After Duterte arrived, Filipino drug traffickers were subjected to the most hardcore "war on drugs" in their history.
A few years ago, on the streets of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, there was such a group of people, armed with guns and riding motorcycles, openly in the downtown area**. This is not a gang merger, nor is it a hired assassination, these ** people are the "bounty hunters" who wander the streets of the Philippines. They were ordered by ** to hunt down drug dealers hiding in any corner of Manila.
From "Paradise for Drug Dealers" to "Hell for Drug Dealers", what has the Philippines experienced?
I'm afraid you have to ask Rodrigo Duterte, the 16th president of the Philippines.
This "hard-core macho man" who was born in the gate, recklessly reckless, and finally elected as the first in the Philippines, his iron-fisted political methods are not inferior to Russia's **Putin, and can be called the "most popular**" in Philippine history
So, after six years in power, what did the "madman" Duterte leave to the Philippines?
[The descendants of the "ruthless" under the gate valve].
Duterte was born in the Philippines in 1945 into a family of gatekeepers and moved with his parents to the southern province of Davao when he was 5 years old.
Duterte's father, Vincent, was a well-known lawyer who later served as governor of Davao province. Because it is a gatekeeper politics, the local official position is likely to still be hereditary, and his father Vincent naturally gave high hopes to Duterte Jr.
At that time, Davao City, the capital of Davao Province, was the main center of the Philippines, and its urban security was extremely chaotic, with fights, robberies and arsons, and drug trafficking shootouts all commonplace, so it was once known as the "** capital".
Here, it seems, the only way to resolve the contradiction is fists and pistols. And this atmosphere of "do it if you don't agree" deeply influenced Duterte, which also set the tone for his later iron-fisted politics.
Unlike other gatekeepers, Duterte was quite "rebellious" in his youth, often wearing a leather jacket, a pistol at his waist, and riding a motorcycle around downtown Davao City, which was quite punk.
At that time, he firmly believed that "only violence can solve violence".
While in college, Duterte met his mentor, Sison, who influenced him throughout his life.
A staunch communist, Sisong visited China many times to study Xi ideology and basic socialist theories, and after returning to China established the first Filipino proletarian party, the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Sisong has had a big influence on Duterte's values. In the face of the endless violence in the Philippines, Duterte firmly believes that if he wants to improve the bad atmosphere in the Philippines, he must unswervingly follow the people's line, and his struggle is also a "people's war".
In 1988, at the age of 43, Duterte officially became mayor of Davao City. At this time, the social atmosphere in Davao City is still not improving, and Duterte will be here to fire his "first shot" of iron-fisted politics.
[The mayor of Davao City who "never leaves"].
Duterte's approach to Davao City can be described in one word as "simple and crude";
In one word, it is "ruthless"!
Faced with Davao City's high crime rate, Duterte chose to use more violent means to stop it.
First of all, Duterte has introduced a series of extremely strict regulations, including a ban on smoking in public places, a ban on late-night drinking by adults, and a ban on karaoke and other entertainment venues. In order to ensure the personal safety of minors, Duterte has also instituted a curfew for minors, and school-age children without adult supervision are not allowed to leave the house after 10 p.m.
Strict laws naturally require strict enforcers, and Duterte claims to be the "supreme enforcer of the legal system" in Davao City.
At night, Duterte is dressed in leather and rifle in his hand, riding around downtown Davao. If he sees something wrong on the street, Duterte will pull out a gun and shoot him dead on the spot.
Once, when Duterte was strolling down the street, he saw everyone smoking in a public place, so he ordered the smoker to eat the cigarette butt without saying a word. After the incident made the local news, there were almost no more people holding cigarettes on the streets.
Another time, a passenger took a taxi on the street, and after getting into the car, the driver felt familiar, and when he looked closely, it turned out to be Mayor Duterte. It turns out that Duterte often disguises himself as a taxi driver and learns about Davao City through conversations with passengers.
This low-key visit has won the goodwill of citizens, and Davao City's crime rate has improved under Duterte's iron fist. There is less and less violence on the streets, because no one knows that Duterte will come out of the ** in the next second.
However, while Davao City's crime rate has been declining, many Western countries and human rights groups have come forward to accuse Duterte of "abusing lynchings and threatening democracy." According to incomplete statistics, when he was mayor, he personally executed criminals several times.
Of course, there are also a considerable number of people who believe that in the face of a city where criminals are rampant, there should be a "ruthless" mayor who dares to take drastic drugs and punch hard.
By the time Duterte left office, Davao City was one of the safest cities in Southeast Asia.
At the end of 2015, with his high popularity among the public, the 70-year-old Duterte was officially elected to the Philippines**.
However, although Duterte is a good mayor in the hearts of the people, being a mayor and being a ** are completely different things.
At that time, the Philippines left Duterte with a mess, with a nationally entrenched gatekeeper political system, a high crime rate that carelessly kills people, and a crisis of trust caused by corruption.
In Duterte's own words, it is "rotten to the bone".
In the face of the devastated Philippines, how can Duterte "rectify" it with a heavy fist?
[Iron fist**, "macho man" from the sky].
Duterte has developed his experience in Davao City to the whole country, taking a "zero-tolerance" approach to drug trafficking.
However, it is not an easy task to crack down on drug cartels throughout the Philippines, many of which have regional gatekeepers as backers, and some gatekeeper politicians even openly sell drugs in the Philippines.
In this regard, after Duterte took office, he immediately issued an "ultimatum" to the gate lords and families in various regions, advising those associated with drug traffickers to turn themselves in as soon as possible, otherwise they will bear the consequences.
At first, in the face of Duterte's shouting, the political groups involved in drugs did not take it seriously. In particular, Reinaldo, the then mayor of Ozamian City, who had a background of "gate lord + warlord", created a private arm, and openly trafficked drugs, was not low-key, and he even publicly called Duterte, saying that he was not drug trafficking, and with you Duterte, how can you drip me?
In Duterte's eyes, this is a toast without eating and drinking. One day in July 2017, a fierce shootout took place at the Reinaldo family mansion, after which all 11 members of the Reinaldo family and his wife were killed.
This news, which shocked the whole country, made the Filipino people realize Duterte's determination to fight drugs.
The first thing to do is to remove the umbrella, and the next one is the drug dealer.
To this end, Duterte has launched the "Drug Dealer Bounty" program, which reads as follows:
Everyone has the right to prohibit drug trafficking and drug use, and once someone is found to be selling and using drugs, he can stop it according to the actual situation;People can call the police at any time, and if they have a gun, they can do it themselves, without bearing any legal responsibility, and they can also receive awards.
After this decree, the Philippines officially opened the "era of anti-drug era". For a time, gunfire broke out on the streets of the Philippines, and the people were responsible for reporting and fighting, and the police were responsible for collecting the corpses. There is even a group of "bounty hunters" set up to hunt down the big drug lords hiding in the Philippines.
For this reason, many transnational drug trafficking groups even spend a lot of money on detours, and are unwilling to wade into the troubled waters of the Philippines.
Even at the gates of Manila's prisons, countless drug dealers knocked on the door and turned themselves in, hoping that they would be locked up in prison one day sooner, and now prisons are the safest "refuge" compared to the deadly "drug war" outside.
After a wave, the drug trafficking force in the entire Philippines has been greatly reduced. Duterte series of thunders.
Anti-drug methods have become a nightmare for drug cartels. In addition, due to the suppression of domestic interest groups, Duterte has also become the "number one public enemy" in Philippine political circles.
After all, the Philippines is a small country, and Duterte's frenzied anti-drug campaign has also aroused questions in the Western community about human rights in the Philippines. Some Western scholars have called Duterte's "indiscriminate lynching" a violation of human rights and a reversal of history.
The United States also expressed dissatisfaction with some of Duterte's operations, and the then US ** Obama publicly declared in a speech: "Duterte's inauguration has caused the Philippines to suffer a human rights crisis!."”。
In the face of accusations and doubts from Western society, Duterte did not take it seriously at all, because he is not only an anti-drug fighter, but also the "first person to oppose the United States" in the Philippines.
At a 2016 East Asia Summit, Duterte delivered a speech that "bombarded America."
According to the usual practice, the Philippines should support the strategic layout of the United States in the South China Sea, but Duterte threw away the draft of the speech, not only did not mention the South China Sea, but also openly accused the United States of all kinds of atrocities in the world, and even used swear words.
In addition, Duterte also bombarded the United Nations, saying, "If you can cite one bad thing I have done, I can cite ten of yours, the Philippines has done more practical things for the international community than the United Nations, what are you here to command with me?"”
After the words, Obama and the UN Secretary-General in the audience were angry.
Duterte's speech spread all over the world, bringing South Korea to tears and Japan to gnashing the back of their teeth with envy. Asian countries, which are also intervened by the United States, why is the gap so big?
Duterte's heavy-handed attack on domestic criminal forces and his ruthless foreign interference in his own political forces have won the favor and support of the Filipino public, and his approval rating was as high as 91% at one point.
In 2021, the 76-year-old Duterte gave up running for Philippine vice president and will retire from politics. And with the succession of Marcos Jr., the political ecology of the Philippines has returned to the pre-"Duterte era".
It is worth mentioning that until Duterte officially left office, he still had a high approval rating of more than 60%.
Perhaps, the "Duterte era" is just a glimpse of the entire political history of the Philippines, but Filipinos believe that the post-Duterte era is definitely better than the previous one.
Because Duterte's arrival is like a spark and a hope, igniting the heart of every Filipino.