Trump’s Friend in Manila

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/opinion/trumps-friend-in-manila.html

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“I have worked in 60 countries, covered wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and spent much of 2014 living inside West Africa’s Ebola zone, a place gripped by fear and death,” the photojournalist Daniel Berehulak wrote in The Times last year. “What I experienced in the Philippines felt like a new level of ruthlessness: police officers’ summarily shooting anyone suspected of dealing or even using drugs, vigilantes’ taking seriously Mr. Duterte’s call to ‘slaughter them all.’”

Mr. Duterte is President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, now overseeing a campaign of mass murder. This weekend, President Trump continued his bonhomie with Duterte. The two had a “very friendly conversation” by phone, according to administration officials, and Trump invited Duterte to visit the White House.

It was the second bit of whitewashing for Duterte this weekend. At a summit of Southeast Asia countries, none of the other leaders pressed him on the thousands of deaths he has overseen, as The Washington Post noted.

I’d encourage you to spend a few minutes understanding what’s happening in the Philippines under Duterte. It’s horrendous. Look at Berehulak’s photography, which recently won the Pulitzer Prize. You can also read a Times editorial on Duterte and Miguel Syjuco’s op-ed on the Philippines’ corrupt justice system.