{"id":11127,"date":"2017-10-21T13:18:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T05:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/?p=11127"},"modified":"2017-10-21T21:44:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-21T13:44:35","slug":"durterte-and-the-taxi-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/durterte-and-the-taxi-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Durterte and The Taxi Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I was in Manila recently, playing a tour guide to a bunch of my family members who were there for a very short vacation. Unlike in my previous trips to Manila which were dominated by the use of jeepneys, I used quite a number of taxis this time. One of the best things about taxi drivers in Manila is their ability to speak quite fluent English. It\u2019s always easy to communicate with them at length. So I grabbed the opportunity to ask one or two of the taxi drivers about what they thought of their new president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually like him. He really works. He does his job\u201d said a taxi driver as we moved slowly along with the slow traffic towards the airport where my family members were waiting to be picked up. So I asked him about all the killings that he\u2019s been accused of doing to curb the serious drug problems among the Filipino communities especially in Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, drug is a very serious problem in Manila. Very very serious\u201d he said. \u201cSo you think it is justified for him to do all the killings to curb these drug problems?\u201d I asked. He appeared to be hesitant at first, but said \u201cNo. He should not do it. He cannot just go kill people. He should not misuse his power to kill defenseless people. He is not God\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean these people deserve a fair trial?\u201d I asked, just to dig out more. \u201cYes, they deserve to be given a fair trial. If it is confirmed that a person is involved with drug only then he should be sent to jail\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cand not to be shot?\u201d I heard myself ask. The documentary on the overcrowded prisons in Manila<\/a> that I watched on TV suddenly came to mind. \u201cNo, nobody should be killed. That\u2019s against the Catholic teachings. Even God forgives. They should be given a chance to repent and be sorry of what they did\u201d he said as if disgusted by my question.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then Duterte is not a Catholic\u201d he continued. I didn\u2019t bother to ask what he (Duterte) was. For me it\u2019s not really about religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for telling me your thoughts on Duterte. I had the impression that most Filipino people agreed of what he is doing\u201d I thanked him as we neared the arrival hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really. We are happy that he is doing his job but not the killings\u201d he replied before we offered good bye to each other. The driver of the taxi that I took later seemed to share the sentiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I was in Manila recently, playing a tour guide to a bunch of my family members who were there for a very short vacation. Unlike in my previous trips to Manila which were dominated by the use of jeepneys, I used quite a number of taxis this time. One of the best things about taxi drivers in Manila is their ability to speak quite fluent English. It\u2019s always easy to communicate with them at length. So I grabbed the…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[75,76],"class_list":["post-11127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traveling","tag-manila","tag-the-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11127"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11136,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11127\/revisions\/11136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}