Duterte riding high after ‘rough’ first year

MANILA // He promised the country a “rough ride” and he has not disappointed with his declared war on drugs and a sometimes capricious take on foreign policy.

But Rodrigo Duterte ends his first year as president of the Philippines as a hugely popular leader.

He has been heavily criticised for his unprecedented clampdown on drugs, which has claimed thousands of lives, and as he marks 12 months in office, the southern city of Marawi remains under occupation by Islamist militants.

Mr Duterte, 72, has also overturned decades of foreign policy stability, criticising his country’s traditional ally, the US, while steering the Philippines closer to China and Russia.

Yet an overwhelming majority of Filipinos support him, according to a series of surveys over the past 12 months, with the most recent one showing 75 per cent were satisfied with his administration’s performance.

“People like the man,” said Ricardo Abad, head of sociology and anthropology at Ateneo University in Manila. “People may disagree with his policies, or are ambivalent towards them, but because they like him, people will tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.” And people knew what they were getting.

“The ride will be rough. But come join me just the same,” Mr Duterte said in his inauguration speech.

The roughest part of the ride has been his anti-drugs campaign. According to official figures, police have killed 3,116 drug suspects so far. Unknown assailants killed another 2,098 people in drug crimes, while there were 8,200 more murders with no known motive.

Human rights groups accuse him of unleashing a murder spree by corrupt police and vigilante death squads.

But on May 23, Mr Duterte had to shift priorities when gunmen loyal to ISIL rampaged through Marawi. He immediately imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, home to roughly 20 million people, to quell what he said was a attempt by militants to establish a “caliphate”.

But the Filipino military has been unable to dislodge the insurgents. The fighting has claimed more than 400 lives, with no end in sight.

Another factor in Mr Duterte’s popularity is his “super majority”. Of the 296 members of the lower house of congress, only seven are from the opposition.