Thread: Rodrigo Duterte

It's all good Rody! So far.....

Duterte Orders Troops to Blast Militants — and Their Hostages

MANILA, PHILIPPINES —
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in a bid to stop a wave of kidnappings at sea, said Saturday that he had ordered his troops to bomb extremists who flee with their captives, calling the loss of civilian lives in such an attack "collateral damage."

Duterte has previously said he told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts that their forces can blast away as they pursue militants who abduct sailors in waters where the three countries converge, and that they can bring their kidnap victims to the southern Philippines. He said in a speech late Saturday that he had given the same orders to Filipino forces.

He said he instructed the navy and the coast guard that "if there are kidnappers and they're trying to escape, bomb them all."

"They say 'hostages.' Sorry, collateral damage," he said in a speech to business people in Davao, his southern hometown.

Duterte said such an approach would enable the government to get even with the ransom-seeking militants. "You can't gain mileage for your wrongdoing. I will really have you blasted," he said.

His advice to potential victims? "So, really, don't allow yourselves to be kidnapped."

Duterte's remarks reflect the alarm and desperation of the Philippines, along with Malaysia and Indonesia, in trying to halt a series of ransom kidnappings, primarily by Abu Sayyaf militants and their allies, along a busy waterway for regional trade.

On Saturday, ransom-seeking Abu Sayyaf gunmen freed a South Korean captain and his Filipino crewman who were abducted three months ago from their cargo ship.

The gunmen handed skipper Park Chul-hong and Glenn Alindajao over to Moro National Liberation Front rebels, who turned them over to Philippine officials in southern Jolo town in predominantly Muslim Sulu province.

The Moro rebels, who signed a 1996 peace deal with the government, have helped negotiate the release of several hostages of the smaller but more violent Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the U.S. as a terrorist organization for kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.

Duterte's adviser dealing with insurgents, Jesus Dureza, said he was not aware of any ransom being paid in exchange for the freedom of the sailors. At least 27 hostages, many of them foreign crewmen, remain in the hands of different Abu Sayyaf factions, he said.

There has been persistent speculation, however, that ransom was paid for most of the freed hostages.

Without a known foreign source of funds, Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry.

A confidential Philippine government threat assessment report seen by The Associated Press last year said the militants pocketed at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of 2016.

The militants have mostly targeted slow-moving tugboats in the busy sea bordering the southern Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Duterte Orders Troops to Blast Militants ? and Their Hostages

Originally Posted by misskit

So, really, don't allow yourselves to be kidnapped

Wise advice.

Originally Posted by misskit

calling the loss of civilian lives in such an attack "collateral damage."

Accepted by some for 100's of years,

Brilliant Mr. Duterte, you alienated the United States because you apparently thought you could deal with China alone. It now appears that didn't work out so well, what a surprise.

Will you be kissing the President's shoes apologizing for all the anti-American macho rhetoric?

NEWS > WORLD
Philippines reverses, protests China Sea buildup
17 Jan 2017 at 02:39 4,848 viewed2 comments
MANILA - The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest with China, its foreign minister said on Monday, over Beijing's installation last year of anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems on its man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea.

Philippines reverses, protests China Sea buildup | Bangkok Post: news

Wonderful race the Chinese!

When you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.

Originally Posted by BobR

It now appears that didn't work out so well

As another Chinese leader once said, "It is too early to tell".

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Tough guy...

That said, Davao is one of the cleanest cities I've ever been in. The surrounding areas are an NPA stronghold, but the city is safe and near crime free.

He's very attractive to Filipinos who see him as a tough, law and order guy. My wife likes him as well.

Bit of a thug. Plays well as a local Mayor, but I don't think he has the brain power to be an effective President.l

Agreed. I visited Davao about eight years ago and he was very popular even then. Davao is clean and no stray dogs, supposedly the city was treating too many people for rabies and the Mayor said enough already.

But Davis called it correctly two years ago with respect to Mr. Ds intellect

'Democracy as we know it is dead': Filipino journalists fight fake news

Filipinos spend more time on social media than anyone else in the world

Like much of our connected world, the Philippines has a problem with fake news.
But it faces some unique challenges in trying to fight it.
The bogus stories that pollute the internet in the Philippines are startling in their venom, frequency and sometimes clumsy attempts to look like the real thing.
For example, a number of the stories say Senator Antonio Trillanes, a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested for drugs and accepted massive bribes. Trillanes's team maintains they are all made up.
Some of the most shocking fake tales, however, focus on Senator Leila de Lima, one of the fiercest critics of Duterte, whose war on the drug trade has resulted in the deaths of thousands.
The news sites they allegedly come from may look authentic, but they're not. Neither are the claims — for example, that de Lima's son was arrested for drug trafficking, that de Lima pole dances in Germany, that de Lima was ousted, that she attempted suicide.
Surely a little fact checking might make that clear, but in the Philippines, this gets complicated.
The cost of fact-checking

Mobile internet coverage in the Philippines is among the slowest and most expensive in Asia. So it's a big commitment to click on a link or watch a video in the name of fact-checking. It can drain precious data fast.
A global digital survey released in January found that Filipinos spend more time on social media than anyone else in the world. (Jean-François Bisson/CBC)

Through some of the telecom companies, though, Facebook is free.
Filipinos love Facebook. A global digital survey released in January found that Filipinos spend more time on social media than anyone else in the world — and the biggest chunk of it is on Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
Political operatives in the Philippines take full advantage of this.
Staffers for Senator de Lima say they collected fake news stories about her from various Facebook timelines over the past few months.
Facebook users see them fly by, and some, it seems, believe what they read.
The fact that many Filipinos let their data run out and just rely on free Facebook use "helps both the disinformation and misinformation, because if you can't afford the data, what you see on your free Facebook is the [headline]," said journalist Maria Ressa, who runs the news site Rappler.
The headline, she points out, is where the most interesting, provocative information sits.
Forget nuance, forget context.
Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist, said that what's happening online “is exponential growth of propaganda networks that hijack what used to be called democracy.” (Sylvia Thomson/CBC)

Facebook recently introduced a tool for detecting fake news, but it is currently only deployed in the U.S., Germany, France and Norway.
'Propaganda networks'

Ressa and her team have been investigating the trajectory of fake news stories — as well as bogus social media accounts and online attacks — in the last year or so.
"Democracy as we know it is dead," Ressa said. "What you're seeing is exponential growth of propaganda networks that hijack what used to be called democracy."
The research Ressa and her team produced revealed coordinated social networks deployed to first boost support for Rodrigo Duterte in his 2016 presidential run.
Then, once he'd been elected, they turned their full force on the traditional media.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has garnered criticism from fellow politicians for his brutal tactics in the country's drug war. (Ezra Acayan/Reuters)

Then they went after his critics, like de Lima.
The effect of these campaigns, Ressa said, was to largely silence opposition.
"You look at anyone who says anything against the killings, against the drug war, especially if they are women, they will get clobbered on social media," she explained.
"They are threatened with death, with rape. You name it, it's happened."
Ressa experienced this first hand. After Rappler published a series called "Weaponizing the internet," the threats came flooding in.
"An average of 90 hate messages an hour," Ressa said. "That's what I dealt with for a month."
But the research and reporting continued. Rappler has even found a way to try to counter a bit of the fake news with reality checks.
It releases some of its stories in chunks on Facebook Messenger, so Filipinos can see them for free.
'Do your research'

Ressa said her team's data reveals that in terms of pro-Duterte propaganda, there are three key accounts that together reach millions of followers.
One of them belongs to blogger Mocha Uson.
She is huge in the Philippines, with nearly five million social media followers. Uson was once a sex blogger, but she's now a singer as well as a member of the country's film and television classification board.

A screenshot of Mocha Uson's recent blog post about Senator de Lima. (Adrienne Arsenault/CBC)

She is also fiercely loyal to President Duterte, often travelling alongside him and always writing in support of him and his policies.
She frequently shares scathing stories about Duterte's critics, including Senator de Lima. As CBC reported last month, the senator, who was once the justice secretary and the chair of the human rights commission, is now a prisoner, accused of taking money from drug lords.
Human Rights Watch calls the charges against de Lima politically motivated, perhaps as revenge for her opposition to Duterte, but the courts haven't fully ruled yet. She could be jailed for life.
Mocha Uson recently posted a story that quoted the speaker of the House of Representatives in the Philippines. In it, the speaker said, "The country's number 1 drug lord is already jailed" — he was referring to de Lima.
To label de Lima the number one drug lord of the Philippines is an inflammatory, unproven claim. When CBC asked Uson why she would post it, knowing so many people follow her blog and believe what she says, she defended her actions by saying that if you read the post's comments, many of her followers agree with the claim.
Later in the interview, Mocha became more forthright, and said, "I am getting the feeling that you see de Lima as innocent, as an innocent person."
"I don't know if she is innocent or not," I said.
"You need to do more research, ma'am, because the Filipinos know who de Lima is. So please, madam, do your research."

It turns out that Uson's manager recorded our interview, and before the night was done, they had cut a chunk of it to music and posted it to her website, including the "do your research" exchange.
The post very quickly got hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments — many of them calling CBC "stupid," "lazy," "blind," and "puppets of the oligarchs."
It was all relatively benign. Not everyone gets off so easily in the Philippines.
The anger flows both ways, but the bulk of attacks come from Duterte supporters. To criticize or even appear to question him or his policies can invite trouble.
Meanwhile, the truth remains elusive.

'Democracy as we know it is dead': Filipino journalists fight fake news - World - CBC News

President Duterte drives a hard bargain:

South Korea gives anti-submarine warship to Philippines, for $100 | ABS-CBN News

"South Korea will transfer an ageing Pohang-class anti-submarine warship to the Philippines this year in return for just $100, the defense department said on Thursday, boosting its capability to patrol vast maritime borders. Outside the United States, its former colonial master and long-time security ally, South Korea has been largest source of Philippine military hardware, from fighters and patrol ships to armoured vehicles and army trucks.

Manila received two FA-50 light fighters from Seoul on Wednesday and two more will be delivered next month to complete the 12 aircraft, 18 billion peso ($359 million) deal.
The Philippines has expressed interest to acquire six more similar planes.

"We are hoping to receive the vessel within the year," defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong said of the warship.

"The transfer will be in the form of a donation. We will pay a token $100, but the corvette will still undergo refurbishment."

He said he has no idea how much the Philippines would need to spend to repair and restore the warship.

Andolong said the Philippines may acquire up to three such warships, which Seoul is replacing with newer and faster vessels.

"This may be an old ship but it will definitely enhance our capability to patrol our waters and perform counter-terrorism measures," he added.

South Korea has donated a lot of military hardware to the Philippines and has expressed gratitude for Manila's role in the 1950-53 Korean War".

Crisis after crisis, Duterte still on top


Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, elected on a tough-talking populist platform, enters his second year in office from an unrivaled position of strength.

While confronting his biggest political crisis in Mindanao, where Islamic State-affiliated groups have stepped up a campaign of terror, he has managed to rally all relevant domestic and international partners, including China and the United States, to his government’s side.

At home, the Philippine Supreme Court gave Duterte a crucial nod this month by constitutionally upholding his controversial declaration of martial law well beyond Marawi City, the epicenter of clashes between militants and government forces, to across the entire southern island of Mindanao.

Only one of 15 justices opposed the declaration by siding with petitioners who questioned the constitutional validity of the president’s decision to assume draconian emergency powers in the name of upholding national security.

According to the petitioners, Duterte’s decision lacked proper consultation with relevant sectors, particularly the military, which implements emergency powers, and the Congress, which has the mandate to review and nullify any martial law declaration.

The petitioners also argued that the crisis in Marawi doesn’t meet the threshold of ‘rebellion’ or ‘invasion’, the two constitutional requirements for declaring martial law, but instead represented an act of terrorism.

Solicitor General Jose Calida, who argued on behalf of the government before the Supreme Court, maintained that the presence of foreign fighters and the scale of the militants’ attack during the siege of Marawi met both the definition of rebellion and invasion.

Senior defense officials, namely Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Eduardo Ano, were lukewarm if not opposed initially to the declaration, arguing that existing legal instruments were sufficient to tackle IS’ threat.

Later the military released a specific set of guidelines, reassuring the public that the implementation of martial law would not come at the expense of citizens’ basic constitutional rights. It was a deliberate attempt to reassure the public against fears of a return to the days of dictatorship under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Congress, meanwhile, dilly-dallied on convening a joint session to examine the validity of the proclamation. Duterte’s allies, who dominate both houses of the legislature, eventually passed separate resolutions endorsing the martial law declaration.

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision, both the executive and legislature turned up the heat on the judiciary, pressuring the weakest branch of the government into acquiescence.

“The Supreme Court has no right to dictate the Congress what to do,” warned House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a key ally of Duterte, in early June, as the battle in Marawi took a particularly bloody turn.

Apart from threatening to shred any unfavorable ruling by the Supreme Court, Alvarez, who also comes from Mindanao, suggested the possibility of extending Duterte’s martial law declaration beyond its 60-day limit until the end of his term in 2022.

In early July, just hours before the Supreme Court’s decision, Duterte, with typical chutzpa, warned against any opposition to his declaration.

“It’s not dependent on the whim of the Supreme Court. Should I believe them? When I see the situation is still chaotic and you ask me to lift it? I will arrest you and put you behind bars,” warned the Filipino president, leveraging growing public support for his hardline position in Mindanao.

“We can talk of anything else and make compromises, maybe, but not when the interest of my country is at stake,” he added.

At the same time, Duterte is enjoying significant support from both new and old international partners. The United States has deployed intelligence-gathering drones, a unit of Special Forces to provide advanced urban warfare training, and a new batch of equipment to aid counter-terrorism operations in Mindanao.

The two countries also conducted joint patrols on June 30 in the Sulu Sea, a traditional stronghold of other IS-affiliated elements, particularly the Abu Sayyaf Group, which is notorious for its kidnap-and-ransom operations in the area.

The maritime exercise saw American Littoral Combat Ship USS Coronado operating side-by-side the Philippines’ flagship warship, the Del Pilar Class Frigate BRP Ramon Alcaraz, a retrofitted former American coast guard vessel.

Promising to pursue an ‘independent’ foreign policy, however, Duterte has also welcomed defense and development assistance from China, which has warily watched the US’ growing military presence in Mindanao.

The two neighbors, often at loggerheads under the Benigno Aquino administration, have dramatically improved their bilateral relations under Duterte.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently described Philippine-China relations as entering a “golden period” of “fast development”, vowing extensive counter-terrorism support to its newfound ally in Manila.

In that spirit, China has provided a historic defense package, amounting to US$16 million in weapons and ammunitions, to aid the AFP’s operations in Mindanao.

Back in May, on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Beijing, Beijing also offered a US$500-million loan to the AFP for the purchase of Chinese weapons. The two sides are already discussing the prospects of joint-military exercises as well as a bilateral intelligence-sharing arrangement with a focus on counter-terrorism.

As the Duterte administration shifts its focus to the reconstruction of Marawi city, with US$400 million already promised, Beijing is expected to play a key role in post-conflict development in the area.

After a year of sound and fury, the Philippines’ tough-talking president has found himself not only in clear command of domestic political institutions, but also at the receiving end of generous assistance from major international powers.

Crisis after crisis, Duterte still on top | Asia Times

Seems he still has his citizens support, as opposed to Japanese.

de Lima pole dances in Germany

Yeah I reckon that one's fake.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton View Post Tough guy... That said, Davao is one of the cleanest cities I've ever been in. The surrounding areas are an NPA stronghold, but the city is safe and near crime free. He's very attractive to Filipinos who see him as a tough, law and order guy. My wife likes him as well. Bit of a thug. Plays well as a local Mayor, but I don't think he has the brain power to be an effective President.

but I don't think he has the brain power to be an effective President

He warned his voters that this may be the case while campaigning. That's why he hesitated a while if he would go into the race.

Philippine Leader Says He Won't Visit US, Adds 'It's Lousy'


MANILA, PHILIPPINES —
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he will never visit the United States while he is in office, and adds that he has "seen America and it's lousy."

Duterte delivered his latest verbal attack on the United States after he was asked in a news conference Friday to react to an American lawmaker's threat to lead a protest if Duterte accepts President Donald Trump's invitation to visit the White House.

Duterte asked, "What makes that guy think I'm going to America?"

He added: "There will never be a time during my administration that I'll be going to America or thereafter. ... I've seen America and it's lousy."

Duterte's spokesman said in April that Trump had invited the Philippine leader in a telephone call to visit the White House.

https://www.voanews.com/a/rodrigo-du...y/3954149.html

It appears there is another SE Asian leader who thinks the same as the Philippine President.



President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has instructed law enforcement officers to impose the sternest sanctions on drug dealers operating in Indonesia, including gunning them down if necessary.
“I have told you, just be firm, especially with foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist [upon arrest]. Gun them down. Give no mercy,” he said in a speech on the United Development Party (PPP) national working meeting (Mukernas) in Jakarta on Friday."

Jokowi orders police to gun down foreign drug traffickers - National - The Jakarta Post

Jail or hell: Duterte says drug war will be ‘unrelenting’

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to continue the war against illegal drugs no matter what, and warned those involved in the trade that their choice would be limited to either “jail or hell” if they did not stop.

In his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), Duterte said the government’s fight against illegal drugs would be unrelenting despite international and local pressure against it.

He also called for the re-imposition of the death penalty, particularly on drug-related heinous crimes.

“The fight [against drugs]will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting despite international and local pressures,” Duterte said.

Foreign and local human rights advocates have criticized the campaign against illegal drugs because of the supposed human rights violations committed in the course of police operations.

Based on data from the Philippine National Police (PNP), 63,926 anti-drug operations have been conducted by police, while 86,933 suspects have been arrested and another 3,200 killed.

Since the government began its drug war on July 1, 2016, 1,308,078 individuals have surrendered as of June 20, 2017.

Duterte’s drug war however was marred by the killing of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo in October last year right inside the PNP headquarters in Quezon City, by rogue anti-drug operatives who used a fake warrant.

The President said economic progress would not happen if criminals were allowed to freely roam the streets and harm helpless citizens.

“The fight will not stop until those who deal in it understand that they have to cease, they have to stop because the alternatives are either jail or hell,” Duterte warned.

“I have resolved that no matter how long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue, because that is the root cause of so much evil and so much suffering that weakens the social fabric and deters foreign investment from pouring in,” he added.

‘Join me’

Duterte also appealed to critics of his administration to join the war against drugs and use their influence and moral ascendancy to educate the people on the evils of narcotics.

“I ask you to join me in this fight against illegal drugs and all forms of criminality. The government equipped with legal authority and you (critics) the moral ascendancy over the sector you represent can do so much and hopefully eradicate this scourge that plagues us to no end,” he said.

The President made it clear he had no intention of being tentative on making decisions, and allow the youth to be destroyed because of inaction.

“You harm the children on whose hands the future of this Republic is entrusted and I will hound you to the very gates of hell,” Duterte warned.

VACC backs Duterte

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruptions (VACC) vowed to help President Duterte’s drive against corruption and illegal drugs as they expressed satisfaction on emphasis of the Chief executive on the re-imposition of the death penalty.

“The VACC lauds President Duterte’s SONA which include the re-imposition of death penalty and focus on the community’s fight against corruption,” said Dante Jimenez, founding chairman of the VACC.

Sen. Richard Gordon however said he was not in favor of the death penalty. Gordon, is the chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights in charge of studying the death penalty bills.

“I’m sure it doesn’t work to eradicate crime. But I think what we need to do is really come up with a reform on prison, on the penology system, together with the criminal courts,” he added.

Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, for his part expressed his appreciation for Duterte’s push for the death penalty.

“I’m really in favor of death penalty only to be a deterrent and to make sure that the Philippines doesn’t become the hub for international drug trade in Asia,” Ejercito added.

Jail or hell: Duterte says drug war will be ?unrelenting?

In recent local news, Jose Maria Sison, the exiled leader of the Communist Party of the Phils, asked Duterte to be honest about his health. (There's a lot of buzz locally that Du30 is in poor health and is hiding it from the ppl, and that's why Bongbong Marcos is hurrying the protest case against VP Leni Robredo.)

In a March article this year, it stated that Du30 has admitted to taking Fentanyl, a painkiller, due to a spine injury caused by a motorbike accident. He also has Barrett's esophagus, causing gastroesophageal reflux. He also has Buerger's disease, a constriction of blood vessels due to nicotine use.

Joma Sison wishes 'best of health' for ex-student Duterte | Inquirer News

(Du30 was a student of Joma Sison in uni) Article is old, but Sison had a recent interview questioning Duterte's health.

Originally Posted by misskit

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to continue the war against illegal drugs no matter what, and warned those involved in the trade that their choice would be limited to either “jail or hell” if they did not stop.

I thought that was in his election manifesto, you know war on drugs? Is this news?

Originally Posted by katie23

There's a lot of buzz locally that Du30 is in poor health

Not from any of his friends I suspect.

Our son, Kian: A good, sweet boy

MANILA, Philippines – Seventeen-year-old student Kian Loyd delos Santos could have been a policeman, but the policemen who killed him made this dream impossible.
On Wednesday night, August 16, Kian was shot to death in what the police described as a shooting encounter in a dark alley near his house.
CCTV footage and witnesses, however, revealed that he was dragged from one alley to another, past a basketball court, and into a dead-end corner where he was asked to run with a gun – and when he did, was shot.
Kian died wearing a blue shirt and printed boxer shorts – his pantulog or sleepwear, his father said. His dead body was found in fetal position with a gun in his left hand. His father said in media interviews that this detail, alone, could attest to his son's innocence, since the teenager was not left-handed.


https://www.rappler.com/nation/17924...santos-profile

32 dead, 107 arrested in Bulacan 'one-time, big-time' operation

MANILA, Philippines – In a span of 24 hours, 32 lay dead, and 107 were arrested after Bulacan police conducted a "one-time big-time" drug operation.
The operation started 12 am of August 15 and ended at 12 am of August 16.
"We conducted 66 operations," Bulacan Provincial Police Director Senior Superintendent Romeo Caramat Jr. told reporters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
In that 24-hour period, Bulacan police conducted the following:

• 49 buy-bust operations leading to 20 armed encounters
• 14 raids leading to 5 armed encounters
• Two anti-criminality checkpoint operations
• One serving of a search warrant

Aside from the casualties and detentions, police seized 230 grams of suspected crystal meth or shabu and 765 grams of marijuana leaves.
They also obtained grenades, firearms, and ammunition from the encounters.
Caramat said that although they try to avoid casualties in their operations, the situation is beyond their control.
"All we can say is we do not have control of the situation. As much as possible we wanted to remove those elements that would lead us to a bloody encounter," Caramat said.
He also downplayed the deaths as he said those killed were notorious for fighting back.


https://www.rappler.com/nation/17890...rugs-operation

Duterte reaches for unlimited, unending power

Drive to amend the Philippine charter could extend the populist leader's rule beyond a one-term limit and transform national politics

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte enters the new year with strong political momentum on his side. But a move afoot to amend the constitution in a manner that would potentially allow him to serve beyond a one-term, six-year legal limit could be a flash point in the months ahead.


The Duterte administration is on the verge of amending the Philippine charter to create a new federal-parliamentary form of government. For critics, the move is nothing short of an attempt to upend the country’s democratic regime to establish a self-serving autocracy.

Currently there are various proposals on how to revamp the 1987 constitution, a document deliberately designed to prevent a repeat of ex-president Ferdinand Marcos’ abusive dictatorship. Provisions include a single term limit for any elected president that ensures the peaceful transfer of power from one elected leader to another.


Currently there are various proposals on how to revamp the 1987 constitution, a document deliberately designed to prevent a repeat of ex-president Ferdinand Marcos’ abusive dictatorship. Provisions include a single term limit for any elected president that ensures the peaceful transfer of power from one elected leader to another.

It also places stringent preconditions for the declaration of nationwide martial law and other draconian emergency measures by the executive branch. Last year, the Duterte-dominated Congress allowed the president to place the conflict-ridden southern island of Mindanao under martial law for all of 2018.



Critics of the regime fear martial law could easily be extended across the archipelagic nation in response to a terror attack or security crisis. For Duterte’s supporters, however, the current constitution creates an unnecessarily weak presidency, giving the national leader limited time and power to bring about transformational change.


President Rodrigo Duterte speaks after delivering his State of the Nation address to Congress in Quezon city, Manila, July 24, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Erik De Castro




His advocates argue that the current unitary-presidential system unfairly concentrates power in “imperial Manila” at the expense of peripheral regions, particularly Visayas and Mindandao, the bailiwicks of the president.


The introduction of a new parliamentary system of government, they argue, will pave the way for the rise of the kinds of visionary leaders and dominant parties which turned former backwaters such as Singapore and Malaysia into major economic hubs under strong national leaders Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad respectively.


If so, now may be a strategic time to make the move. According to the country’s leading independent surveys, Duterte won the approval of as many as four out of five Filipinos in the final quarter of 2017. His ratings had slipped dramatically in the third quarter due to negative perceptions of his bloody drug war.


The Filipino president also ably leveraged his hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Manila – where global leaders cordially hobnobbed with Duterte – to burnish his credentials in the public eye.


This effectively makes the tough-talking populist among the most popular democratically elected leaders in the world. Buoyed by strong public support, Duterte and his allies seem keen to consolidate a long-term grip on state institutions via transformation of the political system.


They also seem keen to shut down any criticism of his rule, seen in Monday’s Securities and Exchange Commission order to revoke the operating license of plucky online media outlet Rappler.


Journalists work at the office of Rappler in Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines January 15, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Dondi Tawatao




The government has denied any involvement in the closure order, even as Duterte had previously threatened the site over its drug war coverage. Silencing the media, some suggest, could be part of a wider conspiracy to blunt criticism of the drive to overhaul the charter.


Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) party’s draft constitution openly calls for the removal of current term limits, potentially extending the president’s reign beyond mid-2022, when his single six-year term in office legally expires.


It would also abolish the offices of the vice-president, historically and currently the stronghold of opposition leaders. The draft instead envisions a bi-cameral legislature, composed of a Federal Assembly, where representatives are selected on a nation-wide level, and a Senate, composed of regional representatives.


A dominant president system, where the elected executive can stay in power for up to a decade and select the prime minister from among the members of the Federal Assembly, is akin to those in France and Turkey. The president remains as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and chief architect of foreign policy.


To Duterte’s critics, the proposed constitution could potentially create a Putin-like “tandemocracy” regime, whereby a dominant figure could rotate between the offices of president and prime minster to serve as de facto national leader perpetually.


An activist shouts slogans during a protest against Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte near the Malacanang palace in Manila on September 21, 2017. Photo: AFP/Noel Celis




Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr, son of the former dictator, and ex-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are among the president’s strongest supporters and already widely seen as leading contenders to serve as Duterte’s chosen prime minster in the event of charter change.


At the very least, a shift to a new form of government would put Duterte in a position to extend his tenure and give him an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the Philippine political system in his own image.


Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, however, has denied any plans for extending Duterte’s term in office, stating, “if the constitution is amended… [Duterte] is willing to let go, because he is not keen really on staying as president. That’s the truth.”

For critics, the move is nothing short of an attempt to upend the country’s democratic regime to establish a self-serving autocracy

Opposition leaders such as Senator Antonio Trillanes, however, retort that one must be “naïve” to “swallow what this president says,” claiming that a new constitution will give Duterte and his supporters the pretext for regime change.


House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a staunch Duterte supporter, has proposed the cancellation of Barangay (village-level) elections in mid-2018 to pave the way for a plebiscite, which, in turn, will act as a precursor for the establishment of new form of government.


The Congress, where Duterte enjoys a “super-majority” support, is also proposing the creation of a Constituent Assembly, where the members of the lower house jointly votes along with those in the Senate on proposed constitutional amendments, the passage of which requires a three-fourths vote of the combined legislature.


Opposition leaders see this as a thinly disguised plot to diminish the power of the Senate, which has far fewer members and has historically served as an institutional check on the power of overreaching presidents. But the popular Duterte and his legislative backers seem poised to shift Philippine democracy in a less democratic direction.

Duterte reaches for unlimited, unending power | Asia Times

Duterte slams Boracay as ‘cesspool,’ threatens to shut down island
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Rody's just gone up in my estimation.