Just wanted to share a few thoughts as i'm in the country working for the last few years.
This place has major problems. It is hugely corrupt here, government - police - all the way down. Most of the wealth of the country is tied up in the hands of legacy elite families (Energy, Retail, Construction etc). The income gap is immense.
This country should be picked up and moved to the coast of South America as it resembles Mexico more than its neighbours. The Philippines was colonised by Spain. The Philippines is named after King Philip of Spain. it is about 90% Catholic with a small Muslim population down south. For years the Catholic church has had a huge influence here...still does. Abortion is illegal, divorce is illegal. Unless you are wealthy you cannot afford to get an 'annulment' (Duterte has an annulment, and i've met a few other filipino men in senior positions who have managed to get an annulment - you can't get one if you're poor.)
I bring this up as the root cause of most of the problems here can be linked back to overpopulation. Contraceptives are available - condoms / the pill, but that's just over the last decade. For the poor, they can't afford these things. Right outside my office is a shanty town. One of hundreds in Manila. there's about 3-4 kids per mother. There are no real social safety nets here. Which means Filipinos pay for decent medical care and schooling. The public schools and hospitals are a wreck. The horror stories that come out of the public hospital down the road.....
These people have been brainwashed by the church, the church actively tried to prevent any kind of access to contraceptives. the church continues to fight against a pending sex education bill that has been stuck in congress for something like 20 years.
The poor keep having babies.
From my view the single biggest positive Duterte is bringing is an attack on this situation. He's not friends with the Bishops. They were against him during his race as he is pro 'family planning' (notice he's not even saying he's pro divorce/abortion and he's getting shit from the church). Now that he's won the presidential race the bishops are apparently asking him for favours and money now. He recently called the bishops 'sons of whores' was all over the media here. And he want's families to limit the number of children to 3. It's a start.
Duterte is saying a lot of big things, 'wipe out crime', 'wipe out police corruption' etc etc. He's just like a normal politician in that respect. They make a lot of noise here, there's lots of machismo (Pacquiao screwed up during his rally by criticising gays and lost his Nike contract). If he can do any of this remains to be seen, as there will be a lot of powerful people with a lot to lose. Don't let this tough guy image totally fool you though, he's no idiot, he's a trained lawyer and has his City of Davao in a death grip. they go on about vigilante groups and low crime down there. You are also not allowed to smoke a cigarette, anywhere, apart from your own home. Nowhere in public. A whole non smoking city in a third world country. Imagine that. He's got clout, but that's just Davao.
The worry is he's going down the road of the dictator. Kill the criminals. Kill the corrupt police. Kill the corrupt journalists. And the last domino will be to take out your political opponents.
Interesting to note. Joseph Estrada has just won re-election to Mayor of Manila. This is the former president of the Philippines found guilty of Plundering the country. went to jail. came out. Mayor of Manila.
It's really fecked here guys. The filipinos are just sick of it all and wanted a change. they see nothing getting better over the previous administrations and they're gambling with Duterte. They know it's dangerous, but they're sick and tired of the way things are, with elites keeping everything to themselves.
Lets see how this goes. the first interesting thing will be the Philippine Peso exchange rate come the end of this month. If it tanks it's a good indicator the global finance world has no confidence the Philippines will maintain it's economic growth rate. One thing that will truly gut this place is foreign investment drying up.