Knarfster, it seems some people have a lot of opinions about the safety of Davao City, when they have never been there. I know from personal experience, that it is at least the safest city in the Philippines, if not one of the safest on earth.
If there's ONE thing I've learned in my 68 years ... about 50 of 'em paying attention ...
It is that about 50/60 % (a guess only) of the people I've ever met, when using a superlative ( never, ever, always etc.) NEVER (correctly used because I asked them ) have even tried, tasted, been to (etc.)
And I have concluded that those people are equally liars (to themselves) about other areas in their lives
I never did that survey as a Christian, but if I should ever again, that will be one of the elements
I spent a pleasant, stoned weekend in Boston around 69 or 70 asking men and women .. "Without looking .. What does your T shirt say ?"
I concluded about 75 or 80% of the women had no idea or were fuzzy on the wording (couldn't remember if it was "I'm with stupid" or "I'm with him/her" ... but they knew they were with SOMEONE)
Men, on the other hand almost always knew what their T shirts said
Interesting, unscientific factoid I never forgot
The people making stupid statements about Duterte or Davao City are probably all white people that call all Asians gooks .... (unscientific guess)
Please explain that to the 1,032 people killed there over the last five years. For a city of only 1.5 million, that's not terribly good. It has the highest murder rate (from 2010-2015) of any city in the Philippines. And the highest rape rate.
So why do people feel so safe in a city with such a high murder rate? Because they figure anyone who gets murdered has it coming to them, because the Davao Death Patrols.
What's incredible is that even if 500 of the people killed over the last ten years, and you treat those people as criminals sentenced to death, you STILL have a fairly high murder rate in Davao.
But you go ahead and applaud Communist terrorist fronts, funded by robbing innocent small business owners and narcotics trafficking. I hear the trains run on time, too.