Chuyên mục: Philippines

British man on mission for justice after wife gunned down in Philippines

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Guardian

Stuart Green’s wife Mia, a lawyer, was killed in a barrage of bullets that narrowly missed his children in a hit he blames on gangsters linked to one of her cases

Stuart Green with his wife Mia and their three children. ‘They know every move that we make,’ he says of the people he believes were responsible for her death.
Stuart Green with his wife Mia and their three children. ‘They know every move that we make,’ he says of the people he believes were responsible for her death. Photograph: Supplied

  Southeast Asia correspondent

Wednesday 8 March 2017 00.30 EST Last modified on Wednesday 8 March 2017 22.11 EST

The two gunmen flanked the modest, family-sized Toyota at a busy intersection. Aiming at the driver, they fired a barrage of bullets, nine of which fatally hit Mia Mascariñas-Green in her head and neck.

In the back seat, her 10-year-old daughter and 23-month-old twins watched. Their nanny – who was sitting in the third row – jumped over the divide to shield the children with her body. One of the attacker’s guns jammed and they fled on motorbikes.

Stuart Green, a marine biologist from Hertfordshire in the UK, relates the last moments of his wife’s life with a mixture of anger and extraordinary grief. Tiếp tục đọc “British man on mission for justice after wife gunned down in Philippines” →

Retired officer links Duterte to almost 200 killings

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Al Jazeera

Philippine officer admits to killing 300 people, about 200 as a member of a ‘Davao death squad’.retired Philippine police officer has linked President Rodrigo Duterte – during his time as a mayor  of Davao – and his men to nearly 200 killings that the officer and other members of a “death squad” allegedly carried out.

Arturo Lascanas made the allegations at the start of a nationally televised Senate inquiry on Monday after he admitted to lying in October during another Senate inquiry into alleged extrajudicial killings linked to Duterte.

Lascanas said that he had personally killed 300 people, about 200 as a member of a “Davao death squad”, with his last in 2015. He also detailed two cases where he had murdered critics of Duterte, under the instruction of the then-mayor’s bodyguard. Tiếp tục đọc “Retired officer links Duterte to almost 200 killings” →

‘False prophet’: Duterte, the Catholic Church and the fight for the soul of the Philippines

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Washington Post

By Emily Rauhala March 4

Relatives and friends of victims of extrajudicial killings leave Manila’s Baclaran Church for a vigil Feb. 17, 2017. (Jes Aznar/For The Washington Post)

MANILA — A world of sin. A weary savior. Filipinos know the story well.

Since coming to power last summer, President Rodrigo Duterte has used biblical language to build a case for mass killings, vowing to sacrifice himself, even his son, to cleanse the nation of crime.

Conjuring a world in which evil stalks the innocent, Duterte launched a wave of violence that has claimed at least 7,000 lives. With his critics cursed and shamed, and with public support for the president running high, the establishment, including the Roman Catholic Church, has for the most part stayed quiet.

But now, more than seven months into Duterte’s tenure, with the death toll climbing night by night, the country’s Catholic hierarchy is finding its voice. In a pastoral letter published in February, church leaders denounced Duterte’s campaign as a “reign of terror” against the poor. Tiếp tục đọc “‘False prophet’: Duterte, the Catholic Church and the fight for the soul of the Philippines” →

Abu Sayyaf video ‘shows beheading of German hostage’

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Philippine army working to confirm reports that Abu Sayyaf fighters beheaded a German man they had seized in November.The army said it had received information reports that the hostage had been executed [EPA]

The Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf armed group has posted a video purportedly showing the beheading of a German man held for three months after demands for a ransom were not met.

The video, reposted on Monday by the monitoring group SITE, showed an elderly captive slumped on a grassy lot and a man holding a knife to his neck.

“Now, they’ll kill me,” the 70-year-old man said before he was executed on Sunday after a ransom demand deadline passed. Tiếp tục đọc “Abu Sayyaf video ‘shows beheading of German hostage’” →

Hundreds protest on Philippine streets as Duterte jails top critic

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ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 25 Feb 2017 17:06
  • Updated 25 Feb 2017 17:10

A supporter of Senator Leila De Lima (not pictured), a top critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, shouts slogans as they hold a rally outside the court building in Muntinlupa City. (Photo: AFP)

MANILA: More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Manila on Saturday to protest Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, following the arrest of his most high-profile critic.

The protestors massed outside the national police headquarters where Senator Leila de Lima was detained on Friday, in a demonstration against the alleged death-squad murders of thousands of drug suspects.

Demonstrators warned the Duterte crackdown could lead to a repeat of the military-backed dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, which was toppled in a bloodless “People Power” revolution 31 years ago to the day. Tiếp tục đọc “Hundreds protest on Philippine streets as Duterte jails top critic” →

Senator Leila de Lima arrested in the Philippines

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Al Jazeera

Senator and vocal critic of President Duterte faces drug-trafficking charges related to her term as a justice secretary.

De Lima has branded the president a ‘sociopathic serial killer’ after he was accused of ordering drug killings [EPA]

A Philippines senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has been arrested by law enforcement agents after charges were filed in court alleging that she received money from drug dealers inside the country’s prisons.

Senator Leila de Lima is accused of orchestrating a drug-trafficking ring when she was justice secretary during the 2010-2015 administration of Benigno Aquino.

“The truth will come out and I will achieve justice. I am innocent,” she told reporters shortly before law enforcers escorted her away from her office on Friday. Tiếp tục đọc “Senator Leila de Lima arrested in the Philippines” →

Rodrigo Duterte accused of paying police to kill

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Al Jazeera

Philippine president ran a ‘liquidation squad’ as mayor of Davao city targeting drug dealers, alleges former policeman.

A retired Philippine police officer says President Rodrigo Duterte, when he was a mayor, ordered and paid him and other members of a “liquidation squad” to kill criminals and opponents.

The former policeman, Arthur Lascanas, told a news conference on Monday that he was speaking up because he was bothered by his conscience – including his role in the deaths of his two brothers, whom he ordered killed because they were drug users.

“I had my own two brothers killed. Even if I end up dead, I’m content because I’ve fulfilled my promise to the Lord to make a public confession,” he said, breaking into tears. Tiếp tục đọc “Rodrigo Duterte accused of paying police to kill” →

Thousands march against Duterte’s war on drugs

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Al Jareeza
Luis Antonio Tagle, Catholic leader of Manila, said violence cannot be the answer to the country's drug problem [Reuters]
Luis Antonio Tagle, Catholic leader of Manila, said violence cannot be the answer to the country’s drug problem [Reuters]

Thousands of Catholics have gathered in the Philippine capital in a “show of force” to protest extrajudicial killings being carried out under the banner of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

The rally, dubbed the “Walk for Life”, was attended by 20,000 people, organisers said. Manila police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

At the biggest rally yet against the killings, members of one of the nation’s oldest and most powerful institutions prayed and sang hymns as they marched before dawn on Saturday, to condemn a “spreading culture of violence”.

More than 7,000 people have died since Duterte took office almost eight months ago and ordered an unprecedented crime war that has drawn global criticism for alleged human rights abuses.

The move, however, has been popular with many in the mainly Catholic nation.

“We have to stand up. Somehow this is already a show of force by the faithful that they don’t like these extrajudicial killings,” Manila bishop Broderick Pabillo told AFP news agency before addressing the crowd.

“I am alarmed and angry at what’s happening because this is something that is regressive. It does not show our humanity.”

The demonstrators also condemned legislation restoring the death penalty for drug-related crimes and other offences. Tiếp tục đọc “Thousands march against Duterte’s war on drugs” →

Duterte’s war on drugs a ‘reign of terror’, church says

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Aljazeera

President’s office slams criticism by Catholic Church, which says killing people is not the answer to drug trafficking.

The Church said Duterte’s government was carrying out a ‘reign of terror in many places of the poor’ [Erik De Castro/Reuters]

The Philippines’ Catholic Church has blasted President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” for creating a “reign of terror”.

In its most strongly worded attack yet on the crackdown on drug pushers and users, the powerful Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said killing people was not the answer to trafficking of illegal drugs.

The Church said, in a pastoral letter that will be read out in sermons on Sunday, it was disturbing that many did not care about the bloodshed, or even approved of it.

“An even greater cause of concern is the indifference of many to this kind of wrong. It is considered as normal, and, even worse, something that [according to them] needs to be done,” the bishops said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Reuters news agency. Tiếp tục đọc “Duterte’s war on drugs a ‘reign of terror’, church says” →

Philippine bid to jail nine-year-olds is ‘a great child violation’, Unicef says

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The Guardian

Duterte’s allies have been pushing to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine

Children playing on a hill of garbage in the Philippines
Unicef says a nine-year-old is unable to fully comprehend the consequences of a crime. Photograph: Jes Aznar/Getty Images

, Southeast Asia correspondent

Sunday 12 February 2017 22.03 EST Last modified on Sunday 12 February 2017 22.06 EST

A law proposing children as young as nine be jailed for crimes is “wrong from every angle”, the head of the United Nations children’s agency in the Philippines has warned.

“If they grow up, spending their teenage years in a prison, they most probably will be damaged for life,” Unicef’s country representative, Lotta Sylwander, said in a telephone interview from Manila.

The current age of criminal responsibility in the Philippines is 15. President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies have been pushing to lower it, coupled with another draft bill that would restore the death penalty.Politicians opposing the bills say their passing could lead to a situation in which a nine-year-old may be sentenced to death. Tiếp tục đọc “Philippine bid to jail nine-year-olds is ‘a great child violation’, Unicef says” →

A Rare Survivor of a Philippine Drug Raid Takes the Police to Court

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By FELIPE VILLAMOR FEB. 10, 2017

Maria Belen Daa, 61, with a photo of her son Marcelo, 31, in the Philippines last week. He was shot along with four others by the police, who raided his home looking for drugs last August. Jes Aznar for The New York Times

MANILA — The drug raid ended like so many others in the Philippines, with all the suspects shot by the police.

But one of them, Efren Morillo, a 28-year-old fruit and vegetable vendor, did not die.

As the only known survivor of a so-called buy-bust operation, Mr. Morillo has provided a chilling first-person account that challenges the government’s assertion that the thousands of suspects killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s antidrug campaign were killed by the police in self-defense. And his testimony lies at the heart of the first court case to challenge that campaign.

According to his sworn affidavit, none of the five suspects were drug users and none were armed.

The police took two of them, including Mr. Morillo, inside a house, handcuffed, Mr. Morillo said. Three others were lined up at a clearing near a ravine, ordered to kneel, their hands tied behind their backs.

There was begging and crying as the police shot each man at close range, Mr. Morillo said.

“Thoroughly frightened that I might be shot again, I closed my eyes and played dead,” he said. As he lay on the floor bleeding, he said, he overheard the police officers talking about planting guns and drugs because they had found none there.

When the police officers left the house, he took a chance and fled.

Duterte Gives ‘Rotten’ Officers Choice: Go to Terrorist Hotbed or Go Home

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By FELIPE VILLAMOR FEB. 7, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines assailed police officers during a live broadcast on Tuesday. Robinson Ninal/Presidential Photographers Division, via Associated Press

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines angrily dressed down more than 200 police officers on national television on Tuesday, presenting them with a thorny ultimatum: Resign or be shipped off to a terrorist hotbed known for beheadings and attacks on police stations.

Mr. Duterte accused the 228 officers of a litany of criminal and professional misdeeds, including corruption, drug use and dealing, and, in one high-profile case, the kidnapping and murder of a South Korean businessman.

Calling the group of National Police officers from Manila, the capital, “rotten to the core,” Mr. Duterte said he was ordering them to Basilan, an island in the country’s restive south and home to the Islamic terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf.

Philippine communist rebels to end unilateral cease-fire

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Japan Times

AP Feb 1, 2017

MANILA – Philippine communist rebels said Wednesday they were terminating their unilateral cease-fire after accusing the government of failing to release all political prisoners and encroaching on rebel-held areas.

The Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm, the New People’s Army, said that the Aug. 28 cease-fire will expire Feb. 10. The rebels and the government had separately declared a cease-fire as they resumed their peace talks.

The rebels said they continue to support peace negotiations. Founded in 1968, the rural-based guerrillas have unsuccessfully tried to negotiate an end to their rebellion and their inclusion in government with six Philippine presidents, including Rodrigo Duterte. Tiếp tục đọc “Philippine communist rebels to end unilateral cease-fire” →

Southeast Asia not a ‘proxy’ for superpower rivalry: Philippines

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ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 23 Jan 2017 23:34
  • Updated 23 Jan 2017 23:40

Philippine Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana addresses the Fullerton Forum at the Shangri-La Dialogue Sherpa Meeting, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in Singapore on January 23, 2017. (Photo: AFP / ROSLAN RAHMAN)

SINGAPORE: The Philippines Monday (Jan 23) told major global powers that Southeast Asia was not a “proxy” for superpower rivalries, as Washington and Beijing compete for influence in the region.

Conflicting claims over the South China Sea, which straddles vital commercial shipping lanes and is believed to sit atop vast natural gas deposits, have placed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the centre of the struggle for regional influence among countries such as the United States and China. Tiếp tục đọc “Southeast Asia not a ‘proxy’ for superpower rivalry: Philippines” →

Philippines filed diplomatic protest over South China Sea buildup: Minister

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ChannelNewsAsia

  • Posted 16 Jan 2017 20:29
  • Updated 16 Jan 2017 20:48

FILE PHOTO – An aerial photo taken though a glass window of a Philippine military plane shows the alleged on-going land reclamation by China on mischief reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philippines, May 11, 2015. REUTERS/Ritchie B. Tongo/Pool/File Photo

MANILA: The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest with China, its foreign minister said on Monday, over Beijing’s installation last year of anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems on its manmade islands in the disputed South China Sea.

The protest note was sent to the Chinese embassy in December, after confirmation of a report from the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies about a weapons buildup on seven artificial islands in the Spratlys. Tiếp tục đọc “Philippines filed diplomatic protest over South China Sea buildup: Minister” →