Jeth, The Educator

On Foreign Policies and International Affairs including travels and deals.  In 2017, Duterte released a Memorandum Circular number 16, directing all government agencies to seek approval from the Office of the President before entering into negotiations, international agreements covering borrowings, guarantees and foreign grants. This is to iterate his role as the the Chief Executive, the sole chief architect of the Philippine Foreign Policy who has the authority to decide which international agreements the country enters into (Ranada, 2017). Later in 2019, he instructed all departments and state-run firms to halt negotiations and agreements grants and loans from countries that have backed United Nations (UN) investigation into his bloody war on drugs and countries who initiated and part of making a resolution on the investigation of killings in the Philippines (Lema, 2019). These actions made by the president proved his sole authority as the master of foreign policy of the count...

On Water Concessionaires’ Agreement.  In the month of December 2019 up to January of this year, rift between the government and the water concessionaires’ have been around hitting the headlines and are getting more controversial as information about erroneous agreement was revealed. Duterte was provoked when he found out these water concessionaires led by Pangilinan and Ayala, filed a lawsuit in Singapore-based arbitration court, and eventually won, ordering the Philippine government to pay 1.8 billion in compensation (Valente, 2020). He accused that these concessionaires are milking the Filipinos since the beginning. “I do not brag. I am not brave. But, son of a bitch, if I get angry with you, I will slap you in Public”  Duterte (2020), his strong remark in one of his TV interviews. He assures then, that before he will step down in 2022, the erroneous and onerous contracts signed during the Ramos time further extended during Arroyo’s term, will be corrected. These actions...

On Unresolved Conflicts with CPP-NPA-NDF vis-a-vis peace talks and negotiations . During election period, prior to his presidency, CPP-NPA-NDF Founder Joma Sison seemed to be endorsing Duterte’s candidacy as the latter was viewed to be the leader that can unite all people from different walks of life, that includes the people from the marginalized sectors and the lefts. However, during his term, the said perception was covered with several issues and controversies as ideologies of the organization were seemed not complemented by the government, requests from the lefts were remained abandoned, although several appointees were given key positions in the government, it still appears to be inadequate on the part of the lefts. Assaults and attacks by the NPA rebels to the government troops triggered Duterte to order retaliation. Hence, igniting the Duterte-dominated legislative body to draft and pass a bill tagging the rebel group as terrorist. Despite order to crash NPA, Duterte have s...

Philippine Economy and the Philippines’ Rights over the West Philippine Sea and Duterte’s Inclination towards China While the pro-China inclination of the Duterte administration is clear, there seems to be inconsistency in his actions and rhetoric. Is he clever enough to manage a strategy to optimize gains from the economic superpower? At the end of this, what does Duterte truly care about? In a 2016 survey, the majority of Filipinos (92%) still trusted the US more than China (24%). Despite Duterte's desire to adopt an independent foreign policy and distance himself from traditional allies like the US, critics argue that cutting ties from traditional allies does not equate to an independent foreign policy. Interestingly, his foreign policy is more inclined towards China, aiming to secure investments for infrastructure projects and access to lucrative export markets for Philippine goods (Woody, 2016). In 2016, Duterte was seen as playing off China and the US to get the best deals, b...