The Power of Suggestion
Do you have pretentious friends, who have been to only one or two countries outside the Philippines, but are so passionate in declaring that Manila has the worst airport in the world?
That is the power of suggestion.
A position so strong, that after hearing it repeatedly, one believes it without even experiencing or having any objective data to support the claim.
Many Filipinos, educated or otherwise, are easily influenced in this manner. They would consistently vote online. They share links of dodgy websites. They share unverified quotes and stories in their Facebook and Twitter pages. And they comment vehemently in social media on certain positions without factual evidence.
This also explains the phenomenon of the Duterte brand — a brand so strong, that many Filipinos who have been only to the malls or resorts of Davao (or have never been to Davao for that matter) are so certain that the city is one of the best-managed and safest in the world.
A website based on online voting puts Davao at the top 10 safest list, but in objective studies done by agencies like The Economist, Davao is nowhere in the list. Don’t get me wrong, Davao is a great place and is safe in many standards, but to put superlatives is just plain hype. Most of these claims are shared between friends and relatives, mostly from one middle-class to another. Some of these claims include stories of how Davao has the most honest taxi drivers, yet people are unaware that the same (or better) stories can be said about Baguio City.
Davao and the fight against crime
Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte puts so much emphasis on his fight against drugs and crime. Even when asked about his stance on the economy and global trading during his presidential campaign, he would always end up talking about drugs and criminality, as if these things are the root causes of the country’s woes.
While it’s true that the fight for drug use and criminal activities should be a priority of any government, it’s also true that these are mostly symptoms of a bad economy and high instance of poverty. In a society where members of all social classes have access to proper health care, education, and employment, all activities related to drugs and crime significantly go down. Even extremism would go down, as many cities around the world have proven that cultural differences are not the main drivers for kids to join terrorist groups, but the high instance of poverty and lack of education. Of course there will always be a tiny portion of the population who have strong extremist ideologies or have serious psychological problems and will still commit crimes, but the overall crime rate would be generally low if poverty is also low.
Duterte has been at the top executive position in Davao City for almost three decades, and many Filipinos believe that he is the right guy to uplift the poor and corrupt system that is the Philippines.
But is he truly capable? If all claims of the DDS (Davao Death Squad) were true, did it really create paradise for the people of Davao? After three decades, is Davao really a model city, something to be emulated in the entire country? Let’s check different metrics of poverty and crimes and see how Davao is doing compared to cities all over the country.
Public School Education
The number of kids who drop out of public schools is correlated to the instance of poverty and quality of education in a city or region. When kids drop out, either the parents could no longer afford books or school uniform, or they’re needed to work to help out the family financially. According to UNICEF, more than 65% of the kids who drop out of elementary school in the Philippines belong to the bottom 40% income.
Aggregated data from the Department of Education show that dropout rates in Davao City in both elementary school and high school are worse than the national average. And it’s difficult to pinpoint lack of Mindanao budget as a reason for this occurrence, as Zamboanga City is performing much better, even comparable to counterparts in Visayas and Luzon.
Children in low-income families usually start helping out with work and household during their teens, so generally there’s a higher dropout rate in high school than during grade school. For high school dropouts, more than 70% of them do so due to affordability, employment, or household responsibilities.
Public Health
For public health let’s look at maternity data, and deaths caused by two of the most common yet curable diseases in the country: tuberculosis and pneumonia.
Davao City’s numbers are better than the national average, but other cities like Baguio, Tagbilaran, and Pagadian are performing much better. All these numbers reflect on either the people’s access to medical facilities or the quality of medical services available.
While Davao boasts of the first and only 911 emergency hotline in Asia, this doesn’t elevate much the state of public health. An effective ambulance system definitely helps in cases of heart attack, stroke, and life-threatening accidents. It is a great short-term solution, but it’s only a start.
Department of Health data however doesn’t put Davao in such great light. Zamboanga City and Pagadian City, both in Mindanao, have less infant deaths and significantly much less deaths due to pneumonia.
Death and Crime
With all the emphasis on criminal punishment, one would expect Davao to have low crime rates. Recent reports sourced from PNP showed that Davao is a leading city when it comes to murder and rape.
Interestingly, the data of the Department of Health based on hospital records and death certificates, are consistent with the circulating data on criminal cases by PNP.
According to 2012 data, there were 212 residents of Davao killed that year. That’s more than 4 persons killed every week. Both PNP and DOH data actually say that Davao City is far from being crime-free. No city, where four people are killed every week, is considered safe and crime-free.
Unemployment data would have been interesting to include in this analysis, but it would be unfair for Davao City as it is a business and migration hub in Mindanao. Davao City has one of the highest unemployment rates in Mindanao, but it can also be attributed to the college graduates and college students from all over Mindanao who move to Davao to work and study.
Davao as a model for the future Philippines?
The numbers shown above were taken from reports dating 2007 until 2015, so most of the information is already public even before the election campaign started. And being a mayor automatically puts Duterte as part of the executive body of the Philippines, the same body running PNP, DOH, and DepEd. He had the power to uplift Davao for 30 years, and while he did so in many ways, other cities are much safer, where more kids are in school and more families have access to better health care. The push for the fight against drugs and crimes is a shortsighted vision, and Davao has proven that with three decades of Duterte. Other cities have actually performed way better than Davao, but what they didn’t have is a Duterte or DDS brand, with stories shared passionately from one disgruntled middle-class to another. Why root for Bacolod, or Baguio, or Tagbilaran when they don’t have a heroic figure in their stories?
I wonder, why is it that when VP Binay was accused of corruption, all the evidence and witness accounts were accepted by the public easily: the rigging of the bidding processes, the bribery of business establishments, and the family control of supposed suppliers? But reports from human rights groups and journalists on how the alleged DDS killed minors and small-time criminals were ignored by the same thinking class? Why are Duterte supporters so sure that only confirmed criminals were killed, and ignore news reports claiming that about one-third of the victims (more than 100) are actually minors, some even as young as 12-years old? Why is everyone so sure of Davao’s dreamlike status, when all the numbers don’t add up?
Psychologists have mentioned that all this emphasis on drugs and crime could be a simple manifestation of Duterte’s macho psyche. The famous “political will” and iron hand could just be extensions of his ego and misogyny, seeing only the problems that he believes in, and ignoring rules of economics and other measures of governance. This is a leader proud to be pals of rebels, facing hostage-takers, and willing to jet-ski against foreign villains. After all, Duterte is the real-life version of the characters that actors FPJ and Erap could only play onscreen. (And both FPJ and Erap, by the way, were elected presidents, if the 2004 cheating allegations were true. Isn’t that an interesting pattern on how we vote as a nation?)
Psychologists have mentioned that all this emphasis on drugs and crime could be a simple manifestation of Duterte’s macho psyche. The famous “political will” and iron hand could just be extensions of his ego and misogyny, seeing only the problems that he believes in, and ignoring rules of economics and other measures of governance.
Yesterday Duterte spoke to the Makati Business Club, and said regarding the crimes that could probably be committed by the police and military under his presidency, that the “President can grant pardon to anyone with the concurrence of Congress. I don’t mind giving 1,000 pardons a day.”
He also said he will pardon himself for multiple-murder before leaving the office after six years. He will personally sign the pardon to himself.
It doesn’t need a rape joke, or gay slurs to insult, or making fun of “katulongs” and the disabled to see the level of ego and misogyny of the mayor. And considering many Filipinos are still not as progressive as they should be when it comes to feminism and equality, of course they identify with, and even defend, Duterte. Jessica Zafra was right all along.
While the supposed death squad may have eliminated small-time criminals and drug lords in Davao, the city is far from the paradise it purports to be. Before proclaiming he’s the “totoong tao” and sharing fake quotes and news reports online, do proper research. On Davao’s credentials. On the effects of misogyny in leadership and legislation. On what the government should prioritize. And if you still think that drugs and crimes are the main issues of our country and that it’s acceptable to sacrifice teens if they commit crimes without due process, then this country probably deserves Duterte.
Randy David wrote that a Duterte presidency could pave the way for a fascist regime, and I have every reason to believe so. With a shortsighted vision and backward mentality of both the would-be president and his supporters, I just hope we won’t go back as far as 1972.