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Is Duterte's Drug War Tearing the Philippines Apart? | MJ NEWS ASIA

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The Filipino government is described as a Constitutional Republic, which, in structure, is similar to that of the Constitutional Federal Republic in the United States. The federal government of the Philippines is broken into three distinct divisions: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The executive branch is led by the President and Vice president, who are elected by popular vote and whose names are on the same ticket. The role of the President is to be the Philippines’ head of state, head of government, and commander and chief of the armed forces of the country. The legislative branch controls making, changing, and repealing of law. The Filipino congress is bicameral -- meaning there are two houses. The higher house, or Senate, is contains 24 Senators with the presiding senator being President of the Senate. They are elected “at-large” by the entire population. The lower house, or House of Representatives contains 297 (amount changes from year to year) representatives, and is led by the majority floor leader. They are elected by the many electoral divisions across the country. The final branch is the Judicial branch. They hold the power to settle controversies regarding the law and the rights of the people, as well as the application of said laws and rights to specific situations. The Judicial branch has many courts, but the highest court is the Supreme Court, meaning the 15 justices hold the most power in the Judicial branch.

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The Philippines is home to a myriad of climate zones including, but not entirely limited to: tropical rainforest, tropical monsoon, tropical savanna, humid subtropical, and oceanic.

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The Philippines is divided into three major island groupings:  Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It is located in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The Philippines is home to a multitude of mountain ranges. The largest of which being Mt. Apo standing at an impressive 9,692 feet.

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The Philippines is home to many different kinds of ores including copper, silver, gold, and cobalt.

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The loss of agricultural lands, deforestation, air and water pollution, and the destruction of coral reefs are all significant environmental issues.

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There were three colonial powers in the Philippines: Spain, America, and Japan. Throughout all of their reigns, the Philippines suffered through different forms of oppression until they finally declared independence on October 14th, 1945.

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Perhaps the defining Filipino leader of the 20th century, Ferdinand Marcos did not live up to his expectations to say the least. Despite attempting to boost infrastructure, his tyrannical tendencies did not go unnoticed by the people. Eventually, he was overthrown during the People's Power Revolution. His successor, Corazon Quino, did little to help the economy, so the 1997 Asian Financial crisis hit the Philippines especially hard. The current leader of the Philippines is Rodgrigo Duerte. His administration has seen significant growth from an economic and political standpoint. He has also controversially claimed to have "cured himself of homosexuality."

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Unlike the political organization of the United States, the Philippines has many prominent political parties. The People Power-Christian Muslim Democrats, Liberal Party, Nationalist Party, Nationalist People's Coalition, and the Philippine Democratic Party-People's Power (PDP-Laban) all contain seats in the Senate. The current president, Rodrigo Duterte, is part of the PDP Laban, which by international standards would be considered left wing and populist.

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The controversial war on drugs in the Philippines in extremely violent, and the issue itself prevents many from thinking of the Philippines as a safe place. The government has heavily been punishing drug users, sellers, and smugglers in the country, and there is said to be over 12,000 illegal killings related to this drug war. The incumbent president himself, during his campaign, stated, “If I make it to the presidential palace I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, holdup men, and do-nothings, you better get out because I'll kill you.”

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incumbent president

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The population distribution, as of 2017, is as follows:

0-14 years: 33.39% (male 17,764,826/female 17,050,168)

15-24 years: 19.16% (male 10,199,389/female 9,780,025)

25-54 years: 36.99% (male 19,597,675/female 18,964,900)

55-64 years: 5.97% (male 2,844,739/female 3,375,139)

65 years and over: 4.49% (male 1,930,273/female 2,748,942)

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The growth rate of the Philippines is 1.59%, ranking 73rd in the world. This is significantly higher than developed countries, like the US, but lower than many developing countries, say in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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The life expectancy in the Philippines is 69.3 years, which is almost three years shorter than the 72 year international average. This lower average could be partially attributed to over a third of Filipino men smoking cigarettes, which is actually significantly lower than in past years.

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There are many large, borderline overpopulated cities in the Philippines, but the country also maintains a large amount of farming and fishing areas. About half, 48%, to be precise, of Filipinos live in an urban setting, which shows the vast potential for diversity in culture and lifestyle between any two Filipinos.

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The official language of The Philippines is Filipino, which is actually a version of the traditional Tagolag language spoken by most Filipinos. The reason there is a standard language is because there are many different dialogues around The Philippines. The next most common language is English, with 75% of Philippine Adults being able to understand it and 50% bring able to speak it.

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The Philippines economy is improving, but it still has one of the world’s highest rates of income inequality. The Philippines has an economy based on food processing, cement, iron and steel production, and telecommunications. The Philippines has a GDP real growth rate of 6.7%, which means that their economy is improving at a pretty good rate. Although the economy is improving, the Philippines has a GDP per capita of only $8,400. This number is so low because the wealthy are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer. 21.6 percent of the population is living in poverty, and only around 70 percent of people use improved sanitation. Many people live impoverished in the Philippines and will continue to due to the extremely high rate of income inequality.

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Here is the religious breakdown in the Philippines:

80% Roman Catholic
10% Protestant
6% Muslim
4% Other

There is a lot of Christian influence in culture because of the religious division in the country. These include Christian Holidays, Christian Practices and Christian Ideology in government.