Duterte's Philippines Is Getting More Corrupt

"Oh good" ???! Are you sure you really meant to say that, Andrew??

That's a very good question - almost as good as "what happened to the £87 million Pounds that our countryfolk so generously donated to the DEC Appeal after Yolanda and the Bohol earthquakes?"

A very popular one!

I'll just answer your last point. Im not pro-marcos. My family have been driven to hiding during his term. One side who were in cotabato at that time, told me that marcos would fly army jets so low its hitting their roof top, your tea cups/mug would break and as a result a lot of of grand uncles or grand aunties are deaf.

This will be my last reply on this thread, I'm attracting too much negative energy by posting or replying on this and there seemed to be no way to convince anyone that ph is better now than before duterte.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/adob...-to-destroy-dutertes-lead-in-online-poll/amp/

Politics is a very complex and sensitive issue. We all have different opinions. But I believe on one thing -- President Duterte wants to give the Philippines a better future. I'm from Davao City and I'm a living witness of what he did. He transformed that Davao from a war zone to a peaceful city. I know some will point the Davao bombing last year but no place is safe -- that's for sure and I'm sure YOU know it better. If the criminal has a strong will to do something bad, there's a way.

Also, some may point again about EJK. If he's really guilty, he should have been in prison a long time ago. FYI, when De Lima was the head of CHR (Duterte was just a mayor) she was already running after Duterte for EJK. BUT NO SINGLE (CONCRETE) EVIDENCE WAS EVEN PRESENTED! So, stop with your EJK issue. It's too old. You should know better. And let me point this out, EJK has been an issue a LOOOOONG TIME AGO even before Duterte. This was just recently brought up because they were using this against him. This is a sad reality in the Philippines.

I would recommend you watch the movie On the Job https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Job_(2013_film) by Piolo Pascual. It depicts the sad reality of hiring prisoners as a hitman for a politician's gain. This mainly shows how greedy are some politicians killing people for their own personal gains. And this has been happening (again) A LONG TIME AGO!

I can't stop myself from commenting on this issue.

I am told that the curious release of Napoles was no accident, and that she is being used to blackmail Congressmen and Senators into voting for nation wide Martial Law.

Why post such an old link to a "fake news" site?

We all know what actually happened.But if you missed it, here you are:

http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/

Pres Dutere has been murmuring about martial law (for the whole country) for months. It seems to me that he's wanted to introduce it all along... for whatever reason.

I don't even try to understand Phils politics anymore, it just gives me a bloody headache.

I feel the same way about UK politics..!

As the BBCs well respected and excellent Middle East editor (Jeremy Bowen) said on the radio this morning - democracy never comes from the barrel of a gun.

I fear it's going to get worse - and I'm afraid that some well respected posters on here who don't see Duterte's influence behind the death squads and trigger-happy cops are, sadly, in denial.

This is "not really news":

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/157414/uk-advisory-skip-mindanao-britons-warned

I would like to urge everyone here, be they pro-Duterte or anti-Duterte, to read the whole of Chief Justice Sereno's speech to the graduation class of the Ateneo de Manila. It is as you would expect from her carefully balanced and gives a clear view of the legal position:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/899852...everything-that-can-be-shaken-is-being-shaken

And I would like to share a Facebook post by the commentator Walden Bello:

WHY MARTIAL LAW WILL BOOMERANG

Contrary to the perception of many, the military does not relish martial law. This is not because it loves civilian rule, but because it is overextended, severely overextended. This is the reason the AFP command was one of the strongest backers of the Bangsa Moro Basic Law in 2015. The AFP is one of the smallest and most under-equipped standing armies in Southeast Asia, and it has had its hands full battling several major insurgencies. Given its current strength, plus the fact that insurgencies demand principally political, not military solutions, the best it has been able to do is battle these insurgent movements to a stalemate, not eliminate them. Now its commander in chief has added a massive new task, which is to perform police functions in a whole region, in preparation for exercising police functions nationwide in his design to establish a nation-wide dictatorial regime. Duterte, in all his wisdom, has provided a gift to the New People's Army and all other insurgent groups by releasing AFP units now containing them to assume police functions regionally. This will simply encourage these groups to assume more offensive operations, leading to more AFP casualties. The surest way to demoralize the military is to overextend it by pushing it to assume political and police functions for which it is ill equipped. A politicized military that exercises poiice powers is a plague on the people, but it also stirs discontent and rebellion in its ranks, as happened during the Marcos dictatorship. Duterte fancies himself a general, but he is actually sowing the ground for future coup d'etat's. Like Marcos, he thinks he is riding the tiger, and like him, he may well end up inside it, along with his buddies. Is this a desirable outcome? Ask the tiger..

Very informative - thanks for posting.

A warning from history?

Yes, I believe that sarcasm is an acceptable trope. You President just urged his troops to commit rape. That's a war crime.

I would not go there if I were you. The COA, under your man Dutere remember, has found that all funds were disbursed correctly. But you may not be reading the right "news".

Aquino managed the Zamboanga uprising without declaring Martial Law. He also managed to go there during the fighting. Zamboanga was reconstructed - the slums, a new camp in the eastern marshes, the hospital and schools. Zamboangenos thank Aquino for that. The EU put in a large social investment also. There is now that benchmark for how a post-Maute Marawi City can be reconstructed. Where is the budget?

I really hope that some of the opinions held here on this forum are only aired HERE,totally anonymous and NOT verbally spoken inside this country..
Filipino`s do not like foreigners that meddle in their local affairs.. It`s a cultural thing..
Very dangerous IMO.

He's not my President, Andrew, but if he has truly incited rape, then yes, if the evidence against him is strong then he should be impeached and tried.

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I am trying not to read any news reports from there since they often leave too many unanswered questions - and unasked ones, too.

A very good question for which a solution may or may not be found.