Villegas, Maika Angelica V.

AB PSYCH 1-1 EVE

“My views of Duterte’s administration If I were a Utilitarian”

If I were a Utilitarian that’s believes that whether actions are morally right or wrong it
will always depend on their effects and specifically, the only effects of actions that are relevant
are the good and bad results that they produce my view with Duterte’s administration will be
whole different. The Presidency of Rodrigo Duterte began on June 30, 2016, when he became
the sixteenth President of the Philippines and at the age of 71, Duterte became the oldest person
ever elected to the presidency. The end of the Duterte Administration's is fast approaching. By
the whole time of his term, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte barely fulfill his sugar-coated
promises and goals which every citizen notices and cause debate on social media platform about
how his administration works. Some of us might still remember his line, "Change is coming"
however the change did come, but it's not how we expected it to be.
As a Utilitarian my views with Duterte’s administration is neutral. There’s no
administration that is perfect, every administration will always have a good and bad effects with
our country. If I will base on his biggest accomplishment, I will be satisfied and happy with his
administration. One of the accomplishment was the 6.8 percentage-point reduction in poverty
from 23.5 percent of the population when Duterte began his presidency to 16.7 percent by the
end of 2019 equivalent to 6.1 million Filipinos rescued from poverty and with this achievement
as a Utilitarian I will consider it right and good thing. Under Duterte’s administration, the
Philippines achieved its highest ever credit rating BBB+ in April 2020, despite COVID-19. In
June 2020, Japan Credit Rating Agency even upgraded the Philippine rating to A-, with a stable
outlook. The campaign against illegal drugs, with almost two of every three Filipinos believing
the number of drug users in their area has been reduced since Duterte came to power in 2016,
Tokhang and has resulted in some 7,000 drug lords and addicts eliminated from the face of the
earth in just two years, as a Utilitarian my view about this campaign is right because it reduced
also the crime rate and help those people who’s been involve with drugs. If I will base the
consequences of with this accomplishment of Duterte’s administration I will consider it right,
reducing poverty, reducing crime rate, having high credit rating made me satisfied with his term.
On the other hand based on my research (Ranada, 2019) human rights groups dispute the
government statistics, the Commission on Human Rights has said as many as 27,000 may have
been killed in the name of the drug war. The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
(PAHRA), has cited at least 12,000 deaths – including those allegedly killed by vigilantes.
Human rights groups and international bodies, however, have raised alarm over the lack of
transparency from law enforcement agencies and lack of action over similar mysterious murders
of drug suspects outside of police operations. As a Utilitarian knowing someone is killing
mysteriously and without justice and with the negative consequences of it to our society made
me think that it is whole wrong to just kill for the sake of the campaign. Duterte himself admitted
that he has been unable to resolve EDSA from its traffic mess that’s why commuters still endure
long hours on the road, a result of congestion, bad urban planning, inefficient public
transportation, and unharmonious or unenforced traffic rules. Duterte has laid the blame on
Congress for not giving his Cabinet emergency powers to deal with the problem. However,
lawmakers have said the Duterte government hasn’t presented an adequate plan for it. As a
Utilitarian, showing the consequences of lack of adequate plan made me disappointed with the
administration.
There is no perfect administration but if I will base my view as a Utilitarian, I will be
neutral because with this administration there will be good and bad thing that is happening.
However, I will support the movement of administration that will give the mass people happiness
and satisfaction with the actions that they will do by their effective goals and by prioritizing what
really matters.