We have a new president who is to be proclaimed on Monday, May 30th. He is kind of unique because he is not the traditional politician. He is actually a mayor of Davao, a southern city that is farthest from Manila. But as if a miracle, Duterte shot up in popularity with his unusual demeanor. There was this video of him last year, about his anger with the heavy traffic caused by the arrival of the Pope. In that video, it was clear that he cursed the Pope and even said that the Pope should go back to where he came from. Consider that the Philippines is about 90% Catholic, that is political suicide. During the campaign period, church leaders were advising people not to vote for Duterte and the feisty mayor countered with his tirades against the Catholic church. Honestly, I was turned off by the indecent behavior of Duterte. I cannot imagine a president who uses gutter language as if he is just in the street. And with his expression using cuss words, ugh. But being honest again, we voted for him. Maybe because we are tired of the traditional politicians who promise heaven and earth during the campaign. It is unimaginable that Duterte had dropped his senatorial slate so as to save money in the campaign.And he even refused to accept the donation of the biggest telecoms company so he wouldn't be beholden. So many facts that point to the unorthodox ways of the mayor may have courted the votes because people saw him as a real person. In the final tally, Duterte got 16M votes over the administration's candidate who got only 10M votes. Is there a parallelism between Duterte and Trump? That's not for me to answer.
I remember when Marcos was president and all the problems he caused. during the Nam war we operated out of Subic Bay. that was the Navy/marine base. I really liked the people over there.