Originally Posted by
MarcP
I’m back & forth to the Philippines on a regular basis, and I guess I’m probably somewhat immune by now to the various social problems out there.
Don’t know Manila that well, and I’ve always tended to stay in the Mall of Asia area when there.
However, know Davao (… and lots of Mindanao) pretty well, and I’ve always felt secure in that City, but you obviously need to keep your wits about you, and be sensitive to local customs…. (but you need to be cautious in the autonomous Muslim areas).
Davao is regarded as the safest city in the Philippines, due to the so-called “Death Squads” that operated there. Pretty criminals, drug dealers etc were supposedly given just one warning, “Stop or leave”. If the warning was ignored, summary “justice” was enforced, with an almost total lack of public outrage.
The City mayor most of this time was Duterte ….. altho’ there was no evidence to connect the police or Duterte with the killings.
He’s now the President.