A Duterte Reader: Critical Essays On Rodrigo Duterte's Early Presidency by Nicole CuratoMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"Perhaps we should first ask, how can the world pay better attention? To effectively condemn, it is first important to listen."
Written 6 months into the presidency, this important book is a collection of essays looking at the historical and social contexts that allowed our President's rise to power.
I once heard it said that "everything is political," and this book perfectly exemplifies this.
From Teehankee's situating Duterte's rise against past presidential regimes, to Evangelista's analysis of the President as merely a symptom of the problem that is the hetero-patriarchal social structure... From Arguelles' indictment of a mnemonic regime socializing us to forget Marcos atrocities to serve a sinister political purpose, to Lamchek's disturbing analysis of public support legitimizing a mandate for mass killings of our countrymen...from Coronel's depiction of murder for police profit to Quimpo's assertion of the hyped up mass hysteria over a "narco state" despite evidence to the contrary...
Even though the book is written in layman - friendly language, it still makes for disturbing reading. But it is important we do so, if only to answer the burning question, "Why?“
In these divided times, when emotions run high and one can never be too sure whether one is engaging a real person or a troll in debate, these articles written by rational minds are all the more welcome as they invite the public to understand that this country's ills will not be solved (and cannot be blamed) on a single leader.
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