Rodrigo Duterte

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Ol Digong himself.

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Rodrigo Roa Duterte (1945–) (also known by his nicknames Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD) was the President of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He has been compared to fellow authoritarian populist lunatics Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro for inappropriate remarks and being an outright dickhead. Unlike Trump, who only thought he could get away with killing someone in public, Duterte has actually repeatedly bragged of killing people he claimed were rapists and kidnappers. This is an example of how a politician plays the Dexter Morgan card. This is how Duterte's Human Rights records while he was the mayor of Davao came under the microscope.^{[2][3] [4]}

The Mad Dog of Davao[edit]

During Duterte's tenure as mayor of Davao (1988-1998, 2001-2010, 2013-2016), he was allegedly complicit with the Davao Death Squad which operated from around 1993 onwards.^[5] In 2009, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations and Human Rights Watch accused Duterte of being supportive of the death squad.^[6][7]

He is known for his War on Drugs as soon as he became President. He has often killed anyone who does drugs because apparently doing drugs is way worse than murdering people. Ironically, there has been speculation that Duterte himself is a drug kingpin, and has been using the whole "War on Drugs" stunt as a front to cover up his (alleged) involvement in the Mindanao underworld,^[8] on top of his alleged connections with offshore gaming and online scam hubs run by foreigners.^[9] He has also been quite sexist and likes bragging about raping women^[10] and otherwise attacking women's genitals.^[11] Duterte also uses homophobic slurs, but it's okay because he used to be gay^[12], but Duterte's homophobia is not a more conservative position than that of mainstream Filipino politicians, who are heavily Catholic. Indeed, Duterte has made rather conservative and harsh remarks on LGBTQ+ issues, but by Philippine standards, which are very conservative in actual policy, he is implementing a somewhat liberal LGBT policy.^[13][14]

Crimes against humanity aside, Duterte has made many inflammatory statements in public: attacks against Pope Francis (the "son of a whore", which is also how he referred to Obama),^[15] the Catholic Church ("full of shit"),^[16] and a rape "joke",^[17] none of which have seemed to sway public opinion of him.^[18] The last straw may have been Duterte's insulting God:^[18]

Proving that he is unable to take even simple criticism, in 2020 Duterte was accused of being complicit in, if not outright responsible for, the broadcast shutdown of ABS-CBN, a major television network in the country, citing allegedly biased and unfavorable news coverage against Duterte beginning with his campaign in the 2016 Philippine presidential election among other things.^[19] Prior to the network's shutdown, he also sought to have independent news site Rappler suppressed over its exposes against Duterte's regime.^[20]

While he is often called the "Filipino Trump," which makes him sound like a reactionary, he self-identifies as a leftist. In fact, PDP–Laban, his (current) personal party, is also a democratic socialist and left-wing populist party.^{[21][22][23][24][25]} In other words, he is a very strange politician whose extreme right-wing tendencies and leftist populist aspects coexist.

And like Trump, one columnist opined that Duterte exhibited a reality distortion field especially during his campaign, where his charisma and appeal to the masses–who were understandably anxious for change in the country–prevailed over both his human rights abuses and obscene remarks towards people and organizations, including but not limited to the Roman Catholic Church and even God himself, never mind the fact that the Philippines is majority Catholic.^[26]

Post-Malacañang[edit]

In 2022, the International Criminal Court launched an investigation on Duterte over human rights violations during the drug war. ^[27] In response, Duterte petulantly withdrew the Philippines from the ICC, but prosecutors said he cannot stop the probe no matter what.^[28] As he was term-limited, Duterte might very well be indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity as an ex-president. Duterte himself hinted that he may be arrested by the ICC any time for his atrocities.^[29] As of November 2024 former President Duterte faces multiple congressional hearings related to allegations of crimes against humanity. ^[30].

Duterte was succeeded by Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, son of the country's former dictator. Much to Duterte's chagrin, Marcos picked his daughter Sara Duterte as running mate. (Duterte was planning to make her his own political heir.) As Marcos had the support of almost the entire political establishment (despite running as a populist), Duterte did not publicly object to his campaign. However, as differences between the two have become more clear, their rivalry has gone public, and they have even accused each other of being drug addicts.^[31] Indeed, Sara proved to be a thorn on Marcos's side, as the younger Duterte have publicly spoke out her objections towards Marcos Jr.'s presidency, particularly Bongbong's falling out with both his erstwhile ally Apollo Quiboloy–who staunchly endorsed him in the 2022 presidential election yet ended up somehow betraying Marcos due in part to a fake news item made against one of Bongbong's relatives–and the Duterte clan in general. In a rally held during the anniversary of Quiboloy's sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), Sara apologised to members of the KOJC of whom she wooed into voting for Bongbong Marcos^[32] and lashed out at law enforcement for perceived excessive force during the raids at the Quiboloy estate; the irony is not lost when the Dutertes were called out for crying human rights abuses over their friend and spiritual adviser even when they themselves have been accused of human rights abuses to begin with.^[33]

Stopped clock? Or maybe not...[edit]

In spite of all the lunacy he exhibited both pre-and-post presidency, Duterte still somehow felt that Vladimir Putin, of whom he refers to as a "friend" and an "idol",^[34] has needlessly crossed the line with his so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine in 2022. He publicly admits having people killed in his bloody campaign against criminals and drug fiends, yet claims to have drawn the line with the idea of invading Ukraine as innocent civilians are caught in the conflict. The irony is not lost as Duterte's own special operation has also needlessly claimed the lives of otherwise innocent civilians lumped together with drug dealers, due process be damned.^[35][36]

See also[edit]

• Ba'ath Party
• Aleksander Dugin
• Left-wing fascism
• Populism
• Apollo Quiboloy, one of Duterte's best buddies
• Joseph Stalin
• Third Position
• Vladimir Putin
• Donald Trump
• Najib Razak
• Prabowo Subianto

References[edit]