This week’s blog is wordier than most because I have been in the Philippines, a former U.S. colony that celebrated its Independence from Spain on June 12 1898, on the historic day of the Trump-Kim Summit, and where a lot happened politically that is metaphorically and militarily relevant to America.
I arrived in Manila a week ago to the day, greeted by headlines and commentaries of the killer kiss delivered to the lips of a married Filipina with two children in Seoul, South Korea, by President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte — a gimmick to entertain the overseas Filipino workers who came to hear his speech — according to the president. A political reality show ala Trump!
The stories were not kind. The accompanying headlines of his vomiting episode on his flight back to Manila, brought on by a migraine, only made matters worse.
Among the mostly Filipino crowd listening to his speech in Korea was Cil Borlaza, a Filipina on her final year for a PhD under a Korean government scholarship. Her Facebook post was picked up and repeated in several local editorials.
“I don’t usually post politically related stuff on social media but this was borderline traumatic for me. In his speech, our President used foul words so many times that I’ve lost count. He pulled perverted jokes several times (even used the word ‘libog’[lust/horny]). He made remarks about pretty ladies who performed, as if bragging about his womanizing skills. He even kissed someone on the lips.
“This was extremely difficult to watch.”
Sounds like former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his recent comments about relationships in our political New World Disorder?
The criticism of the killer’s kiss — as some of his critics refer to the president because of his killing spree of more than 4000 drug dealers and users — “Death by Duterte” being a sample headline, refused to die, even after the Filipina kissed by the president said she saw nothing wrong with what the president did.
The president brushed aside his critics and said they were envious and should change their dentures.
“Nothing, no malice on the kiss,” the president said. “That’s my style,” he added. “It’s not just a smack…some women really like romance….There is nothing wrong in a simple kiss, you cause an uproar,” he told his critics. A modified Trumpism?
Having lived in the Philippines for a couple years in the mid-90s, and written about my observations of the country and people in my Custom Maid New World Disorder trilogy, I know first-hand the high esteem Filipinos have for women that gave rise to the age-old saying: “Filipino custom no touch.”
The president did get annoyed when asked how his common law wife reacted about the kiss. “That’s a question of perverts. Why do you have to dwell on kissing?… Next question.”
Duterte’s version of Trump’s “fake news” comments in response to a question at his press conference in Canada before leaving the G7 early for his summit with North Korea’s Kim in Singapore.
The question was answered when the president said he would stay in Manila until the issue died down. He usually goes home to Davao City during weekends. As tough as the president is with his critics, one person he won’t pick a fight with is his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpipo, whom he admitted might take him to task for kissing a woman in public — and she did — ala Ivanka.
Ironic that the big story about the president’s three day trip to Korea was his killer kiss instead of his accomplishments there. No different than Trump and how he is treated by the media.
Duterte did sign 23 agreements worth $4.8 billion in infrastructure investments that would create 58,000 Filipino jobs. Korean tourism and retirement communities are growth sectors in the Philippines.
He also looked into buying more South Korean FA50 Multi-Role Fighters and Surion helicopters for the Philippine Air Force, because the jets and helicopters were “game changers” in the Marawi City conflict to remove the Islamic State-inspired militants who seized the city last year.
Buying military equipment from Korea is understandable when Chinese Coast Guard personnel seize part of Filipino fishermen’s catch and fishermen ask “Are we slaves of China?” and social media exploded with conspiracy theories with a picture of a Chinese military plane parked at Davao international airport to refuel.
More so when considering what Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told a pre-anniversary forum of top Air Force officers from the Philippines, U.S. Japan and Australia: “Since we are all friends and allies here, we have to project our minds and foresee what the face of the future of air combat will be. Will it be good to have fighter jet planes? Or maybe just invest in missiles to protect ourselves?”
“Air power is paramount to the defense of the state… The complex and dynamic nature of the dynamic nature of the regional security environment needs broader cooperation among ASEAN and other nations to prevent and counter violent extremism,” said the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr.
Add to that U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis blunt accusation of “intimidation and coercion” by China earlier in the month in Singapore at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue attended by defense and security officials in the Asia-Pacific region. He declared Washington will not abandon its role in the region. Mattis also blasted Chinese President Xi Jinping for reneging on a 2015 promise made at the White House that Beijing would not militarize the island features in the South China Sea.
“Make no mistake: America is in the Indo-Pacific to stay. This is our priority theatre,” Mattis said. This on the heels of Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, comments that the U.S. could wipe out China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. “I would just tell you that the United States military has had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands.”
U.S. Navy ships have ramped up America’s freedom of navigation operations in the area recently by venturing into the 12-mile vicinity of some of the South China Seas claimed by China.
Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said countries in the region should unite to stop the militarization of the sea. “I think what should happen is for the claimants Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Brunei to band together to build a stronger voice to make our wishes heard.”
President Duterte and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines discussed China abuses to fishermen in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) last Tuesday as the Philippines celebrated Independence Day.
Critics of Duterte marked the 120th anniversary of independence with calls to assert the country’s sovereignty in the territorial dispute with China and to protect democracy against authoritarian rule.
Duterte says war with China is like committing suicide. Security forces would grab power in a coup and take over the government if ordered to go to war with China over the South China Sea dispute. “If I were the general, and you order me to go there, commit suicide with my troops, I will tell you f*** you. Why do I have to do that?” he added. He remains passive amid the public outcry for him to assert the country’s maritime claims against China.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said it was foolhardy to quarrel with China, considering it “controls” the national power grid, referring to the 40-percent stake of State Grid Corp. of China in the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.
Duterte did impose martial law in Mindanao in 2017 during the Marawi conflict and was asked upon his return from Korea if he planned to extend martial law across the entire country, because in a speech to Korean businessmen in Seoul, he said he would “go to the extreme” to ensure their safety in the Philippines.
In his response to reporters at the airport, he said he would introduce “radical changes” and warned criminals in and out of government that he would use emergency powers “to the hilt” to fight rampant crime and corruption. He downplayed the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index report that the Philippines is the second least peaceful country in Southeast Asia, next only to North Korea.
He ruled out declaring martial law nationwide and said he “might think of something else” to fight crime. No different than Trump’s threats to violent gangs and drug dealers in the U.S.
Journalists, prosecutors, village chiefs and activist priests are assassinated on a regular basis. Archbishop Socrates “Soc” Villegas denounced the murder of priests saying the assassins could have been “emboldened” by President Duterte’s verbal attacks against the clergy.
Rich Chinese are being kidnapped and killed. Some by rogue cops. During my visit Dennis Denora, a publisher and journalist of a local weekly was assassinated in what many, including the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, believe was politically motivated by a “very influential politician.”
State prosecutors, 10 since Duterte took office, have been attacked with nine of them killed. Most recently, five month pregnant Assistant Prosecutor Madonna Joy Tanyang, who was probing graft complaints against public officials, resulting in the call that prosecutors be issued gun permits to arm and defend themselves. Sound familiar?
Local village chiefs who also run for their political office and get assassinated, are also asking that they be issued gut permits and be allowed to be armed — another NRA Trumpism.
Kidnappers and assassins, especially of Chinese nationals, usually are former or current law enforcement officials. During my brief stay four people arrested in the kidnapping and carnapping of Chinese nationals were former policemen and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency officials.
“I have declared national emergency already, it’s existing. In other countries, national emergency is equated with martial law. But we have our unique style of handling emergency,” Duterte said.
In 2016, following a deadly bombing in Duterte’s hometown of Davao City, the President declared a state of emergency throughout the Philippines.
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said President Duterte might just be exaggerating the crime situation in the country so he could legitimize a possible declaration of martial law similar to what former President Ferdinand Marcos, a man he admires, did in 1972.
The killing of assistant special prosecutor Madonna Joy Tanyang was cited by presidential spokesman Harry Roque of the president’s tougher stance. “The President was really frustrated and disturbed by this news. He was really moved by the stabbing of a pregnant woman by a drug addict.”
As if the foregoing wasn’t enough political news during my brief visit, the ongoing civil wars and on-and-off peace negotiations in the Philippines with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, National Democratic Front of the Philippines, Communist Party of the Philippines, its guerrilla front New People’s Army and its umbrella organization the National Democratic Front — no different than the peace mission President Trump is trying to reach with Kim to end the Korean War, eliminate ISIS, al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations — were back page stories.
The bombing runs in three towns against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that made about 20,000 people flee their homes made the regional news – mid section.
The news of Anthony Bourdain’s suicide resulted in replays of his show Parts Unknown filmed in the Philippines and his thoughts about the election of Trump and Duterte. “As unhappy and surprised as I am with the outcome, I’m empathetic to the forces that push people towards what I see as an untimely self-destructive act. Trump, Berlusconi, Putin, Duterte, the world is filled with bad choices, made in pressured times.”
Hanging out in Manila is always a thriller. Not just because President Duterte makes the local and international news with just about everything he says and does — just like Trump — but the ever-changing domestic and international political scene there and its ongoing impact on U.S.-Sino relations, much like Manila streets that instantly turn into raging rivers during typhoons and storms — as was the case during my visit courtesy of tropical depression Domeng.