In his speech in Manila on the 7th, President Duterte of the Philippines said he had a phone conversation with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, and gained backing on the Philippines drug policy.

“You are doing good. Go ahead.” Trump said. Duterte expressed his joy saying, “It was very encouraging in the sense that I suppose that what he wanted to say was that he would be the last to interfere in the affairs of our own country.”

The scheduled September talks between U.S.-Philippines leaders was cancelled due to the clash between Duterte and Obama, with Obama criticizing the questionable drug policy and Duterte telling OabamObama to “go to hell”. Relations between the two nations have only worsened since.

Trump, on the other hand, has shown the opposite response to Obama. “We should fix our bad relations,” Trump said in their phone conversation. “When you come to Washington D.C. or New York City, look me up and we’ll have coffee.”

The Philippines and Its 3 Million Drug Addicts

Duterte aims to eradicate drugs in the Philippines through lawful killing of drug dealers and addicts without trial. He has his reasons, and simply criticising his methods will not help solve the serious drug problem in the Philippines.

There are over 3 million drug addicts in the Philippines, and many politicians and police authorities are dealing drugs to the poor, advancing the vicious poverty cycle. Duterte’s drug policy is an effective method of breaking out of this situation to rebuild the country.

Duterte has also enforced the publicization of official documents in order to deal with state corruption. “President Duterte has the courage to eradicate corruption”, one Manila resident commented. Unlike the image painted in Europe and America, the effectiveness of his approaches is reflected in his high 90% support rate in the Philippines.

The Right Things Are Not Always Comfortable

Trump understands the drug situation in the Philippines because of the importance he puts on the U.S. problem of illegal immigrants from Mexico and the resultant spreading of drugs and crimes as a result.

On the 8th, Master Ryuho Okawa, founder of Happy Science, gave a lecture “On Political Issues”, discussing the various political and economic issues around the world. One the problem of drugs coming in to North America from Central and South America, he said:

“Building a wall onf the Mexican border may sound insane, but it isn’t if we look at the bigger issue of the need to prevent spreading crimes and the subsequent the downfall of America.”

 
A spreading drug problem will mean a fall in national power. We need to really look at this serious drug problem to properly understand Duterte’s drug and Trump’s immigration policies.

The right things are not always comfortable to accept.