LOL.

This actually pretty funny in a way - seriously the West has no clue about
this guy. Not in the context of Filipino culture and norms anyway.
My ex is Filipino and I talked to her at length about him and she's very gung ho
about him because "He'll get things done even if it means making some people di
sappear - others will learn quickly to do the right things and that will be good
".
She's OK with all that and apparently (based on the election results) so are mos
t Filipinos. IOW - those are acceptable losses! Mostly because the Philippines i
s not some gentle American suburb of niceness - it's a very rough and tumble pla
ce.
My ex would never let me travel in the Philippines without one of her brothers e
scorting me or hiring an armed guard (preferably a moon-lighting Army guy she kn
ew who could get stuff out of the base armory when he needed).
To put the politics and violence into context - imagine every Trump rally and pr
otest against Trump routinely resulted in half a dozen people being killed as a
normal thing and that every election in living memory normally had this happen!
That is "normal Philippine politics".
So, yeah, I'm not surprised Duterte said this nor am I surprised my ex would sup
port him.
Of course she's still 100% pro-Marcos because she's Ilocano and he was Ilocano.
Most Americans are aghast by this when she mentions it because it doest fit the
American narrative or expectation but she's NOT unique. Double-digit portions of
the Philippines still believe quite completely that "Marcos did nothing wrong".
In my ex's view, Aquino 1 and 2 were Tagalog and mestizo therefore suspect at be
st as establishment oligarchs/stooges. Ramos? Ilocano from Pangasinan - very goo
d guy for her. Macapagal? Tagalog - not so much. Estrada? Tagalog again BUT from
Tondo so a bad ass to survive and not part of the aristocracy so maybe not so b
ad.
Duterte? Leyte/Cebuano, so not the typical compromised Tagalogs but at least he
kicked ass in Davao City, Mindanao where the muslim "insurgency" frequently resu
lts in killings and deaths of average Filipinos, especially Christians.
A lot of Christian Filipinos avoid Mindanao because of this, so he's bad ass for
taking it on. His tough talk and reputation for backing it up creates a lot of
inspiration and loyalty.
The Philippines has a radically different social and political structure from th
e US so little of what you know from American politics applies there.
Yes, its government institutions are modeled after the US (because it was a US c
olony and the US dictated that political structure without Filipino consultation
or permission) but The Philippines is a A-ONE perfect example of how "spreading
American style democracy" does NOT work the way the simple-minded catechism lea
ds most Americans to believe.
Instead the institutions are half to mostly broken most of the time because thei
r hierarchal political structure does not align with the structure of the cultur
e itself.
Culture doesn't just matter; it trumps all organized political structure in the
end! You must align political structure with culture for both to work well toget
her.
It's as different as the UK is from the USA (class systems, royalty, etc. vs. li
bertarianism and expectations of class mobility).
In the Philippines, the nation is not #1. When you hear Philippine jingoism, I c
an guarantee you are hearing that primarily from Filipino-American! It's not nea
rly a thing in the Philippines itself.
Your family is #1 - ALWAYS. All loyalties are first to your family. And there's
an elaborate social structure and rituals within families that are strictly obse
rved.
Everyone knows their hierarchal position of their genealogical relationship to e
veryone else and "figuring it out" is the main reason why talking about family a
nd relations and village are so common in conversation. Elders are esteemed and
obeyed. Going along with the program is critical - you don't complain.
Also you change your spoken grammar and deference accordingly.

For example I had nieces and nephews who were 20 years older than me (my ex come
s from a very large family and she is one of the youngest siblings) so they woul
d mano po me even though they were in their 50s and I was in my 30s. The thing w
ith the hand-to-the-forehead of an elder is "mano po". The genealogy trumped chr
onological age differences. Going against this is social and economic suicide. A
nd yes I mano po my ex-mother-in-law. She's higher in the hierarchy.
I was also "po" in any spoken discourse from them because of that same relations
hip; so instead of "o-o" for "yes", it's always "o-po" - "yes sir". Trust me it'
s weird to have someone your father's age "reverse" your (American) expectation
of roles.
And then #2 is your parish and/or barrio, and then your village/town, and then y
our province. Provincial loyalty (which is usually aligned to spoken dialect) is
probably the next strongest loyalty after family.
Tagalogs are a bit more loyal to Tagalogs. Ilocanos are more loyal to Ilocanos.
People from Ilocos Norte are more loyal to people from Pangasinan and Isabela. L
aguna, Batangas, Bulacan, and Cavite are more loyal to Manila. Etc.
This is pretty different from the US. Yes, we identify with our regions but not
nearly as viscerally as Filipinos identify with family and province/dialect. So
the cultural power structure does not match the hierarchal political structure s
o you get conflict and dysfunction.
Because of this, applying the "physics" of American political and cultural value
s never successfully predicts places like the Philippines.
They seem "crazy to elect that guy" or threatening things like "killing journali
st" seems particularly horrifying. Why? Because we use the yardstick of what fli
es in the US blindly and it doesn't map to realities on the ground over there.
So then you get my ex who, in complete and total honesty, says "he's the right g
uy - I no problems with his agenda or methods" and her reasons are internally co
nsistent with the local cultural and political realities, but not so much with U
S culture and political expectations.
This exactly like how Iraq, Syria and Libya became cluster fucks as well - we Am
ericans presume everything and everyone else in the world and life works exactly
like we do and expect in the US and that just isn't how the world works!
Lacking the self-awareness of this presumption is how you get into trouble. Some
things are similar but "The Map is not the Terrain" and using the wrong map on
a terrain will get you lost quickly.
So would he assassinate a journalist? Probably yes if the situation arose becaus
e it's happened before. Marcos ordered Ninoy Aquino killed for pretty much the s
ame thing Duterte is threatening against. There have been thousands of cases of
opponents who died mysteriously or even not-so-mysteriously over the last 100 ye
ars.
But also consider that the assassination of Aquino brought down the Marcos gover
nment. So some of it is tempered by risks and people in the Philippines are clea
rly aware of this historical example.