Duterte has a long history of not liking the American government interfering in local affairs. This is the perfect example of a journalist making up a narrative and finding someone to confirm it.
Why didn't they interview Americans in Davao, who have lived under Duterte for decades? Why just a sexpat or two in a girly bar, a thousand miles away?
http://liveinthephilippines.com/content/get-out-americans/
I trust this guy more than a couple of journotards looking to confirm a narrative. Plus, Duterte knows a large chunk of the Filipino GDP comes from overseas workers. He's not going to screw that up. He just wants the military out. He isn't the first to do such.
I'm only here through the "winter" before I move on. There I will watch over the longer term.
Oh, didn't realize your situation was temporary. I had gotten the idea you had decided to settle there for the long term.
The problem isn't so much what Duterte said, its that its open to interpretation. This article you posted says Davao reporter are better at correctly understanding what he says, and I can take that as true at face value. But what about those natives already harboring envy or resentment against foreigners? Will they also get Davao interpreters? Anti-foreigner/Nationalistic sentiment can take on a mind of its own regardless of its leaders or how its incited - and the Philippines isn't so western as to actually think such sentiments are racist or immoral. They are the status quo.
As long as Dollar is King, I don't see him dislodging anyone forecfully - even the military. But that doesn't mean that anti-American sentiment won't kill business deals, and if Duterte leads a pivot to China, then you can bet there will be people willing to follow. I don't blame them if they do - given China's geographic per-eminence and America's dwindling power and prestige , tightening of relationships with China is probably prudent, but one can also see how that circumstance will increase Anti-American sentiment. Then, when the dollar isn't worth squat, and all of those expats living on the dollar savings they had , can no longer do so.. ...all while massive numbers of American's flee America's conflicts and collapse to popular ex-pat locations like the Philippines - how will sentiment sour even more then?
This in itself is nothing. But it is also , I believe, a harbinger of larger movements.