Did Philippines’ ‘Trump of the East’ predict America’s ‘Duterte of the West’?
Days before Donald Trump’s stunning election success, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Jose Antonio – Trump’s business partner in the Philippines – to the post of “special envoy to the US to enhance business ties”
Filipinos and Filipino-Americans greeted the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election with shock and disbelief.
“Oh, f—,” Manila-based writer and legislative researcher Gang Badoy Capati wrote on her Facebook page, referring to how US President Barack Obama must have reacted to Hillary Clinton’s loss.
Capati called Trump “an obvious non-choice...a glaring un-President...Now I get why [business magnate] Elon Musk is aggressively finding a way to see a habitable Mars. He knew.”
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Although US polls showed Trump closing the gap with Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton, a mock poll conducted by the US Embassy in Manila among Filipino guests the day before the vote showed Clinton the runaway winner with 82 per cent over Trump at 13 per cent. That compared to an earlier survey commissioned by the South China Morning Post that found 78 per cent of Filipinos would choose the Democrat over her Republican rival.
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“I’m shocked by Hillary’s upset loss,” said economist August Fernando. “Trump’s win confirms my belief that the Philippines has no monopoly of BOBOTANTES [stupid voters].”
A stock analyst moaned, “Bad news comes in threes – [Philippine President Rodrigo] Duterte, Brexit, Trump. USA is now Filipinised,” he said, referring to the fact that both men won despite their outrageous statements and treatment of women.
However, the analyst said he, like other market watchers, was in “wait-and-see” mode because Trump the president might not necessarily act like Trump the candidate – who had criticised US businesses for outsourcing jobs to the Philippines and other places.
