Rodrigo Duterte: fire and fury in the Philippines

by Jonathan Miller

Overview

The first biography of Rodrigo Duterte, the murderous, unpredictable president of the Philippines, a fascinating, fearsome man and the embodiment of populism in our time.

Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines in 2016. In his first 18 months in office, 12,000 people were murdered on the streets, gunned down by police officers and vigilante citizens—all with his encouragement.

Duterte is a serial womaniser and a self-confessed killer, who has called both Barack Obama and Pope Francis ”sons of whores.” He is on record as saying he does not ”give a shit” about human rights. Yet he is beloved of the 16.6 million Filipinos who voted for him, seen as vulgar but honest, a breath of fresh air, and an iconoclastic, anti-imperialist rebel.

Through interviews with Duterte himself, his sister, daughter and son, two former presidents, old friends, death squad hitmen, and relatives of his victims, Channel 4 News’ Asia Correspondent Jonathan Miller shows that far from the media cartoon of The Godfather, John Wayne, Hugo Chavez, and Donald Trump rolled into one, Duterte is a sinister, dangerous man, who should not be taken lightly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925693409
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	824 KB

About the Author

Jonathan Miller was Channel 4’s Asia Correspondent based in Bangkok. Three months after Rodrigo Duterte was elected in the President’s southern home city of Davao, Jonathan became the first foreign journalist to challenge him face-to-face on the devastation wrought by his controversial and deadly war on drugs.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Addicted to killing 1

1 Cardboard cut-out 13

2 Son of a … governor 31

3 Two smoking barrels 47

4 Los Niños 75

5 Duterte Harvey 103

6 Talking Duterte 133

7 Davao: Exhibit 'A' 155

8 Chronicle of deaths foretold 197

9 A jealous mistress 231

10 The drugs war, part (i): Lists 245

11 The drugs war, part (ii): Lies, damned lies 273

12 Slaves and tyrants: the authoritarian project 287

Acknowledgements 336

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

‘Fire and fury’ is the mentality of despots everywhere. Miller has terrifyingly captured that condition—bullying, threatening, vengeful, and lethal.”

Michael Wolff

An invaluable portrait…it deftly weaves Duterte’s rise with the country’s history of living through dictatorship and nearly making it across the line.”

Ruben Carranza

Among the most skilled and lyrical correspondents that I know: Miller describes the grim actions of one of the most infernal leaders of the 21st Century. A shocking book—but one that demands to be read.”

Jon Snow

This study of the foul-mouthed ‘gangster’ by a writer who’s lived in the country for yonks is a real eye-opener and a text book example of what can go wrong when limp or corrupt policies let a loon into the corridors of power.”

Weekend Sport - Jon Wise

Jonathan Miller … skillfully weaves in fear, shock and pain, including meeting those on the hit list and those left behind.”

North and South - Jim Robinson

Jonathan Miller, a correspondent for Channel 4 News, paints a shocking portrait in stark language of the man known as ‘Duterte Harry’ after Clint Eastwood’s uncompromising ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan. The most striking aspect of Miller’s detailed biography, which draws on interviews with Duterte’s family and friends, is how proud many Filipinos are of their maligning and murderous chief executive.”

Time Literary Supplement

[ Rodrigo Duterte ] captures the strongman leader in all his contradictions.”

Reuters

This book lays it all out in shocking color.”

The Saturday Paper

Miller’s is perhaps the most comprehensive biography of Duterte yet, exploring the unique circumstances that molded the leader’s psyche, his style of leadership and, later in life, his rise to the presidency.”

Mekong Review - Richard Javad Heydarian

[A] deeply reported, vivid foreign correspondent’s account of the man’s rise to power.”

Financial Times - John Reed

This story jumps out of the pages like a thriller. But it’s all true. Rodrigo Duterte makes Trump look tame.”

Hamish Macdonald

[C]aptures the almost fantastical nature of Mr Duterte’s life.”

The Economist

This book will piss off the powerful, which is why you should read it…With unflinching prose and the rigour of a veteran journalist, Jonathan Miller disrobes Rodrigo Duterte for all to see. Beyond the myths and propaganda of [Duterte’s] supporters, the Filipino politician is here paraded nakedly, with his contradicting good intentions that involve bloody violence, broken promises, and the brazen perpetuation of dynastic patronage politics that continue to dismantle Asia’s oldest free republic…This portrait presents a cautionary tale of the kind of authoritarian rulers that stand to hijack any democracy if we citizens do not participate in protecting it while we still can.”

Miguel Syjuco

This book is a history, but also a fable in a time of increasing authoritarian populism. It is a great read, crackling with moral outrage.”

Weekend Australian

Rodrigo Duterte has been labelled by the US media “the Donald Trump of Asia”…Miller talks to relatives of murdered drug users and, in unsettling detail, tells of children as young as five being caught in the savage crossfire.” FOUR STARS

Sunday Territorian

Miller's fast-paced, lively narrative helps explain how an electoral insurgency led by a charismatic populist…has put the Philippines on the road to authoritarian rule.”

Walden Bello

[V]ivid…This is less a biography than an indictment, written in a terrific Manila-noir style that captures the sounds and smells of hot, humid nights with blood in the gutters, syrupy ballads on the radio, and wails of grief over ornate coffins.”

The Sunday Times - Michael Sheridan

Rodrigo Duterte has been labelled by the US media “the Donald Trump of Asia”…Miller talks to relatives of murdered drug users and, in unsettling detail, tells of children as young as five being caught in the savage crossfire.”

four stars Sunday Territorian