Philippine news

bad news for the elites in the US who oppose Duterte: 85 percent of Pinoys support the drug policy, and crime is down here in the Philippines.

the elites are up in arms and say folks are in fear, says the Inquirer, quoting opposition leaders and the liberation-theology-Francis-church types in the Catholic church.

Of course, Duterte has called them SOB's too, so the dislike is mutual.

The comments are hilarious: Lot of PC trolls getting told off in Tagalog.

yes, a "poll" proves people are "afraid":

Fr. Jerome Secillano summed up on Monday the reaction of critics of President Duterte’s war on drugs following the release of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that showed eight out of 10 Filipinos feared that they, or people they know, could become victims of extrajudicial killings associated with the bloody campaign.

actually, no that doesn't prove people are afraid; it only proves people will tell the pollsters what they want to hear, and of course, shows a lot of folks know someone with a drug problem: and here in the Philippines, with extended family and friends, that would include a lot of people.

and yes the lovely lady who was schtupping her driver (the reported go between for collecting money from drug pushers) is also going around pretending to be a heroine.

Sen. Leila de Lima said in a speech at the annual conference on cultural democracy in Berlin on Sunday that she was disturbed that there was no expression of outrage among Filipinos on the daily drug-related killings.

the US is threatening to pull aid and other support if Duterte doesn't stop: But the next step is to cut legal protection for felons, so the big shots can't get off via delays and bribes.

China is helping without "strings": Yes, they will continue to steal the West Philippine sea, but hey, Obama sat back and left them build islands there over the last four years, while pushing population control and gay rights (which is not an issue here outside of Makati) as their priority.

backstory is that China does supply a lot of the meth and heroin analogues, and Chinese banks launder drug money (as do US and UK and a lot of other banks even the Vatican bank).

but Xi is trying to fight corruption in China, stepping on a lot of toes to do so but has the support of ordinary folks.

the serious fight is if "rule of law" will prevail. The US and EU are fighting against Duterte because he is breaking the rules.

The problem is, until you get people in charge to follow the rules instead of pulling strings to get around the rules and steal everything in sight, that a lot of common folk figure a benevolent strict government is better than government of the nice who are too polite to punish their friends who take bribes to let the powerful get away with crime.

Tita Cory was once asked why she didn't go after a corrupt politician and she explained he was family. That is the problem in a nutshell.

And that is the backstory no one is discussing.