Duterte looking better than Trump?

Duterte is coming up on nine months, Trump about 90 days.

But as Rodrigo Duterte approaches his 72^nd birthday on March 28, he’s actually looking better than U.S. President Donald Trump.

As I write, Trump, with approval rating at 39 percent, is trying to sink even lower, trying to make good on his promise of a repeal of former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Some didn’t think it was a real repeal and thought it was more like taking a chip of paint off a car fender.

The Obama health-mobile was still intact. (And thank God for that).

But at the last minute, the House of Representatives offered conservatives a deal to eliminate ten key provisions from Obamacare.

The House, in order to pass the Trump repeal, proposed ending ten essential care benefits in maternity, mental health, prescriptions, emergency services, hospitalization, rehabilitation, lab work, preventive care, pediatric services and ambulatory services.

Don’t sound like extras to me.

But that’s what was on the table when the GOP felt desperate to get the votes it needed.

The GOP ultimately decided it shouldn’t rush, and delayed a vote scheduled for Thursday night.

The whole thing shows where we are heading in America.

We have sunk to legislating cruelty.

What happens when people reliant on any of those ten services considered for elimination are left with nothing?

Who knows? Who cares? Trump doesn’t. Republicans in Congress don’t.

That’s the New America.

Compare that to the Philippines.

Duterte gets much deserved flack over his over his extrajudicial killings to stave off the drug problem in the Philippines. It’s an inhumane abuse of power.

But Pro-Duterte folks would say he’s selective in his cruelty. He’s not gunning down the entire society!

Not so Trump.

In an attempt to live up to a campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare, Trump is willing to do just about anything to get the votes he needs.

And that includes cruel proposals that strip Americans of basic health care.

Trump would rather help out his buddies, the corporate insurers and willingly sacrifices tens of millions of regular voters, many of whom are Filipino Americans, who along with others rely on those ten essential care benefits.

By doing so, Trump adds another example to the growing list of lies to the American people.

During the campaign, Trump assured a better health care system than Obamacare, and health care for all that would be cheaper and more reliable.

It’s cliché to say politicians lie.  But Trump is lying in a non-cliched way.

Flubbed campaign promises are one thing. But now we have Twitter to document Trump’s public statements on health care and other issues.

Did Obama really wiretap (sic) Trump Tower, as Trump tweeted out recently?  No.

Did the FBI exonerate the Trump campaign on an investigation of collusion between it and Russia, as Trump tweeted? No.

Did Paul Manafort really have a limited role in the Trump campaign, as suggested by Trump’s  White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer?  No.

Those are just the recent ones, not to mention lies about the crowd size at the inaugural, outrageous allegations about voter fraud, or even the defense of his hand size in relationship to his manhood (which is still smaller than his ego).

The pattern is there, and already the New York Times on its opinion pages has no problem stating boldly that Trump is a liar.

Of course, Trump calls all that fake news.

But now, even the more conservative Wall Street Journal is saying Trump’s lies are harming his credibility, and says “if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he’s a fake president.”

Once again, compare all that to Mr. EJK, the man I’ve called by my gangstah rap name for him, Rod Dee-D.

The killer is actually sounding like a nice guy these days.

In an INQUIRER report about his impending birthday, Duterte sounded like a humble civil servant, albeit one who likes to kill drug dealers.

What did he want for his birthday?  Unlike the lavish Trump, Duterte said he didn’t want expensive gifts. “I have reached the apex of my career, material things…will no longer be of use to me.”

His request instead?

“What I am asking for is help from the Lord and some, or maybe a lot of…that people will understand what I’m doing,” he said.

Of course, he’s still a politician, so on the issue of China and the West Philippine Sea, Duterte said he trusts China would never build on Panatag Shoal because he was given its “word of honor.”

“’We will build nothing there’—that was the assurance given by the Chinese government,” Duterte told reporters at a news briefing at the Ninoy Aquino Airport.  “They are not going to build anything…because they do not want to jeopardize our friendship.”

What a refreshing sense of trust. Not. I don’t buy it for a second, and I hope the president was just playing nice too.

That’s a standard political lie. But at least, he’s not flying off the handle like he did early on.

And he’s not tweeting. Nine months in, and he’s nothing like we’re seeing from the president of the free world.

Trump seems happy to create and partake in what has become a truth optional world in politics.

It’s not a good place to find ourselves, especially when it makes everything Duterte does seem not so bad by example.

Emil Guillermo is a veteran, award-winning reporter and commentator who writes from the U.S. Bureau.

Contact him at https://www.twitter.com/emilamok