When thinking of the character of the Filipinos, I am reminded of a taxi driver who said, when you’re in the city, you can’t be “mabait.” Instead, keep making “tutok.” Maybe he meant asserting yourself, but it could also mean that you should be mean and aggressive to others. Perhaps you have heard of some Filipinos, maybe probinsiyanos who tell you, “everyone’s out to wrong you, so what you do is, get ahead of them and wrong them first.” They thus twist the Golden Rule: Instead of “Do unto others what you want them to do to you,” it becomes “Do unto others before they do it to you.” You see the problem here; they become the ones doing wrong. So they can’t complain of being the victims; they did wrong first.
Many writers here explained that Duterte, thought to have approved of the killing of innocents aside from criminals by the Davao Death Squads (which fanatic supporters vehemently deny, despite so many reports of it going around), is the product of a society that itself may approve of the killing of innocents at times. The clamor for Death Squads and the willingness to overlook his connections to extrajudicial killings imply that the ordinary people themselves have a disrespect for others’ rights. Filipinos are likely looking for harsh extra-judicial “justice” because they themselves do not like the judicial process. They want the rule of whim over law. They are willing to overlook someone’s questionable methods as long as that someone carries out some violent retribution on someone they hate. In short, they just want the people they dislike killed. In the U.S., Donald Trump is capitalizing over this same attitude that some American people hold about Muslims and even LGBTs.
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There is another thing about the death squad killings: all reported deaths are mostly of small-time hoodlums and crooks (even street children!). Not one has been a report of someone big-time or a wealthy boss or drug lord. Thus, there is a risk that Duterte will not mop up the corrupt politicians by killing them. Indeed, who is foolish enough to believe that? That is only wishful thinking. It seems that the death squads only kill poor people, the ones in society needing help. And this could indicate a Freudian slip in the Death Squad-tards, that they actually want death squads who could get rid of all the “kadiri squatters” around them by killing them (as if they will). Seriously, that seems to be the attitude many middle-class desthsquad-tards have.
I wonder, what if Duterte had an about face and said, “No, I’m sorry, I can’t just kill anyone you want to see killed. Let us go through due process first, because if an innocent is killed, then we have done wrong. Let us instead focus on economic solutions.” What would be the reactions of the supporters? Would they say, “hey, you disappoint us, you should kill all those we hate!” I would praise Duterte for that, because that would be the right thing to do. But if the fanatic supporters behave as I guess, then it shows that they are indeed worse than the politicians they either endorse or hate.
The leaders are only a reflection of the people. It proves what we have been saying all along: the problem is not just with the leaders or the elite of the country. It’s with the people themselves. Sometimes, the people who claim to be law-abiding are themselves either the actual law-breaking ones or have an inner desire to be law-breakers. Perhaps the people are still hung up on the vigilante and crook movies of the 1970s and 1980s, like Boy Negro and all. But these are fantasies, and those who believe the real-life version of these characters will make Philippine society better are deluded.
It seems many supposedly educated Filipinos still have the hypocritical tendencies that they are fond of charging the politicians they hate most of having. They complain about government officials stealing from workplaces and putting in relatives in sensitive positions, but they do the equivalents themselves. They want a peaceful society, but they want it done by having other people killed. Despite their claiming criminals will be killed, it is likely that innocents will be killed by mistake (and it has happened). And if they say that this is a necessary cost for peace and order, then you know that they don’t really care about societal peace; they only care about their own. Perhaps they are the ones manifesting the attitude of the probinsiyano I talked about above: before they commit crimes, kill them first.
What if Duterte said, “let’s stop killing people…” would his fans hold his cutout like that anymore?
This also shows one of the wrong attitudes Filipinos have towards politicians. They see Filipino politicians as do-it-all genies who, once elected, should already know what the people want and will immediately do it, so the citizens can just focus on their lives and try to enjoy themselves without a care about the good of society. But that is not true. The reality shows otherwise. Politicians today are able to bank on the laziness of such people so they can get away with their shenanigans. Then the people complain that the politicians are corrupt, but it’s because the people didn’t do their duties in the first place. Perhaps the assertion that fanatic supporters are delusional and lazy might be true after all.
Filipinos should stop their Juan Tamad approach in politics and actively become the check-and-balance of the leaders they elect. They should stop their own pasaway attitudes and indeed be more respectful and concerned about the public space. They should stop the fire-and-forget approach in voting and realize that continuous intervention in political affairs is the ordinary citizens’ job too. Indeed, the reform should not just be in government, but in the people.
I believe, as my cohorts here do, that what Filipinos embrace as their culture is what actually pulls the country down. And those who seem to be anti-dictators, who may also believe themselves to be “heroes,” are the real dictators.
Many Filipinos think after they follow the right path, they would just seat, even if they crashed by the criminals, because, as media and religion clergys said, if you’re right, do nothing because you always win in the end by deux ex machina, by a savior. But when atrocity empowered in our semi dystopia place due to that mindset, they lost faith in humanity, and adopted the impunity. As I observed, many had always accept the dysfunctionality in our country, eg, that justice is for the reach and about money. So, these people want a dark knight like Duterte to clean the mess. Without knowing, the side effect on his way of law enforcement. Look, even if he showed his vulgarism and womanizing, and not man in his words, his supporters acted like blind sheeps. They would slammed the people who criticizes him not knowing that the critics are not actually against him, heck some even supporters (not because you are you can’t criticize.) They said, they rather want a person like him that those who acted saint on camera. But why? As I said, they lost faith in humanity, they have been cynical, when they see a good person, they’ll say he is fake, but if bad, they’ll say he’s honest because they didn’t believe the goodness of man’s heart anymore.
*sit *rich I mean
ChinoF, you are not wrong with what you are saying, but you try to reason with people.
Can you reason with people?
Can you reason with some drug addicted squatter rats that put a gun or knife in your face? Can you tell them, hey, come on now, why don’t you go out and get a job instead of robbing people.
Most violent crimes are committed by the unwashed masses.
Middle class crime is usually not violent crime.
Can you reason with more educated people? Yes most certainly.
So you have to start at the bottom, that’s where the scum breeds and work your way up.
The middle class and the rich will fall in line as they have something to lose.
Well, the image you described is like decades old. Mas Maraming middle class sa Pilipinas not unless you believe commie propaganda.
Sure there 25% who live below poverty according to official statistics. But there is no evidence nor data that supports more than 50% of Filipinos live in squatters area. Even Duterte favored research agency contradicts of this poor majority.
If you look at official stat or private surveys middle class composes around 70% of Filipinos.
I’ll just say that those who pull out a gun or knife are not just the poor. Many middle class and affluent people are just as capable of violent crimes as the poor. There are lots of cases of this.
– Rolito Go and Inocencio Gonzalez (the one who killed a pregnant woman in Loyola Memorial Park Marikina).
– Mark Ian Libunao, the guy who fatally hit and ran over an MMDA enforcer and later drew a gun on another.
– The guy on Skyway who went speeding on the counterflow and killed people when he rammed into them. All because he had an emotional problem.
– The road rage incident at Colegio de San Agustin.
– Rajiv Dargani of Oakley eyewear Philippines, who killed someone in an accident, but hid to eschew accountability for it.
– Don’t forget Robert Carabuena who slapped an MMDA officer.
– Many other road rage incidents (click here). Search for mention of the rest of the above incidents in this blog site.
I think one should try to reason with people, because if you can’t reason with people, then they are no longer people. They are sheep, as Mystique Girl above says.
But you may be right. It’s hard to reason with these people. And yet among these people are even those with money.
As the saying goes, money can’t buy class.
A lot of Filipinos clinged to vigilantism because of one simple fact: the Rule of Law that supposed to be applied to all is broken.
I agree. Rule of law is all too broken. We have been disappointed time and again. About time we fling back the fat ugly middle finger to the bald rich guy cradling the blindfolded lady.
Both vigilantism and the current judicial system are dysfunctional. The reason why people are embracing Duterte’s vigilantism is a matter of 2 factors: probability of error and efficiency.
If vigilantes gather intelligence with CIA-class accuracy, then the probability of a mis-execution is as low as that of their bullet failing to hit the target. So innocent people seem to be less worried about a hit squad mistakenly pulling the trigger at them than they are being victimized by the hoard of criminals lurking around looking for random victims.
Of course nothing is as efficient as a judge Dredd who is all 3: judge + jury + executioner. Fiction media and superhero movies have portrayed vigilantes as heroes augmenting and making up for the weaknesses of legal forces. These have conditioned people’s minds to not just accept, but welcome and cheer them. plus the Yellow camp’s utter pathetic record of bringing the many massacre cases into closure have basically brought the people to totally lose hope in what is the legal process.
PH is basically a place where there are written laws but with 50/50 chance of them actually working/executed. If vigilantes have 99% accuracy (1% error of hitting ChinoF rather than the criminal who just looks like him), then people are willing to take that slim chance just for a better life.
This means Pinoys are really desperate. The question is, can we blame them for feeling this way? The other option is to fix the judicial system – I have no solution but to force people to adopt the Creed. But forcing people is no good as well – so I’d rather just sit back, relax and watch what happens with this Duterte experiment… Where’s my popcorn? TGIF guys.
But as per the Human Rights Watch report, the 99% accuracy of vigilantism likely isn’t true. And yet, even if it’s just 1% error, that 1% killed are still innocents. It’s no excuse. Innocents still died. And if people say 1% innocents still getting killed is still OK… then they have no right to call themselves law-abiding.
People are desperate, but as history has shown, desperate measures often lead to blowing oneself up.
It is the Failure of the Justice system that the “Dutertardism” has emerged. The Justice system is manipulated by Aquino and De Lima/her driver lover.
It is now a Selective Justice system. Those who are against Aquino are prosecuted/persecuted to the full extent of the law. While those who are followers of Aquino; or people who are political assets of Aquino , their cases are shelved by De Lima/her driver lover.
Look at the : Hacienda Luisita massacre; the Maguindanao massacre; the 44 SAF Police heroes massacre; the Dacer-Corbito murder case; the DAP, PDAF; Pork Barrel Bribery…etc…etc…
Aquino and Delima ignored them all!
This is from the Human Rights Watch, about Tagum City, but I doubt Davao’s situation is no different. If this is true, then the death squads are certainly doing wrong.
Aha, here’s the video on Davao City.
So Tagum City is using Death Squads as well to target “criminals.” So why isn’t there someone saying Tagum is a “safe” city, or why isn’t anyone saying “Mayor Uy for president?”
The author was too quick to arrive at a conclusion without citing legal, reliable sources. The third paragraph reeks of pure hearsay and chismis. I haven’t seen a single factual source in this article to support the author’s claims.
While I do agree that change must first come from the people, I will not discount the fact that we also need a leader, a tough one, who has the ability to bring about discipline in this country. You see, sometimes we don’t realize how unruly we’ve become until someone beats our ass and makes us learn our lesson. The vigilante-style killing is a result of our poor, corrupt justice system. The reason why these big criminals, drug lords, and syndicates continue to thrive is that they fear nothing – they won’t mind being caught because they can always get away with it anyway. It’s always been about money, power and influence. These three will always overrule the so-called ‘justice’ here in the Philippines. And that’s the sad truth.
May I ask you ChinoF, with the current state of our country, who among the candidates do you think deserves the Presidential seat? There is no perfect candidate and the areas we need to focus on are the experience, competence, integrity and track record of each one. And by the way, do you really need to put the “tard” suffix to describe a strong Duterte supporter? Can I call you and some of the writers here “Marcostards” too?
GRP has never changed..biased, self-righteous, idealistic, anti-Pinoy articles written by know-it-all armchair revolutionaries hiding behind a pseudonym. I really hope you can achieve something by the approach you’re using, otherwise, your talent and brilliance will just go to waste.
And the commentors haven’t changed – still the same self-entitled bozos who think it is their right to demand that people reveal who they are gonna vote for.
Vigilante justice in a country that aspires to be a modern democratic society can never be justified. Any veiled attempt to defend it by using the Philippines’ “broken” justice system as an excuse comes across as lame.
The solution is not support vigilantism. The solution is to fix what is broken – not break it further.
I’m asking the author who he thinks should be the next President of the Republic of the Philippines. If he finds that hard to answer, then fine.
I could still remember, back when Duterte was not yet an official candidate, several articles were published here which presented the idea that his tough leadership style may be what the Philippines really needs at the moment. There was even one article pushing for a Duterte-Marcos tandem. When the man finally announced his presidential bid and has now been dominating the media, GRP, all of a sudden, had a change of heart. This blog has an issue with people getting popular. The authors’ views are conflicting.
Funny how all of a sudden, authors are quick to highlight “human rights” in the case of Duterte but would likely shrug it off when it comes to the Marcos regime. Talk about double standards.
The reality here is that people have become tired of the same old shit governing our country. GRP, make your views clearer. Might as well post an article showing each candidate’s track record and their pros and cons. Drop the “tard” labeling and present your views based on FACTS. That way, you can initiate change and help educate ordinary readers like me on who we should vote.
Because honestly, your rants, unfounded claims and name-calling won’t change anything.
What you said just made it clear that Duterte should not win. Why should the Philippines be run by a majority of tired lazy people who are now so excited that some hero would kill for them. When you hypocrites can go to church every Sunday while your new Jesus Christ gets all the claim for your sins. I am so saddened by the ignorance of what all you Duterte fans are representing. You are a big insult to the real poor who won’t have any voice if injustice be served due to the wrong hands. Your Duterte is chaos, no not Duterte. You his promoters are chaos. He is just the drug, you are the pushers.
I support iron-fisted rule, but: Rodgrigo Duterte is wrong: There is a lot of room to be ‘iron fisted’ legally!
Read the full article here!
It doesn’t matter who’s the leader if the people themselves refuse to follow the leader. That is shown in how Filipinos seem to hate following rules.
So you don’t consider the Human Rights Watch links above as “legal, reliable sources?”
Obviously you’re a drama queen who hates to follow laws and always resort with trigger happy hostility like a tasmanian devil attacking any living being who is touching him. You failipinos still can’t change your retarded mindset because you think that you have your so-called “freedom”. Well snap back to reality dimwit because you’ve done nothing but abuse your freedom and even demanding respect. Thus your hostile mindset that you want our country to be like the Old West. You failipinos are the ones who are causing trouble in this country not us. pinoy nga naman oo ginagamit palagi ang puso hindi ang utak.
Excellent… we are on the same page my new article says it in a similar vein… even if some of my conclusions may not be the same as yours: http://filipinogerman.blogsport.eu/evolution-of-order/
hindi lang sa davao may pumapatay, im sure some city got some group who have their list of people to kill, because of drugs etc etc reasons. My city have groups who kill pushers right in their homes, their workplace etc. They give them warning and if they dont stop, they`ll gonna get killed. And as far as i know the law we have now in Philippines kills A LOT OF INNOCENT PEOPLE TOO. Im not into Duterte,but Filipino`s desperately wants change.
What can you say about Carlos Celdran’s comment to the #Dutertards?
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2015/12/12/carlos-celdran-dutertard.html
I think it is the inevitable fate of any organization to have at least one person who will put self-interest above those what the organization stand for. My problem with vigilantism is that it could be used as an excuse to kill someone even if they haven’t actually committed any crime, for the reason of self-interest. So, that 99% probability might lower and I’m worried that we might end up with more pile of dead bodies of innocents than of criminals.
That is exactly what Human Rights Watch is saying, that the pile of dead innocents is indeed rising up at the hands of vigilantism.
And what really scares me, is that ordinary people approve of it. They don’t realize that criminals won’t be scared of being killed if they know that innocents are getting killed, because that’s it… innocents are getting killed and not them.
Forget about #Dutertads, in the U.S. a new phenomenon will reveal that could spread it there like a virus and it’s called #Trumptards and he wasn’t affected his popularity after he’d made a controversial comment to the Muslims:
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2015/12/12/US-election-trump-lead-survey-poll.html
I don’t know on how he’d do that, maybe he’d learned his lesson from Duterte.
well speaking of Trumptards, here’s one twitter message that I’d found recently:
https://twitter.com/SecretiaTV/status/674388051586498562
That’s why Benign0 has an article about demagogues. Look for it here.
So here’s the problem: since a lot of Filipinos see that rule of law is not being enforced, the logic is, let’s do the same? In other words, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em? No wonder the Philippines stays backward.
It’s the same old band wagon. Look at how they hate Gab Valenciano for his OPINION on Duterte. They immediately attack him saying we don’t care what you think and he is not entitled to have an opinion, It’s kinda the same with Lea. And probably someone here will say I’m trying to defend him. And the same old routine will begin..
I am really amazed that people are not tired enough for this kind of show. People IT IS POLITICS. It is the most dirty job that you can ever get. And we, the people are so entertained that we lose sight of what really matters.
Changed title since someone suggested it. hehe
Duterte fanaticism does not personify nastiness of the Filipinos ….. Filipinos are tired of slow idiotic stupid justice system …. they want immediate action … and Duterte can deliver that …
To this day Binay is still not proven guilty …. they still cannot connect the overpriced parking to Binay’s pocket ….
They have not audited Binay’s SALN to this day ….
When these folks applied for CoC, they should also submit their SALN and audited by COA before CoC is approved …..
STUPIDITY OF FILIPINMOS IS BOTTOMLESS ….
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.