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Defending Moral Obligation: Duterte’s Dauntless War Against Drugs
Faisha Mae D. Tangog, Rogelio P. Bayod
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2021.10.007
Cor Jesu College, Digos City, the Philippines
As the mainstream media describes Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines, widespread generalizations emerged. He was the country’s first Mindanaoan president and acquired popularity among Filipinos by working on platforms to reduce drug addiction, corruption, and criminality, and received 39 percent of the vote in the 2016 Presidential Election. Back on the year 2016, during the first Presidential Debate, Duterte had sworn that he will eliminate the extensive propagation of drugs in the country with his first six months of authority. With the advent of his presidential campaign, arises the issue on extra-judicial killings from his ruthless hunt for drug pushers and users which is highly criticized by the human rights devotees. This was the cornerstone of Duterte’s presidential campaign and the crime solution hallmark of his 22-year period as mayor of Davao City. While the president’s critics state that this is unjust and immoral, this paper argues that Duterte’s radical politics is necessary in the lessening if not total eradication of criminality and corruption that the country had been experiencing. Using the lens of Deontological Ethics and Utilitarian Ethics, this paper tries to explain Duterte’s radical politics and why it is needed in the contemporary Philippine society.
radical democracy, Duterte’s war on drugs and criminality, Deontological Ethics, Utilitarian Ethics
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