For another view of the role of Duterte in the Philippines, see this column by Christopher Caldwell in the Weekly Standard. He writes about some 4000 people dying in the war on drugs there, as though it were genocide.
Think how little impact that has in a country of 100 million people, or a city of 16 million. Most people don’t personally know anyone killed, and Caldwell is careful to point out that Duterte and his war on drugs are widely popular.
For all of his talk of Chinese influence growing, as though that were recent, it is anything but recent. Chinese have been wealthy merchants in the islands for centuries. If Duterte doesn’t uncritically love the U.S. - which works its own agenda in the region, not his - my brief observation suggests the U.S. definitely has more influence in the Philippines than any other country.
Meanwhile, the Philippine corruption Duterte dodges and Singapore’s Lee complained about is likely a result of values learned from nearly 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. Corruption is a near-constant in former Spanish colonies like Puerto Rico and Mexico, Argentina and Ecuador.
