The newly-elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has been almost universally condemned by the international community for his violent war against drugs and drug crime in his country, in which hundreds have been killed. Both the United Nations General Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon, and the President of the United States, Barack Obama, decried these violations of human and civil rights by the new president. Duterte is also infamously known for his bombastic rhetoric, where he told Barack Obama to “go to hell” and that the Philippines will “break up” with the United States. While recent actions have shown that Duterte may be backing down from such divisive rhetoric, such as reversing his own decision to end drill exercises with US forces in the Philippines, most people still think of Duterte of a madman.
However, there is a method to his madness. Duterte wants freedom of action during his term as president. Placing ourselves in his position, we find that the primary actor reducing that freedom of action is the United States’s military presence in the Philippines. While his methods of going about it are questionable, Duterte has called recently for all foreign military presences in the Philippines to leave by 2022, which would allow him more reign over his own populace and less fear for what the international community has to say about his questionable actions. This is what must be understood about Duterte- his actions are questionable, but his motives are rationally sound. If he desires more control over his populace, he must get rid of that which limits his control.
For this same reason, we see Duterte attempting to align himself closer with China, who has in turn pledged not to meddle in the Philippines’s internal affairs. And still more the evidence mounts. Duterte in a recent speech threatened to suspend habeas corpus in his country by declaring a state of national emergency, allowing him to arbitrarily arrest and indefinitely imprison anyone who could oppose him. Is Duterte attempting to become a dictator? I don’t believe so, and I don’t think the United States would allow him to get that far, especially if he completes his realignment with the United States’s rivals in the region. Still, the violence in the Philippines will continue so long as Duterte continues his reckless war against drugs and soon, possibly, Islam, regardless of whether he continues on the road to tyranny or not.