(05-17-2015 05:17 PM)Onto Wrote: That said, Mayor Duerte supposedly hates Americans, and it's a law that a foreigner must always carry their passport or a copy thereof, to show if asked. If you don't have it, you are supposed to get escorted out of the city immediately.
Foreigners being required to carry their passport is not exclusive to Davao or even the Philippines. It's the norm all over the country and in several other countries as well. Even in the US you're required to carry ID as a native, and a passport if you're a foreigner.
This is an example of why you have to take what these expats say with a grain of salt for a variety of reasons. A normal law being used as proof of an individual politician's hatred of foreigners.
Hey, maybe he does. I don't know. It really wouldn't surprise me if he had some form of resentment, to be honest, as even now the American government is meddling in Mindanao and causing a lot of problems and violence.
But even with the incident with his son, upper class Filipinos do that kind of thing to other Filipinos all the time. And that's assuming the expat wasn't exaggerating or doing something shady in the first place, as many of them do.
The same can be said of the government's overall treatment of foreigners. The law is corrupt here. Most murders go unsolved, even of fairly powerful Filipinos.
Yet when it happens to a foreigner, people are in an outrage and use it as proof that the government hates foreigners. That would be an example of something many locals would perceive as arrogance.
You really have to take some perspective. In the US, I can sit at the bar and mind my own business and there's still a chance some random guy tries to pick a fight with me for no reason. If there's an altercation at a more urban club, people immediately scramble to the parking lot to "pop the trunk" (get their machine guns).
Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL player who recently got convicted of murder, was allegedly driven to kill two men because one of them spilled his drink.
On a somewhat related note, there was a story I read recently that had an interesting take on the recent execution of the "Bali Nine" group sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking.
The Philippines president appealed to Indonesia's in a way that was humble and allowed the latter to appear strong and merciful by granting a pardon. The French and Australian leaders condemned the Indonesian government, threatened them, and generally raised a lot of hell.
One presented it as a favor, the others as a demand.
The Filipina involved was released, while the Australians and Frenchman were put to death.
It serves as a good example of the difference between the Western and Eastern mindset.