4 ms·

The president was already doing this in Davao before being elected to the national office. And this was already happening throughout the country. It's sort of a

by gexla 10y ago

The president was already doing this in Davao before being elected to the national office. And this was already happening throughout the country. It's sort of an open secret that in the Philippines you can bump someone off for PHP 10K. I'm guessing that a lot of these killings are sort of cover for other issues. This person is a drug user, but also owes the wrong people a lot of money. It's just an expansion of targets for people who were already employed in the industry. Business is getting good. I don't know if there is any real strategy here since the president was already doing this as mayor of Davao and this sort of became a platform to run on. Another platform was to fight corruption, a major problem in the Philippines. As you can see from the list, there are a lot of public officials allegedly involved in the drug trade. Perhaps the drug war is the first push against corruption. You work to seriously constrain the availability of drugs due to fear among dealers and users and that cuts off the supply of money to the top. At the same time you hit the top through your intelligence sources. Drug related corruption gets squeezed from both sides. As this is the more brutal stage, the fear of being involved in corruption spreads to non-drug related corruption.

hackuser 10y ago
> It's sort of an open secret that in the Philippines you can bump someone off for PHP 10K. That's a pretty strong claim (as are many other statements). Is there something to back that up? > The president was already doing this in Davao before being elected to the national office. And this was already happening throughout the country I've read the former many times, but never the latter. > Perhaps the drug war is the first push against corruption. I don't see how murder, a refusal to punish murderers, and the effective elimination of rule of law and the judiciary is going to stop corruption. It's the worst possible corruption, and it's a fantasy that the person perpetrating this policy is somehow going to be otherwise honest, or that society, without these critical institutions, will be better able to deal with corruption. It's ok to kill people, just don't embezzle any money? There's also the minor problem of the complete disregard for individual life and liberty, which is harming a huge number of people.
- hawkice 10y ago
  >> It's sort of an open secret that in the Philippines you can bump someone off for PHP 10K. > That's a pretty strong claim (as are many other statements). Is there something to back that up? That's about $215 US, for the record. From the time I spent in Davao back when Duterte was mayor: no one I met was afraid of any crime, certainly not some weird public assassination market. The only people that you'd ever have to worry about were police, and that was only if you were a criminal yourself. That being said, that was back when he was a somewhat crazy mayor and not President. So maybe there's been a shift in the politics and perception of these things? I can say the city was tremendously livable and while there was some anxiety about him and the extrajudicial killings, it was offset by dramatically reduced worries about normal crime for everyone I spoke to about it (which says a lot, I think -- WHAT it says is a bit more complicated).
  - pyre 10y ago
    To be fair, there are many places where the police do shady things, but a certain segment of the population don't see any issue with it because it's always those "other" people feeling the brunt of it and "they were probably up to no good anyways." There are many white people that feel this way about police violence against black people in the US. "Well, they were black so they were probably up to no good; therefore the police only do bad things to bad people."
  - hackuser 10y ago
    > that was only if you were a criminal yourself Who says who is a criminal? Are Filipino police somehow far more gifted than those elsewhere and are completely non-corrupt (never using their powers for other than justice), and never arrest the wrong person? It's safe as long as you are not the one getting killed. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin offered similar security.
    - hawkice 10y ago
      I was speaking to the nature of their anxiety, not the probability they'd be killed or by whom. I was also trying to describe their perceptions, not the objective state of affairs. I think you'll find your comment to be oddly hostile and non-responsive.

by gexla 10y ago

hackuser 10y ago

> It's sort of an open secret that in the Philippines you can bump someone off for PHP 10K. That's a pretty strong claim (as are many other statements). Is there something to back that up? > The president was already doing this in Davao before being elected to the national office. And this was already happening throughout the country I've read the former many times, but never the latter. > Perhaps the drug war is the first push against corruption. I don't see how murder, a refusal to punish murderers, and the effective elimination of rule of law and the judiciary is going to stop corruption. It's the worst possible corruption, and it's a fantasy that the person perpetrating this policy is somehow going to be otherwise honest, or that society, without these critical institutions, will be better able to deal with corruption. It's ok to kill people, just don't embezzle any money? There's also the minor problem of the complete disregard for individual life and liberty, which is harming a huge number of people.

hawkice 10y ago
>> It's sort of an open secret that in the Philippines you can bump someone off for PHP 10K. > That's a pretty strong claim (as are many other statements). Is there something to back that up? That's about $215 US, for the record. From the time I spent in Davao back when Duterte was mayor: no one I met was afraid of any crime, certainly not some weird public assassination market. The only people that you'd ever have to worry about were police, and that was only if you were a criminal yourself. That being said, that was back when he was a somewhat crazy mayor and not President. So maybe there's been a shift in the politics and perception of these things? I can say the city was tremendously livable and while there was some anxiety about him and the extrajudicial killings, it was offset by dramatically reduced worries about normal crime for everyone I spoke to about it (which says a lot, I think -- WHAT it says is a bit more complicated).
- pyre 10y ago
  To be fair, there are many places where the police do shady things, but a certain segment of the population don't see any issue with it because it's always those "other" people feeling the brunt of it and "they were probably up to no good anyways." There are many white people that feel this way about police violence against black people in the US. "Well, they were black so they were probably up to no good; therefore the police only do bad things to bad people."
- hackuser 10y ago
  > that was only if you were a criminal yourself Who says who is a criminal? Are Filipino police somehow far more gifted than those elsewhere and are completely non-corrupt (never using their powers for other than justice), and never arrest the wrong person? It's safe as long as you are not the one getting killed. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin offered similar security.
  - hawkice 10y ago
    I was speaking to the nature of their anxiety, not the probability they'd be killed or by whom. I was also trying to describe their perceptions, not the objective state of affairs. I think you'll find your comment to be oddly hostile and non-responsive.