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Democracy Chronicles

An Exiled American Attorney On Philippines’ President Duterte

by Andrew Straw - March 8, 2022

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I am a disabled American attorney and I live on a modest $1,275 per month in SSDI. In 2018, I moved to the Philippines, where my small income represents a solidly middle class income. The average person where I live, Bauan City in Batangas Region, makes about $400 per month. Of course, I support my Home Health Aide (my fiancée) and her children, so the SSDI is accomplishing a great deal.

Courts in the USA have made me into an asylum seeker because my human rights are under threat in America.

The Philippines has had problems with Communist guerrillas and Islamic terrorism in the southern part of the 7,000-island country that is the Philippines. Before I moved to the Philippines, President Duterte launched a crack down on violent crime and illegal drugs. I don’t know what it was like before 2018, but I have never been in a place with less crime. In 4 years, I have personally not seen any crimes and the police are a quiet presence.

My mental disability medications make it extremely inadvisable to use any other drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. I live very conservatively in that sense, but it has a positive impact on my health overall. Not to mention the police know me as being a quiet American lawyer who does not cause problems in my neighborhood, known locally as a barangay.

President Duterte has other policies that benefit me too. He said in 2016 that he would keep accepting asylum seekers until the brim was full. My asylum case is genuine and based on easily proven human rights violations by American courts, so the Duterte policy is directed at people like me, and I appreciate that.

Duterte walks a fine line between China, Russia, Japan, and the United States. He does not want to offend a superpower either in the region or globally. He also appears to understand that it is easier to oppose the United States and be forgiven than to offend a more autocratic country like China or Russia. Filipinos like America and Americans, so their president is careful not to offend his own people, who have many connections with the USA going back decades. English is an official language in the Philippines, while most Filipinos do not know Japanese, Chinese, or Russian. Countries that speak the same language do tend to be allied on the global stage.

President Duterte has juggled terrorism, natural disasters, violent drug lords, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic. He did so adroitly, though many from the outside may see a heavy hand. I do appreciate being safe when I walk down the street. I appreciate police being polite and helpful, which I have found them to be. I appreciate being able to get my COVID vaccine for free at a mass vaccination.

Mostly, I appreciate the professionalism and kindness of the Philippines DOJ Asylum Office. One can do worse than seek asylum in a tropical paradise where people are friendly. That’s the Philippines. Compared with the convoluted and hostile attitude of the American government toward asylum seekers, the Philippines has a better attitude.

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Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Asia, Philippines

About Andrew Straw

Andrew Straw is a person with disabilities who practiced disability law and engages in disability reform advocacy.    Straw was a Virginia lawyer and has served as corporate counsel for billionaire Alan M. Voorhees, who designed the Interstate Highway System and the Metro in Washington DC.  Straw then worked for the Chief Justice of Indiana and was the assistant dean in charge of the International Programs at Indiana University-Maurer School of Law.

He grew up in Indiana, where his brother, a retired USAF captain and twice a critical care trauma nurse veteran of Afghanistan, ran as a Democratic candidate for sheriff of Hamilton County in 2018.  Jason Straw is head of Indiana NORML and seeks reforms of the state’s marijuana laws like most other states have.  Jason is known as “Captain Cannabis.”

Andrew Straw was born at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, where his father was training as a U.S. Marine for his Vietnam duty.  Straw was thus poisoned on the first days of his life but was denied compensation and health care.  Straw v. Wilkie, 843 F. App’x 263 (Fed. Cir. 1/15/2021); Straw v. United States, 4 F.4th 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2021).  Straw started a group for people born or poisoned there called Children of Camp LeJeune.  Congress voted to compensate people like Straw and his dead mother from the poisoning (S. 3373, Title VIII, Sec. 804).  This new law has passed the U.S. House by 342-88 and the U.S. Senate by 86-11.  It will likely be signed by President Biden in early August now that it has passed both houses.

Straw has visited 16 countries and has lived in the United States, Italy, New Zealand, Turkey, and the Philippines.  Straw provided services to the Italian Foreign Ministry as a contractor and passed the written U.S. Foreign Service Officer Test in 1998.  For more information, Straw’s CV can be found here.  Straw has lived in the Philippines for over 4 years, from June 2018 – August 2022, studying disability access in that country, but may one day return to the United States when the human rights violations stop.

He is an asylum seeker due to the discrimination and human rights violations of state and federal courts in the USA.  Andrew Straw lives just 1374 km from where his father was stationed in Vietnam. See also. Straw is engaging in pro se law reform from a distance.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Confused on Philippines says

    March 19, 2022 at 4:08 am

    President D: “Putin is my friend, my personal friend.” “I am in pain for Putin.” (D visited Russia twice)
    President D: “The Philippines should remain neutral and not support Americans if they fight Russia.”

    Human Rights Watch: “extrajudicial killings” under President D.
    11 U.S. Senators: “pattern of abuses” in Philippines under President D
    U.S. Senator Markey: “systemic” human rights abuses in Philippines under President D
    WSJ: President D denied US visa in 2002

    Make the right comparisons. USSR let Ukraine become its own country, independent, in the 1990s. Similarly, the USA let the Philippines become its own country, independent, in 1946.

    Russia invaded Ukraine and bombed cities, hospitals, schools, civilian residential areas in 2014 and again in 2022.

    USA never bombed any Philippines city after independence.

    Make up your mind, Philippines: the USA model of independence, or the Russian model. Is your foreign policy built on human rights, or personal friendships with war criminals who attack civilians?

    Reply
  2. Andrew U. D. Straw says

    March 19, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    My article was about how I experience the Philippines and that experience has been good. I am also protected from American human rights violations.

    There are always several sides to a situation, and I don’t deny there are problems even in paradise.

    America has treated its former territory much better than Russia did with Ukraine, no question there.

    There should be no “neutrality.”
    The Philippines is a US ally, even if there are disagreements.

    Reply

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