"Shooting First and Asking Questions Later"

A recent article from The Economist does not waste any subtlety in the message it wants to send to the Duterte administration: "The lesson of the drug wars in Latin America, and of previous dirty wars, is that extrajudicial violence resolves nothing and makes everything worse. Innocent people will be killed; and denunciations will also be used to settle scores and exploited by gangs to wipe out rivals. Filipinos’ desire for instant retribution will, surely, turn to horror, hatred and revenge. The rule of law will erode. Investors, who have made the Philippines one of globalisation’s winners in recent years, will flee. The only winners will be the still-lurking insurgents. Mr Duterte’s ill-conceived war on drugs will make the Philippines poorer and more violent."

Above copied from The Economist. To read the entire article, click here
The Philippines does sit in a precarious situation. One simply has to look at its stock market index:

Above copied from Trading Economics
With its stock index almost doubled in the past five years, one can easily predict that a correction is inevitable. A slippery slope, a track the Duterte administration seems to be following, may just be the trigger to bring light into what is currently the situation in the Philippines. Certain elements when brought together can indeed create a perfect storm. The basic education system is under huge stress. The number of school dropouts continues to pile up. Even without a careless president, things can easily get worse.

Perception matters. What the world thinks matters. What The Economist prints matters. Those of us who live on credit know what a credit score entails. And it is about perception. For the past ten years, the Philippines has greatly improved its rating.

Above copied from Arangkada Philippines
These ratings can easily go down, wiping out all the hard-earned gains from the previous decade. It takes a lot of effort to convince people that a country is headed in the right direction. It is far easier to make them see it otherwise.



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