[Mark17]

You got it LD. There are lots of opinions, by lots of people, and some of the opinions are not accurate. You are right, Duterte is popular. When he was mayor, I never met him personally, but I did see him in town a couple of times. I know exactly where Sara lives, as one of my US Navy vet friends, lives across the street from her. 😁
Many people believe the Filipinos should act like Americans, and maybe it would be better if they did, but they don’t. There doesn’t seem to be much of a justice system here. As far as I know, not one person has ever been held accountable, for the Maguindanao massacre and the Mamasapano massacre. Interesting, in the Movie “London Has Fallen, with Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Ekhart and Angela Basset, in the beginning of the movie, the “news” was talking about the killing of 44 Filipino cops. THAT was the Mamasapano massacre, a real incident, discussed in the movie.

[Williams]

Everything you said about Duterte and the Philippines is true, except he did in fact tank the South China Sea legal victory which Philippines had already won, and he has China massively investing in Philippines. He stated publicly that he wanted to boot the American military but his generals insisted they need our help.
Yes he’s popular, yes it’s a corrupt country and the liberal media hate him, but yes he also admires the Red Chinese and he’s an odd duck in his own right.
I also question with all the murders of drug dealers and his supposed war on them, has the Philippine drug problem abated significantly?