Who is afraid of Rodrigo Duterte?

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 28 Apr 2016 by Romeo Bernardo

---

More people now believe that the presidency is his to lose. Latest polls show the tough-talking mayor from the south pulling further away from the pack, scoring 9 to 12 points ahead of the second-ranked. By itself, the emergence of a frontrunner is a good thing as it removes temptations to cheat in the voting and counting. But instead of calming investors, it has seemingly had the opposite effect. His appearance before Manila’s business elite yesterday, a baptism of fire of sorts for past and present contenders for the presidency, did little to soothe worries as he chose to spend the greater part of his 1-1/2-hour speech on fighting crime rather than on his business and economic policies. I sat through the speech, peppered with his usual off-color jokes, sharing pretty much the unease of the 300 or so audience. However, on rewind, it seems that his message simply got lost between the anti-crime clutter and the curses. After all, he did talk about the vital things: (a) continuing with the good programs of the present government, (b) allowing institutionalized planning processes to do their work, (c) attending to infrastructure, health and education, and agriculture as priorities, including fixing the mass transport mess and scrapping a failed land reform program (heretofore a sacred cow that politicians won’t touch) and (d) and of course, peace and order as sine qua non to development. He also unashamedly declared that he will copy the good programs of the other presidential candidates. I had been expecting to see some market nervousness in the lead up to the May 9 elections, which may become more and more evident in the days ahead. However, I remain confident that a Du...