I can't find where I quoted Stevehigg? I was talking about the US G.

 

Sorry, my mistake, read your post as a reply to sstevehigg

 

The effectiveness of the U.S. military in the region only goes as far as the will of the leadership in the Philippines. U.S. military resources is an extension of the Philippines capabilities, not a driver. We can't expect the U.S. special forces to fix the problems in Mindinao.

As for how foreigners will be affected by this administration, all that needs to happen is to change the visa laws. I can all but guarantee these laws will eventually worsen for us, because they're probably already among the most foreigner friendly in the world. Where else can you stay so long without having to do a visa run? People will leave in droves if they have to fly out of the country once a month to do a visa run. Even adjusting the visa laws to be closer to a norm among ASEAN nations will probably accomplish this. I may be talking out of my @ss here, but I can't see the good times lasting much longer for foreigners on tourist visas. Maybe those who are married will be okay.

This is a key point and I believe to be the driver behind his statement. Duterte means well, he just seems to botch his delivery.

The separatists in Mindanao have some legit reasons for fighting the government. The Philippines is Manila, the rest of the country is just paying rent. It's good that Duterte is willing to talk with the separatists to try to reach common ground. If the U.S. military is an obstacle to this, then they should go.

This is missing the mark on his end and probably something that he'll moderate on over time. As Obama mentioned, human rights is an international norm. Much of what appears as "imperialist" is global systems which exact a high cost for not playing the game. That's not to say that Duterte or anyone else shouldn't question these systems, but much of what he wants for the nation requires being diplomatic in doing so.

 

I read today that foreign investors have over the past 4 months been pulling money out of the Philippine markets because they are concerned about the rhetoric of the president.

 

My own Brother was Going to have a satellite Company producing Copper anodized telephone wire, He said NO!

 

Well, though the Philippines has been screwed with many times, we know they don't just take crap from foreigners lying down. The first guy ever to circumnavigate the globe? Yep, died in the Philippines. Apparently they weren't impressed by his feat.

 

This decline, coupled with the dramatic lack of foreign investment(http://asean.org/storage/2015/09/Table-252.pdf), does not bode well for the Philippine economy

Even tourism is puny compared to most other ASEAN Countries-http://www.asean.org/storage/2015/11/tourism/Table_28.pdf

"Be careful what you wish for , for you may surely get it!"

 

I agree. Tourism provides an influx of cash that can't all be siphoned off by the rich. The working poor actually get a shot at some of the tourism money, therefore it's far more valuable to them than stock market increases which don't change their life one bit.

 

Tourists spend their money on hotels and restaurants, which are places the rich park their money for diversification (but low returns in a commodity services market). Regular Joe's don't have the savvy to offer premium services to tourists, so they get the same crap rates which is expected from this economy and provides a poverty lifestyle. There's little trickle-down here.

The Philippines just needs to open this place up to foreign ownership to invite as much investment as the country can entice. It's an international competition and the Philippines doesn't even have the door open. If nothing else, this would at least create some chaos into the system which could provide an opening to outsiders (locals which aren't in the ruling dynasties).

Emerging economies are already facing a world of hurt because the agricultural -> manufacturing -> services paths to prosperity (the same path the US took) are going to be closing off as automation increasingly eats jobs.

Though right now the economy is growing at a decent rate and we can see this with the transformation of Dumaguete and increased traffic. Still, there is a long way to go and I don't know how much of this is reaching the bottom. The increased number of SUV's on the road looks impressive, but it doesn't take many of those things to create a traffic problem. Maybe they aren't as many as there appears to be.

Duterte is trying to fight corruption, maybe another way to do this is to make the dynasties face foreign competition. There's nothing like huge business losses from competitive @ss kicking to drain the coffers of the elites.