IBON 2019 Midyear Birdtalk Paper - Duterte's Midterm: Change for the Worse

The administration of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is at its three-year midpoint. The cultivated image of the president being overwhelmingly popular is endlessly repeated – as if this makes the strengthening of elitist rule, violating human rights, and losing sovereignty to foreign powers irrelevant. Yet the country’s social, economic and political problems are as intractable as ever. They will become even more entrenched if the regressive economic agenda and authoritarian governance of the administration prevails unopposed. (Introduction)