The Duterte dissonance: One leader, two Philippines?
The first time Margie saw Rodrigo Duterte was on the hit Filipino talk show “Gandang Gabi, Vice!” (“Good Evening, Vice!”)
President Duterte – still mayor of the southern city of Davao – sat before a live audience and opened up about his political and personal life: He conceded that he did things others wouldn’t do, like using brute force to wipe out crime. He bantered over his extramarital affairs. He danced to a pair of American pop songs.
Margie, a factory worker, was struck by Mr. Duterte’s candor and humility. Here, she thought, was a man grounded in a culture she recognized – a foil to highbrow politicians with their foreign degrees and lofty speeches. Duterte, she says in Tagalog, “seemed genuine.”
Less than a year later, Margie counted herself among 16 million Filipinos who handed Duterte the presidency. Today – despite his reputation abroad as a misogynist and despot – Margie (whose last name has been omitted for privacy) stands by her president.
“I know he’s got a lot on his mind, because it’s hard to be the father of our government,” she says. “But I know he will help us.”
Duterte is a source of deep dissonance among Filipinos today. Either he is leading the Philippines to ruin, paving the way for the demise of democracy
