• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.409-431
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• 2020

This study explores the images and ideas presented by the editorial cartoons that have appeared in the author's Facebook timeline during Duterte's enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The study analyzed 70 editorial cartoons posted between March 14, 2020, when Duterte declared ECQ in the National Capital Region of the Philippines, and June 22, 2020, a few days before the emergency powers of Duterte expired. This study used (visual-verbal) textual analysis as the research method to surface discourses embedded in the selected editorial cartoons. The editorial cartoons were clustered according to the roles the powerful people play in the images, and the details of each image were compared and contrasted to surface nuances in representation. The 70 editorial cartoons were classified into seven categories: (1) invisible (non-suffering) persons, (2) front liners, (3) privileged homeowners, (4) priority clients, (5) judges, (6) gatekeepers, and (7) dysfunctional public officials. They gravitated towards the tragic realities that call for acts of social justice and equity, and underscore specific contexts that need to be fixed by those in power.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.149-173
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• 2022

Vaccine nationalism and its implications to vaccine supply were a huge concern globally when COVID-19 vaccines first became available in 2021. At the time, vaccine supply was limited and it was difficult for many countries around the world to get adequate supply of the COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate their people. At its most benign, vaccine nationalism delayed the access of poorer countries to vaccines that are widely considered as the long-term solution to the COVID-19 pandemic. Poorer countries needed to resort to diplomacy to wrangle early access to vaccine supply from vaccine-producing countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and others. In particular, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte leveraged his country's Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States and the need for Filipino nurses by countries like the United Kingdom and Germany to secure early access to COVID-19 vaccines. It all seems trivial now (in 2022) because of better global vaccine supply, but in 2021 when countries scrambled for access to scarce COVID-19 vaccines, Rodrigo Duterte leveraged the Philippines' assets to gain early access to vaccine supply.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.273-295
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• 2017

The Philippines in 2016 showed the highest GDP growth rate among Southeast Asian countries, in spite of domestic and international turbulence caused by the war on drugs and unexpected foreign policies after Duterte's presidency. The social contexts and political dynamics behind 'Duterte phenomenon' have raised key questions and issues to other countries including Korea, as to democracy and politics in current neoliberal challenges. The Philippines' choices for independent foreign policy and challenges against existing hegemony would continue to draw attention, particularly on whether this would end in an experiment of a country or initiate an alternative power block among neighboring countries and ASEAN communities.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.181-212
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• 2018

In 2017, the government of Duterte, in the second year of the ruling, more strongly promoted peace and order policies and expressed independent diplomacy as the chairman of ASEAN. He continued to fight against drugs and tried to increase his political legitimacy through the punishment for corrupt officials. He also declared martial law in the Mindanao region because of the dissolution of the Maute group, a Muslim terrorist organization, and strengthened counterterrorism cooperation externally. In addition, as to Communist militants, he took the initial reconciliation gesture and promoted peace negotiations, however, concluded the peace tide and started the suppression operation due to a series of bloodshed. He still has a strong drive in peace and order issues, backed up by high support rate, but it is becoming a factor of anxiety as the socioeconomically underprivileged and minority groups are increasingly alienated. As the chairman of ASEAN, Duterte has a certain distance from the United States, which is a firm ally, but has turned to increase familiarity with China and Russia, which can take substantial economic benefits. Through diversifying the external economic support and increase of tax revenue, the priority task was to establish the infrastructure. Although the Philippines, which has a high economic growth rate, has a strong expectation that it can establish a solid infrastructure, tax reforms should be successfully completed in order not to repeat the previous failures, which has traditionally increased foreign debt burden by relying on external resources. It seems that it is necessary to find the meeting point of the foreign policy of Duterte and new Korean government's New Southern Policy, and to find possible economic cooperation policies to improve Philippine infrastructure.