Imprisoned in the Hague, a Former Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, Wins Election, Becoming Mayor of Country’s Second-Largest City

A former Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, is now in charge of governing the country’s largest city outside metro Manila from his cell more than 7,000 miles away, at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.Mr. Duterte, hustled to the Hague in March to face trial for allegedly having authorized the extra-judicial slaughter of about 30,000 people in his crackdown on drugs while president between 2016 and 2022, was elected as mayor of the southeastern port city of Davao by such an overwhelming margin as to suggest the case against him is only embellishing his popularity. While activists castigate him for human rights abuses, many Filipinos praise him for restoring law and order.Nearly complete final returns showed 662,630 votes for Mr. Duterte as opposed to 78,893 for a man who had previously served in Mr. Duterte’s administration, Karlo Alexei Nograles. Considering the impossibility of winning, Mr. Nograles is believed to have stood in as a candidate simply to make his former boss look terrific by comparison.There was never a doubt, before the election, that Mr. Duterte would win easily in a city where he was already widely addressed as “Mr. Mayor” after having served in that position for a total of 22 years before running for president.So strongly entrenched is the Duterte machine in Davao — by far the leading city on the large southern island of Mindanao, and one that is often troubled by both Muslim and Communist revolt — that his daughter, Sara, succeeded him as mayor when he ran for president. Then, when she ran for vice president in 2022, his youngest son, Sebastian, was elected mayor. Sebastian is returning to city hall as vice mayor, having won that post by almost the same margin as his father.Regardless of the outcome of his impending trial in the Hague, the Duterte family poses a serious challenge for another powerful family, that of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. As vice president, Sara Duterte, after feuding bitterly with Mr. Marcos, was impeached by the lower house of the Philippine congress for corruption and for threatening to assassinate him. She’s regarded as a possible candidate for president but may be banned from running again if she fails to persuade the Philippine senate to reject her impeachment.Mr. Duterte’s return to a central role in Philippine politics poses a severe problem for Mr. Marcos, who could have shielded him from extradition to the Hague but viewed his imprisonment there as a great way to remove him as a threat. The son of a late president, Ferdinand Marcos, who was overthrown in the 1985-86 “People Power revolution,” Mr. Marcos heads a family that rivals that of Mr. Duterte. His older sister is a senator, and his son is governor of a province north of Manila that’s long been a family stronghold and power base.Mr. Duterte’s support so far “is concentrated in Mindanao and a huge swathe of the Visayas,” the large islands in the central Philippines north of Mindanao, according to a long-time Philippine journalist, Carlos Conde. “He and his family and minions still command tremendous support in these areas.”Mr. Conde questioned, though, the widespread view that Mr. Duterte owes his popularity to the success of his war against drug abuse and rising crime rates. “Disinformation, particularly online, remains a key factor, plus, of course, regionalism,” he told the Sun. “His arrest by the ICC, which he and his people exploited to the hilt, with the help of disinformation definitely boosted this support.”Far from being reviled for the bloody campaign against crime, Mr. Duterte “was depicted as the oppressed,” Mr. Conde said. “People simply ignored the fact that his regime had tens of thousands of people killed. There’s a clamor by his supporters to bring him back to the Philippines. I wouldn’t say it’s nationwide. It certainly is massive.”In a recent visit to Manila, this reporter encountered mixed views. “Now crime is coming back,” was a common remark. “Under Duterte the streets were safe.” More than one person told me drugs are available again. “Bongbong is weak,” he said. “We need a tough guy who’s willing to crack heads.”Correction: The International Criminal Court is where Duterte is being tried. An earlier version misidentified the venue.

Imprisoned in the Hague, a Former Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, Wins Election, Becoming Mayor of Country’s Second-Largest City

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