The Filipino Trump Shakes up the South China Sea
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Filipino citizens elected a presidential candidate known as The Punisher, Rodrigo Duterte, in a landslide earlier this week.
Duterte, the mayor of the city of Davao, ran on a campaign of threatening to "butcher" criminals and corrupt politicians, vowed to "forget human rights," is a self-proclaimed womanizer, joked about raping an Australian actress, and even admitted to being involved in his city's notorious death squads and called himself a dictator.
The son of former Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is in a contested race for the office of the vice president.
The strange election comes amidst the return of American ships to Filipino waters in an attempt to push back against a resurgent China, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea.
"I think America has a wounded soul," Duterte said in an interview. "We're so isolated from the Western world, and China can help us. We're better off making friends with China."
Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joined The Takeaway to discuss what Duterte's victory means for America's presence in the region.
