Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has raised a few eyebrows since he assumed office in June. Dubbed "The Punisher" by Time magazine for his alleged involvement with Davao death squads, Duterte called President Obama "a son of a whore" earlier this month.
Duterte also threatened to remove the Philippines from the United Nations to form a coalition with China and African countries. On Tuesday, local Filipino media reported that Duterte told the European Union "fuck you" for their condemnation of his violent war on drugs, which has claimed over 3000 lives since June.
Filipino USC students have weighed in on the rampant extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Yet, it appears some don't completely condemn Duterte's violent policies and laissez-faire approach to diplomacy. Jan Santiago, a freshman studying Business Administration, believes that the international media is acting off of sensationalism.
"Even before Duterte was president, there was a lot of people getting killed off in the streets," Santiago said. "Now that suddenly you have this loud-mouth president, everybody starts taking notice of it."
Santiago was raised in the Philippines and recently moved to the U.S. for college. He says that Duterte's now-infamous diplomacy style has been misinterpreted by the media.
"Some things just really get lost in translation. For example, the "son of a whore" thing — it's kind of just like saying 'for God's sake'," Santiago said.
The Philippines has been grappling with a serious drug problem. In 2014, CNN reported that members of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel were found operating in the country, selling methamphetamine or 'shabu.'
"Drugs is a big business there and corruption is a big issue. Drugs have a destabilizing effect on the country. It's not just marijuana." Santiago said. "You have this whole level of dealers, suppliers, manufacturers and drug lords. It's a big trade."
Another student, Anthony Garciano, echoes Santiago's sentiment. Garciano believes that Duterte's comments on Obama were taken out of context.
"He's a genuine guy, he's transparent — even the comments he said about Obama, they've been taken out of context, because 'Putang Ina' which means 'son of a whore' is a common phrase used in the Philippines, and it wasn't directed at Obama."
Yet, Garciano did strongly condemn the extrajudicial killings.
"My biggest issue with Duterte is that he is intentionally ignoring human rights for the sake of this drug war — for the sake of his own belief of eradicating drugs in the Philippines." Garciano said. "The Philippines is a democratic country, and one of the tenets of which is having due process."
Away from USC, Duterte rattled Los Angeles-based Filipinos when he announced a plan to bury former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the country's Heroes Cemetery. Marcos introduced martial law into the Philippines during a decade-long regime in the 1970s, which claimed over 1500 lives according to human rights organizations. Duterte's current drug war has seen double the number of deaths in a three-month span.
Yesterday, Filipino activist groups such as BAYAN USA protested outside the Philippine Consulate to condemn the suggestion of a hero's burial for Marcos. Nikole Cababa, the deputy secretary general of BAYAN USA, said that Duterte was out of line. The Philippine Consulate could not be reached for comment.
"We adamantly oppose any kind of hero's burial for former dictator Ferdinand Marcos because he really was no hero." Cababa said, "He was actually a traitor to the Filipino people. He stole over 10 billion pesos from the Filipino people and left them in abject poverty in an economy that didn't support local jobs."
Cababa also condemned the deaths under Duterte's presidency and suggested that the drug problem could be alleviated with a stronger social safety net.
"We are calling for those responsible to be prosecuted, for the Philippine government and Duterte to respect due process and instead of completing this drug war, we should be focused on providing more social services." Cababa said.
USC student Garciano was concerned that the drug war was targeting poor communities, rather than the drug kingpins higher up the ranks.
"In terms of killings, it's been focused on the poor communities. Those who are doing the drugs in these areas, but not necessarily the ones who are bringing in the drugs." Garciano said, "There's a very skewed focus in this drug war, people are seeing a war on the poor."
Garciano said that this drug war is permeating Filipino culture both at home and away.
"The drug war is everywhere and it's happening in the minds of all Filipinos. It doesn't matter if they support it or not."
Reach Staff Reporter Raz Nakhlawi here or follow her on Twitter.
Annenberg Media