Duterte rakes in on lucky hand
RODRIGO Duterte does not need your money. But he will take it. Since his electoral triumph last summer, the man famous for cursing foreign leaders and calling for mass killing seems to be raking in the cash for Manila: A tidy $24 billion in deals with China. Fresh billions from Japan. Not to mention the tens of millions in military and development aid the United States sends each year – despite his call for a “separation”.
Indeed, eight months into his tenure, with President Donald Trump in power and Asian affairs in flux, Duterte’s devil-maycare diplomacy and relentless talk of “slaughter” seem to be paying off, a windfall that is propping up his domestic popularity, even as an International Criminal Court prosecutor warns of a possible war crimes investigation against him.
Courting the president of the Philippines are new friends such as China, which last week sent a vice premier to Duterte’s home town, and Russia, which recently dispatched two warships to Manila on a goodwill visit. Both see Duterte as an ally against the US military’s Asian ambitions.
Old partners such as the United States and Japan might bristle at his rhetoric and rights record, but they are willing to speak softly because they need his help countering Chinese claims to most of the South China Sea.
Duterte, meanwhile, seems happy to flirt with his various suitors, alternating between swearing and sweet-talk, backtracking as required.
As a presidential candidate, the longtime mayor promised Filipinos an “independent” foreign policy, vowing to stand up to the Americans and make money from everyone else.With deals and dignitaries streaming in, Duterte can credibly say he delivered – at least for now.
But much of the Philippines prefers the United States to China; Duterte may want to align himself with Beijing’s “ideological flow”, as he put it, but swaths of the country’s establishment do not.
Duterte’s defence secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, recently expressed concern about Chinese survey ships lingering in waters off the Philippine coast. Faced with questions from reporters, Duterte seemed confused, eventually mustering that he would ask the military to tell Beijing to back off – but in a friendly way.
There is a growing sense that his foreign policy is a shortterm fix, said Herman Kraft, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines. “We have a tiny window when we can still play both sides.”
Duterte has a flair for the dramatic, and his entrance to the foreign policy stage was nothing short of spectacular.
Casting insults at then-president Barack Obama, he made a show about finding new “best friends” in Moscow and Beijing – although his calls to curtail the decades-old US–Philippine military partnership were quickly downplayed by members of his own cabinet.
China, seeing an opportunity to curry favour with a key US ally, invited him to the Chinese capital, where he signed billions in deals. Duterte thanked his hosts by railing against the United States.
Not a month after his speech in Beijing, Trump’s triumph had him singing a different tune. The two countries could now stop feuding, he said – a turnaround that gave him room to quietly reach out to the US.
While Trump prepared for his inauguration, a US ally stepped in. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit, touring Duterte’s home in the southern Philippines, reportedly admiring his bed and mosquito net, and announcing $8.7 billion in aid.
Duterte’s diplomatic manoeuvering allowed him to press ahead with state-led killings against alleged drug dealers and users while securing billions of dollars worth of deals. “Despite all his shenanigans, he hit a strategic sweet spot,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, an assistant professor of political science at Manila’s De La Salle University.
“But”, Heydarian added, “this may be a bit of strategic beginner’s luck. If he keeps at this for a few years, he will be seen as flip-flopper.”
Filipino and foreign experts are sceptical about whether big promises from China and Russia will actually materialise and, if they do, whether the money will keep coming.
China will eventually make a move in the South China Sea that Filipinos find unpalatable. When that happens, it will be hard for Duterte to do as China pleases, and those Chinese pledges could dry up, said Jose Cuisia, who, until June, was the Philippine ambassador to the United States.
“I am not sure that we will see a strong relationship with China and Russia in the long term,” he said.
For now, Duterte seems likely to woo as many allies and investors as possible, said Aileen SP Baviera, a China expert at the University of the Philippines’ Asian Centre.
“Because of Trump, most countries want to hedge their bets and remain as flexible as possible,” she said. “And right now, China looks like a more stable partner than the US.”