Hey, thanks for that because we're following domestic Filipino sources and social media, but good to check in on some mainstream media like abc.
The page itself is a "political problems Duterte faces" series, so please read them all. Starts with drug war of course, how we should all know how horrible that is - but Duterte faces a whole lot more he is wrecking. Hard to believe he is the head of these dirty little monkeys, ie my family. Neighbors. Friends. Mistresses, lol.
Surprise, surprise. What are the odds that Duterte follows his heroes lead and declares himself dictator.
His hero is Yew in Singapore, and I really hope and pray he does suspend the constitution if this current group working on the federalist system can't get the job done.
The constitution is an embarrassment, contradicting itself in numerous ways. For example, Duterte has more than one wife, as it is understood in his region. You can call them mistresses, but wives insofar as Moro culture is concerned. They are allowed this and can formally marry multiple wives, no problem. A christian on the other hand can be jailed.
It reads like a group of Freshman social justice class students wrote it on a week-end retreat. It is 70% preamble, by the standards of our own constitution with lofty crap about supporting the family, women, children, religions, everything they could think to mention, and establishing impossible timelines for treaties with the Cordilleras, the Visayas, etc.... establishing fiscally impossible levels of funding for a lot, especially educatiion:
The constitution flatly prohibits a single peso to ever be extracted from a student for education, K-12. But most of the population drops out because they can't afford to pay school fees. Every. Single. Student. Pays. How is this possible? They just ignore the law because it is impractical. Nobody will teach if you don't charge fees. They are among the lowest paid work force at that.
There is so much wrong with this constitution, the lack of Federalism at the base of it, that it is unworkable. Philippines has been running outside its latest constitution since the day it was passed.
By being hopelessly unworkable, impractical, without structure and instead vague platitudes, the government just does what it can get away with, which is to plant bullets in international travelers' bags and extort money out of them. Selling drugs. Extorting businesses and farms. Shooting journalists who report it.
Everyone speaking out against Duterte - where were they when people like the Estradas in Leyte had an armed private force of 50-100 take on Duterte's people at their drug factory? Where were they in protesting the human rights abuses of this Mayor and the dozens of others so far named?
They were afraid to speak. They'd be killed. People can speak out against Duterte and he isn't going to silence them.
Any voices of protests, small as they are, demonstrate Duterte is no Marcos. Marcos brought police state violence down on political opposition. Duterte lets them assemble, protest, and for the press to cover it without censorship.
The ladies are telling us "who gives a ****" when we ask them. The men, that goes without saying Regarding Marcos' burial. The people who are upset - we sure understand, and celebrate your right to protest. Now, to the next round of Duterte's "corrupt politician" list. He says another one is coming.
The 12th since 1932, every seven years on average. So a know-nothing can screech about how terrible, how unstable things are - but that person would be showing just as much ignorance and deceit as many here are on the Philippines. It's just so lame, so easy.
