I’ve encountered in the last decade or so that made me stop and think that this guy is good for my country. He speaks the truth. He understands that our country is hopeless and something has to be done and not just said. And that ultimately, our eloquent politicians are actually using their words and charm to win over our votes every election season and we’re so stupid to buy it every time.

Erap, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, then PNoy Aquino all espoused the same bullshit to much of the Filipino masses. Before Duterte, Filipinos would always be on the brink of staging another People Power because somewhere along the way the President becomes corrupted with power or money or both. This is also the reason why I personally think we should change our government structure to parliamentary or federal. Geographically-speaking, it’s already challenged. Add possibly bad genes from corrupt Spanish rulers, and the rest is another vicious cycle of history.

Duterte, meanwhile, has never had a history of corruption in all his time as Mayor of Davao. The only time he was accused of being corrupt was when he already ran for the presidency. As someone who grew up in Manila, it baffles me how much most Mindanaoans love him–whether they’re from Davao or not. Before he became a presidentiable, politicians vying for the Presidential post actually asked his favor when they campaign in Mindanao. If you want to win in Davao, you get Duterte to endorse you–that is the secret code they followed. EJK, you say? Past Presidents knew about that DDS issue waaaay baaack decades ago but never did anything about it, never filed cases against him, so what really is the truth then? Why are these things coming to light just now?

Do you know why Duterte speaks like a goon? I suggest you read on Davao’s history to know more. It was that city that hardened him and made him into what he is today, or at least maybe his mouth.

Personally, if there’s anything I don’t like about Duterte it’s that he has encouraged too much fanaticism in him by talking like a typical Filipino “tambay”. Duterte is that guy you can take to the baddest most vile alleyways of the Philippines and he will not flinch. He will also not eat rice from a cup like Mar Roxas did, or try to ride a bus from a highway like Leni Robredo did, so that he can get people to like him on social media. :smiley:

I don’t really see what that has to do with anything. The outsider’s view can (sometimes) pick up things that those in media res can’t see. Americans commenting on Europe are often completely on-point. Europeans commenting on the US, likewise. A lot of the rants on forumosa are about peculiarly Taiwanese things that Taiwanese people don’t even notice. They might be broad, sweeping generalizations, but it’s generalizations that define a culture. I was unable to see what was wrong with my own country until I moved to Taiwan.

As for ‘the poor’, I have little or no sympathy for them. 95% of the time they’re the architects of their own misery. I’ve met a few people who grew up dirt-poor and decided they were NOT going to be poor forever; I’ve met far more who have spent their entire lives sitting on their ass moaning about how poor they are. The cause of poverty, in short, is poor people.

Again, really quite irrelevant. One thing I’ve noticed in the Philippines is the vast disconnect between what people say and what they do (see also: religion). Nothing important has changed since Duterte took office: all of the same structures that enable corruption and crime are still very much in place. Some of them have been enhanced to provide for MORE pillaging.

I bump into officials from time to time, and 95% of them belong in jail (or possibly in a mental institution). The police are (mostly) still the same collection of lazy, ill-trained thugs that they were a year ago. The Law is a rats-nest of ridiculousness that couldn’t work even if people wanted it to. It doesn’t really matter what Duterte has said or what his instructions are. The guys who really run the show are going to keep doing what comes naturally to them.

I’m aware that there are few people within the government who are intelligent, competent, and are trying to do their jobs as best they can. I’ve met a couple of them. However, like intelligent, competent voters, they’re vastly outnumbered by crooks, idiots, and psychopaths.

It’s completely obvious why he won: the sorry selection of alternative candidates had nothing to say for themselves, while Duterte came with a bag of empty promises and a masterful grasp of the psychology of manipulation (“I’m not going to run for president”).

Duterte’s basic problem is this: he’s a Filipino. You may be right that he sees where the country has problems, but that doesn’t automatically mean he’ll be able to find solutions. As you said, he’s been shaped by growing up in Davao. He brings nothing new to the table except The Filipino Way, which generally involves either killing something or borrowing money with no intent to pay it back.

Older and wiser heads have advised him to think again about his drug policy: these are people who have attempted what he is now doing now, from a position of power, under similar circumstances. Instead of engaging them in debate, he just told them to fuck off. IMO, that’s a pretty good indication that he’s not up to the job.

Electric jeepneys!!! Duterte is the Elon Musk of the Philippines

I dare you to regurgitate a more sophisticated theory. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: