Is Change Still Coming to the Philippines? Will it be Spoons or Chopsticks?

Time For Change!

Just after Rodrigo Duterte became the newly elected president of the Philippines, I took to some reading up on some personal details about the new Philippines leader. I learned about some of the reasons Duterte holds such a deep dislike for America. And the more I read, the more I learn. The way I understand it, Duterte holds grudges longer than most people live; for example, he is apparently still upset about a century-old conflict way back during the American occupation in the Philippines when 600 Moros, mostly women and children, were killed in Mindanao, after a two-day battle in 1906. Even before he entered politics, he consistently echoed anti-American sentiments. He was once a student of the Lyceum of the Philippines and a member of the Kabataang Makabayan, a leftist movement formed in 1964 whose leaders would later form the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Known to dislike the U.S. (just a little)

Duterte also went head-to-head with the US government after a hotel explosion in 2002 when he claimed that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation spirited suspected and injured bomber Michael Terrence Meiring out of the country and without any approval from the Philippine government. He then further eyed the U.S. when a bomb exploded at the Davao International Airport in 2003 and followed by another explosion at the Sasa wharf several more months after the hotel explosion that injured Meiring, and is when he began suspecting that the U.S. could have had a hand in the said explosions.

Duterte has also criticized the U.S. for their interventions in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, stating that “it is not that the Middle East […] exporting terrorism in America. America imported terrorism.” He added that jihadists were people “pushed to the wall” by US actions. Nonetheless, Duterte's distrust for America is probably more well rooted than it is substantiated.

And even though Finance Minister Carlos Dominguez III described Duterte’s recent comments telling then U.S. President Barack Obama to “go to hell” as a “bump in the road” in a century-long relationship with the United States that maintains deep business and family ties, they did not overshadow Duterte's early public statement to the Chinese where he declared that the Philippines relationship with the United States is "Officially" over.

New Skills Needed?

One morning shortly thereafter, my brother-in-law, who was working at our house on an ongoing construction project, was talking about how the Chinese are putting Duterte through his paces in that country, in order to determine his [Duterte's] current and future allegiance to all Asian nations. When meeting with Chinese officials, Duterte was apparently asked if he used chopsticks or a teaspoon to eat with, and when he replied teaspoon (actually, they use tablespoons), the Chinese laughingly questioned his motives. It was supposedly suggested (jokingly) that if the Philippines wanted to become bettere aligned with the Chinese, they must learn to adapt to more traditional Asian cultures and customs, like eating with chopsticks.

So, just before lunch break that day, I went back into the house and grabbed a pair of chopsticks which I proceeded to present to my brother-in-law. As I handed them to him, I suggested he go eat lunch and get some practice. "You're gonna need to learn" I told him. "The Chinese are coming!"

I did remain optimistic however and looked at this situation as a potential benefit to the filipino people going forward. If Duterte's policy moves backfires on him and the country, there will be nothing lost as I see it. The real benefit to me was that I knew what Christmas gifts to buy for family members... their very own chopsticks! My original thought was that I would save a lot of pesos during that upcoming Christmas season.

Philippines version - modern day rickshaw (Pedicab)

After lunch, I joked around with our workers that in the future, they might be riding in Chinese rickshaws instead of pedeled bicycles as their newest form of transportation.

Joking around - it's...

More Fun in the Philippines!