Return To The Philippines Essay

A shift and surge in public opinion has swept the Philippines over the past year. A rise of hard line statements and rhetorics on both domestic and international issues. A return to an iron-fisted, military-centered system. A dramatic change of foreign policy, focused on forging new ties with communist countries, and breaking traditional, western-capitalist ones. This is a major alteration from past Filipino governments, which once advocated Western interaction and liberalism. A return to a more authoritarian rule is now imminent. However, many Filipino’s have surprisingly supported this rise. They support it with the prevailing idea, that established political parties have failed to improve their living standards. Many political scientists

His utopian visions, made public through statements, resonate to a lot of disgruntled voters. They believe that he is the change they’ve been looking for. It’s no wonder his slogan during the campaign was “change is coming”. Someone outside from Greater Metro Manila, who is against the political establishment, that represents true Filipino values. His daring promises to the public like “I will eradicate drugs in 3 to 6 months” further reinforces his support base. Filipino’s believe he is the only one who can deliver on such promises. Many claim that the way he handled and fixed the issue of criminality as mayor of Davao City proves his record on delivering. However, many of his critics say that Détente suppresses crime through killing or treating criminals. His detractors claim that his approach of being a hard man won’t work effectively in combating the issue. But more than that, evidences from police records has shown that the president committed summary executions in order to curb the crime in Davao. This is why, many of the presidents pundits say that the only way he can achieve such goals is to ignore the rule of law. It means ignoring the idea of “guilty until proven otherwise”. Therefore, it pushes an agenda of killing drug addicts and pushers unjustly. But even with all of these warnings, many Filipinos still admire the president due to his capability to serve and deliver. Consequently, even at the expense of some lives. And most of all, at the cost of undermining the law of the