By all means, stay the fuck away. Too many Joes with too much money would spoil the place for Cheap Charlies such as myself.
People aren’t exactly OK with it- as they said a lot in The Sopranos, “wadyagonna do?”
I wonder if Duterte is channeling Mitch Hedberg: I used to take fentanyl … I still do, but I used to, too.
I told Mrs. Odds that I would not be returning to the Philippines until Du30 (and his policies) are gone. If she is intent on returning, it won’t be with me. Sadly, prior to Du30, we were seriously considering moving there if Trump took office. Then we watched Du30’s rise and hoped that the American electorate would be smarter than the Filipino electorate.*
Pretty much all of the family residing here in the US (including those born and raised in the Philippines) are anti-Du30, while those residing in the Philippines are about 2/3 to 3/4 for Du30. In the end, you have two countries who love putting TV personalities in positions of power and who think that the way to cure cancer is to contract ebola.
*Technically, we were, because Trump lost the popular vote, but that pesky electoral college got in the way.
In the provinces, it can be as cheap as US$100, or free, when combined with alcohol and machismo.
Duterte himself admitted to killing to “teach” others how to do it:
Well, obviously that’s a non-starter. Better just kill everyone instead.
You try reforming a society with its roots in 400 years of corruption fostered by the worst people from Spain.
For some insight read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismos, or The Reign of Greed by Jose Rizal, available free in various translations at The Gutenberg Project.
“Noli Me Tangere” is Latin for “don’t touch me”. Presumably the title is in Latin to make it a message to the priests. It’s the novel for which Rizal was executed by the Spanish in 1896.
And kill journalists so no one’s brave enough to report the facts of the murders.