Duterte Harry

The fundamental right upon which all others are based is the right of people to live in safety without fear of being the victims of uncontrolled violence. Without that, rights to free speech, religion and fair trials are inconsequential because they cannot be enforced in an environment of chaos and the absence of law. Australia will be taking refugees from the Central American states of Honduras and Guatemala because these countries have no order through which the law can protect its citizens.

Duterte's Vice-Presidential running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, described the anti-crime measures as 'an offensive against the drug lords, it is a clean-up process'. Cayetano said that in the long run he hoped the Philippines would have a 'European or US type of law enforcement' but he argued that the absence of respect for the law by criminals makes the normal procedures impossible at present.

Law does not create order, order is what creates law. In a country that is stable, secure and the life prospects of the poor are relatively good, such as in Australia, absolute regard for the law is all that is required.

But if your country is wracked by violent internal conflicts, with high degrees of crime in urban and rural areas, with increasing drug dependency among the young all combined together with one of the highest poverty rates in East Asia, laws written by legislators and enforced by a judiciary don't achieve that much for the people.