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My move to the Philippines

"Since taking office on June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs” that has led to the deaths of over 12,000 Filipinos to date, mostly urban poor. At least 2,555 of the killings have been attributed to the Philippine National Police."

"Marcos has not ended Duterte’s “drug war.” Law enforcement officers and their agents continue to conduct raids using the former president’s orders as justification. The official “drug war” death toll from July 1, 2016, to May 31, 2022, is 6,252; unidentified gunmen murdered thousands more. The Philippine government has not updated its statistics since May 2022.

While the killings have significantly dropped overall since Marcos took office on June 30, 2022, they have continued. According to monitoring by the University of the Philippines Third World Studies Center, more drug-related killings occurred in the first year of the Marcos administration than in the Duterte administration’s final year. As of November 15, 471 people have been killed in drug-related violence under Marcos, perpetrated both by law enforcers and unidentified assailants. Most of these cases, as with the previous ones, remain uninvestigated. In Davao City, a hotspot of drug-related killings according to the University of the Philippines’ data, police have perpetrated most killings."

www.hrw.org

World Report 2024: Rights Trends in Philippines

www.hrw.org www.hrw.org
 
Didnt mean to start a whole thing.

For the record i can agree with harsher penalties for distributing some of the more foul, addictive narcotics that are known for destroying families, neighborhoods. But mary j is beautiful and i very much look forward to growing and partaking if i can make it to retirement one day. I cant wrap my head around executing someone for smoking a plant though.

Some filipinos ive talked to suggest that at least some of the killings are politically motivated, or that the executions are mostly for purveyors of the "harder" stuff. I dont know whats true which is why i like to ask people who are there and in it which is why i trust @Jexnell assessment rather than an organization like human rights watch who can really skew the facts to serve their agenda.
 
Jexnell said:
It's quite weird in a way. Every store, restaurant has an armed guard at the door. Opening it for the customers, to make thier presence know I am guessing.
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Here in Panama, to get into any, and every bank (at least in Panama City) you are scanned with a metal detector wand, by a guard outside the door, and if you have a hat, must lift it.

A friend from the US asked what the fire arm rules were, here.
If you want to buy a fire arm in Panama (which are sold almost everywhere, including dept stores, hardware stores, etc), but.....you must first take and pass a mental test, pass a piss test, and have a clear police record. Average wait, months. US made fire arms are expensive here, Russian made weapons (including AKs) are pretty cheap in comparison.
 
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Accusing someone of using or selling drugs is just the premise for killing or intimidating the political opposition, journalists, people who refuse to pay bribes, whistleblowers or people who the police or those allied with the administration don't like (https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/03/05/duterte-extrajudicial-killings-drug-war-philippines). That's why it's *extra-judicial* (i.e. no trial).

Not sure how many remember the current president's father, but he and his wife were, uh, startlingly corrupt (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61379915). And it took the "People Power" Revolution to remove him from power: https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/...n-philippines-1986?language_content_entity=en

There's tons of goodness in the Philippines but corruption and terrible politicians are far too common.

Backfromthedead said:
Didnt mean to start a whole thing.

For the record i can agree with harsher penalties for distributing some of the more foul, addictive narcotics that are known for destroying families, neighborhoods. But mary j is beautiful and i very much look forward to growing and partaking if i can make it to retirement one day. I cant wrap my head around executing someone for smoking a plant though.

Some filipinos ive talked to suggest that at least some of the killings are politically motivated, or that the executions are mostly for purveyors of the "harder" stuff. I dont know whats true which is why i like to ask people who are there and in it which is why i trust @Jexnell assessment rather than an organization like human rights watch who can really skew the facts to serve their agenda.
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dogofwar said:
Accusing someone of using or selling drugs is just the premise for killing or intimidating the political opposition, journalists, people who refuse to pay bribes, whistleblowers or people who the police or those allied with the administration don't like (https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/03/05/duterte-extrajudicial-killings-drug-war-philippines). That's why it's *extra-judicial* (i.e. no trial).

Not sure how many remember the current president's father, but he and his wife were, uh, startlingly corrupt (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61379915). And it took the "People Power" Revolution to remove him from power: https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/...n-philippines-1986?language_content_entity=en

There's tons of goodness in the Philippines but corruption and terrible politicians are far too common.
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A lot of my personal insight into the historic violence from that time period came to me firsthand from a good friend's parents who fled Manila sometime in the late 80s. When i would go to their house they would always urge me to eat--as much as possible. They felt blessed just to access to groceries and a roof and seemed to have lived most of their lives under the pretense that there may be no food tomorrow, so eat as much as you can today. Concerning the violence they never shared much except maybe "we were lucky".

I still dont trust most western sources to report on these issues without bias, hyperbole, subversion....the fact they even take interest tells me theyre trying to profit off of it in some way.
 
I stay out of the politics here. I have no vote . I stay home 90% of the time and Cristine does the shopping so there is no white tax. So my views may be narrow. But I have not seen anything out of the ordinary since I have been here.
 
Jexnell said:
Happened twice to me, first time was a bottle of water, sticker said 26, I paid 35
Second was some shorts at a street store. Signs said 25 charged me 35 pesos. Gets worse at like open meat markets and the like.
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Jex,perhaps it's possible to get around all of that...I thought you might have been Asian or some other ethnicity when I first saw your photo.....grow back your long hair,get a goatee,learn the language and maybe you can pass for a local lol!
 
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