Politics

Donald Trump Wishes He Was As Gangsta As Rodrigo Duterte

This is what happens when you elect people who aren't "regular politicians."

Yes, that is a giant E. Honda in Davos, where Duterte used to be mayor. You're welcome.

Yes, that is a giant E. Honda in Davao, where Duterte used to be mayor. You’re welcome.

In my ongoing attempt to make Americans realize what would happen under a Trump presidency, here’s another Rodrigo Duterte story. During a nationally televised Filipino Senate hearing, a self-proclaimed “death squad militiaman” testified on his alleged work for Duterte during Duterte’s tenure as mayor of Davao. From the Daily News:

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte once killed a justice department official with an Uzi machine gun and was responsible for about 1,000 extra-judicial murders of criminals and political rivals during his time as a city mayor, a self-professed former death squad militiaman said…

Among the most disturbing allegations to come out of [Edgar] Matobato’s testimony was that the then-mayor of Davao City personally shot the justice department employee during a standoff at a road block in 1993…

“Mayor Duterte was the one who finished him off. Jamisola (the justice department official) was still alive when he (Duterte) arrived. He emptied two Uzi magazines on him,” Matobato said.

A spokesman for Duterte, Martin Andanar, denied the allegations.

When Donald Trump thinks he could shoot a man on 5th Avenue without hurting his chances, Duterte is his proof of concept.

I bring this up for two reasons:

1. Holy Jesus Christ, dude. The Philippines is supposed to be a real country, not a volcanic lair controlled by a Bond villain.

2. This is what happens when you elect people who claim they aren’t “regular politicians.” There’s a benefit to being regular. Regular people do not go around Grand Theft Auto-ing justice department officials. They don’t tell the U.N. to go f**k itself. REGULAR people don’t think Doctor Oz is a real doctor!

Duterte, Brexit, the rise of Trump… I’m starting to think that everything Plato ever said about democracy was entirely correct.

Observe, too, how grandly Democracy sets her foot upon all our fine theories of education,–how little she cares for the training of her statesmen! The only qualification which she demands is the profession of patriotism. Such is democracy — a pleasing, lawless various sort of government, distributing equality to equals and unequals alike.

The Republic

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte killed official with machine gun, ordered extra-judicial killings, says former assassin [New York Daily News]


Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He just used Rodrigo Duterte and Plato to slam Trump in the same post, and believes he should get some extra credit for that.