Subject: Re: Called this one
Duterte was always a concern to me because of his human rights abuses. Yes, they targeted drug dealers, and drugs went down. They amounted to summary executions. I've seen reports that a large number of innocents were executed by cops, while chasing the drug dealers. But those reports were anecdotal. I haven't seen any reliable statistics (maybe there aren't any?).

I was also concerned about Marcos. While Ferdinand is gone, Imelda is still there. I feared she might get a toe-hold in the administration, and we'd end up with another seizure of power**. But that hasn't happened, and doesn't look like it's going to happen. We were in the Philippines in January, and things seemed to be OK. The Jeeps were still running, even though supposedly they were banned while we were there because they have no pollution controls. Even though we were well outside the touristy areas much of the time, everything seemed calm and safe.




**More than one Filipino has told me that Imelda was the evil one, not Ferdinand. He was just her puppet, in essence.