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| Joe Cummings |
Rodrigo Duterte, the populist punisher who has people hooked
Shooting from the hip could yet land the Philippines’ president in trouble, writes Michael Peel
Financial Times | 7 October 2016
“three Dutertes”: showman, punisher and power-playing
Machiavelli. “That’s why he remains popular, but the world is revolted by him.”
The 71-year-old Mr Duterte’s
combative performance over the past week or so could serve as a microcosm of
his presidency so far. On Sunday, he was saying sorry for the Hitler remarks,
in which he said he would be glad to kill millions of drug addicts. By Tuesday,
he was telling Mr Obama to “go to hell” and predicting that Manila would swap
its military bearhug with the US for arms deals with Beijing and Moscow,
potentially offering a chance for a territory-hungry China to dominate the sea
of Southeast Asia. On Thursday, an independent opinion poll suggested more than
three-quarters of Filipinos were satisfied with their shoot-from-the-hip
leader’s performance so far.
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