Divining Duterte: Perspectives, Policies, Performance

Description

A critical look at Duterte's time in office as the 16th president of the Philippines Filipinos eventually had to acknowledge early on the truth that they were not exactly sure how to deal with the person they had elected. Several of the early columns on Mr. Duterte reflected on the conundrum that Duterte presented to the public, as he maintained high approval and trust ratings, while pushing policies that respondents of the same opinion poll rejected. Filipinos learned, of course, as they moved forward and the president began to reveal more and more of himself to the public in challenging political situations, particularly in the latest and most formidable threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edilberto C. de Jesus served as president of- Far Eastern University (1995-2002); the University of the Cordilleras (2008-2009); and the Asian Institute of Management (2009-2012), where he now holds a Professor Emeritus appointment. In 1987, President Corazon Aquino appointed him Deputy Peace Commissioner, on secondment from AIM, where he was Chair of the Rural Development Management Program. In 1988, he received a concurrent appointment in the Cabinet as Presidential Adviser on Rural Development (1988-1992). Returning to AIM, he served as Associate Dean for Research and established its Policy Center. He was president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities and a board member of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations when he was appointed Secretary of Education (2002-2004). He was President of the Council of Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in 2003, later serving as its Secretariat Director in Bangkok (2005-2007). He served in the Asia-Europe Education Hub established by the Asia Europe Foundation for the ASEM (Asia Europe Ministerial Meetings) and has been on the Advisory Committee of the Philippine Business for Education since its inception in 2006. He obtained a B.A. Honors Course in the Humanities, cum laude, from the Ateneo de Manila University and the M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in History from Yale University. He is the author of The Tobacco Monopoly in the Philippines- Bureaucratic Enterprise and Social Changes, 1766-1880 (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1980) and co-edited, with Alfred McCoy, Philippine Social History- Global Trade and Local Transformations (Ateneo de Manila University, 1982).

"Well-crafted essays, drawing on years in academe and government service, elicit from successive scandals broad reflections about the art of governance and the profession of politics." Alfred W. McCoy Ph.D., University of Wisconsin "Combining an insider's insights with a scholar's deliberative analysis and a historian's reflective perspective, the author's unflinching cut-and-thrust style helps penetrate the politics often perplexing to foreign observers, while provoking Filipino readers to reconsider their own experiences." Linda Lim, Ph.D., University of Michigan. "With the quality of public discourse at historic lows, we sorely need a voice like that of de Jesus, intellectually honest, sane, modulated yet deeply felt and thought." Resil B. Mojares, Ph.D., Philippine National Artist