Filipino netizens react to Duterte alcohol ban proposal

"...we must assume that he is looking for an excuse to declare Martial Law."

He was elected with some 34% of the popular vote - less than Aquino got. That is not a good basis for tearing up the Constitution.

Even Marcos got Enrile to fake the ambush on his car on the night of September 22 1972 which was the pretext for declaring Martial Law.( Since then, Enrile has both said that the attack was faked - during the EDSA 1 uprising - and said that it was real - in his 2012 autobiography - take your pick...)

The lawful way to go about it is to call a Constitutional Convention - which Marcos also did, when he went to the parliamentary system - his "Batasang Pambansa".

That was the flop from his earlier flip when he said he would give away the South China Sea if China would build a railway.

There is a term for such deals - "transactional". The "moderate Muslim leaders" he is friendly with seem to include those fine fellows the Ampatuans.

See here.


http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php

Whats not to like about that

The people have spoken LOUD and CLEAR!!!!! Too late for bitterness and critisism..
Wish them the best...Wish Duterte the best as he WILL BE...The next President of the Philippines.. Like it or not.

As far as the proposed 10.00PM alcohol ban for minors is concerned....Damned good idea!
Cant go wrong with that one.

Erm, erm ... At this writing, just shy of 96% of all the country's electoral districts have reported. Duterte has so far polled 15,881,413 which represents 38.5%. In 2010, Aquino received 15,208,678 which was 42.8% of the vote. However that's not the whole story because the total number of votes (so far) for all candidates is 41,206,253 whereas it was only 36,139,102 in 2010 (this year's total includes some 25,000 votes cast for a corpse!)

So both Aquino and Duterte received over 15 million votes and in both cases the second-placed (Roxas and Estrada) gathered around 9 million. Roxas did far better in 2010 when he ran for VP as he got almost 14 million votes. His drop in popularity is rather telling and may arise out of his handling of the Cebu/Bohol earthquake and Yolanda crises - he wasn't the most popular candidates on Cebu, Bohol or Leyte which took the brunt of those disasters.

Those fine upstanding citizens you mention have been permitted to buy real property in Davao but only as investments. As I understand it, neither they nor their families or retinue are permitted to take-up residence in the city. At least one of their residences has been 'for sale ' for four or five years and we were offered it as a rental. Although the house was nice, well-furnished and equipped and the rent was quite reasonable, we declined when we discovered its true ownership.

Looks like his toughest job will be the Constitutional changes that GMA failed to accomplish.. If he can somehow persuade those in the Senate that represent the big controlling money families to do away with stuff like the 60/40 rule he would really have accomplished something that in theory could really change the country...Turn it on its head in fact..
I remain VERY skeptical that this is possible but I will be watching very closely to see how his plans unfold in actuality.
A Federal style Government could work very well in the Philippines given the chance.. Perhaps temporary martial law and executive orders for the good of the people could have merit..
Lets see what happens..But I wish him luck as he now has a very clear mandate directly from his people.

Duterte doesn't control the Senate - (or the House for that matter, but traditionally the President buys the House with pork barrel, so I will assume he will do the same).

Control of the Senate is very much more difficult to achieve as Senators are elected on a national franchise for a term of six years, so pork barrel aimed at local issues doesn't work for them.

Note that the Philippines has always run on pork barrel, ever since the 1930's - the name of the pork barrel has changed from time to time and in the modern form of PDAF it became associated with a cunning scheme operated b y Janet Napoles in which the funds were not even spent in the Congressional districts but were diverted into the Congresscritters' pockets with a cut for Napoles who provided bogus receipts.

Since the Senators are elected on a national franchise, to ask them to vote for federalism is like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

My huge reservation about the federation idea is that it will secure the local dynasties in power for ever - which presumably is the plan. The allegation that all the money disappears to "Imperial Manila" overlooks the fact that it gets recycled back - with some sticking to sticky fingers on the way - as pork barrel.

But very little of it gets spent outside Manila - the odd pedestrian bridge or volleyball court notwithstanding.

Maybe so, but at least there is the Commission on Audit at a national level to see what happens to the money.

Under a Federal system, the taxes would be both raised and spent at local level - by, presumably, the same people as now - with much less effective oversight because either the audit body would itself be regional (we can see where this leads...) or it would be national but seen as "Manila interfering", and thus less effective than now.

A lifetime in and around East and Southeast Asia has slowly taught me that the reasons that people give for what they propose may look bright and shiny on the surface, but unless there is some fragrant grease to the wheels, bright and shiny ideas don't work, with the corollary that when someone is very enthusiastic for what seems like a noble new idea, they are usually actuated by the thought that they will benefit substantially from it.

To be honest, I don't think that Duterte's ideas for Constitutional reform - the federal idea, the Parliamentary idea and the ending of the restriction on FDI idea - the three things that seem to account for his popularity amongst some non-Filipinos - are likely to get anywhere. The only President who didn't at least toy with the idea of amending the Constitution was Erap, and that was probably because he didn't have time to get round to it. But none of them went further than kicking the idea around. Changing the Constitution by way of a Constitutional Convention is very difficult and time consuming - experts say that at least two years would be needed - and it can be hard to predict the outcome.

Duterte is sitting on a mountain of popular expectations, most of which are bound to be disappointed. He is more likely to spend his time on getting his hands on the levers of power than on taking big risks.

We

We will see!!!
Patience my dear Boy!! Patience!

http://interaksyon.com/business/127680/duterte-team-unveils-broad-economic-agenda

Sonny Dominguez is a member of the Alcantara family who have very extensive interests in the Davao region,. including mining and logging.

Top Gear Philippines certainly seem to have an opinion... not the one I was expecting, though...

http://www.topgear.com.ph/features/...he-philippine-presidency-a00058-20160512-lfrm

OM F***in G!!
Why do all Top gear presenters around the world try to pretend that they are Jeremy Clarkson??
Not only do they try to imitate his humour and fail..They often act like they are sucking his .... like he might actually appreciated it.
Very unsettling and very humourless IMO.
0 credibility.

The American version is rubbish too... IMO. They should stick to what they are good at instead of aping others , in hopes of making an easy fast buck.

More seriously, The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/news/brief...event-philippines-becoming-economic-star-fist

You might want to read this: Senate Presidency a Toss-Up. The Senate could well be presided over by Aquilino Pimentel III, who is of the same political party as Duterte (PDP-Laban) who reportedly said that they were now receiving feelers from those wanting to join the PDP-Laban after Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte clinched the presidency in the May 9 elections.

He described their number as “too many” that he could not keep track of all of them.

Kill them all

It's Leni Robredo for Vice-President:

https://twitter.com/commrguanzon/status/731049208044605442