The dangers of Duterte Harry

DURING the six years of President Benigno Aquino’s administration, the Philippines has amazed itself and others by being both boring and successful. Once South-East Asia’s chronic underachiever, with a sluggish economy and a politics that puts showmanship over substance, the Philippines belatedly took the path of other, more successful economies. It adopted policies (now there’s a novelty) and these have encouraged foreign investment, spurred spending on infrastructure and boosted consumption. Growth has been a healthy 6% a year, the best among the region’s bigger economies. Jobs have been generated—call centres in the Philippines handle many of the world’s complaints. And social spending has risen even as the national debt has come down. Now all that progress is thrown in doubt with the emphatic election as president of Rodrigo Duterte, a loudmouth pursuing a wildly populist campaign (see ). After the dull-but-sound Mr Aquino, the great risk is that bad old ways are about to return.