Poll. Do you support President Duterte?

Self explanatory and highly descriptive , disturbing vision of a local drug lord.

If I wanted to know "what Filipinos think" I would not have asked the question here - and since the Philippines is, at the moment, a democracy with a free press, the chance of all Filipinos thinking the same way is nil.

I wanted to know what the people who post on this bulletin board think.

Call me John if you wish. But my name is not John.

I would cast my vote but the options are restrictive.

yawn

I will "lock" this poll in a week.

Before I do so, I wish to state that it is within my knowledge, thanks to a friend who lives in Tondo and is related to a Police officer, that each precinct is issued with a quota of "addicts" to be killed each month, and that the bonus for each confirmed killing is 10,000 pesos. The Police are not happy about this, but since their promised pay rise has not happened they make the best of it. The actual killings are given to the lowest ranks to carry out; the seniors take a slice off the top, as is normal with all Police payments. The problem that affects "quiet" precincts is finding suitable targets, because the quotas have to be met. Sometimes, mistakes can happen.

I am sure that the Duterte apologists will be along to pour scorn on this but I am offering the information along with the information that the Police are now being required to check on the political activities of foreigners in their districts.

Anyone who wants to change their vote can do so, for a week.

Report your so called evidence directly to the philippine senate as they are the investigating body..

votes on this message board are irrelevant..albeit conclusive voting results thus far by the members taking part on this thread voluntarily.

That may be the situation in Tondo which is notorious for its poverty and associated alcohol and drug abuse problems but I can tell you with some certainty that neither the Cebu City, Cebu Provincial nor the Davao Police have such orders or per capita bounties.

Given the events of last week, I can tell you that my family almost wish it were otherwise in Provincial Cebu - that the Police there were more pro-active against drug-pushers and dealers. Why? Well for the very simple reason that if they were, my father-in-law might still be alive. He was walking home last Tuesday evening along a minor country road and mugged for the 50 Pesos he had in his pocket. To prevent him giving chase, his assailant shot him in the leg, shattering his femur and left him to bleed to death. Which he did. His killer was almost certainly a drug-pusher who may well have been "associated" with the scion of the Garcias who is a local mayor widely suspected of profiting from the drugs trade and prostitution.

So you will understand that, even if I were able to change my vote, I can not and will not do so.

No they can't. The poll closed on Monday!

As for the Police "being required to check on the political activities of foreigners in their districts", there is nothing new there. The Police have always been required to monitor foreigners ever since the relevant laws were enacted but have often failed to do so properly or at all. Had they done so, there would likely have been far fewer instances of foreigners sexually-abusing children.

My sympathies regaring your father in law. I must say that I read CDN, Cebu Daily News everyday and almost on a daily basis read articles to the contrary. The Police are doing many buy-busts and not just small time dealers. Substantial amounts of Shabu are being taken off the streets.

The PNP will only be scratching the surface of the drugs problem in and around Dumanjug where Nelson Garcia, a close relative of the rather infamous former Governor turned Congresswoman Gwen Garcia, was Mayor until last year. There's an Englishman involved in the drugs scene there at a high level (whom I won't name, for obvious reasons), you may have had a drink in his bar.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...ragic-legacy-philippines-families-in-pictures

The gf's family live out in the bundoks in Tarlac province. Recently, they had a new addition come to their household. This was cousin Jeremy aged 16. He is from a branch of the family living in Paranaque who I've never met before. He has come to Tarlac because he has a shabu problem.

I can't say that I'm too thrilled that a teenager with shabu problems is living there. Obviously, I'm not going to interfere in a Filipino family's domestic affairs, but I'm dreading the day when I get a message saying that the TV has been pawned or some Bombays have been to visit. I'm told that the shabu scene in their quite remote barangay is non-existent. I've never seen any evidence of drug usage there, but I'm only privy to a brief overview of barangay life. I can't stay there more than 3 days before I'm bored out of my brain and need to get back to civilisation. Hopefully, their assertions about the province are true.

I suppose one of the benefits of the Du30 crackdown is that it is forcing the hand of people like Jeremy's family to tackle drug usage. I don't think Jeremy is a classic addict, but he is (or was) a frequent recreational user. They are not crying that the State must help them but, admittedly through fear of death, they are taking the initiative themselves.

On the other hand, the feeling of hopelessness and lack of opportunity which drives so many people to drugs still exists. If Jeremy didn't have family outside Manila, it seems completely barbaric that he is potentially fair game to be wiped off the planet. So many things in the country have conspired to give Jeremy very remote chance of a successful and prosperous life, and people like him are being punished for that.

The message from Du30 should have been about helping addicts rather than punishing them. Punishing them is much easier to do. Short term gain, long term loss. Maybe giving presidents a single term in office motivates them to create an immediate legacy rather than create a system that a guy in 20 years time can take the credit for? It could even have been his daughter who eventually reaps the rewards of a scheme to spread opportunity to deprived areas and offer serious rehap facilities (I'm sure there are several NGOs or foreign aid partners who would have assisted with this).

Du30 has taken advantage of a politically naive electorate. He created a crisis when it was simply a problem. A problem that pretty much all countries face with petty drug usage. I don't see his term in office ending on a glorious note, and certainly not ending on a whimper like that of Noynoy. Unfortunately, I don't think he cares!

Simple problem, I think not. there were drug wars all over the place before Du30 took office. He's doing what needs to be done. Take recreational drugs at your peril, Du30 gave all the Addicks a chance to rehabilitate or face death. Du30 doing a fine job, I personally feel much safer now.

Users, like Jeremy, can still hand themselves-in and enter the supervised drug rehab programme.

There's a lot of truth in that.

No! The electorate is actually much smarter than you give them credit for. They voted against the wealthy-dominated political establishment. They didn't want another five years of the same, they wanted change and what we're witnessing vicariously is that change taking place. Duterte's promise was to rid the country of its overwhelming drugs problem. He's well on the way of achieving that.

Keith: You disagree with Jim's assessment simply because you don't want to hear what he has to say. But he tells it as it is and he is living there whilst it's been six or seven years since you were last there.

I was neither tripping over dealers or corpses then so yes there has been a change and not for the better and I was regularly in poor places among "squatters" of whome my wifes family number but never felt unsafe nor experienced any robberies.

Your personal tendency to be a crime magnet perhaps scews the prism from which you view what is right in a civilised society

So do you think that if you went back to the Philippines you would be tripping over corpses?

Stay at home Keith.

You missed "Dealers" as to corpses got to be a better chance now
Daveeeeee_E