The Philippines elects a new President

On May 9th, the Philippines will go to the polls to elect a new President of the country. The odious Mayor of Davao City - Rodrigo Duterte – is the favourite to become the next leader of the country. According to opinion polls, he leads with a margin of 11. Duterte has a populist domestic agenda, and wants to revise the Philippines’ relations with the United States and China.

Controversial candidate

Rodrigo Duterte has been elected as mayor of Davao 7 times since 1988. He managed to turn the former crime capital of the Philippines into a relatively safe city. The mayor has been repeatedly accused by Western human rights organizations of creating "death squads" that were engaged in physical elimination of crime gangs in Davao. Duterte has repeatedly called for the killing of bandits. His rigid methods to restore order in the country made him the most popular politician.

Rodrigo Duterte is a supporter of the Philippines becoming a federation. He advocated the revival of the steel industry of the country and investment in other sectors in order to solve one of the main problems of the island nation - unemployment.

Under his leadership, the city’s laws prohibiting discrimination against Muslims, representatives of small ethnic groups, and women were adopted. At the same time, Duterte is heavily criticized for joking about rape and murder to his city missionary from Australia. Also, the candidate supports the struggle for the "rights" of sodomites.

Attitude towards China

In terms of foreign policy, he takes a balanced position regarding relations with China. He advocated a policy of bilateral negotiations over the disputed areas in the South China Sea (without the United States and other countries that lay claim to the disputed Spratly Islands). In addition, he supports the idea of jointly using the disputed maritime areas with China. The politician said that if China starts to directly invest in the Philippines, Manila may forget for a while about its claims over the South China Sea.

Against the US

He is critical of the Philippines-US relations, and in particular, he called for a revision of the agreement on visiting forces and of the Enlargement Agreement on defense cooperation, both concluded in 2014, which gives the US the right to build new bases in the Philippines, increasing the length of stay of American troops and the withdrawal of US troops from the jurisdiction of Philippine courts, even if the American military commits crimes in the Philippines or against Philippine citizens.

Geopolitics of the Philippines

For the United States, the Philippines has been a key stronghold in the Pacific since the 19th century. Now the Philippines is particularly important in the context of the US’ conflict with China in the South China Sea. The new president could significantly change the balance of forces in the region in favor of China. Most likely, Washington, in the case of a Duterte victory, will start to use financial and diplomatic pressure, and possibly sanctions in order to bring the country back into its sphere of influence.

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The Philippines elects a new President