If you were keeping an eye on the news today, you might have seen the big story on international politics: Barack Obama cancelled a scheduled meeting with Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte in Laos after Duterte called him a “son of a whore”.
The hothead Duterte was rebuking Obama after the U.S. President raised the prospect of criticising the enormous drug crackdown in the Philippines which has left over 2,400 people dead since August, with violence showing no sign of slowing down.
The illegal drug trade in the Philippines has been a national concern for some time. Methamphetamine hydrochloride (known locally as ‘shabu’) and marijuana are widely trafficked and used, with 2.1% of Filipino citizens believed to be shabu users. A 2009 Human Rights Watch report suggests that the country has the highest methamphetamine prevalence in the world.
But Duterte’s brutal methods and open encouragement of vigilante action have copped criticism both domestically and from human rights groups abroad.
Let’s break down what’s going on.
Who is Rodrigo Duterte?
Duterte has been the President of the Philippines since June 30, 2016. Prior to that, he was Mayor of Davao City for 22 years between 1989 and 2016.
He’s often called the Philippines answer to Donald Trump, but that’s pretty reductive, honestly. He’s a populist politician, but his campaign is not in the name of traditional conservatism, nationalism and opposition to immigration – in fact, he has been fiercely supportive of the Muslim minority in the country, and has stated his support for same-sex marriage in what is still a traditionalist Catholic country.
But Duterte is absolutely an authoritarian, and his pet issue is law and order. As mayor of Davao City, he was vocally supportive of extrajudicial killings for drug dealers and users in his city. Though it’s worth remembering that politicians in the Philippines tend to be a little more theatrical in their pronouncements, his intent was pretty clear, like in this infamous statement in 2009:
If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination.
Fairly heavy. Or maybe this comment, made after the release of an accused drug lord in Manila:
Here in Davao, you can’t go out alive. You can go out, but inside a coffin. Is that what you call extra-judicial killing? Then I will just bring a drug lord to a judge and kill him there, that will no longer be extra-judicial.
The Davao Death Squads are a group which were accused of causing the deaths or disappearances of between 1,020 and 1,040 people between 1998 and 2008. The New York Times accused Duterte’s administration of either aiding – or merely allowing – the death squads to do their thing. As you might expect, though it is claimed that the victims were drug dealers, petty criminals and sex offenders, it’s highly likely that many weren’t.
Did all of this make Davao City safer?
I mean, it’s debatable. There’s no question that Duterte presided over a sharp decline in the crime rate, but whether or not the city is safer is a big question, given that Human Rights Watch alleges that the vigilante groups operating in the city sure kill a lot of people who aren’t actually criminals.
The Philippine National Police say that Davao still has the 4th highest murder rate and 2nd highest rate of sexual assault in the entire country.
So he’s doing this in the rest of the country now?
Basically, yep. In July, just after his election, he urged police and citizens to kill drug users. “These sons of whores are destroying our children. I warn you, don’t go into that, even if you’re a policeman, because I will really kill you,” he told an audience at a rally.
“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”
He’s been very open and to the point on this. Here’s a video from August of him reading out the names of allegedly corrupt politicians and cops, demanding that they turn themselves in within 24 hours or the army will be turned on them. It’s pretty wild!
It’s estimated that around 37 people have been killed per day since his election as part of an extrajudicial drug war. As many as 2,400 are already dead, with 1,000 confirmed as being perpetrated by the police, and a further 1,400 ‘under investigation’ (read: probably not that strongly under investigation).
Duterte has support from quite a wide section of society, with 9 out of 10 citizens saying they trust him. The Communist Party of the Philippines, who have a militia named the New People’s Army, are openly supportive of Duterte’s war on drugs, and have committed to disarming and killing drug lords.
Why are people so keen on this?
You can understand why the country’s population are demanding action – the Philippines struggles with corruption, and to the average citizen it might look like the apparatus of government isn’t doing shit to address it. Step in a straight-talker like Duterte, who looks like he gets shit done, and the enthusiasm is unsurprising.
The country has seen a tumultuous relationship with power over the past few centuries, having been colonised by the Spanish and the United States and then suffering under the corrupt, brutal dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. It’s easy to claim that as functioning liberal democracy is quite young in the Philippines, they’re comforted by another strongman in command, but there really are legitimate grievances here.
As Fatima Measham says in Eureka Street, Filipinos look to places like Singapore and see very functional, prosperous societies under authoritarian rule – so why can’t they have that at home? Those kind of conditions give rise to leaders like Duterte.
That said, it is somewhat ironic that the very same open disregard for the law by corrupt politicians in the Philippines that Duterte apparently despises is exactly what lets him openly flout the judicial process. Oh well!
How is the world responding to this?
They’re not especially keen.
“Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the Government from its international legal obligations and do not shield State actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings,” said UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard in an Aug. 18 statement.
The UN generally is extremely leery of Duterte’s strategy, as you might imagine, with human rights experts at the organisation pleading with Duterte to put an end to it, claiming that drug trafficing offences should be “judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets.” Which strikes me as a fairly reasonable point. Duterte’s response is that he’d rather nope the fuck outta the UN than listen to them.
So there we have it. Pretty dark stuff going on in the Phillipines – and no sign of an end. We’ll keep you posted.
Photo: Getty Images.
