I finally brought this up with a friend who lives over there. I wasn’t sure how she voted but I had a strong feeling. The bottom line for her was that she was surrounded by crime and corruption and that his death squads (her phrase) would clean it all up and make her life safer. I asked what if someone got mad at her son and wrongly accused him of being a drug dealer. That with no trial, and just an execution in the street her son would be dead and his innocence would be of little solace to her. She laughed at me and said that would never happen because Duterte makes sure the people on his lists are guilty. I said people make mistakes. He and his death squads can and will make mistakes and take innocent lives. She insisted that wouldn’t happen and that people visiting would be safe from criminals once he cleans it up. We started to go in circles so i dropped it.
She is very poor. She lives in a less than safe place. I think in her eyes there are criminals and citizens. And to her the difference is obvious. So Duterte is going to kill the bad people and save the good people. The venn diagram is two non-intersecting circles. So there is no risk for her or her family or nice visitors like me. I pointed out I smoke pot and so does her son. So it is possible that could get either of us killed. Again she just laughed and said I didn’t understand and everything was going to get better and I would see.
I was strongly considering moving there as an early retirement but now I need to wait a few years to see just how bad or not bad it’s going to get there.
