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Now what? President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is outraged. He wants an end to the U.S. military presence in his country. He wants to curb all cooperation with the U.S. armed forces. He hits hard, talks big. And his people seem to be behind him, no matter what – his popularity rating is high and rising, now around 87%, which is something unimaginable anywhere else in Southeast Asia, or in the world.
Under a colorful headline on February 7, 2020, ‘End that son of a b*tch’: Duterte confirms US-Philippines military collaboration agreement is toast’, RT reported:
“Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is “terminating†the Visiting Forces Agreement, which provides legal immunity to US military drills, in retaliation for the US canceling the visa of a political ally and fellow drug-warrior.
“The president said he is terminating the VFA,†Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told ABS-CBN News on Friday. “I asked for clarification and he said he is not changing his decision.†The agreement provides legal immunity for US soldiers conducting military exercises in the Philippines.
Enraged by the US decision to cancel the visa of former police chief and Senator Roland dela Rosa last month, Duterte had given Washington a month to fix its ‘mistake,’ refusing to back down even as other members of his government urged him to reconsider.
“I’m warning you… if you won’t do the correction on this, I will terminate the… Visiting Forces Agreement,†Duterte said last month, daring the US to call his bluff.â€
Then few days later, on February 13, 2020, a letter was sent to his country’s tormentor and former colonialist master: ‘The Philippines has notified the United States that a major security pact is over.’“
Some say, all this is nothing new. The United States, the European Union, and even the United Nations keep attacking President Duterte. He hits back, insults his counter-parts, regularly threatening to kick out the U.S. and its military forces. He personally insults the leaders of Western countries, international organizations and even the Catholic Church which, in the Philippines, used to be untouchable.
Making Western leaders desperate, he calls China “the kindest nation on earthâ€, and he admires Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. In Manila, the Russian leader is now a masculine idol.
President Duterte is a self-proclaimed socialist. Critics say that many of his economic policies are still capitalist, even if his social policies are left-wing. But he has done precisely what most of his fellow citizens wanted him to do: he introduced free medical care and free education all the way to university level; something unthinkable in most of the Southeast Asian countries.
“Not enough has been done to improve the state of the nation,†says the academia, as well as the NGOs. But the poor love him, and so does the middle class. For them, what he has done is enough; much more than enough. Nobody did more for them in the past. 87% is an unprecedented level of support! The majority of Filipinos do not just support him – they love him, unconditionally.
Western mainstream media trashes Duterte left and right. Pro-Western NGOs are calling him a mass murderer, because of the war on drugs, which allegedly has taken thousands of lives.
His supporters reply:
“But before Duterte was sworn in, millions were rotting alive in desperate slums and enormous crime-infested cemeteries. Drug lords were murdering innocent people, and no Western NGOs were protesting.â€
I listen to both sides of the story. For three years, I have been all ears.
The criticism and attacks from the West, all this seems to matter nothing to Duterte – he is moving forward like a tank. And his long-suffering country is improving, year after year. It is moving up, even according to the Human Development Index (HDI, compiled by the UNDP).
“I will kill you, you son of a bitch!â€
Western media loves such statements, blasting them all over, as if they were some sort of proof that the President of the Philippines is a mafia-style murderous maniac.
But I am told by many in his restive home base in the south; in Davao City:
“No way; this is how we speak on Mindanao Island. President is Visaya – he says what comes to his mind. Tagalog people are polite, but their actions are often brutal. Talking dirty means nothing bad where Duterte comes fromâ€.
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But for the Southeast Asian region, the most important topic is how President Duterte is handling foreign policy.
All over Asia Pacific, the United States, desperate to keep its global hegemony, is antagonizing Beijing on all fronts. It is pushing China from all directions. The South China Sea is constantly in the spotlight, through the international courts (often controlled by the Western countries and interests) as well as through the Western mass media. The dispute over the Spratly Islands has been poisoning the relationship between Beijing and Manila for decades.
However, after Duterte became president, things changed, dramatically. The rhetoric significantly softened, and both China and the Philippines clearly stated that they are willing to talk, negotiate and compromise. To the great dismay of the West, any military conflict between two countries is now out of question.
This approach is having an enormous (although grossly under-reported) influence on the entire region’s policy towards China. The country that is watching particularly closely is China’s historic rival, and a fellow Communist state – Vietnam.
For quite some time, President Duterte expressed a desire to diversify his foreign policy, extending a hand towards both Moscow and Beijing.
In January 2020, in an exclusive interview for the RT, he stated, rebelliously:
“I want to open new fronts with Russia and China as US lived off the fat of our land… America is not the Philippines and the Philippines is not America. It ain’t that way anymore, and I refuse to dovetail under American foreign policy…â€
But then again, his statements and actions do not seem to be adequate for everybody. Like in the West, many Marxist Filipino intellectuals are “puristsâ€; they demand utopian Western-style Marxist, or even Anarcho-syndicalist methods of ‘governance’.
President Duterte is neither of the above. He is a spontaneous, emotional leader. He is pragmatic. He often acts on the spur of the moment; he makes good moves and he also makes blunders. Sometimes, after he makes mistakes, he corrects them; he steps back, and tries again.
He is not a simple man; he is tormented individual. Sexually molested by a priest when he was a child, he holds a grudge against Christianity. He grew up in a complex family. His mother and father came from different political spectrums: a socialist and an official, a civil servant.
To the horror of some, he has a soft spot for the former dictator Marcos. So were several members of his family.
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The legendary left-wing academic, Roland Simbulan, a professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) and a good friend of mine, is even increasingly skeptical about the direction of the Duterte’s foreign policy. He wrote for this essay:
“On several occasions, Pres. Duterte has threatened to terminate either the Mutual Defense Treaty (1951) or the Visiting Forces Agreement (1999) with the United States. It seems and this view is measured by his actions, that he is just after more U.S. military assistance to equip his repressive army and police forces to repress the Filipino people’s resistance. Duterte is trying to soften U.S. government criticism of his violations of fundamental human rights of Filipinos, which is now the subject of investigation by the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations Council on Human Rights. He is also courting Chinese and Russian military assistance to likewise get additional military assistance from them. His coterie of more than 65 pro-U.S. ex- generals and military and police officers whom he has appointed to key positions in the civil government do not indicate a shift in policy. If he were really serious about having a “balanced and independent foreign policy”, he should have abrogated the Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement the moment he became president in 2016, as he had promised during his presidential campaign. He is now on the 4th year of his 6-year term, and he has not touched these agreements. These agreements with the United States,
have in fact, been strengthened, despite all the rhetoric. Now we know better that the rhetoric is really to get more U.S. military assistance.â€
Not everyone agrees. A daughter of one of the leaders of the Communist Party (New People’s Army), Joan Andrea Toledo, an accomplished social media reporter, is a staunch supporter of the President. We covered the battle of Marawi together, and this time we met again in the Cubao neighborhood of Manila, to discuss the current political situation in the Philippines:
“Duterte is surrounded by hawks, who want to have a conflict with China and the Communists. Whenever he wants to solve the conflict, the military makes a noise. Many in his government are from the previous administration. I was a member of the peace panel in Norway. The generals did not want peace with the Communists to succeed.â€
It is the same when it comes to China.
In the Philippines, antagonizing China is a tremendously lucrative business. As it is actually a great business all around Southeast Asia. People from all walks of life are paid royally for attacking Beijing, particularly from Western sources.
Luzviminda Ilagan, a former MP (now Under-Secretary for Policy and Plans Legislative Liaison Affairs Department of Social Welfare and Development), used to serve in Duterte’s administration in Davao City:
“Two biggest enemies of Duterte are the members of the Democratic Party in the United States, as well as the Christian Democrats in Europeâ€.
At home, many members of the elite, be they from the business sphere (oligarchs), from the military or academia, are now siding with the foreign critics of the President.
Prof Jay L. Batongbacal (Professor, Associate Dean for Research and Development
Director, Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, UP College of Law), appears to be vehemently against China’s maritime claims regarding the disputed islands, as well as against President Duterte, and any compromise that could be reached by Manila and Beijing.
He rejects accusations that it is Washington that has been trying to dictate the foreign policy of the Philippines towards China. He spoke to me on his campus about the situation:
“In the disputed area, the Philippines are interested in oil. The U.S. is not; at least not in this part of the world. For China, it is not about natural resources, it is about defense.â€
‘But what precisely is it for the United States?’, he did not specify.
He added though, that the compromises with China made by this administration, are turning The Philippines into “collateralâ€.
Professor Amparo Pamela “Mimi” Fabe (Countering the Financing of Terrorism Specialist & Senior Economist) offered a diametrically different view about Duterte’s approach towards the United States. She does believe that the U.S. is meddling in the state affairs of her country:
“The recent threat of President Duterte to terminate joint military exercises is a permanent move away from the West. It constitutes a move towards China and Russia. Hence, it is essential that China and Russia reciprocate this presidential move through stronger bilateral defense relations.â€
Then she threw her punch:
“The academia is a noisy minority. They are like that because most of them received their PhD scholarships from the US and the UK. It is hard to reason with them because they already have closed minds.
President Duterte has an 87 percent public support rating so his stand on independent foreign policy is well appreciated by the majority.â€
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When I speak to them, the Filipino people hardly see themselves as “collateralâ€. Lately, most of them are optimistic, happy that their lives are improving. They are endlessly grateful to their Presidente.
Recently, I have visited Manila on several occasions, but I also worked in the conflict-torn Marawi, in Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Zamboanga and many other corners of the country. Everywhere I went, Mr. Duterte was enjoying unprecedented popularity. And even his controversial war on drugs is, even according to Reuters, generating the support of almost 8 out of 10 citizens.
Moving closer to China and Russia does not evoke much resistance inside the country, with the exception of various academics and US-backed and trained high-ranking military staff. Oligarchs and the elites are also generally loyal to the West.
In February 2020 I flew to Puerto Princesa, which is the nearest city to the disputed Spratly Islands. Puerto Princesa International Airport shares a runway with the air force base, but I detected no military aircraft during my visit. All was quiet. No tension whatsoever.
I spoke to several local citizens, and not one of them expressed any concern about the proximity of China, or about China’s foreign policy towards the Philippines.
Allison, a local student, explained:
“China is a good country. We never have any real problems with it. I don’t know much about the Spratly issue, but here we don’t worry about it at all.â€
Norman, who works at the SM mall:
“I have no issue with China. Russians do not come here, so I wouldn’t know. America has joint military exercises with us for a long time. There have been a lot of them here at Puerto Princesa, for some period of time.â€
No urgency, obviously. No chest-beating patriotism. Nothing that you would imagine, reading Western newspapers.
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More than two years ago, while covering the Muslim extremist insurgency in the city of Marawi (Mindanao Island), I was arrested by the military and literally disappeared inside the barracks.
I was able to explain the situation, over the mobile phone, to my friends in Manila, who alerted the highest command there. Orders came from top generals: to release me immediately. But there was a mutiny. Local officers disobeyed, and I had to stay inside the compound until late-night hours. At some point, a jeep and an armored vehicle were dispatched, in order to drive me more than 100 kilometers to my hotel in Cagayan de Oro.
Later on, it was explained to me what really happened: while the pro-Duterte generals were happy to have me on the ground in the war zone, several pro-U.S. commanders were trying to make sure that non-Western and especially Russian reporters were to be kept out of the place. For many reasons. One of them: Marawi was full of ‘Western allies’ – extremist groups from other Southeast Asian countries, and other jihadi cadres, including, some said to me there, Uyghurs.
The next day, the pro-Duterte men asked me to return, and personally drove me back to the front. I was one of the few foreigners allowed to the frontline.
A small incident? Perhaps. But it clearly illustrates how complex, how divided the situation is, even inside the armed forces.
And the division is not only in places like Marawi, Zamboanga, Sulu and the other restive areas of the South.
The most divisive issue is that of China, and whether Rodrigo Duterte, the most popular President in the history of the Philippines, will be able to, against all odds, fully change the foreign policy of his country.
He wants to. I am convinced that he does. I know enough people around him to make this statement.
But the inertia is tremendous. The forces that are trying to prevent him from going with China and Russia are powerful. These forces have been controlling this country for decades, even centuries.
But the President is not scared. Physically he is not well. Sometimes he is not even sure he can survive until the end of his term in power. He wants to change his country, while he is still alive.
He has already called Barrack Obama a son-of-a-bitch. He even described the Christian God as “stupid†and a “son of a bitchâ€. And now, the military pact with the United States…
The world is watching. Asia is watching. Secretly, people want him to succeed. Almost nobody from abroad dares to support him publicly. The Western Empire is brutal and vindictive. It kills. Duterte does not care. When he charges, he does it “in the name of his peopleâ€. He has 87% of the nation with over 100 million inhabitants covering his back. That’s a lot. And no matter what the foreign analysts say, that’s actually damn truly a lot!
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[First published by 21 Century Wire]
Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Five of his latest books are “China Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries, Saving Millions of Livesâ€, “China and Ecological Cavillation†with John B. Cobb, Jr., Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, the revolutionary novel “Aurora†and the bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empireâ€. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorismâ€. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter. His Patreon
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Philippines has declared that it won’t be used as a cold war weapon against China. It will accept goodies from the US and also others. Duterte will not force the US military to leave, that will result in sanctions and bankruptcy. Neutrality will be maintained.
I thoroughly understand duterte’s decision given “my†government’s decades of needless arrogance, belligerence, and use of threats and sanctions rather than negotiation as partners. Also glad to see a column about the philippines, my Wife’s home country.
But I have to defend the good Christian people of mindanao. That’s where she is from, and her family and friends don’t speak in such a continually filthy way. Even many people who support duterte and his blunt no-BS style wish he would rant without so much gratuitous cursing.
The visayan language and Visayan-speaking people should not be associated with this low-class behavior.
Lemme guess: they’re complaining that it can’t possibly be a worker’s state without tranny bathrooms, right? Purists! 😀
Digital Samizdat,
The New People’s Army (NPA) has long been conducting same sex marriages:
https://www.workers.org/world/2005/npa_0224/
I guess that’s why their revolution never got far.
Here’s more on lesbian marriage in the NPA including a Muslim woman:
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/796671/love-is-love-in-communist-movement
While the twitter sphere and low-IQ “anti-war” moralists love these articles and like to think that these articles provide a balanced view, the truth is far from this.
Even the WaPo (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/13/president-duterte-wants-scrap-philippines-us-military-agreement-this-could-mean-trouble/) is critical of Duterte and somewhat pro-USA here, and readers of this site would benefit from hearing the pro-USA side:
According to NYT (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/world/asia/philippines-united-states-duterte.html), the Philippines was possibly using the USA to pressure China to not take the South China sea:
“The move also comes as the Philippines has shown increasing reluctance to stand up to China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea.”
The usual trend emerges. The USA acts as a military force meant to peace-keep and protect financial interests for small nations that fear larger, militarily-powerful economic hegemons. Countries such as the Philippines ask for the US military presence because they feel that they need it. They feel they cannot do without it. The US military then works very hard to teach and train these peoples to defend themselves, in hopes of leaving in the future.
This is not imperialism.
Those people who know nothing of these topics instantly get all white-guilty about the US’s actions. Their minds instantly jump to images of Southerners with horrible accents who are angry and hateful to anyone different than them. It is (supposedly) them who lead the US military. They just want to go around attacking everyone because of their bigotry!
But reality is always more complex.
@anon
Those US bases in the Philippines were originally built to support the US imperialist war in Vietnam and once that was over they were not really needed any more. The best way to counter any Chinese threats is by greater cooperation between the armed forces of ASEAN nations and not by relying on the USA.
If the arrogant US military foolishly provokes a war with China, the Philippines is best off as neutral. That nation already endured World War II as a battlefield after the United States provoked a war with Japan.
Video Link
Reeks of idealism, and naive to the methodology of Empire.
Thanks to A. Vltchek. I wouldn’t have notice by myself since the MSM hide things. I like Philippines..
A part from the unpleasant statement on christianity I dream of Duterte – like rulers capable of answering the american in the same tone they talk to other nation (like one talk to a dog).
Google : pay now 1o billions dollars in fines for violation of social laws. If you don’t comply we cut the power supply within 15 days.
You spy on governmental phones ? Your ambassador is expelled and half the military bases on the area are closed. You’re not happy ? That don’t bother us !
Represals ? Ok , we seize some of the bank accounts linked to your governement like you do to other… etc etc ( Nordstream, extraterritoriality, Venezuela).
That said I’m not sure Philippines is to be a game changer on a world scale, but I hope it will be an eye – opener : It’s possible ta react. The kinder you are with a sadistic, the worst he gets, contrarily to normal people (or nations). You got to react. Last example : Russian sovereignty on internet : good.
Americans (or their governement) have not always been that bad or sadistic… Disapointement …and danger.
“This is not imperialism.”
How many of these countries we’ve “bootstrapped” with our military presence since the late 19th century are anything but U.S. camp-followers today?
What does world-police imperialism (or whatever you want to call it) do for Americans?
The Phillipines have always been more a liability than an asset, a Pacific salient that stretched our defenses too far and served to hook us into Asian geopolitics.
I’m more worried about saving my White American people than the “colonials,” but the truth is this neo-colonial system does both parties more harm than good in the long run.
Maybe Norman and Alicia (quoted in the article) are a bit wrong. Independency towards the US policies shouldn’t mean an automatical allegiance to China…
I m not filipino myself, but I think it’s an honourable nation. Defensless filipino women are raped in KSA, (or were raped). And when Filipinos are poor on a foreign land they don’t resort much to gangsterism (like some others do…).
The article “of related interest” by Peter Lee written about 4 years ago is also interesting (with more balanced views than it seems on christiansim by Duterte). So Abusayaf was backed by the CIA ? With uygurs on top of that ? What a shame. I didn’t know.
I basically agree with that. The US has seemingly helped Japan and South Korea.
I think I have a simple rule: if the country wants the military out, get out. Do not force it. If they want you in, it is a bit complicated.
Military presence has shown to just ruin your reputation. It makes enemies out of friends.
The US military personnel stationed in the Philippines are stupidly chasing local tail. For this reason, tens of thousands of children are born into interracial marriages with US troops. I oppose the US presence on racialist grounds that it is polluting the Philippino people with foreign DNA (white, black, and Latino).
So I also hate this. But I am not sure if it is really Imperialism, is all. I think there is some sense of humanitarianism in a lot of the US’s military activities.
The US military might have been in Philippines in 1970 for a great many reasons, but those reasons changed in the 1990’s when they pushed the military out and then asked for it to come back.
I just do not really agree that the US war in Vietnam was imperialist either, but it was awful regardless.
I think it is great to let the Philippines find allies in the region, in fact, the US leadership thought so too when it granted their independence and tried to demilitarize. But the Philippines asked for the US military to come back. What can we say?
There’s an old joke Philippine Leftists used to tell:
[Leftist protesting at a US base] “Americans out! Americans go home! (sotto voce: but can you take me with you).”
It’s high time American soldiers from all bases abroad returned home. They have plenty to work on in America, and will have much more to do in the next 15 years.
Informative essay, Andre. I had heard that Uygurs had been smuggled out of the ME in US aircraft and sent to the Philippines and you just confirmed it. America has not been a friend to the Philippines .
Thanks for posting this.
As a westerner, I’m not inclined to feel much enthusiasm at the prospect of a significant power aligning itself with a competing would-be hegemon..
But I like the man’s style, he’s everything my effete sleaazebag prime minister is not.
The Visayan people of Negros Oriental are also not known as potty-mouths. They are quite conservative in that regards.
Nikolai,
Yes, Duterte is quite unusual for a Pinoy as they are not verbally crude and vulgar people. In fact swearing at someone is considered a “verbal assault” by law in the Philippines and one is entitled to respond to it with physical violence in self-defence, something very different from US and European custom and law. Still the people love him so he must be expressing something that they generally hold back.
Wait, I thought Duerte is considered a fascist because he le oppresses le coomunists in Pinoyland?
Anyway, I like him, he’s pursuing his nation’s interests, and at this point, even I agree that the US cannot be trusted.
Vietnam best re-align itself with Russia, just like back in the Cold War, and solidifying relationship with Japan and India.
Except that aside from Vietnam – none of the ASEAN countries see China as a “threat”.
Aksually, they all do: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/16/how-people-in-asia-pacific-view-china/
There is just an undeniable fear and uncertainty over big Daddy US’s mindset at the moment, that’s why asian countries prefer to cozy with China in order to have times to prepare their militaries, this is true even historical rivals of China such as Japan, India and Vietnam.
I am talking on a governmental level…. The people who actually make decisions. Those people in that opinion poll read the NY Times and other western MSM and consume Hollywood movies. Their leaders aren’t subject to the same group think. ASEAN countries leaders feared China in the 50’s and 60’s because China was supporting communist rebel forces in those countries. In exchange for recognizing Beijing instead of Taipei – Beijing agreec to stop. Since the 70’s there has been no issues. In fact ASEAN nations were happy when China attacked Vietnam in 79 because it was now Vietnam – as part of the Soviet Bloc – who was attempting to exert direct influence. Even in the SCS there is a tacit agreement among all claimaints not to dislodge each other. The last real skirmish was between China and Vietnam in the 80’s.
Japan? They just have to folllow US orders. Nobody in Japan except the real extreme really wants or expects a fight with China. Historically they were not “rivals” until very recently in history. Much of Japanese society is based of ancient Chinese culture – as Japan was the student of China for centuries. Now that China is back on the rise it is more “natural” for there to be no rivalry. South Korea – as much as it burns the US is cognizant of that history and seeks good relations with China – just like ASEAN. Koreans were even more of a student to China than Japan. In fact – that was how the flow of information went. If you study Asian art you see it. Trends in China went to Korea and then Japan. Looking at the 1800 and 1900’s is way too narrow of a view. These civilizations were neighbors for thousands of years. None of them are itching for a fight – in spite of what the military industrial complex wants people to think. (Again – I am talking leadership)
India though – like Vietnam is a different story… For different reasons.
Like George Carlin, I don’t believe anything the government tells me, nothing, zip. And I also don’t believe anything I read or heard from the media, because they were just propaganda machines for the government.
Both our government and media are run by the same (((tribe))). They have their own agenda — world domination, with Jerusalem as the world capital. You must be a member of the tribe. Thanks for the propaganda.
The Filipinos are a pretty low IQ, degenerate tribe. Their women lurrve US GIs, sailors and lowlife “expats”, and their men live off their women who bring home the bacon either as prostitutes or wives/girlfriends of white degenerate lowlifes, mail order brides, maids/nurses/casino workers workings in foreign countries. Sadly this poverty stricken hellhole will always be a slave to the US. They ain’t got much going on upstairs. Real smart leaders do not mouth off like Duterte.
God (maybe not the Catholic one) bless President Duterte.
“any military conflict between two countries is now out of question.”…
Really.
Like any military conflict between China and the Philippines was ever likely to take place, and if it did (and it might someday over that island dispute) the Philippines would have a prayer of winning it…
China is going to do whatever it wants over there and the ONLY hope the Philippines might have had of China paying the slightly attention to what it wants was that the US had a base there; and China, maybe, wouldn’t want to antagonize the US…
So like most of these situations time will tell where this will end. I suspect it will end badly eventually for the Philippines. Actually, I hope it doesn’t as I know and like a number of Philippine people here in the US, but I don’t think it likely to be a happy ending.
I’m a White American that lived in the Philippines for years. I had a friend of mine sum the country up pretty well. He said, “When I first came to this country I felt sorry for the people because of how poor they are. Now after dealing with the unrelenting stupidity here I realize they are all just where they belong.”
The people that work in restaurants in the Provence literally can’t even cook an egg. You watch them turn the heat to high and start to fry an egg. Of course it comes out burned. When you go into the kitchen and show them to turn down the flame to low you can manage to get a reasonable egg out of them. You think you have solved the problem and when you go back tomorrow for breakfast you get the same thing. The same two old women with the flame on high chatting on about what ever old women talk about while burning your egg. This is what one faces in the Philippines. This was not an isolated incident. I have seen it over and over.
The people are all masters of “money for nothing.” I went to a motorcycle shop in the Provence looking for a super bike. Of course they only had small one cylinder jobs. I recalled the name of a big bike dealer in Cebu, Drei bikes, but had forgotten their number. The girl at the bike shop gave me their number but when I went there they didn’t have what I wanted so I eventually had to go all the way to Manila to find a bike and brought it back via ship. After driving my new super bike around for a few days the girl that gave me the phone number showed up at my house thinking I had bought the bike at the dealer in Cebu and she actually thought I should give her a 5% commission on a 10,000 dollar bike just because she gave me the number! Unbelievable! I explained to her that I didn’t buy the bike in Cebu but that I bought it in Manila and in any case I wasn’t about to give her a commission for giving me a bloody phone number. In a couple years I did go to the local dealer in Cebu to buy new tires. Some how the same girl got wind of it through the grapevine and showed up at my house expecting a commission on the tires!
That’s what White people have to put up with when dealing with the people there. Any time the Pinoy’s see money going by they try and dip their hand in it by any means possible. They seem to think it’s their God given right, never mind the fact that none of it belongs to them. I could give you a dozen other stories illustrating their greed and stupidity but you get the idea. A girl that thinks she is owed a commission for giving you the number of a business you already knew about but didn’t have the number. People that aren’t smart enough to cook an egg without burning it. The Philippines is the basket case of Asia. And the reason is the people. Most of them are brutally stupid. The few that aren’t stupid manage to educate themselves and get out of the country so the Philippines suffers a brain drain.
Duterte sounds like a loose cannon. He got buggered by priests when he was a kid and he obviously has a lot of anger left over from that. It probably makes him more emotional and less rational. If he is going to abandon America then China is the only game in town. But in a way China is already there. The Chinese that have moved there run many of the big businesses. They tend to be more intelligent and money savvy. My advise for Duterte would be to start teaching his people Chinese.
An excellent balanced article. For a change, a Filipino President is doing something for the Filipino people – and this is in a place that has been endlessly looted by (mostly Chinese) oligarchs in alliance with local elites. And getting the US out is also a good idea since they always support the Compradores.
P.S. Click Unz’s new “Subscribe Star” button.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/03/11/1999925/duterte-calls-fil-ams-vote-trump
Yo Andre old boy, how are you going to spin this?
Duterte is popular for his anti-drug campaigns but he hardly touches the source of all that shabu – China.
He is looking at a military coup right now. The military are very pro-American as we treat them all right and have a long history of fighting together. However, the best analog for the islands is as the Poland of the Pacific – a weak country caught in the middle.
The people are strongly anti-Chinese – they are very annoying one-on-one – while the Filipino elites are getting rich off Chinese money. Duterte is selling his country off to the elites and the Communists.
I’ve been visiting the Philippines regularly over the last three years.
As to allegations that American service men are “chasing tail,” let me tell you that in the islands and here in Dubai where I live, a well-put together white guy has to chase the filippinas off.
Dream on, Andre. The Chinese will be in no position, nor will anyone else, to worry about silly Duterte and the poor old sick man of Asia and bail him out when the banks get done with Republica Ng Philppinas.
You are completely delusional. It is still a poorer country but has been growing the economy by 8% per year for a long time. When I compare the Philippine of the 1990’s to today the improvements are huge.
In the early 90’s it was hard to find a good restaurant in Cebu. Now there untold numbers to pick from with all kinds of great cuisine. Last month I ate at Lantaw, The Blue Elephant, Banana Leaf, etc., all of which were excellent. In Legazpi there were also plenty of great places to eat, and I loved the Bicol Express, Laing and Pinakbet especially. That is hard to reconcile with people who can’t cook an egg, but maybe the problem is I didn’t order any eggs.
Everyone I have ever dealt with in the Philippines has been kind, honest, and helpful. No one has ever tried to rip me off or come off as greedy and grasping.
Perhaps instead of coming here to enjoy the great food, wonderful people and incredible natural beauty your are one of those who was a total loser back in America, and you had a fantasy that if you went to a third world country you would be a God, and people sensed that attitude and treated you appropriately.
You think I’m delusional? Well I think you are a local who is butt hurt that I told some truth about your country. It has been my observation that people tend to get emotional when they are told an unflattering truth about something they hold dear. All the things I told you were true. And my first impression is you are being disingenuous when you say everyone has been kind honest and helpful. Yes, I certainly did meet locals that fit that description. But, I have never been any where in my life that all the people I met fit that description. And the egg incident happened out in the Provence, not in Cebu city proper. The food in Cebu was not bad. Certainly not any where near the quality to be had in American restaurants, or even Thailand for that matter. But not bad.
But most of the people in the Philippines are poor. And the “money for nothing” scam has been tried on me several times. Now I’m not saying there is never a time someone isn’t owed a commission. When I sold some property there I gave my Pinoy friend 5% because he brought the buyer to me. But a girl wanting a commission on a 10 grand bike because she gave me a number? Ridiculous!
And your little crack speculating that I might be a loser that has come to the Philippines is just more evidence to me that you are probably a butt hurt Pinoy. Did you ever consider the fact that if you are a local you are not the target of this sort of horseshit? If you are a White foreigner the locals know you have money and the scams to get their hands on it come in a constant stream. It’s tiring as hell.
But if you are going to claim you are not a native but a foreigner and you seriously believe your statement about everyone being kind, honest, and helpful I can state with authority that it is you who are delusional and sooner or later you are going to suffer due to your naivete.
Oh, I put two locals through college in Cebu. Is that the actions of a loser that thinks himself to be a God?
Sulu
Duterte waffles more than the griddle at IHOP.