He’s right about being able to fight insurgents without foreign help. Scorched earth + mass killings have pretty much a 100% record of success against insurgencies where the insurgents are a small minority. Kill off their civilian support base, and the insurgents die with them.
Problem is how they ward off China. But maybe that’s not a problem from Duterte’s perspective. Maybe he’s bent on literally making the Philippines a Chinese province.
1. They have a weak military which the insurgents massacre, unless we help the government forces.
2. He loves communist China.
3 Duterte is popular but he’s turned into a real disaster.