Duterte Harry: The Philippines General Discussion (read the last post)

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So, if anybody is paying attention to the Philippines, you might have noticed that Duterte is, err, definitely following through with his plans. So far the public as a whole approve:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/797447/duterte-becomes-phs-most-trusted-official

But yeah, this is definitely going to be one of the more bizarre governments in the world for the next few years.

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One of the few bright parts of Duterte's leadership was that he was relatively open to a peace treaty with the NPA (crazy Maoists), but apparently under the influence of his support base  of the military and police, he will ramp up the war.

He also just issued a pretty funny retort to the Catholic Church, saying that he was going to hell, and that the priests should join him there. Hilarious that the most Catholic country on earth has basically elected an edgy internet atheist (although granted he has very understandable, pesonal reasons to be angry at the Catholic clergy).

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(although granted he has very understandable, pesonal reasons to be angry at the Catholic clergy).

Which are?

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/12/05/1529163/duterte-identifies-priest-who-molested-him

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Duterte opposes abortion, or at least claims to; anyway.

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His socialism is very, err, vulgar though (in both senses of the word). He's always been the sort of person that goes on gut impulses, rather than clearly thinking; which is why he's recently reversed himself and gone hard-line on the Maoist rebels (even though some of them serve in his cabinet lol).

Anyway, let's not go full on "trains run on time". Yes I understand why poor and provincial Filipinos support him after being dicked around by half hearted land reform since the Cory administration, but we have the luxury of seeing the bigger picture: his mobilisation of a wave of reactionary state thugs targeted at the poorest in society.

Same as we can sympathise with people who vote for Thaksin Shinawatra or whatever, but we can recognise that him and his administration weren't some great success for the ordinary people of Thailand.