You keep going on and on about my failure to respond to something and fail to respond to all sorts of things I post.
You fail to provide any evidence that Duterte is a dictator but insist that it is somehow my failure for not agreeing with you.
All you have is a president doing EXACTLY what he promised he would do and enjoying over 90% approval ratings for doing so. So you try to take those high approval ratings and compare him to marcos. :dubious:
Never said this, cite or retract. You will see that I’m only saying that Duterte is very close to becoming one, and just as the fire elements example there are many of those elements of a dictatorship that can indeed turn the Philippines into a dictatorship.
Because he showed that he had plenty of support before, clearly under controversial circumstances, but support nevertheless.
Yes, what about it?
The thing that you are trying to avoid also is what me and even the UN are aware of the autocrats that tried to get away from any responsibility by what it is called “the death squad dodge”.
So, again another step towards becoming a dictator. Of course one of the understated points was that Duterte will be declared one if the other branches of government can not give justice to the ones affected by checking if what Duterte id doing is the proper thing.
Well, the steps being seen are not encouraging, the slouching towards a dictatorship is getting there:
Sure, anything could happen. All you need is a military and police that will cooperate with the new dictator. By that reasoning any Filipino Presdient could conceivably become a dictatorship. Not really sure what the stuff about fire elements is but…
Its silly to compare a president with 90%+ approval ratings with a dictator that stuffed the ballot boxes to get 88% of the vote while he was a dictator.
“the death squad dodge” seem to refer to dictators using death squads to hide violations of the geneva conventions It seem to refer to the use of death squads by dictatorships to kill political enemies and dissidents.
Duterte might one day drift into that territory but right now you are just speculating that he will do so because you don’t like his policies.
Wait. So the committee chair that has been critical of President Duterte and who President Duterte has accused of having criminal ties is VOTED out 16 to 4 by her own committee because she is seen as too biased. SIXTEEN TO FOUR!!! Only 4 of her fellow senators were willing to support her. Perhaps the Filipino senators know something you don’t. Or is this a conspiracy that includes the democratically elected Filipino senate.
I do not think Human Rights Watch would just decide to toss out all their good work made in the past and the present now just for an unfounded concern. Do you have any evidence for that?
As they even have people in the Philippines it is clear that HRW are the ones that do know much more than you. To really support this move by the legislature is asinine. It is one sign on the road to dictatorship.
As one member of the senate put it, it is not contradictory to investigate so as to prevent abuses and reign over the death squads and approving of the war on drugs.
But, as usual to identify who is a dictator we have to see if Duterte will use his power to spike all the investigations that were being made by the committee. And that is the most likely outcome.
Well, how convenient… But me and many on the human rights organizations and the UN were not born yesterday. And neither columnist Francisco S. Tatad from the Manila Times:
So where does HRW call Duterte a dictator? because I think we need to establish that before I can rebut the notion.
And 16 members of the senate voted to get rid of a senator that was wasting government resources in a biased investigation.
I was under the impression that 16 out of 20 senators voted to do that. Did Duterte threaten them or blackmail them into voting that way?
Wait, isn’t Francisco S. Tatad the former Minister of Public Information for Ferdinand Marcos? Didn’t he shut down the Manila Times because they were being critical of Marcos? Isn’t Francisco S. Tatad just another politician?
Has Duterte been shutting down newspapers and radio stations that are critical of him?
He may become a dictator one day but right now his policies seem pretty popular and when he tries to do something unpopular (like honoring Marcos), the Filipinos seem comfortable opposing him and he seems to back down. hardly the stuff of dictators.
Well, it’s been nine pages. DA, it’s time for the big reveal where you explain how all this time we’ve really been arguing about something else and we’re all hypocrites. Because you cannot possibly actually think this policy is a good idea.
Stop with the straw man. Read it again. I’m not saying that, **you **are. And one should wonder why it is too hard for you to see that the position I have is not an absolute one as much as you want it.
All your other affirmations are just the same tired pap that does not deal with what was said, only just a shooting the messenger argument.
Wait. So are you ready to say that Duterte is not a dictator (at least not now)? Because you’ve really been implying that he was either a dictator or was very likely to become one.
A nation awash with alcohol, tobacco, sugar, junk food, poverty, religiosity, multiple power outages per diem, imminent annexation by China… No. But, it’s “the drugs” that are the problem… mmm’kay? Can human beings actually be bred this stupid… without genetic manipulation?! :smack:
When the heads start rolling down Davao streets (and elsewhere), courtesy of the cartel-funded Abu Sayyaf ― that’s from the horse’s mouth―have friends there―was in Mindanao less than a year ago―just after those tourists were taken from Samal Island (another anti-du30 action) and du30 was coquettishly toying with running for despot ― then we’ll see how “great again” dictator du30 is rendering his Third World, sex tourism archipelago.
Regional security advisers were in symposium not a week ago in Australia, enunciating their concerns about the southern Philippines as Daesh’s next target for ‘caliphate treatment’. To say nothing of the problems in Zamboanga that have simmered there for generations…
‘Kill 'em all and let their gods sort them out’ only works when death does not begat death. That is, it doesn’t [work].
Which of those do you think are responsible for the crime and violence? For the powerful drug cartels and government corruption?
I mean seriously, until you got to multiple power outages, I thought you were going to rip on the USA.
Well, to be fair, drugs are probably the foundation of the powerful drug cartels. Perhaps the answer is legalization of crystal methamphetamines as some posters seem to think. The Filipinos disagree and they think that killing the drug dealers is the answer.
Coquettishly? Are we talking about the same guy?
And he is not responsible for the sex industry in the Philippines. The US military presence there probably has much more to do with that than Duterte. The Phillipines is a first world country being firmly aligned with the USA during the cold war.
Cite. I don’t recall the Philippines ever being part of the caliphate and I thought those guys were focused on retaking lands lost to them.
So have the killings been leading to more killings or have they led to a reduced murder rate?
Philippines relations with China are improving. By that token, Korea, Japan and Taiwan are also facing imminent annexation by China. Same with the USA, Africa, Europe and Australia.
*“On Friday, he and nine other men were shot dead at a highway police checkpoint, in what the police described as an antidrug operation.”
"“We were really surprised when the president came out to announce it,” he told The Times by email. “Not once were we involved in drugs. In fact, we were fighting drugs. I support the president’s drug war.”
He said he had been wrongly placed on the list of drug suspects because of false accusations spread by his political rivals. He said he was not afraid of an investigation."*
We are supposed to believe that the mayor himself, after being named publicly as a drug kingpin, was in a convoy transporting drugs? :dubious:
How convenient none survived.