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  With foot in mouth, Duterte tops Philippines popularity

With foot in mouth, Duterte tops Philippines popularity

Published : Sep 8, 2016, 1:23 am IST
Updated : Sep 8, 2016, 1:23 am IST

Despite foul-mouthed tirades, international outrage and a public spat with Barack Obama, Rodrigo Duterte is the most popular politician in the Philippines.

Despite foul-mouthed tirades, international outrage and a public spat with Barack Obama, Rodrigo Duterte is the most popular politician in the Philippines.

As the politically incorrect President enters the third month of his six-year term, the Asian nation’s slums are drenched in blood from a brutal anti-drug campaign that has seen police and shadowy assassins kill nearly 3,000 people.

But 71-year-old Duterte is riding high on record approval ratings with the acid-tongued and irascible grandfather shrugging off repeated controversies, including unprovoked and obscene attacks on the United Nations and the United States President, whom he this week called a “son of a whore”.

Critics said he was a dictator in the making, but 16 million people voted the former state prosecutor into office earlier this year, a landslide win fuelled by widespread disgust at conventional politicians in a raucous, corruption-ridden democracy.

“He is probably saying things ordinary people would not say because they are fearful or ashamed,” political scientist Antonio Contreras said. “It’s hard to explain. It’s a machismo thing,” said Earl Parreno, from the Manila-based think tank Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.

That sense of hope is embodied by Irving dela Cruz, an IT manager. “Okay, I don’t like his attitude, his swearing, his womanising, all his negative traits. But what he has done and what he continues to do outweighs everything,” the 39-year-old said.

Location: Philippines, National Capital Reg, Manila