It's easy to do lazy "virtue-signaling". A lot more difficult to understand the culture of SE Asia that has resulted in Duterte being such a landslide victor. More importantly, to understand why the body count he is piling up is approved of by the vast majority of the population.
His closest comparison is Yew. who transformed Singapore from a third world backwater to first world economy and world leader in education in a single generation.
They have the death penalty for marijuana dealers. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia - just don't go to these places if you have any drug incliniations. They will kill you. So just deal, baby - that's the way they roll in SE Asia.
The people doing the lazy virtue-signaling have a 23 year history with Duterte doing exactly as he is doing right now as president. Thousands of people at a time are turning themselves in as drug users and pushers. It is unprecedented, and called the Duterte Effect. Auditoriums full of people listening to their instructions for getting help to quit - or die.
So they are turning themselves in.
Davao has been rated the 5th safest city in the world, in the middle of a war zone between the MILF, MNLF and national government. He revealed that the USA wanted a drone base from him in Davao and he refused. He has kept peace in his mixed Muslim/Christian region because he recognizes muslim claims and believes in federalism for them.
Saying you don't care about Mindanao but you care about Duterte being president is illogical. One only has to understand exactly what he has done those 23 years and what he unapologetically continues to do as president if you want to understand the parameters of his assassinations.
This is what the people elected him for and they're thrilled about it. Dismiss this cultural affect, you just found out about it yesterday so you think you know a lot. By pretending he is some statistically bizarre, unpredictable thing and knowing only that he kills, one misses everything important about him.
In order of import, he has come out against the provision in the constitution that limits foreign investment to 40% of in any Philippine venture. It's why the steel plant sits idle in our own area, once the largest in SE Asia. The moment investment is opened up, that steel plant will leap into service again. It is why Philippine communications companies are so far behind, power and utilities etc.
He ordered all business permit applications to be approved in 30 days. This is straight out of his Davao playbook. He is installing cameras to catch corrupt cops. He named five police generals involved in drugs. Showed his intelligence service charts demonstrating the leaders of the two largest shabu distribution networks were already in prison. The other is a police guy. Dozens of mayors have been named. It's pandemonium.
Duterte met with a major international businessman and told him to exit the business or he'd die. It's an on-camera meeting. He is hard to keep up with.
He said the Aquino purchase of the two F-16's was stupid, as if that is some deterrent to China, lol. That is what they were for! He wants to sell them and purchase high speed heavily armed boats to go after theAbu Sayyef pirates threatening international trade in the west.
He's appointed an ex-president as negotiator with China in the South China Sea dispute. China has a long history in Philippines and Mindanao in particular, smack dab in the war region, like Cotobato. But the Muslims do not hate the Chinese. They're just businessmen. Duterte understands the Chinese and has no animosity towards them.
Duterte is the person who can pull off a joint venture with China instead of the war the USA would prefer. China has already invested billions in dredging and ship berthing capability. For hydrocarbon production. They are putting in nuclear power plants.
While the US has lifted its skirt and gone "eek!" the Chinese have forged ahead with their investment. The international court ruling is irrelevant. Their historic claim has already happened. Are we going to bomb their islands now or what? Fiery Cross Reef here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-south-china-sea-spratly-islands-disputed-nuclear-power-philippines-vietnam-japan-a7139421.html
Big airstrips. Man-made lagoon. They have designs as a Hong-Kong type trans-shipment hub, it isn't just hydrocarbon development.
The previous administration was a lap dog to the USA. This one wants resolution, not Chinese "containment" as per the US Policy.
We are looking forward to the future of the Philipines, as are the majority. You cannot pretend to respect self-determination of a people and be so ignorant about what they are doing. There is an oligarchy that has run the Philippines while the little people are under endless petty bureaucracies stifling small business and investment.
The press is unbelievably corrupt and dangerous. The Oligarchy pays for a lot of articles directly. It is the second or third highest murder rate for journalists in the world. You play ball and take the money or they kill you.
Mining for example, in the north Mindanao region permits were issued for 50,000 tons of metal extraction under "small scale" regulations (none) to Liberal Party members and cronies out of Manila. They had taken out around 2 million tons by the time Duterte named and shamed them. He is putting a stop to the environmental devastation it has caused and the ripping off of the locals.
Duterte wants a Federalist Philippines - modeled after the original US Constitution. A system of states. The fact is, sadly, the Philippine constitution is an unworkable pie-in-the-sky joke. It is self-contradictory. It reads, through its entirety, like a pre-amble... in need of an entire thread of its own. It is already in a state of suspension, they are not following much of any of it.
It is illegal under the constitution for example to charge a single peso for education. But millions of Philippinos cannot get an education because they cannot afford the fees in public school. How can this be? Because you won't get teachers if they adhere to the law. The national government doesn't allocate the money. Not enough local taxes. If you want teachers, the school children have to give them money.
Corruption is pandemic in the Philippines. You pay to have your traffic tickets "disappeared" instead of the fines going to the treasury. You pay bribes to get "fixers" for everything - like fake high school diplomas or transcripts. Whatever you want. Fake colleges with 0% passing rates on teacher certification exams, it's appalling to first worlders.
In this kind of mileau, the people send in a guy like Duterte Harry. Dirty Harry was just a movie. This guy is the real thing. He is a lawyer and prosecutor, so don't be pretending he is some ignorant thug. He is a very smart thug. I say he is a wise thug.
This guy is like the Dude in the Big Lebowski. He is the man for his time. What will be important in the end is how much he can emulate Lew's transformation of Singapore. He started hard out of the gate calling for revision of the 60-40 clause in the constitution.
He drove a cab around Davao at night to see the underworld first hand. He takes commercial air. He is a people's champion like Manny Pacquiao, also from Mindanao. World boxing champion, half a dozen weight classes.
