Zambales wrote:Unfortunately some can't read between the lines and label Duterte as some evil despot when actually he's trying to improve the Philippines.
Despite the mass movement that brought Duterte to power, vast swathes of Filipino society are so used to believing to the usual standards of political communication, that they place far more weight on what a politician
says than what they
do.
With Digong, they have admittedly got a tough one: a President who talks a lot, often with clear wisdom, often in riddles, often without actually making much sense. But also an extremely factual President. Just yesterday I was at the City Hall for the Torotot Festival. Fireworks are banned across the entire Davao municipality, so people make noise instead. There were fewer people I had expected, cheering and blowing torotots, a couple thousand tops. So that's the narrative mainstream news sources will report: another underwhelming, boring and low-tone festive season in Davao. Then one looks at the statistics: like every year, the Philippines have recorded 750 to 900 casualties related to firecrackers. Half of them are in Metro Manila. Davao has, as always, zero casualties. That is millions pesos saved in emergency healthcare costs. A saving that adds up to savings procured by the total smoke bans in all public places.
One can decide to go as deep as they want into the Duterte dialectic style. They will find whatever they want: diamonds, dirt, or absolutely nothing. They can bend it and twist it to their heart's content. Even Duterte got finally resigned to the volatility of his fellow countrymen, those countrymen is serving with the same effectiveness, sharpness and humility he used to serve Davaoenos. "Let them think whatever they want, I don't care". What he forgot to add, perhaps because it was obvious, or perhaps aware that smart and good hearted people already know:
"Let them judge me by the facts".
Every time I speak to Manilenos they say Manila is 30-50% better off now with Duterte. Borderline masa/middle class areas are safer, cleaner, with more policemen and traffic wardens deployed. Bureaucracy at City Hall has gone from a month to 3 working days,
just like in Davao (surprise surprise). Troubled and troublesome kids loitering the streets have gone and moms can let their children go to school unaccompanied, something that was unthinkable until a few months ago.
Foreign investment is up, there are no fewer than 24 large projects already in the pipeline. Billions of dollars are pouring from China and Japan, orders of magnitude more of what the US "best friend and ally" has ever committed. Billions of dollars of exports (mainly fresh fruit) have been earmarked by Russia and China. Facts, facts, facts. Cash-generating facts, life-saving and life-changing facts.
And yet, there are people who still want to decipher Duterte instead of looking at what he's doing. Like hiring one of those extremely skilled Polish or Hungarian handymen to refurbish your home, and the complain about their lack of English fluency, instead of looking at the results and how much less they end up charging you.
After all, Filipinos acknowledge that on their own: they complain about the bad because they want some good, and they complain about the good because they expect more good. A level of social immaturity that extends from their family circles (look at how they often treat their OFW members, squeezing them to their last remittance and pasalubong) to the highest echelons of their political discourse.
As Starchild would probably say, God save the Filipinos...from themselves
..not any more 
