The Philippines is viewed as having the most persistent poverty in Southeast Asia. Schools are underfunded and social programs spotty in many areas. For that reason, it is maddening to see the government of President Rodrigo Duterte pull a gratuitous publicity stunt by crushing two dozen valuable classic and luxury cars worth over $1.2 million. Rather than sell the cars and fund schools or hospitals, the Duterte officials stages a show in which a bulldozer destroyed the cars to send a message against tax evasion.
The cars were lined up in a Manila customs yard to be crushed as chest thumping officials grinned with approval. Porsches, Mercedes, Jaguars and Corvettes were reduced to scrap. Finance Minister Carlos Domingue declared “it does not pay to evade taxes in the Philippines so might as well stop trying, because you will never succeed.”
No and it does not pay to have officials burn over a million dollars in an impoverished country to hold a photo op.
Dictators are lunatic clowns, putting up a turn for the ignorant, gullible masses. Duterte, Hitler, Mussolini, Peron, are as funny on film as Buster Keaton. As a libertarian, I see taxation as theft, and government as illegitimate. The tragedy is, that most people have been persuaded that government is necessary to social cohesion and economic survival. The crushing of the cars makes one think of Evita Peron, wearing a mink coat, and clothes by Dior, telling the crowd that she dressed as she did to make them see what they should not want.
Your country does not have a civil service corruption problem, and an insurgency . All of you are lacking in insight: it was not a redistribution scheme. You have a first-world bias. This was a punishing the rich for their unlawful importation of cars. Could you get 1.2 million dollars of world wide advertising so easily? Doubtful. The message here is the rich are not above the punishment from the state. The message is I will crush corruption. Our system is better than the rebels.
I hated seeing the cars crushed. Duerte is popularly elected, like-it-or-lump-it. I have enough research and insight from locals that assure me of this.
Only politicians would think this PA was a good idea.
Stupidity at it’s best here…. Wow
No and it does not pay to have officials burn over a million dollars in an impoverished country to hold a photo op.
No, only wealthy countries like the United States, that fully fund education and social programs, are allowed to waste taxpayer dollars for photo ops.
He should have run the criminals over with the bulldozer, then auctioned off their cars.
I like Duterte! Mexico and Central America need their own Duterte! Its the only way to get rid of the narco gangs. Shoot them down in the streets. It is what America needs to do, too. It is an absurdity trying to handle criminal organizations in the same manner you handle a individual shoplifter or Peeping Tom.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“Duterte”: two words put together. The word in Phillapeno means: two turds.
If it was marijuana, should he sell it to the highest bidder? Or destroy it? You need to set examples. Federal judges need to single out a few DOJ attorneys and have them disbarred for their behavior. You set an example for the others. It is like the Romans and decimation. You kill every tenth soldier as an example to the others. During WWI you were shot by a firing squad if you didn’t go over the top and you were shot by the enemy if you did. Men still went over the top to their deaths.