MIR ALI, Afghanistan - On the barren high plains of western Afghanistan, along a roadway south of Herat city, is a collection of sturdy earthen huts known as Qala-e-Biwaha, or "village of widows." Most of the village's men have disappeared - killed while trying to smuggle opium across the desolate frontier into neighboring Iran. The widows have been left to fend for themselves and their children, some of whom have also died while transporting drugs over the border from Herat Province's rugged Adraskan district. [continues 1187 words]
YAMOUNEH, Lebanon - In a Lebanese farming village of rocky soil and stone villas, cannabis grows everywhere. It fills the fields that surround the village and lines nearby roads where the army operates checkpoints. It sprouts in the weedy patches between homes and is mixed with other colorful blooms in flower beds. There is a cannabis crop near the mosque, and down the road from a giant yellow flag for Hezbollah, the militant group and political party whose leaders forbid its use on religious grounds. [continues 1133 words]
QUJING, China-In China, marijuana is seen as a dangerous narcotic, and possession is strictly punished. That hasn't stopped the country from trying to become a powerhouse in the fast-growing industry for cannabis products. China has grown hemp, a strain of cannabis, for thousands of years to use in clothing and traditional medicine and is one of the world's largest hemp producers. The country is using that foothold to churn out cannabidiol, or CBD, a loosely regulated chemical related to marijuana that is finding its way into products as diverse as bath bombs and pet food. [continues 910 words]
BASRA, Iraq - Hussein Karim sold his three cars, he sold the land where he planned to build a house, and he spent his savings - several thousand dollars - all on his crystal meth habit. He is one of thousands of meth addicts in Iraq, a country where drug problems have been rare. But growing addiction here is the most recent manifestation of how the social order has frayed in the years following the American invasion in 2003. Mr. Karim, 32, now lives in a windowless room with his wife, his three children and his disabled brother. [continues 1572 words]
An association between weed and the dead turns out to have been established long before the 1960s and far beyond a certain ur-band's stomping grounds in San Francisco. Researchers have identified strains of cannabis burned in mortuary rituals as early as 500 B.C., deep in the Pamir mountains in western China, according to a new study published Wednesday. The residue had chemical signatures indicating high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant's most psychoactive, or mood-altering, compound. [continues 1030 words]
SHANCHONG, China - China has made your iPhone, your Nikes and, chances are, the lights on your Christmas tree. Now, it wants to grow your cannabis. Two of China's 34 regions are quietly leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, the nonintoxicating compound that has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond. They are doing so even though cannabidiol has not been authorized for consumption in China, a country with some of the strictest drug-enforcement policies in the world. [continues 1187 words]
In President Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines, the police, with his explicit support, have killed thousands of alleged drug dealers and users without due process, some while they were in jail, or asleep, or at home with their families. They allegedly shot a 17-year-old while he was in custody, then dumped his remains in an alley. The youngest victim was 4. Human rights groups, the U.S. Congress, the European Union and the United Nations have all condemned Duterte's "war on drugs." Yet when President Trump meets Duterte in Manila, it probably won't enter the conversation. [continues 1205 words]
A Taiwanese prosecutor is calling on Ottawa to provide better co-operation and intelligence to help stop the flow of Canadian marijuana, after two massive busts in the Asian country earlier this year. More than 70 kilograms of marijuana shipped from Vancouver were seized in April and June by Taiwanese customs at the Port of Keelung. Seven Taiwanese were charged in the busts. However, the official says Taiwan has had no luck in getting information about the Canadian end of the situation. [continues 600 words]
The Taliban in Afghanistan is now running significant heroin production lines in the war-torn country to provide jihadists and insurgents with billions of dollars, western law enforcement officials And much of that heroin is flowing into Canada. "More than 90 per cent of all heroin consumed in the US is of Mexican origin. But in Canada more than 90 per cent of the heroin consumed is of Afghan origin," said William Brownfield, US Assistant Secretary for Drugs and Law Enforcement when addressing reporters in the Afghan capital Kabul recently. [continues 842 words]
MANILA -- When investigators from the Philippine Commission on Human Rights first arrived at Police Station No. 1, nothing seemed amiss. They were working a tip about people being plucked from the slums by police, held captive and ransomed for money at the station. But as they surveyed the office of the local anti-drug unit, things looked normal: desks, two sofas, a bookshelf. Officers kept glancing at the bookshelf. With news cameras rolling and police looking on, an investigator knocked on it. Someone knocked back. When the false door was finally opened, they found a dozen people packed in a small, concrete cell, one bloodied, one with a swollen jaw. [continues 1077 words]
MANILA - Every morning before dawn, Rosario Perez checks to make sure her sons are still alive. The three brothers, all in their 20s, sleep at the houses of friends and relatives, moving regularly, hoping that whoever may have been assigned to kill them won't catch up with them. They are not witnesses on a mob hit list, or gang members hiding from rivals. They are simply young men living in the Philippines of President Rodrigo Duterte. "How could I not send them to hide?" said Ms. Perez, 47, after peeking in on two of her sons and phoning the third. "We can barely sleep out of fear." [continues 1213 words]
DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Gen. Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police, knows the value of a public display of remorse. He has been forced to apologize more than once. He was wrong, he acknowledged before the Philippine Senate as TV cameras rolled, to have trusted undisciplined policemen who killed a small-town mayor suspected of dealing drugs, as the mayor lay defenseless on a jail-cell floor. "I cannot blame the public if they're losing their trust and confidence in their police," he told the Senate panel, accepting a tissue from the mayor's son to wipe away his tears. [continues 1245 words]
MODI'IN, ISRAEL - When Noa Shulman came home from school, her mother, Yael, sat her down to eat, then spoon-fed her mashed sweet potatoes - mixed with cannabis oil. Noa, who has a severe form of autism, started to bite her own arm. "No sweetie," Yael gently told her 17-year-old daughter. "Here, have another bite of this." Noa is part of the first clinical trial in the world to test the benefits of medicinal marijuana for young people with autism, a potential breakthrough that would offer relief for millions of afflicted children - and their anguished parents. There is anecdotal evidence that marijuana's main non-psychoactive compound - cannabidiol or CBD - helps children in ways no other medication has. Now this first-of-its-kind scientific study is trying to determine if the link is real. [end]
JERUSALEM - Israel, which has been at the forefront of research into medical marijuana and the drug's commercialization, took a major step on Sunday toward officially decriminalizing its recreational use. At a time when many American states and European countries are loosening marijuana laws, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan that would impose fines rather than criminal penalties on those caught using the drug in public. Growing and selling marijuana, which is widely used here recreationally and medicinally, would remain illegal. [continues 372 words]
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs would not be affected by the abduction-slay of a South Korean businessman by the anti-drug police operatives, his chief legal counsel said. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said Duterte would not allow any members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to further commit irregularities. Panelo said the Chief Executive would make sure that the police officials involved in the killing of Hanjin executive Jee Ick-joo would face legal consequences. "Regarding the murdered Korean businessman, the President will not tolerate any police abuse. All these police scalawags will be dealt with and prosecuted to the fullest under the law," Panelo said in a chance interview. [continues 230 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- A US newspaper called on Washington to make sure that US aid to the Philippines is not used for President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial ran weeks before the kidnap-for-ransom-murder of a South Korean expatriate in the hands of Philippine National Police officers -- in the guise of an anti-drug operation--came to light and triggered an international outcry. The Post-Gazette editorialized on Jan. 2 that "Even in a roomful of tinhorn dictators, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines would out." [continues 215 words]
In this Sept. 15, 2016 file photo, President Rodrigo Duterte shows documents containing the names of politicians, judges, and law enforcers involved in illegal drugs during his visit to Camp Tecson in Bulacan. (PPD/King Rodriguez) CABANATUAN CITY - How can the Catholic clergy understand the seriousness of the drug problem? They should try shabu. A joking President Duterte floated the proposal here on Wednesday as scored the Church anew for its supposed hypocrisy and pretensions. The Roman Catholic Church, the faith of more than 80 percent of Filipinos, has been vocal in expressing concerns over the spate of killings linked to Duterte's brutal war on drugs. More than 6,000 suspected drug offenders have been killed since Duterte assumed the presidency. [continues 382 words]
[photo] In this Nov. 26, 2016 photo, President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he delivers his keynote address during the San Beda College of Law Alumni Homecoming at the Shangri-La Hotel in Taguig City. (PPD/King Rodriguez) MANILA, Philippines - President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday dug up old controversies including the so-called Pajero scandal and clergy sexual abuse in his latest tirade against the Catholic Church, which has been raising concerns over the spate of killings linked to his war on drugs. [continues 716 words]
President Rodrigo Duterte said no one could stop him from imposing martial law. PPD/Ace Morandante MANILA, Philippines -- President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday evening said that if the drug problem in the country worsens, he would declare martial law. Duterte said that no one could stop him from imposing martial law if the country's situation becomes "virulent," citing that he does not care about the Supreme Court. "Kung gusto ko at if it will deteriorate into something really very virulent, I will declare martial law if I wanted to. Walang makapigil sa akin," Duterte said in a speech during the 49th annual installation of officers and board of trustees of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Incorporated. [continues 339 words]
Also Threatens To Kill Governors, Bomb Kidnappers PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday denied claims he wants to declare martial law to extend his term in office. But Duterte talked tough, threatening to kill provincial governors involved in drugs after saying the same to mayors last week, and ordered security forces to bomb kidnap gangs even if they held hostages. Speaking before the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the President stressed he had no ambition to prolong his stay in power. [continues 527 words]
SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez yesterday said two incumbent members of the House of Representatives are included in President Duterte's list of politicians who are allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade. He said he received him a copy of the validated list last month. "Iyung listahan na ibinigay sa akin, validated, ibig sabihin marami nang ahensiya ang pinanggalingan pero on my part dino-double check ko pa rin," Alvarez told a press conference. He refused to identify the two lawmakers or even say their gender, but said he is convinced of the involvement of one of the two who is a fellow Mindanaoan. [continues 163 words]
MANILA, Philippines - After confronting mayors with alleged ties to the narcotics trade, President Rodrigo Duterte wants to meet with governors to discuss the drug problem as he stressed that he would not back down on his campaign even if it costs him his position. "I'd be calling the governors next week. I'd really tell them. You tell your barangay captains, you have supervisory powers cities under you, those that are not yet charter cities, you tell the mayors," the president told businessmen in Davao City Saturday night. [continues 284 words]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to impose martial rule to prosecute his deadly war on drugs, three decades after the nation shed dictatorship with a famous "People Power" revolt. "If I wanted to, and it (the illegal drugs problem) will deteriorate into something really very virulent, I will declare martial law if I wanted to. No one will be able to stop me," Duterte said in a speech on Saturday night. The 71-year-old former state prosecutor said the aim would be "to preserve the Filipino people and the youth of this land". [continues 231 words]
The 81 barangays in Cebu Province that were initially declared by the police as drug-free are still subject for validation, a top-ranking official said Tuesday, January 3. Chief Superintendent Noli Talino, Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas director, said that it is up to the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) to declare a barangay free from drugs. "Yung sa amin, hindi pa naman final yung report ng Cebu Province. Ang sabi ko sa kanila for recommendation as a drug-free barangay pero hindi pa final yun. Ipapa-validate pa natin 'yun (For our part, the report from the Cebu Province is not yet final. What I told them was only to submit a recommendation of drug-free barangays but these are not yet final. This (recommendation) will still be validated," said Talino. "So if I will not approve it then it's back to zero." [continues 158 words]
State-run Chinese media have expressed skepticism that the country is a key source of fentanyl, despite an agreement with the RCMP that was seen as a tacit admission of China's role in fuelling the unfolding overdose crisis in Canada. A Globe and Mail investigation last year revealed how fentanyl is manufactured in China and how easily it is shipped to Canada, and border officials here have intercepted dozens of such shipments. Last November, the RCMP announced an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to stem illicit fentanyl exports, citing recent seizures of fentanyl and carfentanil, an even stronger opioid, that originated in China. [continues 471 words]
New Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana shied away from recommendations by his predecessor Gen Paiboon Koomchaya to de-criminalise amphetamines, marijuana and krathom. (File photo by Thanarak Khunton) Thailand should adopt an integrated approach to tackle the problems of drug abuse and addiction, Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana says. Strategies to solve the problems need to be adjusted, Mr Suwaphan said, adding legal measures alone would not solve the drug scourge. He was speaking at a meeting in Bangkok Thursday which he chaired to discuss social measures to help curb the impacts of drug abuse and addiction on communities. [continues 239 words]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a tough-talking populist who took office in June, has earned international condemnation for ordering or encouraging thousands of extrajudicial killings intended to rid the country of illegal drugs and bragging about personally having killed people. But at home, he remains extremely popular, with approval ratings topping 60%, and firmly in command, with his supporters controlling Congress, the courts and the police and military. His detractors have found some hope in an unlikely figure: the vice president. [continues 1430 words]
MANILA, Philippines -- An average of 30 people have been killed daily in the past 167 days under the Duterte administration's intensified campaign against criminality, especially the illegal drug trade. Records from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed 2,102 drug pushers and users killed after allegedly fighting it out with police, and 2,886 others getting killed under sketchy circumstances and whose cases are listed as "death under investigation" or DUI. The reported deaths totaled 4,988 in less than six months. [continues 414 words]
In war, there is collateral damage. In the case of the vicious war on illegal drugs, President Duterte acknowledged last week that there have been "unintended killings" that have claimed the lives of innocents including children. In fact practically everyone killed in the drug war was legally innocent since guilt beyond reasonable doubt was never established in court, and most of the slain weren't even indicted. For the unintended killings, the President said he's sorry, although he made it clear that it would not stop his relentless war. Such a cavalier attitude toward human life is likely to rub off on the forces fighting the drug menace, making them careless about hitting innocents in the crossfire. It can encourage them to continue disregarding laws and rules on armed confrontations and the conduct of arrests and searches. [continues 223 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Maaaring magkaroon din sa Pilipinas ng mga asylum para sa mga adik na tuluyan ng nasira ang ulo dahil sa paggamit ng ilegal na droga partikular ng shabu. Ito ang sinabi ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte kaugnay ng mga adik na hindi na kayang i-rehabilitate dahil lumiit na ang utak sa matagal na paggamit ng shabu. "If the brain is shrunk and it was your forensics who told us that that is the case. They have conducted the --- and almost all of them have shrunk brains," ani Duterte. [continues 114 words]
No matter how the questions were rephrased, the President stuck to his guns in his replies on his much criticized campaign against illegal drugs. For a man who made a campaign vow to bring genuine change in the country, it may come strange. For his new year's resolution, President Rodrigo Duterte promises no change in his administration's offensive campaign against illegal drugs. President Duterte though already publicly declared "sorry for the unintended" killing of innocent by-standers in his administration's deadly war against illegal drugs. But President Duterte vows to continue the anti-drug campaign despite the alleged extra-judicial killing controversies that hounded him in his first six months into office. [continues 1002 words]
WITH five more barangays in the city still drug-affected, Mayor Belen Fernandez said the drug clearing operations by the police and barangay officials will continue even during the holidays, until Dagupan City is 100 percent drug free. So far, 26 of the 31 barangays have already been declared drug-free. The five barangays yet to be cleared are Lasip Chico, Pantal, Barangay 2&3, Calmay and Pugaro. At the same time, she said the SURE program launched by the city government for drug users who surrendered is also continuing. [continues 103 words]
Narcotics suppression police question Francis Mukwamba, a Zambian passport holder whose real nationality is uncertain, at a hotel room in Sukhumvit area of Bangkok on Dec 26. (Photo taken from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau Facebook page) Two foreign nationals were arrested after 4kg of cocaine were found in their bags when they arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport from Africa and a third, their alleged contact, was later apprehended at a city hotel. Pol Maj Gen Sommai Kongwisaisuk, acting commissioner of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, said Johnny Halop Sajulga, a Filipino, and a Vietnamese woman, Chao Thi Thuong, 37, arrived from Ethiopia on Flight ET 628 on Dec 26. [continues 159 words]
MANILA, Philippines -- Three American senators asked the US Department of State to explain the use of funding aid in the Philippines to make sure the money is not being used for the government's war on drugs. US Senators Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Christopher Coons (D-Delaware) have expressed grave concern over alleged extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the country under the President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign. "The Philippine anti-drug movement known as Project [Tokhang] in fact appears to be a campaign of mass atrocities thinly disguised as a response to a public health emergency," the senators said in a letter addressed to US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Assistant Secretary William Brownfield. [continues 501 words]
Authorities in the Philippines say a series of drugs raids have netted nearly a tonne of methamphetamine, with a street value of UKP#120m ($147m). Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said the haul was the biggest in the country's history. Mr Aguirre said 10 people had been charged. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has pursued a bloody war on drugs since taking office six months ago, encouraging police to shoot on site. More than 6,000 drug users and dealers are suspected to have been killed by both police and vigilantes since the crackdown began. [continues 193 words]
Hooded killers have turned the bloody anti-illegal drug war of the Duterte government into an art form. That's no exaggeration. One stark evidence is the front-page photograph by Raffy Lerma -- a sidestreet Filipino Pieta -- that shows a grieving wife, rain-soaked and in rags, cradling her bloodied freshly murdered husband. This picture also threatens to be the emblem of the Duterte regime's deathly drive against illegal drugs. Last weekend, this grim theme dimmed a bit with the start of the dawn masses, the Simbang Gabi, that also ushered in the official period of holiday caroling, a season of good tidings. [continues 319 words]
SECRETARY of Justice Vitaliano N. Aguirre II surmises that the government is winning its controversial war on drugs as he, together with officials of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), presented yesterday evidence of what he called the "biggest drug bust" so far in the country. "Malamang sa malamang, nananalo na tayo. (It's more than likely, we are winning)," the secretary told reporters when asked for his assessment on whether the government is winning in its drug campaign that has been strongly criticized for the alleged rise in extra-judicial killings that it has spawned. [continues 484 words]
Dagupan City's War On Drugs THERE are still 26 barangays deemed drug-clear, and five more to be worked on, the list has been changed and corrected by City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, as chair of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Coordinating Council (CADACC). Mayor Belen Fernandez, as chair of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Coordinating Council (CADACC) signed the certification affirming earlier declarations by the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils that their respective villages are now cleared of illegal drugs. [continues 375 words]
After what happened on the night of Nov. 8, 11-year-old John Ryan and his nine siblings are spending their first Christmas as orphans. They were all asleep when armed men barged into their shanty at the Market 3 area of the Navotas Fish Port Complex and grabbed Joaquin Garbo. The siblings saw how their father was dragged out of the house while still in his underwear. John Ryan's mother and eldest sister, aged 17, immediately went to the Station Anti-illegal Drugs (SAID) unit of the Navotas police, but the officer who faced them said Garbo wasn't there. [continues 1277 words]
At 4:50 a.m., the stragglers dashed through Manila's darkened streets, hoping for a spot in the pews. But they were too late. Hundreds of worshipers had already packed the Sto. Nino de Paz Community Greenbelt Chapel, a low, white dome in a sprawling outdoor shopping complex, for Friday's Simbang Gabi Christmas Mass. So at least 100 more crowded on the pavement outside, singing "Glory to God" beneath a crisp crescent moon. Christmas in the Philippines is a long, spirited and, to many, exhausting affair. About 90% of Filipinos are Christian, and they take the holiday seriously. Stores start playing Christmas music as early as September and don't stop until early January. Christmas trees spring up in malls and public parks. Carolers go door to door singing "Jingle Bells," "Silent Night" and "Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit", a lively Tagalog tune celebrating Jesus' birth. The holiday delicacy is lechon - -- whole suckling pig, a Filipino delicacy. [continues 868 words]
JERUSALEM - Israeli scientists began their pioneering research to isolate the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana with a 10-pound stash seized by the Tel Aviv police. That effort, in the 1960s, helped propel Israel to the vanguard of research into the plant's medicinal properties and lay the foundations for a medical marijuana industry. Now the nation's burgeoning pot business, backed by an unlikely coalition of farmers, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs and the country's ultra-Orthodox health minister, is going mainstream - and eyeing markets abroad. [continues 1086 words]
MANILA - Rayzabell Bongol, an 18-year-old mother and methamphetamine user, was afraid to die in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in the Philippines. So she turned herself in to the police. They made her sign a pledge that she would never take illegal drugs again, then sent her home. Once a week now, she is expected to attend a police-sponsored Zumba dance workout, where she gets a health check and a meal. Mr. Duterte "promised change," she said at a recent class as three dozen other recovering addicts bopped and swayed to a blaring Latin beat. "As you can see, I am changing." [continues 1290 words]
Duterte Used Epithet in Reference to President. VIENTIANE, LAOS (AP) - President Obama called off a planned meeting Tuesday with new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, seeking distance from a U.S. ally's leader during a diplomatic tour that has put Obama in close quarters with a cast of contentious world figures. It's unusual for one president to tell another what to say or not say, and much rarer to call the other a "son of a bitch." Duterte managed to do both just before flying to Laos for a regional summit, warning Obama not to challenge him over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. [continues 479 words]
HOWEVER you put it, the Philippine National Police is among the government agencies responsible for the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country-either by direct involvement or sheer ineffectiveness. Strange enough, the law enforcers who gained notoriety for protecting drug cartels and syndicates in the past are now earning praises for killing drug suspects at will-in the name of a "drug war." Do you really want to vindicate and encourage the police to further abuse its power while the unjust social system prevails? [continues 218 words]
IT'S EASY: Start with semantics. Step 1: Establish a consensual value system to shape a receptive audience. A consensual value system is composed of a repertoire of values everyone is willing to accept. It aims to be universal as well as encompassing by differentiating a set of favorable values from those unpalatable to the audience. We desire a drugfree Philippines. Who doesn't? Values legitimize a political action (be it human rights intervention or extrajudicial killing) by leading their audience to perceive coherence in their binary arrangement. [continues 774 words]
IT'S A mantra that top government officials keep chanting: Police killings enjoy a presumption of regularity. This mantra is used in answer to voices of protest when someone is killed by police under suspicious circumstances, such as when an arrested suspect is killed inside a police car for allegedly attempting to grab an officer's gun. This mantra is increasingly being heard as response to criticism against the mounting number of people killed by police in the administration's war on drugs. A total of 929 people have been killed during police operations from July 1 to Aug. 31. [continues 832 words]
Just like in the movies, but this is real life. President Duterte admitted he takes inspiration from Western action movies like "Dirty Harry" in waging his bloody war on drugs that has raised concern among the United Nations, the United States and human rights advocates. Duterte's revelation came just hours before a blast ripped the Roxas night market in his hometown Davao City that killed 14 and injured more than 60 people. Answering queries from Michael Sullivan of the National Public Radio Washington, Duterte related the movie "Dirty Harry" with the killings of sus-pected drug pushers, particularly those killed by vigilante groups. [continues 500 words]
LINGAYEN-DAGUPAN Archbishop Socrates Villegas has urged Filipinos to speak up against the spate of killings targeting suspected criminals rather than remain comfortably silent. In a pastoral message, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) head reminded the faithful that "What you do or not do for the least of your brethren, you do to Christ." The message was to be read today in all churches under the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in lieu of the Sunday homily. "If you agree with us that killing suspected criminals is a crime and a sin itself, why do you just stay seated there in comfort keeping quiet? Whatever you do or not do for the least of your brethren, you do to Christ," Villegas said. [continues 397 words]
Aside from nightclubs and bars, authorities are setting their sights on condominium dwellers and call center agents in Metro Manila in the next phase of the war on drugs. National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde said they are investigating reports that drug pushers are using condominium dwellers and call center agents in their illegal transactions. Albayalde noted that the two groups could evade police detection because many call center agents work at night while condominiums are usually well secured against unwanted visitors. "I've ordered the five district directors to step up the implementation of Oplan Tokhang and Project Double Barrel in condominium units, business process outsourcing ( BPO) offices in Metro Manila," Albayalde said. [continues 279 words]
JAKARTA, Indonesia - I.B. Agung Partha foresees an apocalypse, as he put it, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. The threat is not a plague of locusts, nor one of Bali's dormant volcanos springing to life. It is in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital several hundred miles away, where Parliament is debating legislation that would ban beer, wine and spirits across the thousands of islands that make up this country. For Bali, whose beaches, lush landscapes and cultural attractions drew four million visitors last year, the effect would be something like the end of the world, said Mr. Partha, the chairman of the Bali Tourism Board. [continues 1143 words]
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte could face international criminal charges as the death count in his relentless war on drugs tops almost 2000, human rights advocates say. Comments by the tough-talking former provincial mayor such as "all of you are into drugs, you sons of bitches ... I will kill you" could be used as evidence to prosecute him, they say. Sam Zarifi, from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), says it is likely that as the killings continue lawyers will gather evidence to initiate legal proceedings against Mr Duterte, as 9541 victims of the late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos did in the United States in the 1990s. [continues 299 words]
As the casualties in the government's war on drugs continue to pile up, the Philippines faces a "human rights calamity," according to Human Rights Watch. Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asia deputy director, said at an ABS-CBN News Channel forum on human rights Tuesday night that the number of suspects killed in the hands of police in the first eight weeks of the Duterte administration is 10 times higher than those who died in the first six months of the year. [continues 752 words]
President: US Leader Must First See Context PRESIDENT Duterte yesterday said he was ready to defend his take-no-prisoners war on drugs in a discussion of the human rights situation in the Philippines with US President Barack Obama in Laos next week. Mr. Duterte said he was willing to meet with Obama on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in Vientiane on Sept. 6, but he would demand that he be allowed to first explain the context of his merciless crackdown on the illegal drug trade before engaging the US leader in a discussion of the human rights situation in the Philippines. [continues 546 words]
The United Nations is only paying lip service to the fight against illegal drugs and is even prejudging the involvement of law enforcers in summary executions of suspected drug offenders, Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. said on Monday. "The UN is just making mere lip service, stymied by the most vocal who seem to protect the illegal drugs trade," Yasay said. "This is the kind of frustration we must express. We must also understand the UN is not the solution but we must all be active participants," he told journalists at the Japan-ASEAN Media Forum at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City. [continues 203 words]
DID "The Punisher" just own up to the killing of druggies? President Duterte has admitted the government's lack of funds for the rehabilitation of drug dependents had led to the deaths of suspected drug lords. Since he assumed the presidency on June 30, almost 2,000 alleged drug pushers and users had died in police operations and vigilante killings. Speaking before members of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) in Malacanang Monday night, the President said his administration did not have the money to finance recovery programs for some 700,000 drug users who had turned themselves in to police. [continues 85 words]
CEBU CITY - The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has intensified its campaign against illegal drugs with the launching of Oplan Pokemon, the police version of the popular mobile phone game. Just like the popular mobile phone app game, where players go to places to catch Pokemon monsters, Oplan Pokemon calls for the local police to go to different areas to look for those involved in the illegal drugs trade. The CCPO marked its first operation under Oplan Pokemon with a convoy of patrol cars and funeral hearse. [continues 156 words]
ILOILO CITY - Church and religious groups have decried the surge in killings of suspected drug pushers and have called on the faithful to "defend the dignity of life." Fr. Marco Sulayao, chair of Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR) on Panay Island, said while religious people support the eradication of illegal drugs and rehabilitation of drug dependents, these should be done without the "wanton" killings of suspected drug pushers. He said there has been no significant outcry because of the people's desire to get rid of illegal drugs, which have victimized many, especially the youth. [continues 353 words]
Under fire for allegedly condoning extralegal killings, Malacanang yesterday told the international media to visit the Philippines so they can see for themselves the extent of the drug menace in the country. Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said visiting the country would enable foreign journalists to understand the context of President Duterte's tough pronouncements on narcotics and crime. "The international media, as I have repeated time and again, should come to the Philippines and experience the life of the barangay (village) people who have so much drug problems," Andanar told reporters on the sidelines of the Japan-ASEAN Media Forum at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City. [continues 571 words]
(AP) - PRESIDENT Duterte said on Monday that the bloody antidrug campaign, that has left nearly 1,800 people dead, did not amount to genocide, but he nevertheless assured the policemen he was ready to go to jail to defend them from lawsuits. Mr. Duterte drew a line between the widespread killings sparked by his antidrug war and the brutality under Syrian President Bashar Assad and the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. "Genocide? Who did I kill? I did not kill any child. I did not drop barrel (bombs) just like Assad," the President said in a speech to mark National Heroes' Day before war veterans, ambassadors and top officials. "I'm fighting ... criminals." [continues 230 words]
THERE seems to be no doubt on the unwavering commitment of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill his campaign promise of going all-out against the drug menace, come hell or high water. The campaign rhetoric had hinted how bloody the war against illegal drugs and criminality might be-like when then presidential candidate Duterte impressed upon the electorate that 100,000 criminals could die and their bodies dumped into Manila Bay to fatten the fish there-but the actual number of fatalities can still be very alarming, particularly to human rights advocates. [continues 706 words]
When the late Rafael Salas became the first head of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in 1969, among his young recruits was Cecile Joaquin. Cecile was still working in New York in what was renamed the UN Population Fund when she met a Filipino lawyer some years later. The lawyer, Perfecto Yasay Jr., traveled the world after being named vice president of the international YMCA when he was just in his early 20s. Romance bloomed between the two, which led to marriage. [continues 935 words]
Nobody, not even the poor, can justify getting into illegal drugs, President Duterte stressed, and there must be an "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" principle of retributive justice to finally end the menace. As this developed, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas issued a prayer for the healing of the nation amid the rising number of killings related to the war on drugs. "They know that is prohibited, whether you are poor or rich," Duterte said Monday night as he reiterated his heart would never bleed for families of those killed in government operations, even if some of them were supposedly forced to become drug pushers to earn a living. [continues 842 words]
The Europen Union ( EU) has expressed concern over the spate of killings in the Duterte administration's campaign against illegal drugs, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said yesterday. In a press conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Dureza said when he met with EU officials in Brussels, Belgium last Aug. 25, "they asked about the issue on drug campaign in the country." "They told me that many people are being killed... So many of our agreements with the EU have something to do with human rights issues, like the free tariff privilege with the EU. It is important that we clarified it to them," Dureza said. [continues 297 words]
JUSTICE MINISTER General Paiboon Koomchaya is willing to propose that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoke Article 44 of the interim charter to downgrade the amphetamine drug known as "yaba" to a narcotics category two drug, provided that the Public Health Ministry has a proper system to combat drug abuse. Public Health permanent secretary Dr Sopon Mekthon said he was ready to respond accordingly if the government revised its policy to regulate the drug. He said doctors could not prescribe 'yaba' for medical treatment while it remained a category one drug. Category two drugs can be used legally with a doctor's prescription. Downgrading the category of the drug could address addiction issues, officials have said, because the current designation as a category one drug carries severe penalties that can deter users from seeking treatment. [continues 328 words]
Pedicab driver Reyjin dives into a neighbor's house for a quick meth fix, fearful of taking a bullet to the head in President Duterte's brutal war on drugs but unable to quit. More than 2,000 people have died violent deaths since Duterte took office two months ago and immediately implemented his scorched-earth plans to eradicate drugs in society, ordering police to shoot dead traffickers and urging ordinary citizens to kill addicts. The bloodbath has seen unknown assailants kill more than half the victims, according to police statistics, raising fears that security forces and hired assassins are roaming through communities and shooting dead anyone suspected of being involved in drugs. [continues 210 words]
Judging from foreign media reports, the Duterte administration is attracting a lot of international attention, much of it for the wrong reasons. President Duterte will probably tell the foreign media to go to hell, but it's the Philippines that's taking a hit from all the bad press. So far, most foreign governments have refrained from publicly commenting on the drug-related mass killings, now about to shoot past 2,000. But I've been told that diplomats representing key global players are now touching base with certain administration officials, mainly to send word that the negative reports have started taking their toll on tourism and investments from their countries. [continues 997 words]
WE, THE members of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, acknowledge our active role as a visible force and prophetic voice in social life, in working for the common good. A role embraced by the Lord Jesus himself when he quoted the prophet Isaiah as he began his ministry: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." (Luke 4:18 19) [continues 592 words]
CANBERRA - Since President Duterte launched his war on drug syndicates on July 1, he has plunged the Philippines into a multitheater conflict against a broad front of international institutions, including the United Nations, its human rights rapporteurs, human rights watchdog groups, Amnesty International, the country's Chief Justice and other domestic critics of his violence-driven campaign. Hundreds of suspected drug dealers have been killed in alleged extrajudicial executions as the administration pursued the President's campaign promise to exterminate the drug menace in three to six months of his presidency. [continues 603 words]
(AP) - On the day he was sworn into office, President Rodrigo Duterte went to a Manila slum and exhorted residents who knew any drug addicts to "go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful." Two months later, nearly 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users lay dead as morgues continue to fill up. Faced with criticism of his actions by rights activists, international bodies and outspoken Filipinos, including the top judge, Duterte has stuck to his guns and threatened to declare martial law if the Supreme Court meddles in his work. [continues 447 words]
The US State Department's 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report says that addiction to shabu ( street name for methamphetamine or meth) is the most significant drug problem of the Philippines, with the narcotic continually growing as the most widely trafficked in the country. A UN World Drug Report also tagged the Philippines as the country having the highest rate of shabu use in the whole of East Asia with even the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) releasing a pastoral letter last year expressing concern about the proliferation of the drug problem in the country and the alleged involvement of government officials. [continues 847 words]
Define Human Being, Duterte Tells Rights Groups DAVAO CITY - Junkies are not humans. That is how President Duterte sees drug users whose bodies are piling up as he presses his brutal war on drugs. International human rights groups and the United Nations have raised concern about the killings, but Mr. Duterte, addressing soldiers at a military camp in his hometown Davao City on Friday night, said those groups should review their concept of human rights. "These human rights (advocates) did not count those who were killed before I became President. The children who were raped and mutilated [by drug users]," he said. [continues 810 words]
Cannabis is obtained from the plant of the genus Cannabis. Cannabis is the only drug that grows in Sri Lanka. It is grown illicitly, mostly in the dry zones of the country (in the Eastern and Southern provinces). Cannabis causes euphoria, "high" feeling, pleasurable state of relaxation, impaired performance, sleepiness, confusion and hallucinations. Cocaine Cocaine, which is obtained from the plant of genus Erythroxylon coca, is available as a paste, or "Crack" hard white rocks or flaky material. Cocaine is smoked, sniffed or injected. It causes euphoria and alertness and postpones hunger and fatigue. [continues 991 words]
It was an "unacceptable" statement and he was sorry. Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa yesterday apologized for his statements calling on addicts to burn down the houses of suspected drug lords. Facing hundreds of drug surrenderees in Bacolod City on Thursday, Dela Rosa had urged them to burn the houses of drug lords or kill them. "Pour gasoline over their houses then light them up. Show them that you are angry over that they did to you. They're enjoying (your) money, money that destroyed your brain. You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing is allowed because (you) are the victim," Dela Rosa told the assembled drug surrenderees in Bacolod. [continues 293 words]
The United States has not only made clear its concerns over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines but is discussing them "privately" with the Duterte administration, the US State Department said. "I would say that we continue to engage with the government of the Philippines on our concerns privately, as well as from the podium, and raise those. It's hard for me to characterize how seriously they take that. We continue to raise it," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a press briefing when asked about President Duterte's attacks against Sen. Leila de Lima in the same week Washington expressed concerns over drug-related killings in the Philippines. [continues 348 words]
It is obvious that Duterte's reforms are being blocked by his enemies. Their objective is to blacken his image and make his campaign against drug lords difficult and frustrate government reform. They are not bothered that if the drug lords and their backers (politicians mostly) are not stopped the drugs will proliferate and the problem will be impossible to solve. It is a war between criminals and their victims. Before that happens Filipinos must stop them or it will go out of hand. I am reprinting here the post of BayanKo's adviser Jose Alejandrino which is now viralling in social media. We should not waste time with so-called congressional investigations from the very senators accused of protecting drug lords. Instead we should mobilize as we did in Duterte's Luneta rally to spare our country, the poor and especially the young, from the evil that confronts us. [continues 945 words]
MORE THAN 1,800 deaths so far, and counting. That's the number provided by Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa himself at the Senate inquiry into the surge of extrajudicial killings since July 1, when President Duterte took office with a vow to rid this country of drugs and crime by whatever means. How many of these deaths involved minors? The government numbers do not indicate that information. And so the death of Danica May Garcia will eventually be lumped along with the rest-one more negligible statistic in the administration's brutal war against the drug menace that it has declared as the country's No. 1 problem today. [continues 620 words]
The latest casualty in the administration's "war" against drugs is tiny Danica May Garcia, all of five years old. Danica May, young Rowena Tiamson, 22; Jefferson Buhain, 20; Roman Clifford Manaois, 20, have all paid the ultimate price for an illegal drug trade that was allowed to prosper unabated by previous administrations. These innocents have been categorized as "collateral damage." To dehumanize them so in the effort to play down the accountability of those responsible is really to watch them die twice. [continues 1000 words]
THE ONGOING orgy of extralegal drug killings has become quite alarming and a cause for serious concern. President Duterte takes pride in the seeming success of his war on drugs and is constantly prodding the Philippine National Police to accelerate the killings. In his first State of the Nation Address, President Duterte said in substance that we should not let human rights destroy our nation. As a lawyer, I have always believed that human rights are what make us "human" and "civilized," the protection of which we should guard with vigilance. The summary execution of drug suspects without trial is akin to the slaughter of Indonesian "communists" during the time of President Suharto, which has been characterized as a "genocide." [continues 292 words]
When Philippine National Police officials report with a hint of pride that some 1,800 people have been killed in the drug war within less than two months, and some senators say the figure is still small considering the number of drug "personalities" in the country, this nation has lost its soul. President Duterte has amply shown that the drug menace is real and alarming in its scale. Whether the pervasiveness of the problem deserves those 1,800 deaths - more than half of which, the PNP stressed, were perpetrated by vigilantes - is debatable. But the debate at this point is lopsided and heavily in favor of the executioners. Many Filipinos seem to go along with Dirty Rody's Machiavellian belief about the end justifying the means. [continues 840 words]
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa prodded drug addicts "to kill drug lords and burn their houses for making them gaunt, toothless and addicted to shabu." Dela Rosa stressed that drug lords have ruined their lives. In contrast, he explained that drug lords do not use illegal drugs. "They look good and get rich, enjoying the fruits of their illegal activities at the expense of drug addicts. "You know who the drug lords are in your place. If you want to kill them, kill them. You can kill them because you are the victims, " Dela Rosa said in Filipino in a speech in Bacolod City. [continues 429 words]
Witnesses aren't the only ones who are permanently silenced. Lawyers whether representing crime victims or suspects are also being targeted by those who want to thwart the administration of justice. Last Tuesday in Tacloban City, men on a motorcycle pulled up to a car driven by Rogelio Bato Jr. and opened fire with a rifle and a .45-caliber handgun. Bato and his companion, a 15-year-old girl, did not stand a chance. The gunmen escaped. Bato was the lawyer of Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera town in Leyte. The mayor had been identified by President Duterte as one of the local government officials allegedly involved in drug trafficking. Espinosa pointed to his son Kerwin as the drug dealer. Kerwin is at large and believed to be abroad, but six of their family's bodyguards were also shot dead during a police raid on one of their homes after Espinosa presented himself to the Philippine National Police. [continues 176 words]
THE wave of "terrifying" drug killings is an indication of lawlessness and not crime control, human rights group Amnesty International (AI) said on Wednesday. The group issued the statement after Philippine National Police chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa informed the Senate that unidentified persons or groups have killed at least 1,067 people while the police shot dead more than 712 drug suspects in legitimate operations since July 1. "[The killings] is a terrifying indication that the authorities are grossly failing in their obligations to respect and protect the right to life," Amnesty said. [continues 534 words]
The United States is "deeply concerned" by reports of more deaths in the crackdown on illegal drugs in the Philippines, with US State Department spokesman Mark Toner urging the Duterte administration to ensure law enforcers observe human rights norms. The US voiced its concern after Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa told a Senate panel on Monday that 712 drug traffickers and users had been killed in police operations since July 1. Malacanang said it respects the US's expressing such concern. [continues 531 words]
But "meth," or methamphetamine hydrochloride, short for shabu, is something else, the President pointed out. Shabu addicts were initially described as the "living dead" by President Rodrigo Duterte when he made an impassioned speech last week in defense of his administration's deadly literally campaign against illegal drugs. A few days later, President Duterte called these shabu dependents as the "walking dead" in our midst. Perhaps, the President was able to watch last week the first episode of the popular "Walking Dead" TV series now being locally carried at TV5 every Thursday night. "Walking Dead" is a fictional apocalyptic weekly series in US setting where zombies, or the undead, prey and feed upon human beings. [continues 962 words]
SOME Filipinos view the recent surge in drug-related killings as a "necessary evil in pursuit of greater good," according to President Duterte's chief economic adviser. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia yesterday admitted that the impression of the international business community on Mr. Duterte's approach in stemming illegal drugs may affect the country's business environment. The economics professor from the University of the Philippines urged the media to interview individuals who were supportive of the President's war on drugs. [continues 244 words]
MANILA - The soaring number of killings by the police in the Philippines is being caused by drug suspects who choose to battle officers instead of surrendering, the nation's top police official told lawmakers on Tuesday. "If they did not fight it out with police, they would be alive," said the national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, who is heading the country's deadly antidrug war. He said the number of deaths since the campaign began on July 1 had jumped to 1,916 - 137 more than the figure he gave senators on Monday, the first of two days of hearings devoted to the killings. He said on Tuesday that reports of killings came in daily from police units around the country. "As I was presenting yesterday," he said, "there were people killed." [continues 725 words]
The witnesses' narratives had a common thread: the victims were low-level drug pushers silenced by corrupt law enforcers who were either their protectors or suppliers in the illegal drug trade. This emerged at the first Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings led by the committee on justice and human rights, chaired by Sen. Leila de Lima, and the committee on public order and illegal drugs chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson. Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa told the joint hearing that as of yesterday, the PNP had tallied 712 suspects killed in legitimate operations, of whom 269 were reported in Metro Manila, since the Duterte administration launched its war on drugs on July 1. [continues 1018 words]
MANILA - Killings by the police and vigilantes in the Philippines' war on drugs have soared to nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks since President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office, the nation's top police official told a Senate hearing on Monday. Under Duterte, who campaigned on a pledge to rid the country of drug dealers, 712 suspects have been killed in police operations, National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said. Vigilante killings have totaled 1,067 during the same period, he said, although it was unclear how many were directly related to the illegal drug trade. [continues 548 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Killings by the police and vigilantes in the Philippines' war on drugs have soared to nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks since President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office, the nation's top police official told a Senate hearing on Monday. Under Duterte, who campaigned on a pledge to rid the country of drug dealers, 712 suspects have been killed in police operations, National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said. Vigilante killings have totaled 1,067 during the same period, he said, although it was unclear how many were directly related to the illegal drug trade. [continues 175 words]
MANILA - Killings by the police and vigilantes in the Philippines' war on drugs have soared to nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks since President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office, the nation's top police official told a Senate hearing on Monday. Under Mr. Duterte, who campaigned on a pledge to rid the country of drug dealers, 712 suspects have been killed in police operations, National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said. Vigilante killings have totaled 1,067 during the same period, he said, although it was unclear how many were directly related to the illegal drug trade. [continues 964 words]
ALL FILIPINOS, whether public officials or ordinary citizens, have the right to due process. It is a human right guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution that President Duterte swore to uphold and defend. It is sorely disappointing to see the President disregard this constitutional right as he voices no objection to the killing of suspected drug pushers by the police or by vigilantes, and accuses police officers, local executives, judges and other officials of being drug lords or their protectors without the benefit of a thorough, completed criminal investigation. Without presenting solid evidence to back up his public allegations, President Duterte, the most powerful public official of our land, has embarked on a chilling, sickening name-and-shame campaign that is in effect an unjust, unlawful and unconstitutional trial by publicity. [continues 666 words]
THE Senate opens today an inquiry into the ongoing anti-drugs campaign of the Duterte administration which has already resulted in hundreds of deaths, thousands of arrests, and tens of thousands of surrenders of both pushers and users. Over 800 had already been killed by the middle of last month and the figure continues to grow, raising fears of human rights violations. In the last few days, there have been considerable fireworks around the person of Sen. Leila de Lima, whose Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights is to conduct the inquiry. President Duterte has accused her of having an affair with her driver who allegedly collected drug money for her inside the New Bilibid Prison. Last Friday, she called most of the charges "lies, distortions, and exaggerations," but did admit some of it were true "may kaunting totoo." [continues 337 words]
Resents Criticisms of His Antidrug War PRESIDENT Duterte yesterday threatened to pull the Philippines out of the United Nations as he launched another profanity-laced tirade against the world body for criticizing his ruthless war on drugs. More than 1,500 people have been killed since Mr. Duterte took office on June 30 and immediately launched a take-noprisoners crackdown on illegal drugs, drawing fierce criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups. A lawyer notorious for an acid tongue, Mr. Duterte has repeatedly told the United Nations not to interfere, calling the world body "stupid" for its criticisms. [continues 964 words]
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte's campaign promise to stop crime and corruption in six months must be pressuring the police into killing X-number of suspects by his 50th day in office, his 100th, and so forth, in a bloody race to meet the quotas by deadline time. The Commander's shoot-to-kill order (if the suspect fights back, kuno) has seen many police officers committing their first murder, executing suspects whose guilt has not been established and who in some instances were begging for their lives. [continues 588 words]
Malacanang yesterday criticized as "baseless and reckless" a United Nations statement that President Duterte's bloody war on drugs amounted to a crime under international law. Duterte's chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo told AFP the administration was not behind the extrajudicial killings targeting alleged criminal suspects, challenging UN human rights experts to visit the Philippines and investigate. Two UN rights experts said Thursday that Duterte's directives calling on law enforcers and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers "amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law." [continues 341 words]
They are also right in calling for divine intervention in the lives of addicts so they may find strength in shaking off their dependency on drugs. No doubt prayer works, but there is no secret formula that could bring about the change everybody wants to see the easy way the elimination of the drug menace in the country. Such major surgery involves searing pain. THE time to get involved in the affairs of this country is now, and the evangelicals are on the right track in coming up with a pastoral letter that supports the campaign against the drug menace while condemning the unwarranted killings of addicts and pushers. [continues 359 words]
THE WAR of words between President Duterte and the United Nations escalated on Thursday, with a UN envoy warning that "state actors" could be held responsible over hundreds of killings in the government's controversial crackdown on illegal drugs. Challenged by presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo to come over and see for herself the real situation, UN special rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard tweeted on Friday: "Invitation to investigate welcomed. Ready to 'see for myself.'" In a statement, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that the "seeming incomprehension by local and international observers" was "more alarming than the pandemic use and trade of illegal drugs in the Philippines." [continues 762 words]
The person accused of wrongdoing is a senator, and it is his duty, President Duterte said, to tell the truth to the nation. On Wednesday he hurled serious accusations against Sen. Leila de Lima, saying she had an affair with her married driver who collected drug payola from convicts at the New Bilibid Prison. While the President said he was not sure if the drug money was forwarded to De Lima when she was the secretary of justice, he added that this seemed to be the case. The story about the driver is not new. As early as 2014, jueteng whistleblower Sandra Cam had alleged that the driver, identified as Ronnie Palisoc Dayan, had been made an employee of the Department of Justice and was acting as an influence peddler in the DOJ and its attached agencies. [continues 239 words]
IT'S easy to dismiss the search for justice by the mother of suspected drug lord Alvaro "Barok" Alvaro for her other son Medz, who was shot dead by policemen in a buy-bust operation in Danao City last Aug. 11. Also killed in that operation was Medz's alleged cohort, Ronnie Castro. For believers in the method used by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte in its campaign against the illegal drugs trade, relatives of Medz and Castro have lost their right to question the manner of their death because of their supposed involvement in criminal acts. But Emma Alvaro has as much a right to seek an investigation of the incident as relatives of victims of vehicular accidents. [continues 273 words]
MANILA - Even amid the slaughter of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, the killings of Renato and Jaypee Bertes stand out. The Bertes men, father and son, shared a tiny, concrete room with six other people in a metropolitan Manila slum, working odd jobs when they could find them. Both smoked shabu, a cheap form of methamphetamine that has become a scourge in the Philippines. Sometimes Jaypee Bertes sold it in small amounts, relatives said. So it was unsurprising when the police raided their room last month. [continues 1297 words]
(The following are excerpts from the "Position Paper on Extra-Judicial Killings As Means in the 'War on Drugs'" by the Center for Governance, Leadership and Development of the Department of Political Science of the University of San Carlos) While the campaign against illegal drugs is a fight we all share, the relentless killings of persons allegedly linked to the illegal drug trade has raised an important question that every Filipino, regardless of social status, education, political beliefs, or religious affiliation, ought to confront: Are we doing this right? [continues 744 words]
The United Nations yesterday urged the Philippine government to put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial killings in the context of an intensified campaign against crime and the drug menace. Two UN human rights experts said "allegations of drug trafficking offenses should be judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets." The Philippine National Police reported yesterday that over 1,600 drug suspects have been killed since Duterte assumed power, with 665 attributed to PNP members and the rest to vigilantes. [continues 410 words]
As of yesterday, Sen. Leila de Lima didn't look "destroyed," although she was clearly distressed and admitted feeling scared and concerned for herself and those close to her. Lamenting the "abuse" and "misuse" of executive power, De Lima announced that her committee would proceed with its probe on Monday into the continuing killing spree. And if the administration is correct in its suspicions, no one is backing out either from efforts to bring the killings before the United Nations a possibility that seems to make the President fly into a fit of rage. [continues 798 words]
The police service celebrated its 115th anniversary the other day as the Senate prepared to launch an inquiry into the spate of killings of drug suspects since President Duterte assumed power. The official toll, according to Philippine National Police officials, was 1,564 as of yesterday, with 899 attributed not to PNP members but to vigilantes. Echoing the President, PNP officials have defended the mass killings, trotting out statistics to show that the crime rate has gone down. The homicide rate, of course, has soared and is sure to be the highest in this part of the world. Whether the victim was a drug dealer or law-abiding civilian, each killing must be probed and the perpetrator brought to justice. [continues 234 words]
WE, THE Missionary Benedictine Sisters of the Manila Priory, express our grave concern about the culture of death creeping into our society and the rampant and open violations of human rights linked to the Duterte administration's war on illegal drugs. At the outset, we state our condemnation of the drug trade that has not been properly addressed due to corruption, indifference and lack of political will. Powerful drug syndicates have succeeded in penetrating all levels of our society through bribery of corrupt public officials and law enforcers. This in turn has resulted in the corruption of our youth, the proliferation of heinous crimes, and the deterioration of the moral fabric of our society. [continues 389 words]
IF JOSE Rizal were alive today, he would probably be found dead on a Manila street with a crude cardboard sign identifying him as a drug user. Rizal, after all, admitted taking hashish when he was 18 years old. But someone should explain to the trigger-happy police or vigilantes that in Rizal's time, hashish, which we know today as marijuana, "Mary Jane," or "jutes," was not what it is now: a prohibited drug. It was considered medicine and was dispensed freely from a drugstore. [continues 902 words]
"Rise, above principle and do what's right." - Walter Heller AS the famous Roman orator Cicero had written, "laws are silent in time of war," and Duterte's war against drug trafficking and its lethal effects on humans is total war. The fight against drugs has become relentless, uncompromising, and nonnegotiable. It is fatal and it affects all classes and all ages which call for a united and nationwide effort and urgency. For these reasons, President Rodrigo "Digong" Roa Duterte should be given the leverage and space to pursue his crusade against drugs, corruption, and criminality unhampered by bureaucratic niceties and legalistic obstacles. [continues 378 words]
Thailand is on the wrong track in its efforts to address drug problems and it is time to treat drug abuse as a health issue rather than a crime, says Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya. Speaking at the "Thailand's Drug Policy Revisited" forum held by the Thailand Institute of Justice, Gen Paiboon said the high number of drug offenders and widespread drug abuse in communities shows the drug policy is failing. "It has been wrong all these years. If not, why do 70% of drug offenders remain in prison? Why does the problem persist despite thousands of deaths? And why do people still complain about drugs in their community? They're telling us there's something wrong," he said. [continues 240 words]
President Duterte scored the United Nations yesterday for hitting his aggressive anti-drug campaign, which he said has so far claimed the lives of 1,000 drug addicts and pushers. He complained that the UN is zeroing in on his administration's drug campaign when it was quiet on mass killings in other countries. "While I really do not know who's going to come here for that, I am going to whack him in the head," Duterte said at the anniversary of the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame. [continues 431 words]
We want to know what the young are thinking about. What are their thoughts on current issues? We welcome contributions from the twentysomething and below.- Ed. HUNDREDS HAVE died and thousands have voluntarily surrendered to authorities in the course of President Duterte's war on drugs. And though his violent and urgent campaign has done much to bring the issue to the national conversation, it also reveals how ill-equipped our legal infrastructure is in dealing with the victims of this war. The infrastructure required for the rehabilitation of drug users is lacking, and the way our law treats drug offenders is unfair and dehumanizing. [continues 845 words]
PROTESTS are growing in the Philippines over President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal campaign against the drug trade. Estimates of the numbers killed by police and vigilantes since Mr Duterte emerged as president-elect after the May 9 election vary between 650 and 1000. The bloodied bodies of alleged drug dealers and users have been left on streets and in gutters, often with cardboard placards proclaiming their involvement in the drug trade. Rights groups have condemned the killings and there have been protests recently at several schools and towns. [continues 130 words]
This administration will be remembered for institutionalizing mass killings as the ultimate crime-fighting tool. Public acquiescence to the mass killings is among the most astonishing elements in this vicious war on drugs. President Duterte, the architect of the crime-fighting strategy, may be glad to know that these days, when people are exasperated with criminality and even corruption and other forms of abuse in government, they ask why the crooks are still alive. "There oughta be a law" has been replaced with "they oughta be shot" - fatally, if possible. [continues 825 words]
Unstopped, the silencing of surrendered pusher-addicts could worsen to vendetta against anti-narcotics operatives. Vigilante killers are riding on, thus smearing Rody Duterte's war on drugs. They began striking, seemingly random, days after his May presidential win and worsened to almost daily after his June inaugural. The victims mostly were street pushers or addicted petty criminals from the slums. Duterte theorized a motive even then. Narco-financiers, including politicos and cops, were silencing their own street pushers in anticipation of his crackdown. Very plausible, for the narco-trade has infested high office and society. The past administration not only had let the problem fester; the ruling party notoriously even had as treasurers a sequence of drug lords from Southern Tagalog. [continues 590 words]
THE public is wondering how our government will respond or react to the statement issued on Friday, August 12, by the United States embassy in Manila, in which it expressed a number of concerns about certain statements made by President Duterte and the phenomenon of extrajudicial killings in the prosecution of the administration's war on drugs. Before saying anything, our government must carefully take note that it is an embassy statement, not a statement of the US Department of State, which would make it an entirely different thing. [continues 429 words]
Anti-illegal drug operations will be intensified in high-end clubs located at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City following the arrest of three alleged drug traffickers last Saturday in Taguig and Pasig, the Southern Police District said. Owners of upscale bars and nightclubs have been cooperative in the campaign against illegal activities, National Capital Regional Police Office ( NCRPO) director Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde said yesterday. Albayalde said owners of upscale bars and nightclubs are willing to sign a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine National Police ( PNP) allowing police operatives to conduct surveillance in their establishments. [continues 133 words]
STORIES about shenanigans at the Cebu City Jail have been doing the rounds for years. Because the jail is being run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), tackling the complaints related to these "stories" has been dependent not on the local government officials but on a national government agency. For years, BJMP 7 officials tended to look the other way allowing those "stories" to persist. The raid conducted early Saturday, done in full force by various law enforcement units, was thus a welcome development. It was called, like in previous raids, "Operation Greyhound" but it was an operation like no other before it in intensity and scope. No wonder it also netted the biggest catch in years. [continues 262 words]
FORMER Cebu City Jail warden Johnson Calub and 28 senior jail guards will not be reporting to work today. Calub might even face an administrative case if there's proof he was "remiss in his duty." Meanwhile, a team of investigators from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology 7 Regional Investigation and Prosecution Division will subject the jail officers to an inquiry if there is enough basis to include them. Hold on. Is this related to the discovery of P4,653,400 in cash, illegal drugs and appliances inside the facility? So what's with the "if he was 'remiss in his duty'" and "if there is enough basis to include them?" [continues 411 words]
CHIEF Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said Monday, August 15, that the Duterte administration is not tolerating the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug personalities and stressed that it was the drug suspects who are "killing each other." "As far as we are concerned, the killings are being made by drug pushers themselves, killing each other," Panelo told reporters. Panelo's statement came after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) had withdrawn its support on President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, saying it has "clearly become anti-people and anti-democratic." [continues 199 words]
OFTENTIMES, debates do not end in resolutions nor do the arguments meet squarely. The problem lies not in the lack of logic but on the different paradigms the reasoning proceeds from. Understanding the war on drugs require a proper paradigm, the paradigm of war. Over the years, decades even, the drug situation has worsened. Drug addicts took marijuana and cough syrups. They walked in the streets and their profile as addicts are unmistakable: long hair, tattered pants, skinny, and untidy. Overtime the addicts turn to synthetic drugs, most famous of which is "shabu." So too the profile of an addict: it has gone a massive transformation. For the untrained eye an addict maybe in your office without being noticed. They may even wear "barong" or coat and tie. [continues 623 words]
We can rant all day about how dirty and bloody the current war on drugs has become, but we cannot deny the fact that only President Rodrigo Duterte has shown utmost resolve and political will to do battle with drug syndicates. The illegal drug trade is just one of the tentacles of the underworld. According to law enforcement experts, revenues accrued from drug trafficking fund the criminal colony that is illegal gambling, human trafficking, white slavery, gunrunning, cybercrime and terrorism, not to mention sustaining the network of government officials who aid the illegal structure. [continues 920 words]
What changed is that the socalled "war" on drugs is now taken most literally. Our entire police organization seems entirely focused on the drug problem. Raids are conducted incessantly. Evidence is being collected against the so-called "drug lords" and their powerful protectors. As all wars do, this effort produces a body count. It creates collateral damage, innocents harmed in the pursuit of powerful criminal gangs. As all wars do, this one creates a fog: a climate of confusion where vigilantes jump into the action and where the criminals themselves start eliminating rivals. As the body count bloats, public resistance to the antidrug effort begins to build. [continues 817 words]
Although President Duterte's police methods have drawn concern in various parts of the world, even those who deplore his methods at home are praying that his 'war on drugs' would somehow succeed. However, international experts who have done extensive studies on the global drug wars are deeply pessimistic; they describe the "war on drugs" as a failed strategy, and are calling for a major policy "rethink." These experts have not condemned the extrajudicial killings, the shoot-on-sight and "surrender or else" orders in the present drug war, as some UN officials, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and certain international publications have. Their studies precede DU30's war by at least a couple of years. [continues 1824 words]
THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has withdrawn its support for President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs, which the party described as having become "anti-people and anti-democratic." "In line with standing orders, the New People's Army (NPA) will continue to intensify its operations to arrest and disarm drug trade operators and protectors. However, these will no longer be considered as cooperative with the Duterte regime's undemocratic and anti-people 'war on drugs,'" according to a statement by the CPP released on Friday. [continues 359 words]
If the government wants charges to stick against public officials linked to the illegal drug trade, it should protect witnesses at least against high-value suspects. Last Wednesday Police Officer 2 Ryan Casiban was found dead at a firing range in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu with only his pants on. The rest of his uniform plus his service M-16 rifle and police motorcycle were found in another area of the city. Investigators reportedly said Casiban was among those who identified police generals Marcelo Garbo and Vicente Loot as protectors of the illegal drug trade. The two are among the five police generals, three of them still in the active service, who were publicly identified by President Duterte as coddlers of drug trafficking. All five have denied the accusation. [continues 218 words]
A TOTAL of 3,257 extrajudicial killings (EJKs) were committed during the Marcos dictatorship. In contrast, there were 805 drug-related fatalities from May 10 (when Rodrigo Duterte emerged winner of the presidential election) to Aug. 12, per the INQUIRER count. If the current rate continues, the total number of EJKs for the six years of the Duterte administration will end up about 700 percent more than the killings committed during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship. President Duterte is either ill-advised or terribly underestimating the risk that he can be held liable at the International Criminal Court, given the circumstances of the killings. [continues 804 words]
THE Philippines has vowed to investigate reports of a wave of extrajudicial killings, the government said Sunday, after Washington warned military aid to its Asian ally was dependent on respect for human rights. According to media reports, nearly a thousand people have been killed since President Rodrigo R. Duterte won a landslide election victory in May largely on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals. The US embassy warned the Duterte government on Friday that millions of dollars of military aid allotted to the Philippines was tied to adherence to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights. [continues 637 words]
MANILA - Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of a town in the southern Philippines, was watching television Sunday after midnight when he was startled to hear the country's new president call out his name. It was no honor. President Rodrigo Duterte was reading a list of more than 150 officials he said were involved in the illegal drug trade. He ordered Dimaukom and the others to turn themselves in within 24 hours or be hunted down. Since he took office six weeks ago, Duterte, 71, has roiled the nation with a violent war on drugs that has left hundreds dead, most of them poor and powerless. [continues 261 words]
A COALITION of human rights advocates urged President Duterte yesterday not to make his war on drugs a war on human rights. In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDefend) emphasized the need to deal with the cause of drug addiction in the Philippines-poverty. Around 30 private groups gathered in Quezon City yesterday to launch iDefend, intended to "fill a vacuum" left by the collapse of the political opposition, as well as to provide legal services to families of victims of extrajudicial killings and police operations in Mr. Duterte's war on drugs. [continues 480 words]
MANILA - Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of a town in the southern Philippines, was watching television last Sunday after midnight when he was startled to hear the country's new president call out his name. It was no honor. President Rodrigo Duterte was reading a list of more than 150 officials he said were involved in the illegal drug trade. He ordered Mr. Dimaukom and the others to turn themselves in within 24 hours or be hunted down. "We were really surprised when the president came out to announce it," Mr. Dimaukom, the mayor of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan, said by email. "Not once were we involved in drugs. In fact, we were fighting drugs. I support the president's drug war." [continues 1172 words]
From underprivileged communities, police are taking their intensified campaign against illegal drugs to upscale bars and nightclubs. But Philippine National Police ( PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa made it clear he is not about to wage war with owners and operators of leisure establishments frequented by the rich, saying he only intends to get their cooperation. "First of all, I would like to initiate dialogue with them for a peaceful approach," he said. The glitzy clubs and bars, he said, are mostly located in Makati and in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. [continues 974 words]
The killings will continue, but martial law is not in the picture - that's my reading of President Duterte's speech directed at Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno. This administration doesn't need martial law, although it might declare a state of emergency in Sulu to crush the Abu Sayyaf. If the ongoing nationwide killing spree is sustained at its current rate, it may even surpass the body count of victims during martial law. Ferdinand Marcos at least tried to coat his authoritarian acts with legal niceties. [continues 1013 words]
Chief Justice Sereno went slightly off tangent when she instructed judges named in the "narco list" not to submit to the police without a warrant. She then wrote President Duterte to express her discomfort over the Name and Shame effort. The President, when he exposed the explosive list of names, did not ask the judges to be arrested. He asked those named to report to the Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over them. The Court, eventually, did the right thing. It asked that the police furnish it with a bill of particulars and requested a retired justice to oversee an internal inquiry. [continues 823 words]
CEBU CITY- Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has described as "ill-advised and half-baked" President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to publicly release the names of over 150 local officials as part of his war on illegal drugs. The 66-year-old prelate said that while he supported the President's campaign, the fundamental requirements of due process and rule of law must be observed at all times. "There are people who welcome the President's move to name names, but there are also those who are anxious of what he did," Palma told reporters after he ordained 12 new priests at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Cebu City on Tuesday. [continues 259 words]
Ill-advised and half-baked. This was how Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma described the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to publicly identify the local officials allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade. While he supports the President's campaign to curb illegal drugs, the 66year-old prelate said the fundamental requirements of due process and the rule of law have not been observed when he announced the names of so-called "narcopoliticians," judges and policemen involved in the illicit trade. He likewise called the drug list "not realistic," while at the same time expressing doubt over the inclusion of former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama in the list. [continues 842 words]
Early Sunday, President Rodrigo R. Duterte dropped another bombshell and announced to the public the names of seven judges, 52 incumbent and former mayors and vice mayors, three congressmen, one former board member and 96 police and military officers allegedly involved in illegal drug trade, bringing the total number of shamed individuals to 159. What could the "presidential shaming" of politicians, judges and policemen believed to be involved in illegal drug operation attain? If indeed they are really into the illegal drug business, could shaming make them stop their illegal activities? [continues 524 words]
IFUGAO Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat is tagging the war on drugs waged by the administration as a war of the classes. Baguilat said treatment of suspects in the drug clean up has been discriminatory. "The rich and powerful are given deadlines to negotiate their surrender, are accommodated in the PNP White House, gets invited to coffee and are subject to an investigation. But the poor, the lowly drug pusher or the addict simply gets the bullet. It seems like the rules are different with the rich and the poor," Baguilat said. [continues 244 words]
I LAUD the government's resolve in pursuing its anti-drug campaign, particularly in bringing to justice alleged narco-politicians, judges and bad cops who have contributed and/or benefitted from the drug menace. However, I would like to raise some questions and concerns on how this war is being waged, especially on the latest list made public by President Duterte. Case build-ups and dangerous precedent Is the list the result of judicious case build-ups? Is it backed up by sufficient evidence that can stand the scrutiny of our courts? Will the government file the appropriate charges? [continues 261 words]
In a televised speech Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking in the city of Davao, named 150 officials that he said were involved in the country's drug trade, including members of Congress, police officials, five retired and current generals and at least seven judges, and gave them a 24-hour deadline to surrender to police. Several have turned themselves in, including 18 mayors and 31 police officials, according to police statistics. "There is no due process in my mouth," Duterte said. "You can't stop me, and I'm not afraid even if you say that I can end up in jail." [continues 527 words]
President Threatens to Declare Martial Law PRESIDENT Duterte yesterday sharply rebuked Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for cautioning judges not to heed his orders to report to police to explain their alleged involvement in illegal drugs and raised the possibility of declaring martial law in the event of a constitutional crisis between the two coequal branches of government. Sereno had warned in a letter to Duterte on Monday that "it would matter greatly to our sense of constitutional order" if the Supreme Court would be given the chance to discipline members of the judiciary as mandated by law. [continues 732 words]
Do You Prefer Martial Law? DAVAO CITY - The drug war cannot wait for the slow wheels of Philippine justice. This was President Duterte's response yesterday to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's instruction to judges tagged by the government as drug coddlers not to surrender unless a warrant is issued for their arrest. He warned that if Sereno precipitated a constitutional crisis, he would defy her, and would order all members of the executive branch to do the same. Asking rhetorically if she would rather have him declare martial law to fight the drug menace, Duterte told Sereno in a nationally televised speech, "There is slaughter every day and you are just interested in the warrant of arrest." [continues 1051 words]
THE PRESIDENT'S "narco-list" came down in the wee hours of the morning last Sunday; like the proverbial thief in the night, it caught many by surprise. And like a piece of work rushed overnight, it was also ridden with errors. The magnitude of President Duterte's release of the list, naming over 150 local government officials, judges and soldiers as involved in drug cartels, cannot be overstated. Depending on which side they are on, lawyers have started to debate whether the list amounts to a systematic violation of the constitutional presumption of innocence or is merely an expression made from the President's bully pulpit. [continues 598 words]
At our regular village Sunday mass last week, I was listening intently to the parish priest's homily as he discussed the importance of being vigilant about what was happening in the Philippines. He kept talking about the importance of the Fifth Commandant 'Thou shall not kill' and how it is relevant to what is happening on a large scale these past few months. I think he was trying to remind us not to turn a blind eye to the rising numbers of deaths in just the past two months. [continues 1016 words]
Let me start with a disclosure and declaration: Because of the contrarian position that I am taking on the war on drugs, I want to declare that: 1) I don't know anyone in the list of narco-politicians and drug coddlers that President Duterte unveiled on Sunday - not one friend or relative or townmate whom I would wish to shield from the punitive hand of the law and public shame. 2) I personally do not use drugs, and am repelled by the very thought of them. And it has been the good fortune of my family not to see any member fall victim to drug addiction. [continues 1067 words]
CANBERRA - The United Nations has warned that it was "greatly concerned" with the rise in extrajudicial killings of suspected drug pushers and users in the Philippines. In the strongest yet warning issued by the United Nations condemning President Duterte's murderous campaign against drug lords in the country, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, said that he shared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's condemnation of the summary killings. "I join the United Nations secretary general in condemning the apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killing, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental and a breach of rights and freedom," Fedotov said. The rise of drug-related killings "contravenes the provisions of the international drug control conventions" and "do not serve the cause of justice," he added. [continues 798 words]
MY DAUGHTER Una just had an up-close view of the immediate aftermath of a killing. She and the other passengers of the school bus were on their way home when they saw the dead man slumped on the pavement, head bleeding from an apparent gunshot wound. Though stunned and muttering "Oh, my God, oh, my God," she was able to take a "snapchat" video. My basketball buddies later confirmed the incident. A "known addict and possibly pusher" was indeed executed near our village in Antipolo. The description of the victim implied that somehow he had it coming. [continues 939 words]
THIS IS in reaction to the news item titled "VP laments lack of outcry vs drug killings" (Front Page, 8/5/16). It is true that the number (more than 800 to date) of suspected drug users and pushers killed has become alarming. But the "alarm" could be for different reasons. Some are alarmed because the number shows the magnitude of the drug problem in the country, while others are alarmed because those killed were just suspects deprived of their right to due process. [continues 332 words]
He just does things differently. Way past midnight last weekend, in a military camp no one heard of, during the wake for soldiers killed fighting insurgents, President Rodrigo Duterte delivered a bombshell of a speech. He named 160 mayors, judges and police officers he accuses of involvement in the illegal drugs trade. The speech reverberated across the globe, carried by the major international news networks. Because the speech was delivered in the wee hours, print media missed out on the explosive expose. But it was carried all day by the broadcast media. [continues 842 words]
THERE is a growing sentiment after two Cordillerans were included in the list of narco - politicians and judges by President Rodrigo Duterte who have contributed and benefitted from the drug menace. Included in the list are former Langiden, Abra mayor Felix Castillo and Baguio City Regional Trial Court Branch 61 Judge Antonio Reyes. According to reports, Castillo has already surrendered to local authorities while Reyes has instead decided to keep mum on his involvement. It is worth praising the government's resolve in pursuing its anti-drug campaign, particularly in bringing to justice alleged narco-politicians, judges and bad cops who have contributed and/ or benefitted from the drug menace. [continues 234 words]
IF THE intelligence reports about public officials tagged by President Digong as protectors of the illegal drug trade were A-1, they should have suffered the same fate as lowly drug pushers who were summarily executed by the police and vigilante groups. The only difference between these officials and small-time drug pushers is the privilege of rank; they're still lowlifes for having destroyed millions of lives. Even in the war against drugs, the people at the higher end of the totem pole are treated differently. [continues 425 words]
Mayors, Judges, Congressmen, Cops, Soldiers on List DAVAO CITY - They have 24 hours to surrender or be hunted down. To stop what he described as a drug "pandemic," President Duterte bared yesterday a list of 159 incumbent and former local executives and lawmakers, judges and uniformed personnel suspected to be involved in the illegal drug trade. Police and other state forces securing many of the 159 were pulled out. The President said he owed it to the Filipino people to release the names, noting that "my mouth does not have due process." [continues 1171 words]
Lawmakers have expressed strong support for President Duterte's anti-drug campaign but stressed that due process and the rule of law must be upheld. Duterte yesterday named at least 158 mayors and vice mayors, judges, lawmakers, police and military officers involved in drug trafficking in the country. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, said the administration should have made sure of the cases against those exposed before Duterte named them. "But now that names have been exposed, the authorities are hard put to prove the President's accusation. Hopefully, the evidence gathering will be conducted to serve the ends of justice and not the President's credibility," Lacson said. [continues 895 words]
MANILA (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs Sunday, ordering them to surrender for investigation as he ratcheted up his bloody war against what he calls a "pandemic." Duterte relieved members of the military and police he named from their posts and ordered government security personnel to be withdrawn from politicians he identified in a nationally televised speech. He also ordered gun licenses of those named revoked. "All military and police who are attached to these people, I'm giving you 24 hours to report to your mother unit or I will whack you. I'll dismiss you from the service," Duterte said in the speech at a military camp in southern Davao city. [continues 280 words]
The Dark Side of Duterte's Deadly but Popular War. When the image of Jennelyn Olaires weeping as she cradled the body of her slain husband went viral in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte called it melodramatic. There's not much Duterte hasn't said when it comes to his war on drugs, his only real election platform and his big promise to the 16 million Filipinos who swept him to power in May by a massive margin. And "The Punisher", as he is known, has been true to his word. [continues 427 words]
DAGUPAN CITY The anti-illegal drug campaign of President Duterte is getting out of hand, and the public should not simply turn a blind eye to the killings. Sen. Leila de Lima acknowledged the gravity of the drug problem in the country, but stressed the measures against it should respect the rule of law. "We cannot simply believe that all those who were shot dead grabbed the guns of arresting police operatives or they fought in an armed encounter with lawmen," De Lima said during a testimonial dinner for the successful 2015 Bar examiners of the University of Pangasinan on Friday. [continues 515 words]
LINGAYEN-DAGUPAN Archbishop Socrates Villegas said he could no longer stomach the killings of suspected drug users and peddlers. "I do not have to be a bishop to say this. I do not have to be a Catholic to be disturbed by the killings that jar us every time we hear or watch or read the news," the prelate said in a statement entitled, "Let the Humanity in Us Speak." The statement will be read on Sunday in place of the homily during masses in all the churches and oratories in the Archdiocese of Lingayen, Dagupan. [continues 236 words]
MANILA - The Philippines' new president, Rodrigo Duterte, on Sunday publicly accused scores of judges, mayors, lawmakers, military personnel and police officers of involvement with the illegal drug trade, giving them 24 hours to surrender for investigation or, he said, be "hunted" down. Mr. Duterte rejected calls last week from international human rights groups to observe due process in the war he has declared on both sellers and users of illicit drugs, after a photograph of a drug user shot and killed by vigilantes made it to the front pages and became a symbol for the bloody antidrug campaign. [continues 652 words]
MANILA (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police, and military personnel to illegal drugs Sunday, ordering them to surrender for investigation as he ratcheted up his bloody war against what he calls a "pandemic." Duterte promptly relieved members of the military and police he named from their current posts and ordered government security personnel to be withdrawn from politicians he identified in a nationally televised speech. He also ordered gun licenses of those named revoked. "There is no due process in my mouth," Duterte said. Duterte's war on drugs has already left more than 400 suspected dealers and pushers dead and more than 4,400 arrested in more than a month since he took office. [end]
It's just hyperbole, President Duterte said in explaining his promise to kill local government executives and other officials involved in drugs. He may be telling the truth. Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera town in Leyte, after all, is still alive after turning himself in last week and naming his son Kerwin, still at large, as a drug dealer. As of yesterday afternoon, Mayor Mamaulan Abinal Mulok of Maguing, Lanao del Sur and former mayor Mohammad Ali Abu Abinal also remained alive after presenting themselves to Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa at Camp Crame last Friday. [continues 973 words]
THE CORPSE had clean feet. The body was deposited beside a highway that would soon be crawling with motorists getting away for the weekend to Tagaytay and Batangas, favorite watering holes for Manila's middle class and affluent. On a weekend, the site would have been risky for an execution or a disposal. There are nearby malls, arcades, and the restaurants and excursion sites of Tagaytay and the beaches of Batangas. But late Thursday evening or Friday dawn? A few meters from a university and situated beside an open clearing, the spot is located along a stretch of road that is unlighted and uninhabited. [continues 478 words]
Aside from governors, mayors and members of Congress, judges are also in the order of battle against illegal drugs, President Duterte revealed on Friday. Speaking at the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp LapuLapu in Cebu, Duterte warned he would have to kill them if they would not stop their illegal drug trade. "These drug lords, these mayors, these governors... don't be complacent with me, I will have you killed," Duterte said. "Now, if I read the names of the judges which I will in a few hours, a few days. It's not that I want them shamed, I do not know them. There are police officers, judges, there are congressmen. But it behooves upon me, I have the obligation to tell the Filipino people what is happening to this country," he said. [continues 685 words]
MANILA (AP) - President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged abuses have occurred in his war on illegal drugs, which has left more than 400 people dead in a month and alarmed rights activists. But Duterte refused to back down from a shoot-to-kill order for drug suspects. Duterte said in a speech late Thursday that most drug dealers and addicts slain in gunbattles with police had put up a fight, but added that he was sure some were "salvaged," a local slang for extrajudicial killings usually by law officers. [continues 260 words]
President Duterte issued yesterday a "shoot-to-kill" order against politicians involved in illegal drugs, saying their unforgivable acts have plunged the country into a crisis. Duterte, who has vowed to end the narcotics trade and criminality within six months, accused the politicians of destroying lives and of enriching themselves at the expense of the people. "P*ng i ninyo. Did you not think about where this problem would lead us? It's good that I am the President now. I will have you killed. Have you seen what you've done to the Philippines? And then I will forgive you?" the President said in an interview in Davao City. [continues 1085 words]
BANGKOK In a backroom heavy with sawdust, Mr Akkarin Puri, 33, carefully examines the veneer of a half-finished guitar. There was a time when the craftsman's attention was more focused on inhaling the vapours from a pill of yaba - a methamphetamine - heated over a flame. In fact, by the age of 21, his drug habit had landed him in juvenile detention at least six times and a military lock-up for 18 months. There, he tried to rob a fellow addict to fund his next fix and landed himself in jail for another eight years. It was while doing time in a particularly notorious prison, in Pathum Thani province next to Bangkok, that he saw up close one of the gravest consequences of the kingdom's long-running "war on drugs". [continues 1319 words]
PRESIDENT Duterte's bloody war on drugs, which has taken the lives of more than 600 people in one month, has caught the attention of international media and human rights organizations. The viral photo showing the lifeless body of suspected drug pusher Michael Siaron being cradled by his weeping wife Jennilyn Olayres "humanized the cost of this war on drugs," according to a Time report quoting Phelim Kine, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch (HRW). But Mr. Duterte, in his inaugural State of the Nation Address to Congress on July 25, dismissed the photo, published by the INQUIRER on its front page a day before his speech, calling it melodramatic and seeking to evoke "Pieta," the sculpture of Michelangelo depicting a hearbreaking scene from the Deposition of Jesus. [continues 585 words]
THIS REFERS to the news item titled "Widow tells Duterte: Kill drugs, not people" (Front Page, 8/1/16). The enemies of the Republic and its people are not the drug dependents or those hooked on drugs or their coddlers in the government. The enemy is illegal drugs. Given this fact, President Duterte should not order the killing of any person, be they guilty or not. The millennials should know that in the first year of martial law, dictator Ferdinand Marcos got the highest approval trust rating. Then the people in the military, police, executive, legislative, judiciary and even coffee servers, gardeners, drivers, and security guards started to be abusive. Then some 10,000 people (excluding desaparecidos and victims and survivors of unreported torture) became easy victims of martial law atrocities. [continues 98 words]
PRESIDENT Rody Duterte on Friday repeated his "shoot-to-kill" order against those involved in the illegal drugs trade who would resist arrest. His shoot-to-kill order is really meant for the police to kill. "Shoot to kill is to shoot and kill him. I don't want the police wasting bullets," he said. Waste the drug traders, not the bullets. * President Rody also guaranteed to answer for state forces involved in shooting incidents related to their duty in the war against drugs. [continues 269 words]
It's good to hear President Duterte saying he does not like to kill, and he does not go for "salvaging" or summary executions. Among others, he's referring to cases wherein suspects whose hands are cuffed behind their backs upon arrest are shot dead by the arresting cops purportedly after trying to grab the officers' gun. That's what happened to the unfortunate motorcycle rider John dela Riarte, who was arrested by the police Highway Patrol Group (HPG) after he figured in a traffic accident and reportedly pounded the car with his helmet. Dela Riarte was shown in a video being punched several times as he was surrounded by a group of HPG and Metro Manila Development Authority traffic aides, and then being led away with his hands cuffed behind his back. Moments later, he was shot dead in a police car, with gunshots to the neck and chest. [continues 999 words]
VICE PRESIDENT Leni Robredo has deplored the lack of public outcry against extrajudicial killings that have come with President Duterte's takeno-prisoners war on drugs. "I hope my being vocal against [extrajudicial killings] inspires many others to follow suit because there really has to be public outcry. The way I see it, there has been very little public outcry in the recent past," Robredo told the INQUIRER in an interview on Wednesday. On the same day, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a statement saying it was "greatly concerned" about the killings of suspected drug users and dealers in the Philippines. [continues 877 words]
A national daily made a screaming headline, "Church: Thou shall not kill" below a heart wrenching and stirring picture of a weeping young woman hugging the bloodied body of her partner, a pedicab driver and alleged drug pusher, who was shot and killed by a motor-riding gunman near Pasay Rotunda on Edsa. The Sixth Commandment (Thou shall not kill) was the message for President Rodrigo Duterte in a mass which the Archdiocese of Manila held last Monday, July 25 as he delivered his State of the Nation Address (Sona) to Congress. [continues 330 words]
The photographs and video footage tell the story: men, shirtless because of the heat, packed like sardines as they sleep in makeshift detention centers, or cooking their evening meal about a meter away from others who dip into water pails as they take a bath. The detention areas are so cramped some inmates take turns sleeping on precious space. The images have become common in local jails, where persons who have been arrested or surrendered as part of the crackdown against the drug menace are held. Some are quickly freed for rehabilitation. Those charged with heavier offenses face a longer stay as they await trial and the possibility of being freed on bail. [continues 225 words]
Military assistance to the Philippines dominated the discussions between President Duterte and visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry, with the latter cutting short his message of concern about human rights at the President's behest. Speaking before members of the Presidential Security Group at Malacanang Park Sunday evening, Duterte related how he told Kerry during their meeting last week to shift to another topic the $32-million US military assistance to the country. "I have a job to do, let us go to another topic," he recalled having told Kerry. "The money? Oh 32, 'Ah, I give you, $32 million'," he quoted the US official as saying in response. [continues 169 words]
MANILA - Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over a month ago, promising to get tough on crime by having the police and the military kill drug suspects, 420 people have been killed in the campaign, according to tallies of police reports by the local news media. Most were killed in confrontations with the police, while 154 were killed by unidentified vigilantes. This has prompted 114,833 people to turn themselves in, as either drug addicts or dealers, since Mr. Duterte took office, according to national police logs. [continues 1142 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over a month ago, promising to get tough on crime by having the police and the military kill drug suspects, 420 people have been killed in the campaign, according to tallies of police reports by the local news media. Most were killed in confrontations with the police, while 154 were killed by unidentified vigilantes. Addressing Congress last week in his first State of the Nation address, Mr. Duterte reiterated his take-no-prisoners approach, ordering the police to "triple" their efforts against crime. [continues 153 words]
MANILA - Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over a month ago, promising to get tough on crime by having the police and the military kill drug suspects, 420 people have been killed in the campaign, according to tallies of police reports by the local news media. Most were killed in confrontations with the police, while 154 were killed by unidentified vigilantes. This has prompted 114,833 people to turn themselves in, as either drug addicts or dealers, since Duterte took office, according to national police logs. [continues 375 words]
MORE than 300 anti-narcotics and human rights groups from around the world yesterday called for the UN to condemn Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs that has already killed hundreds of people. The appeal, directed to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), came as an influential Philippine senator called for an investigation into the killings of suspected drug pushers that Duterte has endorsed. Senator Leila de Lima and the foreign organisations cited reports of police killing hundreds of people since Duterte won May elections largely on a platform to wage a violent war on drugs. [continues 247 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over a month ago, promising to get tough on crime by having the police and the military kill drug suspects, 420 people have been killed in the campaign, according to tallies of police reports by the local news media. Most were killed in confrontations with the police, while 154 were killed by unidentified vigilantes. This has prompted 114,833 people to turn themselves in, as either drug addicts or dealers, since Duterte took office, according to national police logs. [continues 207 words]
IN HIS first State of the Nation Address (Sona), among the memorable lines that President Rodrigo Duterte said was, "human rights must work to uplift human dignity. But human rights cannot be used as a shield or an excuse to destroy the country-your country and my country." Michael Moore, the American documentary filmmaker and author known for his critique of the current state of American politics, economics and culture, featured dealing with drug addiction in his production "Where to Invade Next," which is premised on the idea of identifying and "stealing great ideas" of other countries that could be brought back to the United States-hence the notion of invasion, but minus the violence that it usually entails. [continues 578 words]
Human Rights Groups Call on UN to Condemn Deaths Anti-Drug Drive 'Excuse for Killings' Say Campaigners More than 700 suspected drug users or dealers have been summarily executed by police or vigilantes in the Philippines in less than three months, say human rights campaigners, who are calling on the UN to denounce the killings. Human Rights Watch, Stop Aids and International HIV/Aids Alliance are among more than 300 civil society groups that have signed joint letters to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), urging them to speak out. [continues 569 words]
PERHAPS WHAT so turned off PDu30 about the front-page INQUIRER photo of the body of Michael Siaron cradled in the arms of his weeping widow Jennilyn Olayres, which he dismissed as "drama" during his State of the Nation Address no less, was that it gave a "face" to his war against drugs. And that is the human face of the Duterte campaign: a grieving widow, a slain young man, and a populace that could do nothing but look on as police waited for operatives to process the crime scene. [continues 874 words]
The apprehended person was unarmed and, according to the police, handcuffed as he was pushed into a vehicle of the Highway Patrol Group. What dire threat could he have posed to the HPG members that warranted the use of lethal force? John dela Riarte allegedly displayed aggressive behavior when he was accosted by the HPG after the motorcycle he was driving figured in an accident with a car last Friday morning in Makati. How hard is it for several cops to subdue one unarmed man? [continues 285 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over a month ago, promising to get tough on crime by having the police and the military kill drug suspects, 420 people have been killed in the campaign, according to tallies of police reports by the local news media. Most were killed in confrontations with the police, while 154 were killed by unidentified vigilantes. This has prompted 114,833 people to turn themselves in, as either drug addicts or dealers, since Duterte took office, according to national police logs. [continues 336 words]
NO ONE claims to support the killing of the innocent, but it seems that many are willing to leave the judgment of innocence to the police and the vigilantes. Even worse, many are seeing death itself as proof of one's guilt. "He must have been a drug pusher," said some netizens of Emmanuel Jose Pavia, the Ateneo High School teacher who was shot and killed in Marikina. "They were killed because they deserved it. Kill pa more!" exclaimed one commenter on one of the many reports-now commonplace-on the corpses of suspected drug pushers found in the streets. [continues 869 words]
Case of 'Cardboard Justice' Assailed That is the message of Jennilyn Olayres to President Duterte, whose war on illegal drugs had taken the life of her husband, Michael Siaron. Olayres (not Olaires as earlier reported) will bury her husband on Wednesday, 11 days after motorcycle-riding men shot him dead at Pasay Rotunda on Edsa and Taft Avenue. She conceded Siaron, 29, was a drug user, but she said it was impossible that he was a dealer because they were too poor and could barely pay for their next meal. [continues 872 words]
Next week in Washington, a Filipino quality will be highlighted in an assembly of young leaders from around the world. It's "calidad humana" a term coined by Chile's former ambassador to Manila, Roberto Mayorga, to describe the ordinary Filipino's compassion and humaneness that he has found so remarkable because, he says, it is rapidly disappearing in many societies including his own. The term, as Mayorga acknowledges, defies exact translation; the closest he can think of in Filipino is [continues 991 words]
A religious group regularly visits the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) to preach love and hope to inmates and offer women and illegal drugs on the side, according to reports reaching Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. "We have found out some of the possibly religious personnel who were conducting preaching inside the penitentiary have been used to bring drugs as well as prostitutes inside the penitentiary," Aguirre said, citing information he received from a member of a non-government organization and three NBP guards who visited him recently. [continues 717 words]
Ciliclap, Indonesia - INDONESIA executed four drug convicts yesterday but 10 others due to face the firing squad were given an apparent reprieve in a confused process one lawyer condemned as a "complete mess". The executions on a remote prison island went ahead despite strong protests from international rights groups, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union who had urged Indonesia not to proceed. Four inmates - three Nigerians and one Indonesian - were put to death just after midnight. One of the Nigerian prisoners was cremated hours later, while the bodies of the three others were being prepared for burial. [continues 294 words]
A FRIEND from my college years now based in Cagayan de Oro messaged me for help. His activist friend working in an LGU was surprised to find his name included in a list of suspected drug lords. He vouches that his friend is clean and is a victim of false information made by the mayor's political rivals. This message comes at a time when we are seeing distressing news on President Duterte's war on drugs and crime. At first, news of drug users and peddlers surrendering en masse, the relief of top ranking police chiefs for alleged protecting of drug lords and the cleanup of Bilibid were reasons to cheer. [continues 418 words]
IN his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) among the memorable lines that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said were: "human rights must work to uplift human dignity. But human rights cannot be used as a shield or an excuse to destroy the country your country and my country" these, and the many statements that referred to illegal drugs. Michael Moore, the American documentary filmmaker and author known for his critique of the current state of American politics, economics and culture, featured dealing with drug addiction in his production "Where to Invade Next", a documentary premised on the idea of identifying and "stealing great ideas" of other countries that could be brought back to the United States--hence the notion of invasion, but minus the violence that it usually entails. [continues 574 words]
Corazon Aquino unleashed the freedom fighter in the Pinoy. Fidel Ramos unleashed the team spirit. Rodrigo Duterte is unleashing... our inner homicidal maniac? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I can't help wondering if this "killing time" under Dirty Rody emboldened Army reservist Von Tanto to shoot that biker with whom he had a vehicular altercation Monday night. CCTV footage showed Tanto not just shooting to kill rather than wound, but finishing off Mark Vincent Geralde as the biker lay dying on the pavement. A stray bullet apparently hit and critically wounded a teenage girl standing in front of her house nearby. [continues 992 words]
All told, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's first State of the Nation Address (SONA) really inspires hope for a better Philippines in the future. The "show" at the Batasan looks so authentic and natural indeed, devoid of any semblance of artificiality. What we saw is what we got especially the persona of Duterte as a man of the masses to whom most Filipinos can relate. He really looks so sincere and raring to tackle his job as he entered the halls of Congress in Barong Tagalog with rolled up sleeves. [continues 1047 words]
PRESIDENT Duterte's State of the Nation Address (Sona) was laced with confusing and sometimes contradictory messages. At one point he stated rightly that the "rule of law must at all times prevail" and that government is obliged to "fulfill the human rights of our citizens." However, President Duterte's unwillingness to use his Sona to direct a thorough investigation into the alarming surge in the killings of suspected drug dealers and users in recent weeks, allegedly by the police, symbolizes a critical failure on his part to fulfill his obligation to defend the rule of law and to uphold and protect the rights and freedoms of all Filipinos. [continues 202 words]
MOMENTS after presiding over his first National Security Council meeting on Wednesday, President Duterte called on local government officials to support his war against illegal drugs, warning that unless the scourge is eliminated, it will haunt the three succeeding administrations. No details of the five-hour long council meeting-attended by former Presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III, Vice President Leni Robredo, Cabinet secretaries and leaders of Congress-were revealed. Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, briefing reporters yesterday, confirmed that the drug problem was among three major issues tackled, but that Mr. Duterte had requested participants to keep sensitive issues to themselves. [continues 728 words]
The Indonesian government said it had executed four drug traffickers, giving a reprieve of uncertain duration to 10 others who it had said would also be put to death. Deputy Attorney General Noor Rachmad said one Indonesian and three Nigerians were executed by firing squad. He said the government has not decided when the other executions will take place. It is the third set of executions under President Joko Widodo, who was elected in 2014. - - From news services [end]
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia on Friday executed three foreigners and an Indonesian convicted of drug crimes, an official said, as the country resumed a "war on drugs" that drew international condemnation last year after two mass executions of foreign drug convicts. The official, Deputy Attorney General Noor Rachmad, said that the Indonesian convict, two Nigerians and a Senegalese were executed by firing squad shortly after midnight. Mr. Rachmad said a decision had not yet been made about when 10 others convicted of drug crimes and sentenced to death, mostly foreigners, would be executed. [continues 665 words]
RIGHT TO LIFE being inherent in the human person, the many believers in the sanctity of life are not likely to withdraw their call that suspected users of illegal drugs be given a chance to be heard before being silenced on the spot by a bullet. There are many circumstances that an arresting police officer must sort out in his mind a split-second before pulling the trigger on a suspected drug-user/pusher who is still presumed innocent under the law. [continues 831 words]
President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign promise to eradicate the menace of illegal drugs in the country from three to six months may soon be realized at the rate the police are cracking the whip on drug lords and pushers. As of the latest count, there are already 312 dead, 3,228 arrested, 120,209 who surrendered and 63,972 houses raided. The government is turning the tide on its bloody war against drugs. "This will be a fight to the death," said PNP chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, who declared total war on drugs. He also warned police officers who are involved in drugs not to push their luck too much or else suffer the same fate as the drug lords. [continues 324 words]
EVER since the President won on a platform of ridding this country of drugs and crime, we have heard it said: this is not a war on drugs; it is a war on the poor. This is a violation of human rights, a violation of the rights of the poor to due process, their right to life, their right to live. Human rights are the soul of the country, said the Vice President. This President has no sense of what human rights are about, say critics. Media spins these deaths: they are all poor! The chairmen of Barangays Bel-Air, Dasmarinas, Forbes Park, San Lorenzo, and Urdaneta sign are no drug users and pushers in posh villages. [continues 770 words]
OUR new president, Rodrigo Duterte, asked us that he be given three to six months to eradicate the problem of drug trafficking and abuse that's plaguing our country. The number of casualties in the ongoing war against drugs, which is hardly a month-old, has alarmed the Commission on Human Rights and some citizens. Can we really win a war against drugs? We've been fighting this war for years, but illegal drugs remain within reach of anybody who wants to use them. What if the proliferation of drugs is not the real problem but just a "symptom"? [continues 189 words]
UNITED States Secretary of State John Kerry mentioned the need to protect civil and human rights during talks on a wide range of issues yesterday with President Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay. In a press briefing, Palace spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Kerry brought up the matter then listened "very intently" to the President's explanation of his drive against criminality. Before meeting with the President, Kerry held a joint press conference with Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay and spoke of the need to protect people's rights even as authorities seek to uphold peace and order. [continues 193 words]
The Senate is set to investigate the rising incidence of extrajudicial killings of alleged drug pushers even as President Duterte has vowed there will be no letup in his anti-drug campaign. The inquiry will be spearheaded by the Senate committee on justice and human rights, chaired by Sen. Leila de Lima, along with Sen. Panfilo Lacson as chairman of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs. De Lima earlier filed Resolution No. 9 seeking an investigation into "recent rampant extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected criminals to strengthen the mechanisms of accountability of law enforcers and to institute corrective legislative measures to ensure full respect of basic human rights, especially the right to life." [continues 182 words]
Inside Asia
