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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
CEBU CITY-The highest-ranking police official in Central Visayas revealed an offer made by what he said is a vigilante group to help the police bring down drug suspects as part of the Duterte administration's war on drugs. Chief Supt. Noli Talino, Central Visayas police director, said he received a text message from an anonymous group offering to help police kill suspected pushers and others involved in drug trafficking. "They want to take the law into their own hands because they could no longer stand the presence of people who continue to peddle or use illegal drugs," Talino said. [continues 341 words]
SUMMARY execution is outside of the law. High value drug pushers (if identified) could be subjected to silent killing by the joint forces of "The Punisher", "Mr. Death Wish," and "Dirty Harry." This could be beyond the movies if the vigilante groups will do their thing. We would like to believe that our policemen do their duty "to serve and to protect" by day, and we do not believe that they take off their uniforms at night to do a "Batman" raid with many "Robins." We want to evade that in our imagination, but that could happen. Our policemen are not expected to do vigilante actions because they are the agents of the persons in authority and they can always operate within the bounds of the law. [continues 656 words]
HUMAN rights groups and the former head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed alarm on Thursday over the rising body count in the government's campaign against illegal drugs, saying it was turning out to be "a war versus the poor." In a press conference, the Citizens Council for Human Rights (CCHR)-a coalition of nongovernment and peoples organizations, human rights lawyers, the religious sector and academe-urged President Duterte to take steps to check the growing number of drug and criminal suspects killed in so-called police operations or found dead in the streets. [continues 459 words]
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, once considered one of the most conservative in the country, has moved to the left in recent years. But if you think that means it is showing a greater regard for individual rights and civil liberties, think again. According to a ruling the court handed down on March 13, the appropriate range of punishments for possessing a small amount of marijuana includes summary execution. In 2005 (the wheels of justice can grind exceedingly slowly) the police in Cambridge, Md., acted on a tip and found a small amount of marijuana residue in a trash can. At 4:30 a.m. on May 6, a SWAT team executed a search warrant on the apartment of Andrew Cornish. A jury would later find the commandos failed to knock and announce themselves properly. As they rushed through the apartment, Cornish came out of the bedroom with a sheathed knife in his hand. The police say he advanced on them. One of the officers shot Cornish twice in the head, killing him. [continues 697 words]
Maria Lucia Karam, a Retired Brazilian Judge, Argues That Drugs Should Be Legalised - but Regulated It made big news last week when the Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, called for a reasoned debate about the failure of drug prohibition. In doing so, he joined his already outspoken predecessors Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo, as well as other former Latin American presidents like Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil. Latin American policymakers have learned that drug prohibition, more than the drugs themselves, is a problem. Prohibition of desire simply cannot work. [continues 695 words]
Why are we asking this now? Nato and the US are ramping up the war on drugs in Afghanistan. American ground forces are set to help guard poppy eradication teams for the first time later this year, while Nato's defence ministers agreed to let their 50,000-strong force target heroin laboratories and smuggling networks. Until now, going after drug lords and their labs was down to a small and secretive band of Afghan commandos, known as Taskforce 333, and their mentors from Britain's Special Boat Service. Eradicating poppy fields was the job of specially trained, but poorly resourced, police left to protect themselves from angry farmers. All that is set to change. [continues 1212 words]
Drug Warriors Are Playing Into The Taliban's Hands After years of hard work by drug warriors in Afghanistan, the country no longer produces 87 percent of the world's illicit opium. Now it produces 92 percent, according to the latest suspiciously precise estimate from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). On Tuesday, citing ties between opium trafficking and the Taliban insurgency, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa called upon NATO forces in Afghanistan to get more involved in efforts to stamp out the opium trade. This is exactly the right strategy to pursue if the aim is to alienate the Afghan people, undermine their government, and strengthen the insurgency. [continues 571 words]
Two more men were added to the number of victims of summary executions, as suspected vigilantes struck late Monday night on Mabini St., Barangay Hipodromo, Cebu City. Roberto Carido Limbaga, 37, of St. Jude St., and Dante dela Cruz Gaviola, 38, of Mabini St., both residents in Hipodromo, died on the spot. They were shot in the head. Since the vigilante-style killings started last Dec. 22, 2004, at least 146 attacks have been carried out. Ten persons survived. Limbaga and Gaviola, based on the records from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC), were jailed in the early 2000s and early 1990s, respectively, for drug-related cases. [continues 257 words]
A notorious thief and a drug user were the latest victims to fall to vigilantes Wednesday night in different places here in Cebu city. The first victim was identified as Christopher Salazar, 21 years old, jobless, and a resident of Pier 4 at the North Reclamation Area this city . The Homicide police said, the victim was playing billiards along the road near the gate to the Superferry terminal when the two people riding a yellow motorcycle came and the backrider shot him several times. [continues 287 words]
ONE thought that with all the attention in the war against drugs, small town lottery and other political issues that a simple case of an alleged beating done by two agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Northern Mindanao would remain under the radar for long. But it surfaced thanks to media vigilance and now P02 Iraz Zari and P03 Perfecto Vargas Jr. are facing the prospect of a court trial if the complainant does decide to pursue his case. [continues 460 words]
Junk food, drugs and pornography are having a spiralling impact on the nation's youth, claims an economic think-tank. More than 49 per cent of young people over the age of six have a taste for synthetic snacks, and last year about 42 per cent of six-to 14-year-olds munched their way through junk food every day. Malnutrition, obesity, tooth decay and other health woes have occurred because of excessive consumption of seasonings, artificial colours and preservatives, said Ampon Kittiampon, secretary general of the National Economic and Social Development Board. [continues 283 words]
THE drug syndicate operating the "shabu tiangge" in Pasig City was reportedly paying millions in protection money every week. A highly-placed source, who requested anonymity, told People's Tonight that they are now trying to confirm reports that huge amounts of money changed hands to keep the drugs complex free from raids. "Based on the reports milyon daw ang ginagastos para protektahan ang compound...Ang hindi lang namin alam kung sino ang tumatanggap ng protection money, pwedeng pulis, pwedeng pulitiko," the official disclosed. [continues 227 words]
Pinoy Kasi I WASN'T surprised when I learned about the police raid on a 600-sq-m lot in Pasig City, with some 40 shanties selling illegal drugs. They were doing this much like roadside restaurants, complete with menus. "Shabu tiangge" [methamphetamine hydrochloride flea market], some newspapers called it. Others described it as a shabu supermarket. And yet it's fairly common knowledge that Metro Manila and other large Philippine cities are now saturated with drug dens. In Cebu City, there are even "shooting galleries," where drug dependents go to get their drugs injected intravenously. [continues 1114 words]
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena is not proud of the vigilante killings but said, "I'm not exactly sad when a criminal gets shot." He made the statement when sought for his comment on reports that the Archdiocese of Cebu already finds it "useless" to approach and ask him to do something about the unsolved murders. "There is too much emphasis on saving the criminal from the vigilantes as opposed to saving the ordinary Cebuanos from the criminals. Where do we draw the line?" the mayor said. [continues 426 words]
The killing of two brothers in Barangay Lorega-San Miguel, Cebu City last Sunday deepened the Cebu Archdiocese's concern about Cebu's peace and order. The archdiocese is turning to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 to take action on the killings that have claimed 116 lives since Dec. 22, 2004. Msgr. Achilles Dakay said that as soon Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal returns from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) meeting in Manila, a manifesto will be drafted to request the NBI to step into the case. [continues 361 words]
