The newly elected Philippine President, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, has been the subject of worldwide debate among political analysts due to his tirades and unpredictable political moves that are perceived to have changed the balance of political powers not only in the Asian region but in the entire world. In the year 2015, President Duterte has announced in his speech during his state visit in China that he is pivoting away from the United States (US) – the Philippines’ long time ally – when it comes to making international policies. He also explained that his government is leaning towards strengthening its ties with Russia and China. Note that China and the US have been engaged in bitter tirades against each other as US politicians continue to insist that China has been engaging in cheating, currency war, piracy, and cyber attacks that jeopardizes US national security. China, on the other hand, is claiming that the US is fabricating all its accusations. The pivot that was announced was welcomed by China and Russia, and the three nations are strengthening their economic and bilateral ties at present. The Philippines’ pivot towards China and Russia is perceived by many political analysts as a loss for the US (Esmaquel n.p.). Upon careful analyses of the preceding events which ultimately led to the Philippine President’s pivot reveals that it is the US’s meddling with local or internal affairs of the Philippines that is the main reason for the pivot.
During the campaign period for the presidential elections in the Philippines, Duterte made three campaign promises to the people. One of these promises is to declare a war on drugs. True to his words, when he was elected by more than 16 million Filipinos, he immediately began pressuring drugs users, pushers, and drug lords to surrender. He used unconventional tirades against these groups of people and was successful. During the first 6 months of his presidency, almost 1 million drug addicts and pushers surrendered. Note that there is an approximately 4 million people involved in the drug trade in the Philippines, which means that the 1 million who surrendered comprised only 25% of the people involved in drugs. Interestingly, the majority of those who surrendered were users, few are pushers, and none of them were drug lords. Also, within those six months, almost 4,000 people died and their count continues to increase everyday. One thousand of these were killed under legitimate police operations – they fought back; hence, the police officers were forced to kill them – while the remaining 3,000 are still under investigation. Rumors have it that the 3,000 were killed by drug lords in order to prevent the leaking of information about their identities (Esmaque n.p.).
The members of the Liberal Party, which lost gravely in the elections, were gravely disturbed by the increase in the number of deaths; hence, they wanted the president to resign invoking laws on human rights. The majority of the Filipinos still support the president; hence, the Liberal Party cannot succeed on their own. The Liberal Party, therefore, invoked the help of the Commission of Human Rights, the mainstream media outlets (there are only two in the Philippines) and was adamant to make the issue an international issue. Hence, they teamed up with the US ambassador, and it was no sooner that the US president Barack Obama made a public criticism of Duterte, even threatening to withdraw their aid to the Philippines if Duterte will not submit to the bidding of the US. The US even threatened Duterte of litigation under the International Criminal Court – from which the US is not a member. Such threats and unprofessional approach by the US triggered the pivot. According to Duterte, the attitude of the US government towards the country is very unbecoming that as if the Filipinos are treated as subservient to the US. This is the reason why the pivot capitalized on having independent international policies as the Philippines had always been following the US in making its international policies since its independence (Corrales n.p.).
Aside from the back firing of the US’ bad attitude towards other nations, it should be noted that the actions of the US negates the purpose of the United Nation, which it founded (Grim n.p.). The UN was established to act as an arbitrator and a sentinel for its members so that they keep certain codes of conduct when dealing with each other. What the US should have done therefore is to file a complaint in the UN and the UN will conduct an investigation to prove the accusation, then make necessary actions. The US, with its direct, unprofessional criticism to Duterte, therefore, is an attestation that the US takes the Philippines lightly – that it has the attitude that it can and it will meddle with any country it wants to meddle. Lastly, the Philippines is a sovereign country. A sovereign country has the right and privilege to solve its internal and local problems within the bounds of its constitution.
Works Cited
Bandow, Doug. “U.S. Meddling Inflames Middle East Conflicts: America Should Stop Trying To Fix Iraq, Syria, And Everywhere Else.” 2014. Web. 2017.
Corrales, Nestor. “Duterte not over It, slams US envoy anew for meddling with PH politics.” 2016. Web. 2017.
Esmaquel, Paterno II. Duterte gives 'passionate' speech on human rights in ASEAN. 2016. Web. 2017.
Grim, Ryan. “The U.S. Has Been Meddling In Other Countries’ Elections For A Century. It Doesn’t Feel Good.” 2016. Web. 2017.
