Shameful Display
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Is it truly wise for the US to antagonize the man further. All this shit has done is alienate Duerte and the Philippine people, pushing them closer to China, and their is no human rights benefit to be shown.
Duerte is destroying Philippines Democracy
Wiser than selling weapons to an enemy. And also wiser than developing a reputation for catering to the whims of every crackpot dictator that comes waltzing in.
Duterte has done that all by himself. Besides, he can be leveraged through Japan (all that maritime equipment) and will end up weaker than ever before by the time he has burned through his political capital. Question is, will he be disposed off democratically, or by the US. Or China.
edited 2nd Nov '16 1:13:48 PM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Well, the man mentioned that if Washington is blocking access, he's willing to turn to other countries, including mother Russia.
Meanwhile, local groups are calling on Manila to pour more money for local gun makers to help them ease the problem of getting small arms from abroad.
Doesn't the Obama government get all its foreign policy flack for 'kowtowing' to weaker powers? It should be more respectful to the Philippines under Duterte?
Shameful Display
It also gets flack for abandoning our allies, sucking up to our allies, being a heartless drone warrior, being a liberal pussy who relies on drones, unleashing Navy Seal death squads, mooching off JSOC's fame, etc. Their are over 300 Million people in our country. We can't exactly agree on what Obama is getting wrong.
The others aren't very noisy, though. Not from what I've seen on the internet, anyway. I guess I made a pretty stupid generalisation.
I could be wrong, but I thought your main criticism of Obama is that he is too conciliatory and not forceful enough in foreign relations, which is why I brought it up.
The hard-right and hard-left have very different critiques of Obama.
United Earth
A Philippine version of The Wire would be something worth whatching. I envision something like City Of God meets Narcos, but even bloodier and crazier... without the need to exaggerate or fictionalise at all.
edited 3rd Nov '16 8:13:41 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Not just the hard left or hard right. The concern about Obama mishandling political crises is shared even in more moderate camps.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Well, I can safely say I've never understood said concerns.
A look by SBS Dateline into Duterte's drug war.
わからない
The arms sale was cancelled because the PNP is still being questioned about the killings. Meanwhile the AFP is unaffected because obviously enough the soldiers aren't involved in the EJ Ks.
I don't think the soldiers will be too happy with what happened with actual terrorist Nur Misuari though.
It's also quite weird that the same people believing that Nur Misuari was a CIA-puppet used to sow discord and chaos in Mindanao is now saying that he's merely "looking to bring peace to the region". LOL
I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/841217/we-have-better-gunmakers-time-to-be-self-reliant
Tulfo's take on the issue. Note that Twin Pines also operates as a firearms import business.
Meanwhile, regarding the issue of UDMC, I heard some stories that the NSWAG refused to accept the rifles beyond doing some testing is that the company refused to do more torture tests to ensure that it can operate in water and in land conditions. Perhaps those familiar with this issue can help me out.
Also, local procurement laws makes it hard for them to join since they're there to ensure no last minute deals are made IIRC.
There is also the issue of government bidding. If the local manufacturers could not cut down the price to an acceptable level ( the rifles are said to be priced between 80,000 to 100,000 in local currency). If the foreign manufacturers could manage to cut their price down to let's say, 60,000, then the local manufacturers will have difficulty. I just read it on a Philippine military forum and it makes sense.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/philippines-duterte-cancels-us-rifle-order-112522336.html
There's some confusion on whether Duterte has no problem with the shipment being blocked or not.
Looks like SC gave the green light to get Marcos buried, 9 to 5.
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
In Which We All Pretend That Duterte Didn't Start Calling People Sons Of Whores First: 'Long live Trump': Philippines' Duterte says wants no more quarrels with U.S.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte congratulated Donald Trump on his election win and said on Wednesday he now wished to stop quarrelling with ally the United States, recalling his anger at the Obama administration for criticizing him.
The maverick leader, dubbed "Trump of the East" for his unrestrained rants and occasional lewd remarks, has repeatedly hit out at Washington in recent months, threatening to cut defense pacts and end military joint drills.
"I would like to congratulate Mr. Donald Trump. Long live," Duterte said in a speech to the Filipino community during a visit to Malaysia.
"We are both making curses. Even with trivial matters we curse. I was supposed to stop because Trump is there. I don't want to quarrel anymore, because Trump has won."
Duterte won a May election by a huge margin and is often compared to Trump, having himself been the alternative candidate from outside of national politics.
He campaigned on a populist, anti-establishment platform and struck a chord among ordinary Filipinos with his promises to fix what he called a broken country.
But the biggest surprise of Duterte's presidency so far has been his hostility towards the United States, shown during near-daily eruptions of anger over its concerns about human rights abuses during his deadly war on drugs.
He has also threatened repeatedly to severe a military relationship that has been a key element of Washington's "pivot" to Asia.
Duterte on Wednesday told Filipinos how angry he had been at Washington, saying it had threatened to cut off aid and had treated the Philippines like a dog tied to a post.
"They talk as if we are still the colonies," he said.
"You do not give us the aid, shit, to hell with you," he said, recalling comments he had directed at Obama.
Teddy Locsin Jr, Duterte's incoming ambassador to the United Nations, said there were a few parallels between Trump, who stunned the world by defeating rival Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's presidential election, and Duterte.
"I remember Trump in the middle of one of his statements, he said 'I will not talk like this after I become president'," Locsin said on TV. "I remember someone who also said the same thing."
(Reporting by Rozanna Latif; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alex Richardson)
In Which We All Pretend That Duterte Has Somehow A Coherent Foreign Policy?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Looks like the burial of Marcos is gonna go ahead despite protests.
And they already buried Marcos, despite the protests. They had a private funeral for that, but with the army around.
Meanwhile, people in Batac are getting mad when they found out that Marcos' body wasn't in Batac anymore and the body in the glass coffin is actually a wax figure.
Never expected that reveal though. 
Seems that an article in the Inquirer mentions that Duterte's tactics in approaching China and the US are similar to what Tito did in order to avoid being under the sphere of influence for the West and for the USSR (And the rest of Warsaw Pact), specifically given that Yugoslavia was an influential member in the Non-Aligned Movement.
Gravity Beams and BIDIBIDIBIDIBIDI
In other news, VP Leni Robredo resigns from Duterte's Cabinet:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/850610/robredo-resigns-from-duterte-cabinet
I guess there's no room for a "voice of reason" within Duterte's government... I just hope the opposition will give VP Robredo all the support she needs to continue being the voice of reason.
P.S.: And if anyone knows of a filter for AdBlock Plus or uBlock Origin that blocks Disqus, that would be nice. God, those comments are more toxic than the air in mainland China...
edited 6th Dec '16 10:55:28 PM by IncognitoNinja
"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."
Philippines' Duterte rails at U.S. 'monkeys' for halting gun sale
Duterte's tirades against the former colonial power are routine during his speeches and he said on Wednesday he once believed in Washington, but had since lost respect for what is the Philippines' biggest ally.
The U.S. State Department halted the sale of the assault rifles to the Philippine police after U.S. Senator Ben Cardin said he would oppose it, Senate aides told Reuters on Monday.
Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concern about human rights violations in the Philippines during Duterte's bloody, four-month-old war on drugs.
"Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don't want to sell," Duterte said during a televised speech.
"Son of a bitch, we have many home-made guns here. These American fools."
More than 2,300 people have been killed in police operations or by suspected vigilantes as part of Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign, which was the lynchpin of his election campaign.
Duterte has vented his anger at the United States for raising concerns about the extra-judicial killings.
"That's why I was rude at them, because they were rude at me," he said.
According to procedures in Washington, the State Department informs Congress when international weapons sales are in the works. Aides said the State Department had been informed Cardin would oppose the deal during the prenotification process, thus halting the sale.
U.S. State Department officials did not comment.
The Philippine police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, on Tuesday expressed disappointment that police would not get the M4 rifles, which he said were reliable.
Duterte reiterated that Russia and China had shown willingness to sell arms to the Philippines, but he would wait to see if his military wanted to continue using U.S. weapons.
"Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we'll give you.
"But I am holding off because I was asking the military if they have any problem. Because if you have, if you want to stick to America, fine.
"But, look closely and balance the situation, they are rude to us."
(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Because calling Americans a term loaded with Unfortunate Implications over there is technically not swearing.
And I suppose United Defense must be pretty disappointed that the Great Leader is more interested in a Norinco CQ than their finest...
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot