Phillipines – 9News Nigeria https://9newsng.com Nigeria News - Nigeria's favourite news source Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:22:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 https://pub-c2bc1600c0ae4735bcabd5f23f03a1c5.r2.dev/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/20152806/cropped-9icon-32x32.jpg Phillipines – 9News Nigeria https://9newsng.com 32 32 114098865 How ICC Arrested former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte https://9newsng.com/how-icc-arrested-former-president-of-the-philippines-rodrigo-duterte/ Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:22:05 +0000 https://9newsng.com/?p=516365 How ICC Arrested former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte

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Details have emerged on how former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, 2025, under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity related to his controversial “war on drugs.” Duterte, who served as president from 2016 to 2022, was taken into custody […]

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]]> How ICC Arrested former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte

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Details have emerged on how former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, 2025, under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity related to his controversial “war on drugs.” Duterte, who served as president from 2016 to 2022, was taken into custody shortly after arriving at Ninoy Aquino International Airport from Hong Kong. Philippine authorities acted on the ICC’s warrant, which had been disseminated through Interpol, confirming the government’s commitment to international legal obligations.

Following his arrest, Duterte was placed on a chartered flight that departed for The Hague at 11:03 PM local time, where the ICC is headquartered. The warrant against him stems from allegations of extrajudicial killings that occurred during his presidency and earlier as mayor of Davao City. Human rights organizations estimate that over 30,000 individuals may have been killed in the anti-drug campaign, a stark contrast to the official police figures of around 6,000.

The ICC’s investigation into Duterte’s actions began in 2018, shortly after he withdrew the Philippines from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. Despite this withdrawal, the court retains jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was a member. The investigation focused on the systematic killings of suspected drug offenders, often carried out without due process, and the alleged involvement of police forces in these operations.

The arrest has elicited mixed reactions within the Philippines. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. defended the government’s decision to cooperate with the ICC, emphasizing the importance of upholding international law. He stated, “Interpol asked for help and we obliged. This is what the international community expects of us.” Conversely, Duterte’s supporters have expressed outrage over the arrest, viewing it as a politically motivated attack against a leader who they believe acted in the best interests of the nation. Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president’s daughter, described the arrest as “oppression” and an affront to Philippine sovereignty. She has traveled to The Hague to assist her father in organizing his legal defense.

As Duterte is now in the custody of the ICC, legal proceedings are expected to unfold in the coming weeks. His legal team is reportedly preparing to challenge the ICC’s jurisdiction and the validity of the charges against him. Duterte himself has publicly questioned the basis of the warrant, asserting that he should be tried in Philippine courts rather than facing international prosecution.

Duterte’s arrest is seen as a significant step toward accountability for human rights violations in the Philippines. Activists and human rights organizations have hailed the event as a historic moment for victims of the drug war and their families. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines stated that Duterte’s arrest marks the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his presidency.

The current administration under President Marcos has indicated a shift in approach regarding drug-related violence, with promises of a less violent strategy compared to Duterte’s methods. However, reports of extrajudicial killings have continued under Marcos’s leadership, raising concerns about the ongoing human rights situation in the country.

The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte represents a watershed moment in the Philippines’ engagement with international human rights law and accountability. As he faces charges at the ICC, the implications of this case will likely resonate throughout the country and beyond, influencing future governance and human rights practices in the Philippines.

News report compiled by Obinna Ejianya (9News Nigeria – Melbourne, Australia)

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]]> 516365 Philippine Police Arrest Over 450 In ‘Chinese-Run’ Scam Centre Raid https://9newsng.com/philippine-police-arrest-over-450-in-chinese-run-scam-centre-raid/ Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:48:01 +0000 https://9newsng.com/?p=509288 AFP 20250131 36WT7ZW v1 HighRes PhilippinesChinaCrimeScam Copy 1050x700 1

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Philippine police says it arrested more than 450 people in a raid on an allegedly Chinese-run offshore gaming operator in Manila. The country’s anti-organised crime commission revealed that initial interrogations suggested the suburban site had been operating as a scam centre, targeting victims in China and India with sports betting and investment schemes, noting that […]

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Philippine police says it arrested more than 450 people in a raid on an allegedly Chinese-run offshore gaming operator in Manila.

The country’s anti-organised crime commission revealed that initial interrogations suggested the suburban site had been operating as a scam centre, targeting victims in China and India with sports betting and investment schemes, noting that 137 Chinese nationals have been detained.

Commission Chief, Gilberto Cruz told reporters that his men arrested around five Chinese bosses, adding that they faced potential trafficking charges.

Cruz also expressed that the raid proves that the previous POGO workers are still trying to continue their scamming activities despite the ban, as he previously told reporters that about 21,000 Chinese nationals have continued to operate smaller-scale scam operations in the country since the online gaming ban.

Banned by President Ferdinand Marcos last year, Philippine online gaming operators, or POGOs, are said to be used as cover by organised crime groups for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings and even murder.

International concern seem to have grown in recent years over similar scam operations in other Asian nations that are often staffed by trafficking victims tricked or coerced into promoting bogus cryptocurrency investments and other cons.

Meanwhile, President Marcos has put POGOs at the centre of recent campaign messaging in the run-up to May mid-term elections, framing predecessor Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged tolerance of the sites as evidence of a too-cozy relationship with China.

The raid is the latest in a series of busts this year, including one in January that saw around 400 foreigners arrested in the capital, including many Chinese nationals.

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]]> 509288 BREAKING!! Dirty December In Philippine As Typhoon Phanfone Kills 28 People (Photos) https://9newsng.com/breaking-dirty-december-in-philippine-as-typhoon-phanfone-kills-28-people-photos/ Sat, 28 Dec 2019 17:46:43 +0000 https://9newsng.com/?p=85545 10795345 191226142138typhoonphanfone01large169 jpeg8e1f5438b2070abffbd6ce1ee675ba32

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Typhoon Phanfone, which made landfall on Tuesday, caused severe floods and destroyed homes in several provinces. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, 12 people remain missing. The typhoon led to the evacuation of more than 58,000 people and stranded thousands over the holiday period. Officials said some of the dead were hit […]

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Typhoon Phanfone, which made landfall on Tuesday, caused severe floods and destroyed homes in several provinces.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, 12 people remain missing.

10795345 191226142138typhoonphanfone01large169 jpeg8e1f5438b2070abffbd6ce1ee675ba32

The typhoon led to the evacuation of more than 58,000 people and stranded thousands over the holiday period.

Officials said some of the dead were hit by trees, while others were electrocuted or drowned.

Phanfone struck close to regions hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people and considered one of the Philippines’ deadliest storms.

Typhoon Phanfone, known locally as Typhoon Ursula, made its way through many islands of central Philippines on 25 December. It reached winds of 200kmph (125 miles per hour), leaving thousands stranded as they tried to make their way home for Christmas.

The popular tourist island of Boracay was also damaged by the typhoon, with homes destroyed and mobile phone and internet access cut off.

“Communication lines are down. Electricity is still down,” Jonathan Pablito, a police chief in Alkan province, an island neighbouring Boracay, told agency AFP on Thursday.

Tacloban, a low-lying city that was destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan, was also among those affected. However, the city escaped the worst of the damage this time round.

The typhoon is said to have eased in strength on Thursday and has headed towards the South China Sea.

More Below;

10795346 191226142313typhoonphanfone02large169 jpegede69ef4b8b9218e23c44e906a213629

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]]> 85545 Bomb blast: Churches razed down , lives lost as Islamist millitants invade southern Philippines https://9newsng.com/bomb-blast-churches-razed-down-lives-lost-as-islamist-millitants-invade-southern-philippines/ Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:26:41 +0000 https://9newsng.com/?p=69172 Bombed oil infrastructure in Niger Delta

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Islamist millitants,raze down churches and destroy lives with disastrous bomb blast on Sunday, killed between 18 and 27 worshippers,in southern Philippine island after voters backed the creation of a new Muslim autonomous region. According to reports gathered, the first blast occurred inside the Catholic church on war-torn Jolo on Sunday morning as mass was being […]

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]]> Bombed oil infrastructure in Niger Delta

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Islamist millitants,raze down churches and destroy lives with disastrous bomb blast on Sunday, killed between 18 and 27 worshippers,in southern Philippine island after voters backed the creation of a new Muslim autonomous region.

According to reports gathered, the first blast occurred inside the Catholic church on war-torn Jolo on Sunday morning as mass was being celebrated, and was followed by a second explosion outside as troops responded, the regional military spokesman said.

However, most victims were churchgoers along with soldiers. The door, pews and glass windows of Mount Carmel Cathedral were blown off, military photos showed, with bodies strewn across the ground, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman condemned the incident as an “act of terrorism and murder”.

He said:
“We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy,” Salva

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]]> 69172 BREAKING:President confesses to sexually assaulting housemaid https://9newsng.com/breakingpresident-confesses-to-sexually-assaulting-housemaid/ Thu, 03 Jan 2019 10:47:17 +0000 https://9newsng.com/?p=67409 philippine president rodrigo duterte

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Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte has confessed to sexually abusing a maid while he was a teenager, according to the BBC. In a speech yesterday, Duterte was reported as saying he had confessed to a priest going into a maid’s room while she slept and placing his fingers on her genitals. The remarks were not unusual […]

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Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte has confessed to sexually abusing a maid while he was a teenager, according to the BBC.

In a speech yesterday, Duterte was reported as saying he had confessed to a priest going into a maid’s room while she slept and placing his fingers on her genitals.

The remarks were not unusual for Duterte, who has frequently come under fire for making statements that demean or encourage violence against women.

Last June and July, women’s rights activists gathered in Manila to protest Duterte’s treatment of women, including his remarks that communist rebels should be “shot in the vagina.”

The new remarks stand out, however, because Duterte admitted to sexually assaulting a woman himself.

According to Duterte, when he was a teenager, he walked into the maid’s room while she was asleep and sexually assaulted her.

The BBC quoted him as saying, “I lifted the blanket. I tried to touch what was inside the panty. As I was touching, she woke up so I left the room.”

He later came back into the maid’s room and fondled her genitals again, the BBC said.

Duterte added that he later opened up to a priest who after hearing the confession, said: “Say five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, because you will go to hell.”

Duterte, a frequent critic of the Catholic Church, then turned the conversation to accusations about sexual abuse by Catholic priests, according to Rappler.

Meanwhile, Gabriela Women’s Party, a political party that represents women’s rights groups, said that Duterte is “unworthy of his position and should resign,” according to the BBC.

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]]> 67409 Report: Entire Philippine city police force fired over killings https://9newsng.com/report-entire-philippine-city-police-force-fired-over-killings/ Sat, 16 Sep 2017 06:27:37 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=35913 9d6f74f93907410ab40d6b5644a94c60 18

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An entire city police force in the Philippines has been fired in metropolitan Manila after some of its members were suspected in the gruesome killings of three teenagers and others were seen on surveillance cameras robbing a house. Philippines outrage grows over children killed in anti-drug raids The 1,200-strong Caloocan city police force will be […]

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An entire city police force in the Philippines has been fired in metropolitan Manila after some of its members were suspected in the gruesome killings of three teenagers and others were seen on surveillance cameras robbing a house.

Philippines outrage grows over children killed in anti-drug raids
The 1,200-strong Caloocan city police force will be relieved in batches and replaced, said metropolitan Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde.

The officers will undergo 45 days of retraining, after which those facing no charges can be reassigned to other stations.

The Department of Justice has started an investigation based on a murder and torture complaint against four Caloocan policemen allegedly linked to the killing of 17-year-old student Kian Delos Santos during an anti-drug raid last month.

The parents of two other teenagers – 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman – have also filed murder, torture and planting of evidence complaints against two Caloocan policemen.

Last week, security-camera video purportedly showed 13 policemen robbing a house during an alleged drug raid.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on drugs, which has left thousands of suspects dead, has come under renewed scrutiny since police shot Delos Santos.

The death of the 17-year-old triggered rare public outrage over Duterte’s so-called war on drugs.

Police described Delos Santos as a drug dealer who fired at officers during a raid, but his family and witnesses said the student was shot as he pleaded for his life.

Witnesses pointed to evidence, including a village security video, which they said showed two police officers dragging Delos Santos away shortly before shots rang out and he was found fatally shot in the head, holding a pistol with his left hand although his parent said he was right-handed.

Police officers testified at a Senate hearing that Delos Santos was not the man seen being dragged in the video, although several witnesses doubted the police statement.

Delos Santos’s death was followed by another outcry over the killing of former University of the Philippines student Carl Angelo Arnaiz.

Police said he was killed when he shot it out with police after robbing a taxi driver last month. A government forensic expert, however, said Arnaiz apparently was handcuffed, tortured and shot five times.

Arnaiz’s parents say he went out with de Guzman to buy a snack on the night of August 17 but never returned home. They found Arnaiz in a morgue 10 days later.

And Reynaldo de Guzman’s body was found floating in a creek in a city north of Manila last week. The boy’s head was wrapped with packing tape and his body bore about 28 stab wounds.

More than 50 children killed

Human Rights Watch, citing figures from the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center, estimated earlier this month that at least 54 children had been killed by police and “unidentified gunmen” in Duterte’s war on drugs since July 2016.

The rights group said that “most of those children had been shot while in the company of adults who were the apparent target of the shooting”.

It added that officials, including Duterte, “have dismissed those killings as ‘collateral damage'”.

The teen’s killing puts focus on Duterte’s repeated promises to police administering the crackdown that he would insulate them from any legal consequences. Critics say his rhetoric is tantamount to giving police a license to kill.

Activists have said that more than 13,000 people have been killed in Duterte’s war on drugs.

Government figures said that 3,451 “drug personalities” had been killed in gun battles with police from June 30, 2016 to July 26, 2017.

Another 2,000 more died in drug-related homicides, including attacks by motorcycle-riding masked gunmen and other assaults, while 8,200 homicide cases are “under investigation”, the data said.

Last month, Duterte took a softer tone on his drug crackdown, telling police to arrest suspects and kill only if their lives were in danger. He said he would not protect those who killed unarmed people.

He added though, that his crackdown on drugs will not stop.

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]]> 35913 police can kill ‘idiots’ who resist arrest – Philippines’ President Duterte https://9newsng.com/police-can-kill-idiots-who-resist-arrest-philippines-president-duterte/ Mon, 28 Aug 2017 06:40:20 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=34468 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while delivering a speech during the 115th

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told police on Monday they could kill “idiots” who violently resist arrest, two days after hundreds of people turned the funeral of a slain teenager into a protest against his deadly war on drugs. Duterte broke off midway through a prepared speech at the Hero’s Cemetery on the outskirts of Manila […]

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]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while delivering a speech during the 115th

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told police on Monday they could kill “idiots” who violently resist arrest, two days after hundreds of people turned the funeral of a slain teenager into a protest against his deadly war on drugs.

Duterte broke off midway through a prepared speech at the Hero’s Cemetery on the outskirts of Manila and addressed impromptu comments to Jovie Espenido, the police chief of a town in the south where the mayor was killed in an anti-drugs raid.

“Your duty requires you to overcome the resistance of the person you are arresting… (if) he resists, and it is a violent one… you are free to kill the idiots, that is my order to you,” Duterte told the police officer.

Duterte added that “murder and homicide and unlawful killings” were not allowed and that police had to uphold the rule of law while carrying out their duties.

Duterte unleashed the anti-drugs war after taking office in June last year following an election campaign in which he vowed to use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs.

Thousands of people have been killed and the violence has been criticised by much of the international community.

Domestic opposition has been largely muted but the killing of schoolboy Kian Loyd delos Santos by anti-drugs officers on Aug 16 has sparked rare public outrage.

More than 1,000 people, including nuns, priests and hundreds of children, joined a funeral procession on Saturday for the 17-year old, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign.

Delos Santos was dragged by plain-clothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila before he was shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage.

Police say they acted in self defence after delos Santos opened fire on them, and Duterte’s spokesman and the justice minister have described the killing of the teenager as an “isolated” case.

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]]> 34468 Over a thousand Philippines turn funeral to protest against war on drugs https://9newsng.com/over-a-thousand-philippines-turn-funeral-to-protest-against-war-on-drugs/ Sat, 26 Aug 2017 07:52:24 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=34296 philippines khan

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More than a thousand people attended a funeral procession on Saturday for a Philippine teenager slain by police last week, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs. The death of Kian Loyd delos Santos has drawn widespread attention to allegations that police have been […]

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More than a thousand people attended a funeral procession on Saturday for a Philippine teenager slain by police last week, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

The death of Kian Loyd delos Santos has drawn widespread attention to allegations that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers – a charge the authorities deny.

Nuns, priests and hundreds of children, chanting “justice for Kian, justice for all” joined the funeral cortege as it made its way from a church to the cemetery where the 17-year-old was buried.

Delos Santos’ father, Saldy, spoke briefly during a mass to defend his son’s innocence and express anger over the police.

“Don’t they have a heart? I’m not sure they do. There’s a lot of churches, they should go there,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

Delos Santos was dragged by plain-clothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila, before he was shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage.

Police say they acted in self defence after delos Santos opened fire on them.

The parents and lawyers of delos Santos filed a murder complaint against the three anti-narcotics policemen on Friday.

If accepted, the complaint would follow at least two cases filed last year against police over Duterte’s war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, outraged human rights groups and alarmed Western governments.

Delos Santos’ flower-draped coffin passed through a major highway on a small truck decorated with tarpaulins reading “Run, Kian, Run” and “Stop the killings” displayed on each side. Passing motorists honked in support.

“This is a sign that the people have had enough and are indignant over the impunity that prevails today,” Renato Reyes, secretary general of left-wing activist group Bayan (Nation), said in a statement. “The people protest the utter lack of accountability in the police force.”

Mourners, some of them wearing white shirts, held flowers and small flags, and placards denouncing the killing.

A member of Rise Up, a Manila-based coalition of church-related groups opposing the drug war, told Reuters that families of about 20 victims joined the procession.

“I came to support the family. I want justice for Kian and all victims – including my son,” said Katherine David, 35, whose 21-year-old son was shot dead by police with two other men in January.

Department of Justice personnel armed with assault rifles were on guard during the procession and outside the church.

Most people in the Philippines support the anti-drug campaign, and Duterte remains a popular leader but questions have begun to be asked since the death of delos Santos, which came during a spike in killings across the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, last week.

The president’s communication office reiterated on Saturday he will not tolerate wrongdoing by law enforcers and called on the public to “trust the justice system under the Duterte presidency.”

But bereaved mother David believes the response to Kian’s killing marks a turning point in opposition to the drug war.

“There’s been a big change. Before, police could kill and nobody paid attention. Now people are starting to show support and sympathy,” she said.

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]]> 34296 Philippine military kills Abu Sayyaf commander https://9newsng.com/philippine-military-kills-abu-sayyaf-commander/ Sun, 13 Aug 2017 09:31:55 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=32813 b1420497746c481ba1fe0cd1d332cdba 18

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Philippine troops have killed an Abu Sayyaf commander wanted for kidnapping and attacks on foreign ships, a military official said on Sunday. Troops were on patrol in waters off Jolo island, 1,000km south of Manila, on Saturday when they clashed with the Abu Sayyaf fighters aboard a wooden boat, Brigadier-General Cirilito Sobejana said. The group […]

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Philippine troops have killed an Abu Sayyaf commander wanted for kidnapping and attacks on foreign ships, a military official said on Sunday.

Troops were on patrol in waters off Jolo island, 1,000km south of Manila, on Saturday when they clashed with the Abu Sayyaf fighters aboard a wooden boat, Brigadier-General Cirilito Sobejana said.

The group was led by Badong Muktadil, a commander wanted for kidnapping, murder, and attacks on foreign vessels at the maritime border with Malaysia, according to Sobejana, commander of an anti-terrorism task force.

The death of the commander is a major loss for the armed group, Sobejana said.

“The neutralisation of Badong is another big setback on the Abu Sayyaf group, particularly on their kidnapping and terroristic activities,” Sobejana was quoted as saying in a local news report.

Among the recent attacks blamed on Muktadil’s group was the kidnapping of six crew members from a Vietnamese-flagged cargo ship in February, and the killing of one crew member.

One of the captive crew members from the MV Giang Hai was also killed during a clash between his abductors and troops in Jolo in July. It was not clear if the victim was killed in the crossfire or shot by Abu Sayyaf gunmen.

The group is believed to be holding about 20 hostages, including 14 foreigners, on Jolo island and the nearby province of Basilan.

Abu Sayyaf is accused of being allied with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Isnilon Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf leader, has been identified as the head of ISIL-allied fighters battling government troops in Marawi City since May 23.

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]]> 32813 Philippines says bodies of beheaded civilians found in rebel-held town https://9newsng.com/philippines-says-bodies-of-beheaded-civilians-found-in-rebel-held-town/ Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:58:31 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=27987 Philippines says bodies of beheaded civilians found in rebel held town

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By Kanupriya Kapoor MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – The decapitated bodies of five civilians have been found in a Philippine city occupied by Islamist rebels, the military said on Wednesday, warning the number of residents killed by rebel “atrocities” could rise sharply as troops retake more ground. The discovery of the five victims among 17 […]

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]]> Philippines says bodies of beheaded civilians found in rebel held town

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By Kanupriya Kapoor

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – The decapitated bodies of five civilians have been found in a Philippine city occupied by Islamist rebels, the military said on Wednesday, warning the number of residents killed by rebel “atrocities” could rise sharply as troops retake more ground.

The discovery of the five victims among 17 other bodies retrieved would be the first evidence that civilians trapped in besieged Marawi City have been decapitated during the five-week stand by militants loyal to the Islamic State group, as some who escaped the city have previously reported.

Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Garcia of the Western Mindanao Command said in a text message to reporters the five decapitated were found with the other 17 civilians killed by militants.

Garcia did not respond immediately to repeated requests for more details.

It was not clear when the bodies were found. A civilian rescue worker, Abdul Azis Lomondot, told Reuters earlier there were body parts found on Wednesday, but there was “no proof of beheading”.

The battle for Marawi entered its 36th day on Wednesday, with intense gunfights and bombing in the heart of the town and black-clad fighters seen from afar running between buildings as explosions rang out. Marawi is on southern Mindanao island.

The rebels’ hold on Marawi, while incurring the full force of a military for years trained by its U.S. counterparts, has much of the region on edge, concerned that Islamic State’s influence may run deeper than thought.

Those fears are also being felt in Malaysia and Indonesia, whose nationals are among the Maute group of rebels fighting in Marawi, suggesting the group may have built a cross-border network that has gone largely undetected.

Military spokesman Restituto Padilla said it was likely that many civilians had been killed and the death toll – already at 27 before the latest 17 were announced – was only what the authorities could confirm independently. He said a “significant number” of dead had been seen by those who had escaped fighting.

“(It) may increase significantly once we are able to validate all this information,” Padilla told reporters.

“There have been a significant number that have been seen but again, we cannot include many of these,” he said.

Padilla said the cause of those deaths would be “atrocities committed by the terrorists”.

Among those atrocities, the army says, have been residents being forced to loot homes, take up arms, or become sex slaves.

SEVERE IMPACT

Videos have appeared this month on the website of Islamic State’s Amaq news agency and its social media channels of hostages in Marawi pleading for their lives, saying they would be beheaded if air strikes were not stopped. Clips have also appeared of people on their knees, shot in the head from behind.

Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of the reports.

The military has so far been reluctant to discuss the possibility that the real impact of the fighting on civilians could be far more severe than has been reported.

It has played down the impact of daily air strikes and mortar assaults aimed at rebel sniper positions, which have reduced areas of the lakeside town to rubble and alarmed people stuck there, some of whom have said the shelling was a bigger threat than the militants.

Disaster officials are keen to start dangerous missions to recover what they believe are large numbers of bodies in the streets near the conflict zone.

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he was prepared from the outset for a long fight against a well-armed Maute motivated only by murder and destruction.

“It seems to be limitless supply. They were able to stockpile their arms,” he said.

“Some of those who travelled to the Middle East got contaminated, brought the ideology back home and promised to declare war against humanity.”

Military spokesman Padilla called for patience and said troops needed more time to flush out the gunmen and secure the city.

“Our combat environment is sensitive. First, there are trapped civilians that we have to protect. They also have hostages and third, there are many traps so we have to clear buildings slowly,” he said.

Some 71 security forces and 299 militants have been killed and 246,000 people displaced in the conflict, which erupted after a failed attempt on May 23 to arrest a Filipino militant commander backed by Islamic State’s leadership.

(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in MANILA; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel and Paul Tait)

 

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]]> 27987 Philippines says arrests senior member of IS-backed Maute group https://9newsng.com/philippines-says-arrests-senior-member-of-is-backed-maute-group/ Thu, 15 Jun 2017 07:57:51 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=27039 Philippines says arrests senior member of IS backed Maute group

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MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippines military said it arrested one of the Maute brothers on Thursday, a senior member of the Islamic State-backed militants it is fighting in a southern city. Mohammad Noaim Maute, alias Abu Jadid, was arrested at a checkpoint near the coastal city of Cagayan de Oro just after dawn, […]

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]]> Philippines says arrests senior member of IS backed Maute group

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MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippines military said it arrested one of the Maute brothers on Thursday, a senior member of the Islamic State-backed militants it is fighting in a southern city.

Mohammad Noaim Maute, alias Abu Jadid, was arrested at a checkpoint near the coastal city of Cagayan de Oro just after dawn, said Lt Col Jo-Ar Herrera, a military spokesman.

Two of Mohammad’s brothers, Omarkhayam and Abdullah, lead the Maute gang that is at the forefront of a vicious battle with security forces for Marawi City, now in its fourth week. Marawi is about 100 km (60 miles) south of Cagayan de Oro, but it was not clear whether Mohammad was coming from the besieged city.

Most of the other seven Maute brothers, including Omarkhayam and Abdullah, are believed to be in Marawi.

Their parents were taken into custody last week in separate cities.

Brigadier-General Gilbert Gapay, spokesman for the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, said Maute was a suspected bomb-maker for the group. He said Maute was holding a fake student card of the Mindanao State University, based in Marawi, when stopped at the checkpoint. He was not armed.

Local police said Maute, an Arabic language teacher, readily admitted his identity when questioned, adding that he was now being questioned.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Manny Mogato; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Michael Perry)

 

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]]> 27039 36 killed in attack on Philippines casino – official https://9newsng.com/36-killed-in-attack-on-philippines-casino-official/ Fri, 02 Jun 2017 13:22:51 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=26107 gun man

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A gunman burst into a casino in the Philippines on Friday, firing shots and setting gaming tables alight, and at least 36 people were killed, most suffocating in thick smoke, in what officials believe was a botched robbery. There was no evidence linking the attack at the Resorts World Manila entertainment complex to fighting between […]

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A gunman burst into a casino in the Philippines on Friday, firing shots and setting gaming tables alight, and at least 36 people were killed, most suffocating in thick smoke, in what officials believe was a botched robbery.

There was no evidence linking the attack at the Resorts World Manila entertainment complex to fighting between government troops and Islamist militants in the country’s south, said Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte.

“All indications point to a criminal act by an apparently emotionally disturbed individual,” Abella told a media conference.

“Although the perpetrator gave warning shots, there apparently was no indication that he wanted to do harm or shoot anyone.”

For graphic on attack on casino resort in Philippine capital click: tmsnrt.rs/2rLiFpP

Police said the gunman killed himself soon after the attack, and they later announced they were looking for a second “person of interest” who was believed to be a Philippine national.

Most of the dead suffocated in the chaos as guests and staff tried to flee choking smoke at the complex after the attack began shortly after midnight (1600 GMT).

Oscar Albayalde, chief of the capital’s police office, said those that died were in the casino’s main gaming area.

“All indications point to a criminal act by an apparently emotionally disturbed individual,” Abella told a news conference. “Although the perpetrator gave warning shots, there apparently was no indication that he wanted to do harm or shoot anyone.”

Oscar Albayalde, chief of the capital’s police office, said those who died were in the casino’s main gaming area.

“What caused their deaths is the thick smoke,” he told reporters. “The room was carpeted and of course the tables, highly combustible.”

A Resorts World official said the dead included 22 guests.

 DEATH IN ROOM 510

At dawn, the body of the suspected gunman was found in a hotel room in the smouldering complex, which is close to Manila’s airport and an air force base, police said.

“He burned himself inside the hotel room 510,” national police chief Ronald dela Rosa told a news conference. “He lay down on the bed, covered himself in a thick blanket and apparently doused himself in gasoline.”

Resorts World Chief Operating Officer Stephen Reilly said casino guards had shot and wounded the gunman – armed with what authorities described as a “baby armalite” – during the attack.

“Severe loss of blood from the gunshot wound significantly slowed down the assailant and resulted to his holing up in the room where he took his own life,” Reilly said.

Officials said at least 54 people were hurt, some seriously, as they rushed to escape what was at first was believed to have been a militant attack.

Survivor Magdalena Ramos, who was a guest at the hotel, said people began shouting “ISIS! ISIS!” when the gunfire began. The 57-year-old said she hid in a kitchen and then fled when the smoke became too thick.

But police quickly said they did not believe the attacker had any militant connections.

“We cannot attribute this to terrorism,” national police chief dela Rosa told DZMM radio.

“We are looking into a robbery angle because he did not hurt any people and went straight to the casino chips storage room. He parked at the second floor and barged into the casino, shooting large TV screens and poured gasoline on a table setting it on fire,” he said.

Earlier reports said the gunman may have been white, but police later said he appeared to be Filipino, although they were still establishing his nationality.

Kimberly Molitas, a spokeswoman for the capital’s police office, said 113 million pesos ($2.27 million) worth of casino chips stolen during the raid had been recovered.

Source – Reuters

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]]> 26107 ISIS abducts Catholic Priest, 13 others in Philippines https://9newsng.com/isis-abducts-catholic-priest-13-others-in-philippines/ Wed, 24 May 2017 11:02:21 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=25336 isis

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Muslim extremist group affiliated to ISIS abducted a Catholic priest and more than a dozen churchgoers while laying siege to a southern Philippine city overnight, burning buildings, ambushing soldiers and hoisting flags of the Islamic State group, officials said Wednesday. President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern third of the nation and […]

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Muslim extremist group affiliated to ISIS abducted a Catholic priest and more than a dozen churchgoers while laying siege to a southern Philippine city overnight, burning buildings, ambushing soldiers and hoisting flags of the Islamic State group, officials said Wednesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern third of the nation and warned he would enforce it harshly.

The violence erupted Tuesday night after the army raided the hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf commander who is on Washington’s list of most-wanted terrorists with a reward of up to $5 million for his capture.

The militants called for reinforcements from an allied group, the Maute, and some 50 gunmen managed to enter the city of Marawi.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the militants forced their way into a cathedral in Marawi and seized a priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers.

The priest, Father Chito, and the others had no role in the conflict, Villegas said.

“He was not a combatant. He was not bearing arms. He was a threat to none,” Villegas said of Chito. “His capture and that of his companions violates every norm of civilized conflict.”

Villegas says the gunmen are demanding the government recall its forces.

Duterte declared martial rule for 60 days in the entire Mindanao region, the restive southern third of the Philippine archipelago. He had vowed to be “harsh.”

“I warned everybody not to force my hand into it,” Duterte said on a plane en route to the Philippines on Wednesday. “I have to do it to preserve the republic.”

Martial law allows Duterte to harness the armed forces to carry out arrests, searches and detentions more rapidly.

He has repeatedly threatened to place the south, the scene of decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings, under martial law.

Source – Fox News

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]]> 25336 Four drug suspects killed as Philippine police resume drugs war operations https://9newsng.com/four-drug-suspects-killed-as-philippine-police-resume-drugs-war-operations/ https://9newsng.com/four-drug-suspects-killed-as-philippine-police-resume-drugs-war-operations/#comments Tue, 07 Mar 2017 08:21:09 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=19605 philippines police

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine police killed four suspected drug dealers in three separate incidents on Tuesday, a provincial police commander said, just hours after a relaunch of anti-drugs operations that the national police chief said he hoped would be “less bloody”. The incidents were the first reported deaths of drug suspects since Philippine National Police […]

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine police killed four suspected drug dealers in three separate incidents on Tuesday, a provincial police commander said, just hours after a relaunch of anti-drugs operations that the national police chief said he hoped would be “less bloody”.

The incidents were the first reported deaths of drug suspects since Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa announced the restart of operations he hoped would be less bloody “or even bloodless”.

About 8,000 people had been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte declared war on drugs upon taking office on June 30, more than 2,555 in what the PNP says were shootouts during raids and sting operations.

The PNP insists it had no involvement in the rest of the killings and deny activists’ allegations that many of the deaths, most unsolved and in mysterious circumstances, were assassinations of drug suspects with police complicity.

Three suspected drug peddlers were shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday when they resisted arrest after selling packets of “shabu” methamphetamine to undercover officers in two towns in Bulacan, north of Manila, according to Senior Superintendent Romeo Caramat.

A fourth man was killed when he confronted police manning a checkpoint, he said, adding three handguns and drugs were recovered.

The PNP’s reinstatement came just over a month after a furious Duterte pulled police back from his crackdown in the wake of the killing by rogue drugs squad police of a South Korean businessman.

Dela Rosa said “clean, dedicated and patriotic” officers would form the new drug enforcement unit under his command.

The PNP has defended its role in the drugs war, amid growing criticism from human rights groups that they have operated with impunity and systematically abused their power.   Continued..

 

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Source – Reuters

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]]> https://9newsng.com/four-drug-suspects-killed-as-philippine-police-resume-drugs-war-operations/feed/ 3 19605 Opponent of Duterte’s drugs war arrested in Philippines on drug charges https://9newsng.com/opponent-of-dutertes-drugs-war-arrested-in-philippines-on-drug-charges/ Fri, 24 Feb 2017 08:11:48 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=18852 ad

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A Philippine senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs was in police custody on Friday following her high-profile arrest for drugs offences that she described as a vendetta that would fail to silence her. Leila de Lima, who last year led a Senate probe into alleged extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s anti-drugs […]

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A Philippine senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs was in police custody on Friday following her high-profile arrest for drugs offences that she described as a vendetta that would fail to silence her.

Leila de Lima, who last year led a Senate probe into alleged extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, said the arrest was payback for taking on a president who had acted like a dictator.

On Tuesday she called Duterte a “sociopathic serial killer” who had a “criminal mind”.

“The truth will come out at the right time,” de Lima told reporters outside the Senate office where she spent the night, moments before law enforcers marshaled her into a waiting van.

De Lima, her former driver and bodyguard and a former prison official were ordered arrested after a judge found merit in criminal charges filed by the justice ministry last week.

She faces two more drug-related charges in the same court and described the cases as “all lies”.

Bail is not permitted under the charges and if found guilty, de Lima faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a close ally of Duterte, described her arrest as a victory of the war against drugs, adding “no one is above the law, not even a senator”.

But de Lima’s supporters quickly came to her defense, with Vice President Leni Robredo describing the arrest as “political harassment”.

Senator Paulo Benigno Aquino, a cousin of former president Benigno Aquino, called it “a concern for anyone who will dissent on any of the policies of this administration”.

The criminal complaint alleged de Lima received 5 million pesos ($99,850) from a former prison official when she was justice minister between 2010 and 2016.

The allegations she was in cahoots with drugs gangs surfaced when she led a Senate investigation, which probed alleged summary executions during Duterte’s bloody drugs war and a pattern of similar killings over the 22 years in which he was mayor of Davao City.

That investigation found no proof of wrongdoing by Duterte, who disparaged de Lima almost daily in televised speeches in which he made lurid allegations about her private life and even suggested she hang herself.

She filed a complaint with Supreme Court to try to muzzle the president.

At the heart of de Lima’s campaign has been the 7,700 deaths since Duterte took office eight months ago, more than 2,500 in police operations. The cause of many of the other deaths remain in dispute and human rights groups believe many of them were extrajudicial killings.

De Lima was removed as head of her Senate probe by Duterte’s allies and days later came under investigation herself in a congressional inquiry in which witnesses, several of them convicts, identified her as a key player in the narcotics trade.

Phelim Kine of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Duterte had “effectively expanded his ‘drug war’ from the urban poor to the legislative branch” by arresting de Lima.

Source – Reuters

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]]> 18852 Chinese commerce minister abruptly postpones Philippines trip – sources https://9newsng.com/chinese-commerce-minister-abruptly-postpones-philippines-trip-sources/ Thu, 23 Feb 2017 06:34:50 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=18735 chi

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China’s commerce minister decided at the last minute to postpone an official trip to the Philippines on Thursday to sign about 40 joint projects worth billions of dollars, sources at the Philippines trade and finance ministries said. It was not immediately clear what was behind the abrupt postponement of what would have been an important […]

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China’s commerce minister decided at the last minute to postpone an official trip to the Philippines on Thursday to sign about 40 joint projects worth billions of dollars, sources at the Philippines trade and finance ministries said.

It was not immediately clear what was behind the abrupt postponement of what would have been an important development in a new era of engagement between the two historic rivals under President Rodrigo Duterte, who has praised the leadership of Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

However, two Philippines officials, who asked not to be identified, suggested Beijing may have been irked by comments on Tuesday by foreign minister Perfecto Yasay about China’s robust activities in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng was due to arrive in Manila on Thursday with a large delegation but China informed the Philippines on Wednesday afternoon they would not be coming, the two sources said.

“It was a last-minute decision,” said one of the officials. “We were only informed about it and we’re not privy to any information about the cancellation.” Philippines Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told Reuters the two sides had yet to set a new date for the meeting but were looking at early March. He gave no reason for the sudden change.

China’s commerce ministry had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.

On Tuesday, Yasay said as chairman of a meeting of Association of South East Asian Nations foreign ministers that ASEAN was unsettled and had “grave concern” about China’s move to militarise manmade islands, including installation of weapons systems, in the South China Sea.

ASEAN is usually muted in its criticism of Beijing, wary of offending a crucial source of trade, tourism and investment.   Continued…

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Source – Reuters

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]]> 18735 Pirates attack fishing boat in Philippine south, eight killed – coast guard https://9newsng.com/pirates-attack-fishing-boat-in-philippine-south-eight-killed-coast-guard/ Tue, 10 Jan 2017 08:45:52 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=15591 9News Nigeria

MANILA (Reuters) – Armed men killed eight fishermen in what appeared to be an attack by pirates in dangerous waters in the southern Philippines, a coast guard spokesman said on Tuesday. The apparent act of piracy came as Philippine soldiers were given a six-month deadline to end Islamist militant threats, including those made on cargo […]

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MANILA (Reuters) – Armed men killed eight fishermen in what appeared to be an attack by pirates in dangerous waters in the southern Philippines, a coast guard spokesman said on Tuesday.

The apparent act of piracy came as Philippine soldiers were given a six-month deadline to end Islamist militant threats, including those made on cargo ships in south, where a long-festering insurgency has been exacerbated by the growing influence of the Islamic State militant group.

About two dozen sailors and tourists were taken captive by Islamist militants last year in attacks on tug boats and yachts in the Celebes and Sulu seas, raising concerns among defence officials from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines about Islamist militancy and piracy.

Coast guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said a Filipino fishing boat with 15 crew on board was operating off Laud Siromon island near the Zamboanga peninsula on Monday night when five armed men on a speed boat attacked them.

“The attackers opened fire at the fishermen,” Balilo said.

He said eight were killed and another five men jumped overboard and swam to a nearby island. Two others who remained on the boat were unharmed.

“We consider this a piracy attack. If these were Islamist militants, they would have been taken captive and held for ransom,” Balilo said.

He said the attackers fled in the darkness and two coast guard ships were sent to the area to search for them.

Last month, a container ship repulsed an attack by members of the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group who attempted to board the vessel and abduct the crew, the coast guard has said.

Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana said the military had been ordered to end threats from Abu Sayyaf within six months, with more troops to be poured into the area while a ceasefire agreement with Maoist-led guerrillas holds.

“That is our target,” Lorenzana told reporters. “We will just have to do all we can, combining military operations and developmental projects to end what they are doing,” he said.

The small but violent Abu Sayyaf group, known in the south for kidnapping, extortion, and beheadings, has been holding about two dozen captives, including Dutch, German, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian and Vietnamese nationals.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

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]]> 15591 110 inmates on run after Philippines’ biggest jailbreak https://9newsng.com/110-inmates-on-run-after-philippines-biggest-jailbreak/ https://9newsng.com/110-inmates-on-run-after-philippines-biggest-jailbreak/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2017 08:57:49 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=15115 168820bb22716300911290e18a94c5ce63a17336

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Philippine authorities said Thursday they had captured 34 inmates who escaped in the nation’s biggest jailbreak but more than 110 remained on the run in vast farmlands and isolated villages of the nation’s strife-torn south. Suspected Muslim guerrillas stormed a decrepit jail in one of the major southern cities on Wednesday, freeing 158 inmates and […]

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Philippine authorities said Thursday they had captured 34 inmates who escaped in the nation’s biggest jailbreak but more than 110 remained on the run in vast farmlands and isolated villages of the nation’s strife-torn south.

Suspected Muslim guerrillas stormed a decrepit jail in one of the major southern cities on Wednesday, freeing 158 inmates and killing a guard, in what authorities said was a bid to free fellow rebels.

Thirty-four of the inmates had been recaptured by Thursday morning, adding to five who were killed on Wednesday, jail authorities said, but they emphasised there were many obstacles in the manhunt.

“This is a very wide area. Aside from sugar, rubber and coconut plantations, there are areas and camps held by rebels that we cannot easily enter,” jail warden Peter Bongngat told AFP.

The southern Philippines is home to a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency, as well as extremist gangs that have recently declared allegiance to the Islamic State.

The southern region of Mindanao is the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the largely Catholic Philippines.

The badly overcrowded jail in Kidapawan, 950 kilometres (590 miles) south of Manila, contained rebels from the various groups as well as members of criminal gangs that thrive in the corruption and poverty of the south.

The jail, which housed about 1,500 inmates, is a run-down former school building that militants have targeted repeatedly over the past 15 years.

In 2007, Khair Mundos, a Filipino who would later become one of the world’s most wanted accused terrorists escaped along with 48 other inmates. Mundos, with a $500,000 bounty from the US government, was recaptured in Manila seven years later.

However Wednesday’s jailbreak was the biggest in the nation’s history, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology spokesman Xavier Solda told AFP.

– High-value targets –

Solda said 13 “high-value targets” — seven Muslim rebels and six organised crime gang members — had not been able to escape on Wednesday.

However Solda and Bongngat were not able to tell AFP who was still on the run, saying their identities were still being “verified”.

On Wednesday, Bongngat said the attackers were believed to be militants who had broken away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the nation’s largest Muslim rebel organisation which is in peace talks with the government.

The MILF, which has about 10,000 armed followers, has been fighting since the 1970s for independence or autonomy.

The rebellion has claimed more than 120,000 lives although the MILF has in recent years observed a ceasefire as part of the peace process.

MILF spokesman Von al-Haq insisted Thursday that none of its members was involved in the raid, adding the group was willing to coordinate with government to allow searches in its communities.

“The commander named to be the leader of the raid was 100 percent a notorious criminal. He was never a member of the MILF,” Al-Haq told AFP.

Al-Haq said the commander, known by an alias of Commander Derby, had broken into the jail to release a relative who was the leader of the Muslim inmates.

Al-Haq said the relative and the leader of the Christian inmates were among the first to escape, and remained on the run.

Source: AFP

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]]> https://9newsng.com/110-inmates-on-run-after-philippines-biggest-jailbreak/feed/ 1 15115 Armed men linked to Muslim rebels free more than 150 from Philippine prison https://9newsng.com/armed-men-linked-to-muslim-rebels-free-more-than-150-from-philippine-prison/ Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:19:07 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=14921 Armed men linked to Muslim rebels free more than 150 from Philippine prison

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MANILA (Reuters) – Around 100 armed men with links to Muslim rebels stormed a prison in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, killing a guard and freeing more than 150 prisoners, some of them Islamic militants, officials said. The Southeast Asian, majority Roman Catholic nation has for decades been plagued by insurgency by Muslim rebels in […]

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MANILA (Reuters) – Around 100 armed men with links to Muslim rebels stormed a prison in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, killing a guard and freeing more than 150 prisoners, some of them Islamic militants, officials said.

The Southeast Asian, majority Roman Catholic nation has for decades been plagued by insurgency by Muslim rebels in its southern islands.

The gunmen opened fire at guards at the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan, prison warden Peter Bongat said on radio. Of the jail’s 1,511 inmates, 158 managed to escape, he said.

Eight prisoners had since been caught, two had surrendered, while six were killed, according to the office of the president.

Shirlyn Macasarte, acting governor of North Cotabato, said her office had been tipped off about the plan by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to free its members as early as the second quarter of last year.

“They were involved in murders and at the same time I think they have experience in bomb making so we watched them closely,” Macasarte told news channel ANC.

The leader of the attackers, known by the alias Commander Derbie, had links with the BIFF, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Macasarte said.

Some members of the MILF and BIFF were said to be behind the killing of 44 police commandos in a secret mission two years ago to capture a Malaysian bomb maker with a $5 million bounty from the U.S. State Department on his head.

In 2014, the government signed a peace deal with the MILF, the biggest Muslim rebel group, but clashes still occur with smaller groups.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Manuel Mogato; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

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]]> 14921 Philippine leader says once threw man from helicopter, would do it again https://9newsng.com/philippine-leader-says-once-threw-man-from-helicopter-would-do-it-again/ Fri, 30 Dec 2016 04:21:55 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=14415 Philippine leader says once threw man from helicopter would do it again

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and would do it again. The fiery-tempered former prosecutor said he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter. […]

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and would do it again.

The fiery-tempered former prosecutor said he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter.

“If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila and I will throw you out. I have done this before, why would I not do it again?” Duterte told typhoon victims in a speech on Tuesday, a clip of which is posted on a video feed of the president’s office.

Duterte’s latest threat came a few weeks after he admitted killing people during his 22 years as a mayor of Davao City, sometimes riding a motorcycle looking for “encounters to kill.” Some senators have warned Duterte he risks impeachment over his comments.

The United States, a long-time Philippines ally which has expressed concern about Duterte’s war on drugs and his anti-American rhetoric, said it was aware of his statements about the helicopter.

“As we have stated previously, we are deeply concerned by reports of extrajudicial killings by or at the behest of government authorities in the Philippines,” State Department spokeswoman Anna Richey-Allen said in an emailed response to a Reuters inquiry.

Duterte has repeatedly said those killings were part of legitimate police operations, including a hostage incident, and those killed were criminals, not suspects.

It was not immediately clear when or where the helicopter incident Duterte spoke of took place.

In an interview on Thursday with Philippine news channel ABS-CBN, Duterte was non-committal when asked about the incident.

“Helicopter to throw a person?” he asked. “And if that is true, I will not admit it.”

His spokesman, Ernesto Abella, suggested earlier the story was an “urban legend.”

Duterte also said six people arrested last week during a seizure of more than half a tonne of methamphetamine, known locally as “shabu”, were fortunate he was out of town.

“They were lucky I was not in Manila that time. If I had known there were that much shabu inside a house, I would definitely kill you,” he said.

“Let’s not make any drama, I will personally gun you down if nobody else will do it.”

The United Nations’ top human rights envoy has called for an investigation into Duterte’s claims of killing people, to which Duterte last week responded by calling him “stupid,” an “idiot” and a “son of a bitch” who should go back to school.

(Reporting by Martin Petty and Neil Jerome Morales in Manila and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and Richard Chang)

 

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]]> 14415 Philippines’ Duterte tells U.S. to prepare to leave the country https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-tells-u-s-to-prepare-to-leave-the-country/ Fri, 16 Dec 2016 17:39:55 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=14001 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told the United States on Saturday to prepare for the eventual repeal of a military deal that allows Washington to deploy troops and equipment for exercises in the country. Duterte also said the Philippines can survive “without American money” after a U.S. aid agency put on hold a […]

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told the United States on Saturday to prepare for the eventual repeal of a military deal that allows Washington to deploy troops and equipment for exercises in the country.

Duterte also said the Philippines can survive “without American money” after a U.S. aid agency put on hold a decision to fund anti-poverty programmes in the country.

“We do not need you,” Duterte said in a news conference after arriving from visits to Cambodia and Singapore. “Prepare to leave the Philippines. Prepare for the eventual repeal or abrogation of the VFA.”

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

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]]> 14001 Philippine Duterte’s admits he personally killed criminals, Senators say impeachable offense https://9newsng.com/philippine-dutertes-admits-he-personally-killed-criminals-senators-say-impeachable-offense/ Thu, 15 Dec 2016 06:07:06 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=13937 Philippine Dutertes admits he personally killed criminals Senators say impeachable offense

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during the change of command for the new Armed Forces chief at a military camp in Quezon city, Metro Manila, December 7, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte risks impeachment after he admitted “personally” killing criminals when he was the mayor of Davao City, said two Philippine senators. […]

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]]> Philippine Dutertes admits he personally killed criminals Senators say impeachable offense

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during the change of command for the new Armed Forces chief at a military camp in Quezon city, Metro Manila, December 7, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte risks impeachment after he admitted “personally” killing criminals when he was the mayor of Davao City, said two Philippine senators.

The firebrand leader boasted to business leaders on Monday that as Davao City mayor he used to prowl the streets on a big motorcycle looking for “an encounter to kill” just to show to local law enforcers he can do it.

“I used to do it personally,” Duterte said. “If I can do it why can’t you?”

More than 2,000 people have been killed in police anti-drug operations since Duterte became president in July. Almost all were shot when they resisted arrest.

Another 3,000 deaths are under investigation, with critics calling them vigilante killings.

Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte, said the president’s admission could be a ground for impeachment.

“That is betrayal of public trust and that constitutes high crimes because mass murders certainly fall into the category of high crimes. And high crimes is a ground for impeachment under the constitution,” de Lima told CNN on Thursday.

Senator Richard Gordon, who heads the senate justice committee, also said Duterte opened himself to possible impeachment proceedings following his controversial comments.

“When he says that, he’s opening himself up, so what’s the legal way, then go ahead and impeach him,” he told reporters, adding he was not surprised by the statement.

Duterte’s allies in Congress dared the president’s opponents and critics to file an impeachment motion, saying removing the leader through a political process is a numbers game.

There are less than 50 opposition lawmakers in the 293-member lower house of Congress. A two-thirds vote is needed to impeach a president.

Peter Wallace, who organized the business forum where Duterte spoke, thought the president’s statement was his “usual bravado.”

“He talked as he often does about drugs, and killings and criminality. And we had expected that he would but we were there not to listen to that,” Wallace told Reuters by phone.

“We were there to talk to him or listen to him about business issues and I was pleased that…he moved on to those subjects,” he said.

Justice Minister Vitaliano Aguirre dismissed Duterte’s statement as an exaggeration.

“It’s like a hyperbole, that’s the president, he is used to exaggerate just to put his message across,” Aguirre was quoted in radio reports as saying on Thursday.

Even if that were true, Aquirre said it did not necessarily mean that he violated the law.

“It could be done with a justifiable cause and justified circumstances as a public officer in order to arrest but if they resisted. He must have been forced,” Aquirre said, referring to Duterte. — Reuters

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]]> 13937 Philippines’ firebrand Duterte gets Trump White House invite during ‘animated’ call https://9newsng.com/philippines-firebrand-duterte-gets-trump-white-house-invite-during-animated-call/ https://9newsng.com/philippines-firebrand-duterte-gets-trump-white-house-invite-during-animated-call/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2016 04:48:42 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=13277 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte regrets remarks on Obama

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By Martin Petty and David Brunnstrom MANILA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump invited Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte to the White House next year during a “very engaging, animated” phone conversation, a Duterte aide said on Friday, amid rocky relations between their two countries. A statement issued by Trump’s transition team, however, made no mention […]

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]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte regrets remarks on Obama

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By Martin Petty and David Brunnstrom

MANILA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump invited Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte to the White House next year during a “very engaging, animated” phone conversation, a Duterte aide said on Friday, amid rocky relations between their two countries.

A statement issued by Trump’s transition team, however, made no mention of an invitation.

Trump’s brief chat with the firebrand Philippine president follows a period of uncertainty about one of Washington’s most important Asian alliances, stoked by Duterte’s hostility towards President Barack Obama and repeated threats to sever decades-old defence ties.

The call lasted just over seven minutes, Duterte’s special adviser, Christopher Go, said in a text message to media, which gave few details.

Duterte congratulated the U.S. president-elect, the Trump team’s statement said, and the two men “noted the long history of friendship and cooperation between the two nations, and agreed that the two governments would continue to work together closely on matters of shared interest and concern.”

In five months in office, Duterte has upended Philippine foreign policy by berating the United States, making overtures towards historic rival China and pursuing a new alliance with Russia.

His diplomacy has created jitters among Asian countries wary about Beijing’s rising influence and Washington’s staying power as a regional counterbalance.

Duterte has praised China and told Obama to “go to hell” and called him a “son of a bitch” whom he would humiliate if he visited the Philippines.

The anger was unleashed after Democrat Obama expressed concern about possible human rights abuses in Duterte’s war on drugs, during which more than 2,000 people have been killed.

Duterte initially expressed optimism about having Trump in the Oval Office, saying he no longer wanted quarrels. But he has continued to rail against U.S. “hypocrisy” and “bullying”.

Republican Trump, a New York businessman who has never previously held public office, told Reuters during the election campaign that Duterte’s comments showed “a lack of respect for our country.” But he also stressed the “very important strategic location” of the Philippines and blamed Obama for failing to take the time to get to know world leaders.

‘CLEAN SLATE’

A source who has advised Trump’s transition team on security policy told Reuters last week the president-elect would start a “clean slate” with Duterte, and analysts see some similarities in their blunt style.

“He is perfectly capable of talking to Duterte in an open way without being wedded to previous policy failures,” the source said of Trump, while stressing the importance of security ties.

Sometimes called the “Trump of the East” because of his mercurial ways, Duterte has threatened repeatedly to sever U.S. defence ties, saying he “hates” having foreign soldiers in his country.

Joint military exercises look set to be scaled back as Duterte has demanded and a question mark hangs over the future of a 2014 Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), a deal of strategic importance to Washington because it allows U.S. forces access to Philippine bases on a troop rotation basis.

“EDCA is a concern and some of the things Duterte has said are a concern,” the source who has advised Trump’s transition said. “That is not going to change based on who the president is.”

Duterte caused a stir when he visited China in October and announced his “separation” from the United States. He has said Washington could not be trusted to support the Philippines if it were attacked, as mandated in a joint defence treaty.

In an article published just before the U.S. election, Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Alex Gray blamed the breakdown on the Obama administration’s failure to intervene in 2012 when China seized the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, which the Philippines considers its fishing ground.

“Washington’s utter failure to uphold its obligations to a longtime, pivotal ally during one of its most humiliating crises has no doubt contributed to (Duterte’s) low opinion of American security guarantees — and his recent move toward a China alliance,” they wrote.

Some experts say Duterte’s appointment of special envoys to Washington suggest he aims to keep good ties.

Among the envoys is multi-millionaire real estate tycoon Jose Antonio, who bought the rights to name a new office tower in Manila “Trump Towers”.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said he did not know whether the department had assisted in setting up Trump’s call with Duterte, but stood ready to provide such help.

Philippines expert Ernest Bower of the Bower Group Asia consultancy said it was likely the call was facilitated by Trump’s business partners in the Philippines and a core group of advisers, who include his children.

Bower said Trump’s election victory could offer Duterte a face-saving way to move back from his anti-U.S. rhetoric, while Duterte could provide Trump with a way to stress the importance of Asian alliances, which he appeared to question during the campaign.

Murray Hiebert of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies noted that the Philippines would be chairing the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year and it was common for the United States to extend an invitation to the chair ahead of the U.S.-ASEAN summit.

Bower said this may have been fortuitous on Trump’s part.

“My guess is he was more interested in making a point – that he could deal with Duterte in ways Obama couldn’t – than in the strategic wisdom of driving alignment with the ASEAN chair ahead of the ASEAN and East Asian summits.”

(Addtional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila and Steve Holland and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Grant McCool and James Dalgleish)

 

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]]> https://9newsng.com/philippines-firebrand-duterte-gets-trump-white-house-invite-during-animated-call/feed/ 1 13277 Philippine police detonate suspicious home-made bomb near U.S. embassy https://9newsng.com/philippine-police-detonate-suspicious-home-made-bomb-near-u-s-embassy/ Mon, 28 Nov 2016 05:38:16 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=12724 Philippine police detonate suspicious home made bomb near U.S. embassy

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine police detonated a suspicious package they thought could have been a home-made bomb found in a trash bin near the U.S. embassy in Manila on Monday, the police chief in the capital said. There was no damage from the controlled detonation, Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel said, although the incident created a […]

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]]> Philippine police detonate suspicious home made bomb near U.S. embassy

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine police detonated a suspicious package they thought could have been a home-made bomb found in a trash bin near the U.S. embassy in Manila on Monday, the police chief in the capital said.

There was no damage from the controlled detonation, Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel said, although the incident created a traffic jam in the area.

Business at the embassy continued as normal, with dozens of Filipinos queuing outside for visa applications. There was no immediate comment about the incident from embassy officials.

Coronel said police received a call before 7 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Sunday) from a street sweeper who found an old mobile phone with black and red electrical wires connected to a package. It was thought the package could have been a bomb.

“There is no danger, there is no cause for alarm,” Coronel told reporters. He said there were no explosives, such as gunpowder, in the package.

“The blast you heard was caused by … a controlled detonation. We are trying to identify who left the package at the trash bin,” he said.

However, a police intelligence official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the mobile phone was connected to an 81 mm mortar shell.

“We are still making further investigations to check if the ordnance is live,” the intelligence official told Reuters.

He said Islamist militants in central Mindanao, a restive southern province, were known to use such shells to make bombs, similar to one that exploded in Davao City in September.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

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]]> 12724 Philippines president Duterte tells oligarchs ‘I owe you nothing’, says opening economy to new players https://9newsng.com/philippines-president-duterte-tells-oligarchs-i-owe-you-nothing-says-opening-economy-to-new-players/ Thu, 24 Nov 2016 05:55:57 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=12450 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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By Martin Petty MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte vowed on Wednesday to open up the economy to new corporations to halt graft and protectionism, telling the country’s oligarchs he owed them no favours and to be content with their billions. The outspoken, populist leader said it was high time to change regulations and […]

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]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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By Martin Petty

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte vowed on Wednesday to open up the economy to new corporations to halt graft and protectionism, telling the country’s oligarchs he owed them no favours and to be content with their billions.

The outspoken, populist leader said it was high time to change regulations and liberalise sectors like energy, power and telecoms to make the country more competitive, and give Filipinos better services and a share of the wealth.

Duterte, who was swept to office in May by a huge margin on a platform tilted towards the poor, said he had consciously shut powerful tycoons out of his election campaign and where his reform plan was concerned they would have to like it or lump it.

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“The only way for deliverance of this country is to remove it from the clutches of the few people who hold the power and money,” he told a news conference.

“I do not owe you anything, that’s precisely why I was avoiding you during the last election. I am not trying to destroy you. You have the advantage, you’re here already, be content with that. But let us open everything.”

The mercurial former mayor has shown no qualms about confronting conglomerates who dominate the Philippines economy, which is growing at one of the world’s fastest rates.

Despite jitters among investors that Duterte’s volatility could impact policy, the economy expanded 7.1 percent in the July-September period – the first quarterly data of his presidency.

Duterte spoke moments after arriving home from a leaders’ summit in Peru of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), whose closing statement committed to fight “all forms of protectionism”.

Investors have long been frustrated at being shut out of some sectors in a market of more than 100 million Filipinos, either squeezed by local monopolies or regulations that limit foreign investments, like in telecoms and utilities.

The Philippines currently has 21 billionaires, according to Forbes Magazine, with a record number in 2016. The richest had a net worth of $12 billion.

TIME TO SHARE

“You can count on your fingers the power players of this country. I would not say that they are the elite,” Duterte said.

“I would like just to send this strong message: it’s about time that we share the money of the entire country and to move faster, make competition open to all,” he said.

“You stymie competition and we will always be at the mercy of the corrupt people.”

His remarks suggest he is determined to deliver on pledges to thwart protectionism, having already warned the telecoms duopoly of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (TEL.PS: Quote) and Globe Telecom (GLO.PS: Quote) to shape up, or face new competition.

Philippines’ data and voice services are ranked among Asia’s slowest and most intermittent, a source of angst for businesses.

Duterte said that in the power and energy sectors, the government was looking into regulatory requirements and institutional arrangements “to hasten the entry of new players”.

He also said he would be diversifying sources of hardware for his military, bemoaning its use of American “hand-me-downs” and efforts by a U.S. senator to block the sale of 26,000 new M-4 assault rifles to the Philippines police.

He said his new friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin, had told him to turn to Russia instead, and had made him a buy-one, get-one-free guns offer.

“It’s for free, so I get double,” Duterte said.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

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]]> 12450 Philippine dictator Marcos buried with military honours at heroes’ cemetery https://9newsng.com/philippine-dictator-marcos-buried-with-military-honours-at-heroes-cemetery/ Fri, 18 Nov 2016 07:52:39 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=11849 Philippine dictator Marcos buried with military honours at heroes cemetery

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MANILA (Reuters) – Former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried with military honours at a heroes’ cemetery in the capital Manila on Friday, almost 30 years after his death in Hawaii, amid protests by human rights groups and opposition politicians. Many in the Philippines were shocked and angered by the way Marcos’ family had kept […]

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]]> Philippine dictator Marcos buried with military honours at heroes cemetery

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MANILA (Reuters) – Former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried with military honours at a heroes’ cemetery in the capital Manila on Friday, almost 30 years after his death in Hawaii, amid protests by human rights groups and opposition politicians.

Many in the Philippines were shocked and angered by the way Marcos’ family had kept the timing of the burial secret, with Vice President Lenie Robredo likening the ceremony to “a thief in the night”.

“This is nothing new to the Marcoses – they who had hidden wealth, hidden human rights abuses and now hidden burial – with complete disrespect for the rule of law,” Robredo said in a statement.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who is attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru, had ordered the burial in August, fulfilling an election campaign promise.

Human rights groups opposed his burial at the heroes’ cemetery south of Manila but the Philippines Supreme Court ruled against their protests last week. [nL4N1D93F1]

Marcos ruled the Philippines for 20 years, during which time he, his family and cronies amassed an estimated $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth, a commission found. Tens of thousands of suspected communist rebels and political foes were killed.

He was chased from office in a people’s power revolt in 1986 and died in exile in Hawaii three years later. His family returned to the Philippines in the 1990s and became powerful politicians representing his home province of Ilocos Norte.

Military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo said “the will of the Marcos family” had to be respected after they requested a simple, private ceremony. The media was banned from the Libingan ng mga Bayani cemetery.

Throngs of journalists waited outside as the military gave the late president a hero’s funeral, a 21-gun salute being fired as a Philippine flag was rolled and handed to Marcos’ widow, Imelda.

“This is what we have been praying for,” Marcos supporter Cherrie Cobarrubias told Philippine television, saying she planned to visit the grave later on Friday.

“We are happy,” she said.

Dozens of activists, human rights advocates and students, carrying placards and banners saying “Marcos is a traitor, Marcos not a hero” held protest rallies around Manila, some burning pictures of the late ruler.

Police said Marcos’ body was flown by helicopter from his hometown in the northern Philippines for burial at noon.

Marcos’ body was returned to the Philippines in the early 1990s and was placed in a refrigerated mausoleum at his hometown in Paoay in Ilocos Norte province.

(Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

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]]> 11849 Philippines police boss says U.S. guns deal on after Duterte U-turn https://9newsng.com/philippines-police-boss-says-u-s-guns-deal-on-after-duterte-u-turn/ Mon, 14 Nov 2016 08:05:04 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=11437 Philippines police boss says U.S. guns deal on after Duterte U turn

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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines police will push ahead with the purchase of 26,000 assault rifles from a U.S. supplier, the police chief said on Monday, following an about-face by President Rodrigo Duterte, who previously said the deal would be scrapped. Duterte had a week ago expressed anger at “fools” and “monkeys” in Washington seeking […]

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]]> Philippines police boss says U.S. guns deal on after Duterte U turn

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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines police will push ahead with the purchase of 26,000 assault rifles from a U.S. supplier, the police chief said on Monday, following an about-face by President Rodrigo Duterte, who previously said the deal would be scrapped.

Duterte had a week ago expressed anger at “fools” and “monkeys” in Washington seeking to block the deal and said he would cancel it himself. But Duterte’s police chief said he revoked that decision, apparently after Republican Donald Trump’s surprise win in the U.S. presidential election.

“(The president) told me to continue the deal,” Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dela Rosa, told a news conference.

“The processing of documents are going on smoothly … we have the blessing of the president to continue the transaction.”

Dela Rosa did not say why Duterte had changed his mind, but he said there would be a new president in Washington and “he and Donald Trump are friends”.

Aides to Ben Cardin, who sits on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, last month said the State Department had been informed Cardin would oppose the deal during the prenotification process, effectively putting the brakes on it.

Cardin was reluctant for the United States to provide weapons to the police given concern about alleged human rights violations in Duterte’s war on drugs, which killed 2,300 people in its first four months.

The tough-talking Duterte has been incensed by U.S. concerns about a drugs crackdown he says is needed to save his country from ruin.

He has regularly berated the Obama administration but has expressed a desire to work with Trump.

Dela Rosa said it was possible the president would scrap the guns deal if there were an intervention in Washington.

“If they will block it, I’m sure the president will again tell me to stop it. We’re paying for it, we’re not begging for it,” he said.

(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

 

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]]> 11437 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Swears Again Calls U.S. ‘monkeys’ for halting gun sale https://9newsng.com/philippine-president-rodrigo-duterte-swears-again-calls-u-s-monkeys-for-halting-gun-sale/ Thu, 03 Nov 2016 08:18:56 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=10573 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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MANILA, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte chided the United States on Wednesday for halting the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country, calling those behind the decision “fools” and “monkeys” and indicating he might turn to Russia and China instead. Duterte’s tirades against the former colonial power are routine during his […]

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]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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MANILA, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte chided the United States on Wednesday for halting the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country, calling those behind the decision “fools” and “monkeys” and indicating he might turn to Russia and China instead.

Duterte’s tirades against the former colonial power are routine during his speeches and he said on Wednesday he once believed in Washington, but had since lost respect for what is the Philippines’ biggest ally.

The U.S. State Department halted the sale of the assault rifles to the Philippine police after staff from U.S. Senator Ben Cardin’s office said he would oppose it, Senate aides told Reuters on Monday.

Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concern about human rights violations in the Philippines during Duterte’s bloody, four-month-old war on drugs.

“Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don’t want to sell,” Duterte said during a televised speech.

“Son of a bitch, we have many home-made guns here. These American fools.”

More than 2,300 people have been killed in police operations or by suspected vigilantes as part of Duterte’s anti-narcotics effort, which was the lynchpin of his election campaign.

Duterte has vented his anger at the United States for raising concerns about the extra-judicial killings.

“That’s why I was rude at them, because they were rude at me,” he said.

According to procedures in Washington, the State Department informs Congress when international weapons sales are in the works. Aides said the State Department had been informed Cardin would oppose the deal during the prenotification process, thus effectively halting the sale.

“Committee staff told State that Cardin would block it if it was sent forward. They haven’t sent it. Does that mean it has been stopped? I guess that depends on your definition. It would be highly unusual for State to move it forward with explicit opposition,” a Senate aide said on Wednesday.

COMMITTED TO PHILIPPINES ALLIANCE

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said he was barred from commenting on the status of the sale, while stressing the U.S. commitment to the important U.S.-Philippines alliance.

“The department is restricted under federal regulations from commenting on the status of commercial export license approvals of proposed commercial defense sales,” Kirby said at a daily news briefing.

“So we’re going to stay also committed to working closely with members of Congress to deliver security assistance to our allies and partners worldwide, including the Philippines,” he said.

The Philippine police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, who has expressed disappointment that police might not get the M4 rifles, held a news conference where he showed a letter from the supplier, SIG Sauer, saying it had been advised by State that the application for the export license was proceeding normally.

If it does not go ahead, dela Rosa said, “We have many options and it’s their loss, not ours, if the report is true.”

Duterte reiterated that Russia and China had shown willingness to sell arms to the Philippines, but he would wait to see if his military wanted to continue using U.S. weapons.

“Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we’ll give you.

“But I am holding off because I was asking the military if they have any problem. Because if you have, if you want to stick to America, fine.

“But, look closely and balance the situation, they are rude to us.” (Reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel and Andrew Hay)

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]]> 10573 Philippines’ Duterte says God warned him off swearing https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-says-god-warned-him-off-swearing/ Sat, 29 Oct 2016 04:16:01 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=10031 Philippines Duterte says God warned him off swearing

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has promised to stop swearing, saying God spoke to him on a flight from Japan on Thursday, warning him the plane would crash if he kept using bad language. The maverick former mayor, famous for profanity that has included outbursts aimed at Pope Francis and U.S. President Barack […]

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]]> Philippines Duterte says God warned him off swearing

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has promised to stop swearing, saying God spoke to him on a flight from Japan on Thursday, warning him the plane would crash if he kept using bad language.

The maverick former mayor, famous for profanity that has included outbursts aimed at Pope Francis and U.S. President Barack Obama, said he heard a voice and realised it was God, telling him to clean up his act.

“I was looking at the skies while I was coming over here … everybody was asleep, snoring, but a voice said that, ‘you know, if you don’t stop epithets, I will bring this plane down now’,” Duterte said at a news conference late on Thursday upon arrival in his home city of Davao.

“And I said, ‘who is this?’ So, of course, it’s God. OK.

“So, I promise God … not to express slang, cuss words and everything.”

Duterte, a former outspoken city mayor, emerged as a brash, crass, alternative candidate in a May election which he won by a big margin, owing much to his earthy style and promises to tackle problems important to ordinary people, like drugs and crime.

Advice to act more presidential once he took office was not heeded for long, however, and he resumed his eruptions of profanity with gusto when he started hearing foreign criticism of his deadly drugs war.

He has called U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch” and chose the same words when criticising the pope.

He told Obama to “go to hell”, called U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a “devil” and said “fuck you” twice to the European Union, while raising his middle finger.

In Tokyo on Tuesday, Duterte used the same language when speaking about his anger with foreign criticism of his drug war.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner declined to say whether Duterte’s vow might make dealing with him easier, but added: “He’s certainly entitled to his views about his own relationship with a supreme being.”

It was not the first time Duterte has spoken of his connection with God, whom he said had made him president.

Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s vice-presidential running mate and now his foreign affairs adviser, said Duterte was tired and appeared pensive during the flight back from Japan.

“He felt it was a message from God,” Cayetano told reporters on Friday.

“I’ve always felt he’s a deeply spiritual person. He’s not religious, but he believes in God.”

The Philippines is predominantly Roman Catholic.

(Reporting by Martin Petty; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish)

 

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]]> 10031 Philippines’ Duterte tells Japan his China visit was just economics, blasts U.S https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-tells-japan-his-china-visit-was-just-economics-blasts-u-s/ Wed, 26 Oct 2016 10:38:18 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=9688 filipino

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought to assure Japan on Wednesday that his high-profile visit to rival China last week was about economics, not security, and vowed to stand on Tokyo’s side over the disputed South China Sea when the time came. Earlier in the day, Duterte reiterated his harsh words for long-time ally Washington, saying […]

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought to assure Japan on Wednesday that his high-profile visit to rival China last week was about economics, not security, and vowed to stand on Tokyo’s side over the disputed South China Sea when the time came.

Earlier in the day, Duterte reiterated his harsh words for long-time ally Washington, saying he might end defence treaties.

The volatile Philippine leader’s visit to Japan comes amid jitters about his foreign policy goals after weeks of verbal attacks on ally the United States and overtures towards China.

Duterte last week announced in China his “separation” from the United States, but then insisted ties were not being severed and that he was merely pursuing an independent foreign policy.

His perplexing comments pose a headache for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has tightened ties with Washington while building closer security relations with Manila and other Southeast Asian countries as a counter-weight to a rising China.

“You know I went to China for a visit. And I would like to assure you that all there was, was economics. We did not talk about arms. We avoided talking about alliances,” he told an audience of Japanese businessmen.

Duterte, speaking through a Japanese interpreter at the start of his talks with Abe, later said he would stand on Japan’s side in the contentious matter of the South China Sea.

Describing Japan as a “special friend who is closer than a brother”, Duterte said after the meeting that Manila would work closely with Japan on regional issues of common concern and uphold the values of democracy, adherence to the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes including the South China Sea.

Reading from a statement, he added: “Today we have taken steps to ensure that our ties remain vibrant and will gain greater strength in the years to come.”

Abe, for his part, said he welcomed Duterte’s efforts to improve Manila’s ties with Beijing and said the two leaders had agreed on the importance to settle maritime disputes peacefully, without force.

INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY

Both Tokyo and Washington have grown worried that the commitment under Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, to stand up to China in the South China Sea is under threat, although Japan has no direct territorial row with Beijing there.

Japan has a separate dispute with China over tiny, uninhabited isles in the East China Sea, and has been keen to stress the importance of the rule of law.

Aquino angered China by lodging a case with an arbitration court in the Hague challenging the legitimacy of Beijing’s maritime claims in the resource-rich sea. The court’s ruling in July emphatically favoured Manila but was rejected by China, which has warned Washington and Tokyo to stay out of the feud.

Duterte earlier told an audience of Japanese business executives he did not pick quarrels with his neighbours, but had tough words for Washington.

“I have declared that I will pursue an independent foreign policy. I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out,” he said.

“And if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, this shall be the last manoeuvre, war games between the United States and the Philippines military.” [nL3N1CA0PQ]

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the sea, believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.

Duterte has threatened to abrogate defence agreements with the United States several times but has yet to take any concrete action beyond cancelling some minor navy patrol exercises.

In a pattern already becoming familiar, Duterte’s foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, tried to soothe concerns raised by the president’s remarks. He told a news conference that Manila would respect treaty obligations as long as mutual interests converged and there was no reason to end them at present.

Source: Reuters 

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]]> 9688 Philippines’ Duterte tells worried foreign businesses to go https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-tells-worried-foreign-businesses-to-go/ Tue, 25 Oct 2016 21:53:05 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=9539 Rodrigo Duterte 11 690x450

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President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday urged foreign businesses in the Philippines worried about his deadly drug war to “pack up and leave”, as he launched another anti-American tirade before flying to Japan to attract investments. Duterte voiced outrage at comments the previous day by the top US envoy to Asia that his fiery rhetoric and […]

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President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday urged foreign businesses in the Philippines worried about his deadly drug war to “pack up and leave”, as he launched another anti-American tirade before flying to Japan to attract investments.

Duterte voiced outrage at comments the previous day by the top US envoy to Asia that his fiery rhetoric and crime war, which has claimed about 3,700 lives in four months, were bad for business.

“These Americans are really crazy. Their style is to walk here. They think they are somebodies,” Duterte said, as he held up a newspaper with headlines reporting the criticism from US assistant secretary of state Daniel Russel.

“Russel says ‘Duterte comments causing worries in business communities’. Then you pack up and leave. We will recover, I assure you.”
Duterte then flew to Japan, one of the top US allies in Asia, for a three-day visit that is partly aimed at building on two-way trade of more than $18 billion dollars last year.

“With Japan as the Philippines’ top trading partner, I shall seek the sustainment and further enhancement of our important economic ties,” Duterte, 71, said in prepared remarks at Manila airport.

“I look forward to meeting business leaders in Japan. I will tell them clearly that the Philippines is open for business.”

Duterte will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and have an audience with Emperor Akihito during the trip, which follows his headline-grabbing state visit to China last week.

Duterte, a self-proclaimed socialist with close links to communists, announced in Beijing the Philippines’ “separation” from the United States, throwing into doubt a 70-year alliance that is anchored on a mutual defence treaty.

He quickly walked back from his comments after returning from China, saying “separation” did not mean he would “sever” ties and that the US alliance would continue.

But his anti-American vitriol also continued.

– No lapdog – 

Duterte said Tuesday he was not a “lapdog” of the United States, and again voiced anger at American and European criticism of apparent extrajudicial killings on his watch.

“You are a son of a whore,” he said referring to his critics.

“Do not make us dogs. Do not. As if I am a dog with a leash and then you throw bread far away that I cannot reach.”

Duterte has previously branded US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” and told him to “go to hell”.

Russel, the US envoy, said after meeting Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay on Monday that many people around the world were becoming increasingly worried about Duterte’s tirades.

“The succession of controversial statements, comments and a real climate of uncertainty about the Philippines’ intentions have created consternation in a number of countries,” Russel said.

“Not only in mine and not only among governments, but also growing concern in other communities, in the expat Filipino community, in corporate boardrooms as well.”

Japan, which is wary of China’s rising influence in the region, signalled it would be looking for clarification from Duterte about his foreign policy plans.

“It is important to have good communication and to listen directly to what Mr Duterte has in mind,” Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters when asked about the firebrand leader’s comments on ties with Washington.

Abe had worked to improve bilateral relations with Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino.

Japan provided patrol boats to support the Philippines in its territorial row with Beijing over rival claims to the South China Sea, as it sought backing in its own maritime dispute with China.

Aquino took Beijing to an international tribunal over its extensive claims in the South China Sea — where it has built artificial islands capable of hosting military facilities — and the Philippines won a resounding victory in July.

But Duterte has sought not to use the verdict to anger China, instead worked to improve ties and attract billions of dollars in Chinese loans and investments.

Source: Today.ng 

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]]> 9539 Philippines Duterte tells U.S. to forget about defense deal ‘if I stay longer’ https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-tells-u-s-to-forget-about-defense-deal-if-i-stay-longer/ Tue, 25 Oct 2016 08:06:45 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=9484 duarte

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hit out at the United States on Tuesday, saying he did not start a fight with Washington and it could forget about a military agreement between both countries if he were to be in power longer. Duterte said he was against the presence of any foreign troops in his country and […]

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hit out at the United States on Tuesday, saying he did not start a fight with Washington and it could forget about a military agreement between both countries if he were to be in power longer.

Duterte said he was against the presence of any foreign troops in his country and the United States could “forget” an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the Philippines, if he stayed longer, without elaborating.

The United States, he said, should not treat the Philippines “like a dog with a leash”, adding to confusion about the future the longtime allies’ ties.

“I look forward to the time when I no longer see any military troops or soldier in my country except the Filipino soldiers,” Duterte said prior to his departure to Japan.

Source: Reuters 

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]]> 9484 U.S. diplomat says Philippines an ally, but drug killings a concern https://9newsng.com/u-s-diplomat-says-philippines-an-ally-but-drug-killings-a-concern/ Mon, 24 Oct 2016 10:08:06 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=9339 diplomat

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The most senior U.S. diplomat for Asia assured the Philippines on Monday that Washington remained its “trusted” ally and that it supported Manila’s blossoming ties with China. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel however warned that growing concern about drug-related killings in the Southeast Asian country was “bad […]

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The most senior U.S. diplomat for Asia assured the Philippines on Monday that Washington remained its “trusted” ally and that it supported Manila’s blossoming ties with China.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel however warned that growing concern about drug-related killings in the Southeast Asian country was “bad for business”.

Russel was the first high-level visitor from Washington after President Rodrigo Duterte provoked alarm last week by announcing his country’s “separation” from the United States and realignment with China while on a visit to Beijing.

Explaining Duterte’s “Goodbye America” remarks, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said on Saturday the United States remained the “closest friend” of the Philippines, but Manila wanted to break away from a “mindset of dependency and subservience” and forge closer ties with other nations.

Russel, speaking to reporters after meeting Yasay, said Duterte “has already walked back”.

He said Washington supported direct dialogue and negotiations between the Philippines and China. “So, it’s a mistake to think that improved relations between Manila and Beijing somehow come at the expense of the U.S.,” he said.

“We don’t want countries to have to choose between the U.S. and China.”

During his meeting with the Philippine foreign minister, Russel however said he expressed his concern the “succession of controversial statements, comments and a real climate of uncertainty about the Philippines’ intentions has created consternation in a number of countries”.

He added, “This is not a positive trend.”

Duterte has been scathing about U.S. criticism of his anti-drugs campaign in which about 2,300 people have been killed since he took office on June 30.

Russel said the United States supported Manila’s anti-narcotics campaign, but due process and human rights should not be disregarded.

“The growing uncertainty about this and other issues is bad for business,” he said. “This is a very competitive region.”

Russel’s trip to Manila is part of a three-nation swing through Southeast Asia that also includes Thailand and Cambodia, the U.S. State Department announced on its website.

Source: Reuters 

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]]> 9339 Duterte in China: Philippine president holds talks with Xi https://9newsng.com/duterte-in-china-philippine-president-holds-talks-with-xi/ Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:07:17 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=8955 91994047 mediaitem91994044

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing as they look to boost trade and build closer ties. Mr Duterte arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a four-day visit. China and the Philippines are involved in a bitter territorial dispute over islands in the South China Sea. But the visit […]

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing as they look to boost trade and build closer ties.

Mr Duterte arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a four-day visit.

China and the Philippines are involved in a bitter territorial dispute over islands in the South China Sea.

But the visit is seen as a pivot by the Philippines towards China and Russia and away from the US, its former colonial ruler and long-time ally.

Mr Duterte attended a welcome ceremony at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

He and President Xi will preside over several trade deals. He will also be meeting Premier Li Keqiang and National People’s Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang, and attend a state banquet.

The relationship between China and the Philippines had worsened in recent years as both claim the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

The dispute reached a peak in July when an international tribunal sided with Manila and rejected Beijing’s claims.

Though he maintained a blustery position towards Beijing during his presidential campaign, Mr Duterte sounded a note of reconciliation shortly after taking power.

At the same time, Mr Duterte has said he would end joint-military exercises with the US, admonished the US for criticising him over his brutal war against drugs that has been linked with thousands of extrajudicial killings, and said US President Barack Obama could “go to hell”.

In interviews with Chinese media ahead of his visit, he spoke of mending relations and the need for help from Beijing. He has said he does not intend to bring up the South China Sea issue during his visit.

“It is a defining moment of my presidency to open frontiers of friendship and cooperation,” he told state broadcaster CCTV, adding that he wanted to “totally erase” the “dark spots” in their relationship.

In response China has hailed his trip as “a new starting-point” for bilateral relations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying told reporters earlier this week: “We are ready and willing to reach out to the Philippine people for friendship and cooperation.”

What does Duterte want from China?

Mango and pineapple sales

A vendor peels a mango as she sells assorted fruit in the streets of Manila on March 6, 2010.

China is the Philippines’ second-largest trading partner, with the latter supplying mostly electronic products but looking to diversify with more food exports for instance. Earlier this year, angry Chinese netizens called for a boycott of Filipino mangoes amid tensions over South China Sea claims.

Tourists

Tourists holding Chinese national flags use mobile phones to take photos at Tiananmen Square during National Day celebrations in Beijing, China, 1 October 2016.

The tensions also prompted Beijing to issue a travel advisory against the Philippines in 2014. Since then Chinese holidaymakers have flocked to elsewhere in South East Asia; the hope is that they come back when Beijing lifts the advisory, which it has promised.

Weapons and boats

In this 29 March 2014 file photo, a Chinese Coast Guard ship attempts to block a Philippine government vessel as the latter tries to enter the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea to relieve Philippine troops and resupply provisions.

In a pre-visit interview with Chinese cable station Phoenix TV, Mr Duterte complained of inadequate military support from the US and said he planned to buy Chinese weapons and boats as part of a military equipment overhaul. “If China does not help us in this endeavour, we will find it hard,” he said.

Silence and support

Filipino men place their hands over their heads as they are rounded up during a police operation as part of the continuing

Mr Duterte’s controversial war on drugs has attracted accusations of human rights violations by the West including the United States. But Beijing – no stranger to such criticism – has kept quiet, and has even pledged to support Mr Duterte.

Source: BBC News 

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]]> 8955 China praises ‘friendly’ Duterte during visit https://9newsng.com/china-praises-friendly-duterte-during-visit/ Wed, 19 Oct 2016 14:57:52 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=8852 Rodrigo Duterte 957x598

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China offered fresh praise for visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, lauding “friendly” relations as the combative leader reconfigures his country’s diplomatic alliances. Duterte is in China for a four-day trip that is expected to cement his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing’s sphere of influence. Foreign policy under Duterte has dramatically shifted […]

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China offered fresh praise for visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, lauding “friendly” relations as the combative leader reconfigures his country’s diplomatic alliances.

Duterte is in China for a four-day trip that is expected to cement his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing’s sphere of influence.

Foreign policy under Duterte has dramatically shifted from that pursued under predecessor Benigno Aquino, who took Beijing to an international tribunal over its extensive claims in the South China Sea and won a resounding victory.

The move infuriated Beijing but Duterte, who took office in June shortly before the tribunal ruling, has made a point of not flaunting the outcome.

At a regular briefing Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing was pleased to move towards resolving the territorial dispute “through consultation and dialogue”.

“This is how two friendly neighbours should treat each other,” she added.

“Anyone who truly wishes for peace, stability, development and prosperity in the Asia Pacific” should welcome Duterte’s visit.

Duterte will meet top leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during his stay, and was also due to meet members of the Filipino community in Beijing later Wednesday.

On the eve of his arrival in Beijing, the firebrand former lawyer was quoted by China’s official Xinhua news agency state media saying: “Only China can help us.”

As Duterte has cosied up to Beijing, he has repeatedly denounced the US and President Barack Obama for criticising his deadly war on crime.

He has also suspended joint US-Philippine patrols in the South China Sea, and has threatened an end to joint military exercises.

The South China Sea is of intense interest to Washington and it has repeatedly spoken out on the various territorial disputes between China and its neighbours over the strategically vital waters.

Tensions have risen between the US and China over Washington’s so-called “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific, a move that Beijing says is intended to contain it.

In an editorial Wednesday, China’s nationalist Global Times newspaper said Washington had treated Manila “as a pawn”, adding Duterte was now “redesigning Philippine foreign policy based on Philippine interests”.

Duterte has said his China trip will focus on promoting economic ties.

The Philippines is hoping, among other things, that Beijing will repeal a ban on imports of its bananas — an economic sanction intended to punish Manila for its South China Sea stance.

Hua said Wednesday announcements on infrastructure cooperation and economic development projects could be expected during the Philippine leader’s visit.

Beijing has also enthusiastically endorsed Duterte’s war on drugs, which has seen more than 3,700 people killed and led the International Criminal Court to warn that those responsible could face charges.

Hua praised Duterte Wednesday for “rolling out policies to ensure social order and public security”, adding that the two sides were already in close communication about cooperating on drug control and anti-crime issues.

Source: Guardian 

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]]> 8852 Duterte wants to ban public smoking in Philippines https://9newsng.com/duterte-wants-to-ban-public-smoking-in-philippines/ Wed, 12 Oct 2016 09:21:26 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=8303 Rodrigo Duterte 4 690x450

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is under fire for his deadly war on illegal drugs, is planning to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in public before the end of this month. The country’s Health Minister told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that her department was pushing for the ban to start before […]

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is under fire for his deadly war on illegal drugs, is planning to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in public before the end of this month.

The country’s Health Minister told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that her department was pushing for the ban to start before a law providing for graphic health warnings on tobacco products was fully implemented on November 4.

Paulyn Ubial said Deterte wants a 100 percent smoke-free environment in public places similar to Davao, the southern city where he was formerly mayor.

Designated smoking areas are to be outdoors and away from the public, and local government units will be asked to issue ordinances to enforce the smoking ban and set penalties.

She said e-cigarettes will be included in the ban because they too produce smoke.

Davao city, which enforced a successful smoking ban under Duterte’s mayorship, is being touted as a role model.

The Health Secretary said that the smoking ban in Davao worked because the city government strictly enforced it and created a task force of enforcers specifically to implement the ban.

It will be up to provinces and towns to determine if they will follow that example, and what penalties they will impose for violators, she said.

The executive order takes effect immediately after Duterte signs it, but the rules to implement it will need to be crafted by national government agencies and by local governments through ordinances.

Assistant Health Secretary Eric Tayag said the order aims to protect the public from second-hand or third-hand smoke – that is inhaled when a smoker is nearby or when smoke lingers afterwards.

Ubial said that there was no reason for smokers and tobacco companies to oppose the ban.

“I don’t see any reason why they will oppose that,” she told the AP. “We’re not stopping them from smoking, we are just telling them not to smoke around non-smokers.”

Duterte took office on June 30 vowing to expand policies from Davao such as his anti-drug campaign.

The crackdown has left about 3,600 suspected drug pushers and users dead, including more than 1,500 suspects killed in gunbattles with police.

The killings have been widely condemned by human rights groups, and the United States, European Union and United Nations.

Source: Today.ng 

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]]> 8303 Philippine’s President Duterte tells Obama ‘go to hell’, says can buy arms from Russia, China https://9newsng.com/philippines-president-duterte-tells-obama-go-to-hell-says-can-buy-arms-from-russia-china/ Tue, 04 Oct 2016 14:18:59 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=7608 Philippines President Duterte tells Obama go to hell says can buy arms from Russia China

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday told U.S. President Barack Obama to “go to hell” and said the United States had refused to sell some weapons to his country but he did not care because Russia and China were willing suppliers. In his latest salvo, Duterte said he was realigning his foreign […]

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]]> Philippines President Duterte tells Obama go to hell says can buy arms from Russia China

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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday told U.S. President Barack Obama to “go to hell” and said the United States had refused to sell some weapons to his country but he did not care because Russia and China were willing suppliers.

In his latest salvo, Duterte said he was realigning his foreign policy because the United States had failed the Philippines and added that at some point, “I will break up with America”. It was not clear what he meant by “break up”.

During three tangential and fiercely worded speeches in Manila, Duterte said the United States did not want to sell missiles and other weapons, but Russia and China had told him they could provide them easily.

“Although it may sound shit to you, it is my sacred duty to keep the integrity of this republic and the people healthy,” Duterte said.

“If you don’t want to sell arms, I’ll go to Russia. I sent the generals to Russia and Russia said ‘do not worry we have everything you need, we’ll give it to you’.

“And as for China, they said ‘just come over and sign and everything will be delivered’.”

His comments were the latest in a near-daily barrage of hostility towards the United States, during which Duterte has started to contrast the former colonial power with its geopolitical rivals Russia and China.

On Sunday, he said he had got support from Russia and China when he complained to them about the United States. He also said he would review a U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement.

The deal, signed in 2014, grants U.S. troops some access to Philippine bases, and allows them to set up storage facilities for maritime security and humanitarian and disaster response operations.

He said the United States should have supported the Philippines in tackling its chronic drugs problems but instead criticised him for the high death toll, as did the European Union.

‘HELL IS FULL’

“Instead of helping us, the first to hit was the State Department. So you can go to hell, Mr Obama, you can go to hell,” he said.

“EU, better choose purgatory. Hell is full already. Why should I be afraid of you?”

At a later speech he said he was emotional because the United States had not been a friend of the Philippines since his election in May.

“They just … reprimand another president in front of the international community,” he told the Jewish community at a synagogue.

“This is what happens now, I will be reconfiguring my foreign policy. Eventually, I might in my time I will break up with America.”

It was not clear if by his “time”, he was referring to his six-year term in office.

According to some U.S. officials, Washington has been doing its best to ignore Duterte’s rhetoric and not prov

 

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]]> 7608 Philippines’ Duterte likens himself to Hitler, wants to kill millions of drug users https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-likens-himself-to-hitler-wants-to-kill-millions-of-drug-users/ Fri, 30 Sep 2016 05:36:11 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=7188 Philippines Duterte likens himself to Hitler wants to kill millions of drug users

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By Karen Lema and Manuel Mogato MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte appeared to liken himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would “be happy” to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the country. His comments triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States, which […]

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]]> Philippines Duterte likens himself to Hitler wants to kill millions of drug users

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By Karen Lema and Manuel Mogato

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte appeared to liken himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would “be happy” to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the country.

His comments triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States, which will add to pressure on the U.S. government to take a tougher line with the Philippines leader. Duterte recently insulted President Barack Obama and in a series of remarks he has undermined the previously close relationship between Manila and Washington.

In a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam, Duterte told reporters that he had been “portrayed to be a cousin of Hitler” by critics.

Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said: “There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I’d be happy to slaughter them.

“If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have…,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

“You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”

Duterte was voted to power in a May election on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people. He took office on June 30 and over 3,100 people have been killed since then, mostly alleged drug users and dealers, in police operations and in vigilante killings.

His comments were quickly condemned by Jewish groups.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project, called them “outrageous”.

“Duterte owes the victims (of the Holocaust) an apology for his disgusting rhetoric.”

The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said Duterte’s comments were “shocking for their tone-deafness”.

“The comparison of drug users and dealers to Holocaust victims is inappropriate and deeply offensive,” said Todd Gutnick, the group’s director of communications. “It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster.”

EX-PRESIDENT’S WARNING

Two days before the Philippines election, outgoing President Benigno Aquino had warned that Duterte’s rising popularity was akin to that of Hitler in the 1920s and 1930s.

“I hope we learn the lessons of history,” Aquino said in widely reported remarks. “We should remember how Hitler came to power.”

Duterte has been scathing about criticism of his anti-drugs campaign and has insulted the United Nations and the European Union, as well as Obama, at various times in recent weeks.

On Friday, reacting to critical comments on his war on drugs by U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Benjamin Cardin, Duterte said: “Do not pretend to be the moral conscience of the world. Do not be the policeman because you do not have the eligibility to do that in my country.”

He also reiterated there will be no annual war games between the Philippines and the United States until the end of his six-year term, placing the longstanding alliance under a cloud of doubt. It also may make Washington’s strategy of rebalancing its military focus towards Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China much more difficult to achieve.

Still, U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter, speaking before the latest remarks from Duterte, said Washington had an “ironclad” alliance with Manila.

A senior U.S. defence official, also speaking earlier, told reporters that the United States had a long enduring relationship with the Philippines regardless of who was president.

“It’s going to continue to survive based on what we think are strong U.S.-Philippines common security interests, so we’ll be engaging President Duterte further,” the official said.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Yeganeh Torbati in San Diego; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

 

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]]> 7188 Philippines’ Duterte gives middle finger to EU https://9newsng.com/philippines-duterte-gives-middle-finger-to-eu/ Wed, 21 Sep 2016 10:34:34 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=6352 Philippines Duterte gives middle finger to EU

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has launched a profanity-filled tirade against the European Union, in his latest riposte to international criticism of the rising death toll in his brutal crackdown on crime. Duterte punctuated his insults with a rude sign — raising his middle finger — after the European Parliament condemned “the current wave of extrajudicial […]

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]]> Philippines Duterte gives middle finger to EU

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has launched a profanity-filled tirade against the European Union, in his latest riposte to international criticism of the rising death toll in his brutal crackdown on crime.

Duterte punctuated his insults with a rude sign — raising his middle finger — after the European Parliament condemned “the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings in the Philippines”.

“I say to them, f*** you. You’re doing it in atonement for your sins,” he told local officials in his southern home city of Davao late Tuesday in comments filmed by broadcaster ABS-CBN.

The 71-year-old leader had reacted along similar lines to earlier foreign criticism of his drug war, calling US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” and cursing the United Nations.

Duterte won elections in a landslide in May after vowing to eradicate the illegal drug trade in six months, and promising that 100,000 criminals would be killed in the process.

Since he took office on June 30 about 3,000 people have been killed, about a third of them suspects shot dead by police and the rest murdered by unidentified attackers, according to police statistics.

Duterte said on Sunday he needed to extend his crime war for another six months because the drug problem was worse than he expected.

The EU parliament last week said it was concerned about the “extraordinarily high numbers killed during police operations … in the context of an intensified anti-crime and anti-drug campaign”.

Duterte must “put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings … (and) launch an immediate investigation into (them)”, the EU resolution said.

Singling out France and Britain, Duterte said the parliament’s members were “hypocrites” whose colonial-era ancestors killed “thousands” of Arabs and other peoples.

“They’re taking the high ground to assuage their feelings of guilt. But who did I kill? Assuming it to be true, 1,700, who are they? Criminals. You call that genocide,” he said.

“Now the EU has the gall to condemn me. So I repeat it. F*** you,” he said, raising his middle finger.

In a separate speech on Tuesday, Duterte also repeated a vow to shield police or soldiers from prosecution.

“If you massacre a hundred and you also number a hundred, why, all of you will get pardons. Restored to full political and civil rights plus a promotion to boot,” he told soldiers during a visit to a military camp.

   – AFP

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]]> 6352 Saudia Airlines plane from Jeddah is “under threat”, placed in isolation at Manila airport – officials https://9newsng.com/saudia-airlines-plane-from-jeddah-is-under-threat-placed-in-isolation-at-manila-airport-officials/ Tue, 20 Sep 2016 09:22:15 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=6222 Saudi Arabian Airlines3

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine airport officials say a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane from Jeddah is “under threat” and has been put in isolation at Manila airport. The airport said in a statement Tuesday that it had received information of the threat, which it did not describe, when Flight SV872 was 30 miles (48 kilometers) […]

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine airport officials say a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane from Jeddah is “under threat” and has been put in isolation at Manila airport.

The airport said in a statement Tuesday that it had received information of the threat, which it did not describe, when Flight SV872 was 30 miles (48 kilometers) away from landing.

It said the Boeing aircraft was moved to a designated isolation area after it landed.

TV stations showed the plane parked near a ramp with people standing nearby, while normal airport operations continued elsewhere.

Airport officials said they would provide more details soon.

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]]> 6222 Philippine Abu Sayyaf militants free Norwegian hostage https://9newsng.com/philippine-abu-sayyaf-militants-free-norwegian-hostage/ Sun, 18 Sep 2016 10:46:13 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=6046 Philippine Abu Sayyaf militants free Norwegian hostage

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Islamist militants in the Philippines have released a Norwegian man taken hostage along with two Canadians who the group beheaded, officials say. The Abu Sayyaf jihadists freed Kjartan Sekkingstad in southern Sulu province on Saturday. Unconfirmed reports say a large ransom was paid. The group of four hostages was seized from a resort a year […]

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]]> Philippine Abu Sayyaf militants free Norwegian hostage

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Islamist militants in the Philippines have released a Norwegian man taken hostage along with two Canadians who the group beheaded, officials say.

The Abu Sayyaf jihadists freed Kjartan Sekkingstad in southern Sulu province on Saturday. Unconfirmed reports say a large ransom was paid.

The group of four hostages was seized from a resort a year ago. A Filipina woman was freed in June.

Abu Sayyaf is fighting for an independent Islamic state.

It often attempts to raise money from ransom payments.

Mr Sekkingstad was freed in the town of Patikul on Jolo island. He was handed over to rebels of the Moro National Liberation Front group, which has signed a peace deal with the government and helped negotiate the release.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had suggested in August that a large ransom had already been paid but that the jihadists were still holding Mr Sekkingstad.

The army said on Saturday Mr Sekkingstad had been freed because of its relentless attacks on the militants.

The four hostages had been taken from an upmarket resort on Samal island in Davao.

In April, the militants killed Canadian John Ridsdel after a ransom deadline expired, then a week later beheaded Robert Hall.

Mr Hall’s partner, Marites Flor, was freed in June.

What is Abu Sayyaf?

Map showing Jolo and Davao

A fractured network of militants. Some of its factions have sworn allegiance to so-called Islamic State.

It is one of the smallest but most radical of Islamist separatist groups in the southern Philippines. Its name means “bearer of the sword” in Arabic.

It split from the larger Moro National Liberation Front in 1991. Membership is said to number in the low hundreds.

What does it want?

The group has been agitating for the creation of an independent Islamic state in predominantly Catholic Philippines, and uses tactics such as hostage-taking and bombings to pressure the government.

How dangerous is it?

Numerous Filipino and foreign civilians have been kidnapped in the southern Philippines and parts of neighbouring Malaysia and used as hostages to extract ransoms.

Though some have been released after negotiations or attacks by Philippine forces, others have been murdered when demands were not met.

Abu Sayyaf has also said it carried out bombings in cities in the south and a ferry bombing in 2004 in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people, considered one of the worst terror attacks in the Philippines.

Islamic State threat in Southeast Asia

  • BBC

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]]> 6046 Police officer kills colleague for refusing drugs https://9newsng.com/police-officer-kills-colleague-for-refusing-drugs/ Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:27:15 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=5474 Cop kills colleague for refusing drugs

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A policeman was arrested after killing his fellow policeman and fraternity member for allegedly refusing to take illegal drugs during a party in Tondo, Manila Wednesday night. Police Officer 1 Mark Sagun, who is being being held at the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section detention cell, was charged with murder, illegal drug possession and […]

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]]> Cop kills colleague for refusing drugs

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A policeman was arrested after killing his fellow policeman and fraternity member for allegedly refusing to take illegal drugs during a party in Tondo, Manila Wednesday night.

Police Officer 1 Mark Sagun, who is being being held at the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section detention cell, was charged with murder, illegal drug possession and car theft.

Sagun is detailed at the National Capital Regional Police Office Regional Police Holding Administrative Unit.

Police Officer 1 Louie Wang, assigned at the MPD anti-drug unit, was declared dead on arrival at the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center from four gunshot wounds.

Sagun, Wang, Cesar Lajom and two others were celebrating the anniversary of their fraternity, Magic 5, at a house on Hermosa street when the suspect invited them to go to a house on  Canal dela Reina street, said Senior Police Officer 2 John Charles Duran.

After several minutes, an argument broke out between Sagun and Wang and led to the shooting at past 8 p.m.

“The suspect said he just defended himself because Wang drew his gun first,” Duran toldThe STAR.

Sagun refused to comment when asked.

However, an insider said one of the witnesses told investigators the two men argued over illegal drugs.

The source said investigators are trying to determine if Sagun indeed wanted to use shabu, to which Wang objected.

After the shooting, Sagun rushed out of the house and commandeered Eliser Halamani’s motorcycle (ME-38733) at gunpoint.

Halamani shouted for help, attracting the attention of Police Officer 2 Anthony Quilantang and his companions, who were passing through the area.

Investigators found a sachet of shabu in Sagun’s wallet, hidden under his Philippine National Police (PNP) identification card.

MPD Station 1 commander Superintendent Redentor Ulsano rued the death of Wang, who he said was a good anti-narcotics operative.

“He was my (undercover) buyer. I lost one of my best men and it is actually the loss of the whole PNP organization,” Ulsano told The STAR.

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]]> 5474 Philippine president Duterte regrets ‘son of a bitch’ remark, thanks Obama for support at G20 https://9newsng.com/philippine-president-duterte-regrets-son-of-a-bitch-remark-thanks-obama-for-support-at-g20/ Tue, 06 Sep 2016 10:09:17 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=5234 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte regrets remarks on Obama

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VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his “son of a bitch” remark while referring to President Barack Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope and the U.N. chief. In a statement read out […]

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]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte regrets remarks on Obama

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VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his “son of a bitch” remark while referring to President Barack Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope and the U.N. chief.

In a statement read out by his spokesman, Duterte said that while his “strong comments” in response to questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president.”

Duterte had made the intemperate remarks Monday before flying to Laos, where he is attending a regional summit. He had been scheduled to meet Obama separately in Laos, but Obama indicated he had second thoughts, and the White House announced that the meeting had been canceled.

The Philippines did not comment publicly on the cancellation until about nine hours later, when Duterte’s statement said that both sides had “mutually agreed to postpone” the meeting.

Even though Duterte’s latest comment does not amount to an apology, the expression of regret is unusual for the tough-talking former mayor, who is unapologetic about his manner of speech and liberally peppers casual statements with profanities such as “son of a bitch” and “son of a whore.”

But perhaps Duterte’s aides realized it would be unwise to take on the most powerful official in the world, and that there would be a price to pay for insulting the president of the United States.

The U.S. is one of the Philippines’ largest trading partners and a key security ally in its fight against terrorism in the country’s south. Manila also needs Washington’s help in dealing with a more assertive China in the disputed South China Sea. The U.S. also provides hundreds of millions of dollars in annual financial assistance to the Philippine military.

Duterte likely had realized his folly by the time he arrived in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Monday night.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “I do not want to quarrel with the most powerful country on the planet,” but immediately took his typical combative approach by saying: “Washington has been so liberal about criticizing human rights, human rights and human rights. How about you? I have so many questions also about human rights to ask you. So … people who live in glass houses should not” throw stones at others.

He said if the White House had problems with him, it could have sent him a diplomatic note and let him respond. “There’s a protocol for that,” Duterte said. “You just cannot shoot a statement against the president of any country.”

But by Tuesday, he had done a complete U-turn in the tone of his statement.

“We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries,” the statement said.

The flap over Duterte’s remarks started when a reporter asked him how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers to Obama. More than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30.

In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.”

Duterte has previously cursed Pope Francis and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?” Duterte said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology from the United States for misdeeds committed during its colonization of the country.

He pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a U.S. pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as “the reason why (the south) continues to boil” with separatist insurgencies.

Last week, Duterte said he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked concern from the U.S. and other countries.

Duterte said he would demand that Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the U.S. president in a discussion about the deaths.

Duterte has had a troublesome relation with the United States, questioning its inability to stop genocidal killings in the Middle East and Africa, and citing U.S. police shootings of black Americans that have set off protests.

He has also taken on a more conciliatory position with U.S. rival China. Philippines-China ties were strained under Duterte’s predecessors due to territorial conflicts in the South China Sea. Duterte proclaimed early in his presidency that he would pursue a foreign policy not dependent on the United States.

Former Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, under whose watch U.S.-Philippine relations blossomed, expressed disappointment over the aborted meeting with the U.S.

“An invaluable occasion to have our leaders meet for the purpose of discussing how to strengthen our comprehensive areas of cooperation would have been a golden opportunity,” del Rosario said.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.

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]]> 5234 Barack Obama cancels meeting after Philippines president calls him ‘son of a whore’ https://9newsng.com/barack-obama-cancels-meeting-after-philippines-president-calls-him-son-of-a-whore/ https://9newsng.com/barack-obama-cancels-meeting-after-philippines-president-calls-him-son-of-a-whore/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2016 10:02:46 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=5231 Philippine president calls Obama a ‘son of a whore’ 1

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Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with the president of the Philippines afterRodrigo Duterte appeared to call him a “son of a whore”. The move followed a warning from Duterte to the US president to keep off the subject of extrajudicial killings in his country’s brutal drug war when they were due to meet on […]

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]]> Philippine president calls Obama a ‘son of a whore’ 1

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Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with the president of the Philippines afterRodrigo Duterte appeared to call him a “son of a whore”.

The move followed a warning from Duterte to the US president to keep off the subject of extrajudicial killings in his country’s brutal drug war when they were due to meet on Tuesday at a regional summit in Laos. Duterte told a press conference that Obama “must be respectful”.

The firebrand president was answering a reporter’s question about how he intended to explain the extrajudicial killings to Obama, before boarding a plane to Laos for the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit.

“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte was quoted by as saying by Agence-France Presse. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.”

When his comments reached the Obama camp, the US president initially said he was asking his staff to find out whether holding the meeting as scheduled would be useful.

“What I’ve instructed my team to do is to talk to their Philippine counterparts to find out, is if this in fact a time where we can have some constructive, productive conversations,” Obama said at a news conference at the end of a G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

“Obviously the Filipino people are some of our closest friends and allies and thePhilippines is a treaty ally of ours. But I always want to make sure that if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done.”

But hours later the decision was made to cancel, a White House spokesman said. Instead, Obama will meet with South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

Duterte has faced condemnation from human rights campaigners, diplomats and the UN for inciting a war on drugs that, according to official figures published on Sunday, has led to 2,400 deaths in just two months.

The defiant Philippine leader has responded to critics with a string of outbursts, including labelling the US ambassador to Manila a “gay son of a whore”, telling the Catholic church “don’t fuck with me”, and accusing the UN of issuing “shitting” statements about his anti-drugs policies.

Obama joins a long list of people whose mothers’ purity have been called into question by Duterte, including Pope Francis, Philippine bishops and a murdered journalist, as well as the drugs traffickers who are the main targets of his domestic law and order policies.

He took office in June after winning a landslide on promises to sort out drug crime in the country, and told crowds on the day of his inauguration: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”

During his campaign, he said 100,000 people would die in his crackdown, with so many dead bodies dumped in Manila Bay that fish there would grow fat from feeding on them.

The call has led to what critics say amounts to open season on suspected drug criminals on the streets of Manila and other major cities, with thousands killed by vigilantes and police, who invariably claim to have fired back in self-defence.

In June, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned Duterte’s apparent support for extrajudicial killings, saying they were “illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms”. Duterte replied by calling the UN “stupid” and threatening to withdraw the Philippines from the supranational body.

Asked about the possible consequences of his comments, he said: “What is … repercussions? I don’t give a shit to them.”

 

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]]> https://9newsng.com/barack-obama-cancels-meeting-after-philippines-president-calls-him-son-of-a-whore/feed/ 3 5231 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte calls US President Obama a ‘son of a bitch’ https://9newsng.com/philippine-president-rodrigo-duterte-calls-us-president-obama-a-son-of-a-bitch/ Tue, 06 Sep 2016 07:55:51 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=5189 Philippine president calls Obama a ‘son of a whore’

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Barack Obama as the “son of a whore” in response to Obama’s plan to question Duterte about his country’s savage drug war that has claimed more than 2,400 lives. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I […]

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]]> Philippine president calls Obama a ‘son of a whore’

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Barack Obama as the “son of a whore” in response to Obama’s plan to question Duterte about his country’s savage drug war that has claimed more than 2,400 lives.

“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum. We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me,” Duterte told a news conference before flying to Laos to attend a summit, according to the Agence France-Press news service.

But other media outlets gave a different translation of the Phillipine leader’s below- the-belt remark, saying Duterte called him a “son of a bitch.”

Duterte didn’t stop there, vowing to slaughter many more of his citizens to eradicate the nation’s illegal drug trade.

“More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue. I don’t give a s—t about anybody observing my behavior, ” Duterte said.

He was scheduled to hold a sideline discussion with Obama during Tuesday’s meeting of global leaders hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Vientiane, the Laotian capital.

But soon after Duterte’s shocking comment, Obama said his staff would have to review whether a discussion would be fruitful.

“I always want to make sure if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done,” Obama said during a trip to China Monday.

Duterte took over as president in May after promising to wage war against illicit drugs.

As of June 30, Philippine anti-drug commandos have killed more than 2,400 people with the help of suspected vigilantes.

Obama had pledged to confront Duterte over how the Philippine government has handled the drug problem.

“The issue of how we approach fighting crime and drug trafficking is a serious one for all of us. We’ve got to do it the right way,” Obama said earlier at the G20 conference in Hangzhou, China.

“Undoubtedly, if and when we have a meeting, this is something that’s going to be brought up. And my expectation, my hope, is that it could be dealt with constructively.”

– NY POST

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]]> 5189 Explosion in Philippine president’s home city kills 10-president spokesman https://9newsng.com/explosion-in-philippine-presidents-home-city-kills-10-president-spokesman/ Fri, 02 Sep 2016 16:36:17 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=4966 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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An explosion at a market in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte killed at least 10 people on Friday and wounded dozens more, his spokesman said, adding the cause of the blast was unknown. Duterte was in Davao on Friday, but was safe and at a police station after the explosion, his son […]

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]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

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An explosion at a market in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte killed at least 10 people on Friday and wounded dozens more, his spokesman said, adding the cause of the blast was unknown.

Duterte was in Davao on Friday, but was safe and at a police station after the explosion, his son Paolo Duterte, who is vice mayor of the city, told Reuters.

The incident took place at a street market outside the high-end Marco Polo hotel in Davao, in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman told reporters by phone. A police official said at least 30 people had been hospitalized.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told CNN Philippines that some 60 people were wounded and 10 confirmed dead.

(Reporting by Manila newsroom; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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]]> 4966 VIDEO: Philippines War on Drug: Investigative Report, Facts and Figures https://9newsng.com/video-philippines-war-on-drug-investigative-report-facts-and-figures/ Mon, 29 Aug 2016 04:59:58 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=4611 Phillipines Drug War Prison

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By Euan McKirdy, CNN Manila, the Philippines (CNN)Lifeless bodies lying on the streets of the Philippines are a visceral sign of new President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. So far more than 1,900 people have died. Of those more than 700 have been killed in police operations since Duterte took office in late June, according […]

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]]> Phillipines Drug War Prison

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By Euan McKirdy, CNN

Manila, the Philippines (CNN)Lifeless bodies lying on the streets of the Philippines are a visceral sign of new President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

So far more than 1,900 people have died. Of those more than 700 have been killed in police operations since Duterte took office in late June, according to police statistics. Many of the unsolved deaths are attributed to vigilantes.
Duterte’s tough talk on the country’s drug and crime problems won him the election and, 60 days on from his inauguration, he remains extremely popular.
“Double your efforts. Triple them, if need be. We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, and the last pusher have surrendered or put behind bars — or below the ground, if they so wish,” he said in his July 25 State of the Nation speech.
A Senate inquiry is underway into the police and the extrajudicial killings. Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa told the committee there was no shoot to kill order, but people are happy with what the police are doing, despite mistakes by officers. “We are only human…We admit we make mistakes, we are not perfect,” he said.
Dela Rosa said that about 300 of his officers were suspected of involvement in the drug trade and would be relieved of their duties and tried in court.
But for all the plaudits, including a 91% approval rating President Duterte received for cracking down on drug dealers and addicts, there are families heartbroken, jails swamped, rehab centers overwhelmed.
CNN spent a week in Manila and met six people living and working close to the bloodstained sidewalks.

‘My God, Duterte, stop doing this!’

160828125811 duterte drug war victim sister super 169
“Janie” — not her real name — the sister of a man killed, she alleges, by crooked police

He was 47, a motor-tricycle driver who was estranged from his wife. He had two kids.

Police officers came to his house on August 14 and forced their way in, says his sister, who doesn’t want to reveal her name or her brother’s, or even the name of the town they’re from — to protect her safety. We’ll call her Janie.
“Those policemen might kill us once we spoke out the truth,” Janie says. “I said to myself, they have the license to kill already.”
They came to his house, she says, and forced their way in.
“Handcuffed already, they shot (him in the) head.” Janie alleges they killed three other men with him.
But, a police report says, her brother, was a suspected drug dealer, and was shot and killed after he opened fire on police. His sister insists her brother was a user, not a dealer. His body is still in the funeral home when CNN meets her.
Janie says that President Duterte’s rhetoric has created a climate where the cops feel they can act without fear of retribution, official or otherwise.
“I feel afraid and very scared when I hear the president say they will kill drug users. Because we will have no justice at all,” she says.
“We can put the users in rehabilitation, right? They shouldn’t punish (them) by taking their lives.”
She says that her brother stopped using meth long ago. “My brother had no enemies. He’s a very kind person.”
The perpetrators were police officers who were involved with meth trade themselves, Janie insists.
As we speak to her, she becomes increasingly agitated. The powerlessness she feels is palpable.
“My God, Duterte, stop doing this,” she says, breaking down into sobs. “You don’t have the right to take the lives of these people.”
“Why don’t you take the lives of these policemen too? They were drug users and pushers!”
‘Knock and plead’ — On night patrol with Philippines police
‘We feel already that there’s something different in us’

160828130432 raffy lerma philippines crime beat photographer super 169
Raffy Lerma, a crime beat photographer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer

On the streets of the working class Manila neighborhood of Tondo, we find the victim face down in a trash-strewn stairwell, one of his flip flops lying meters away, in a rutted, rain-soaked alley.

There’s a small, cheap revolver next to his lifeless hand. He’s the victim of a police “buy-bust.”
Police on the scene say he got suspicious while selling drugs to an undercover officer and drew his weapon. The officer, they say, had no choice but to shoot him.
I’m out shadowing Raffy Lerma, a photographer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, on his nightly beat. He spends night after night covering violent deaths like this one.

160828132504 philippines duterte buy bust death wide super 169
An unnamed man, killed by police in what they say was a legitimate shooting during a “buy-bust” operation

He’s best known for his image of Jennilyn Olayres, a Manila woman he photographed cradling the body of her partner, suspected drug pusher Michael Siaron.
It’s a picture that helped bring the wave of drug-related killings to international attention.
Lerma’s covered natural disasters before, with higher death tolls. But this time it’s different. “In this war we’re also witnessing the devastation of these men’s families. It’s traumatizing,” he says.
Lerma says he’s seen more deaths since President Duterte’s war on drugs began in June, than he did in an entire year covering the overnight crime beat as a rookie photographer 10 years ago.
“I want drugs to stop but not how it’s being done. I’m not for killing people,” Lerma says.
“The scary thing is that for every day that passes there will be more deaths. Can we take this for six years?” he asks, referring to the standard presidential term.
He says there are strong bonds between him and other crime beat photographers.
“We support each other mentally and emotionally. One time we didn’t cover the deaths out on the streets, we just talked; shared experiences.”
But he’s worried that it might be too late; the emotional toll already taken.
“We feel already that there’s something different in us.”
Dead or alive: Is the Philippines’ war on drugs out of control?
‘We are overwhelmed’

160828125530 bien leabres philippines rehab doctor super 169
Bien Leabres, head of the DOH-TRC Bicutan Rehabilitation Center.

Bien Leabres is a rarity — one of fewer than 20 specialists trained in treating drug addiction in the country.
He heads up the DOH-TRC Bicutan Rehabilitation Center, the largest of only 40 public and private facilities in the country.
It has an approved capacity of 550. It currently houses 1,557.
“We are overwhelmed,” Leabres states, matter-of-factly, though he says they’ve been promised more funding.
In many of the dorms they’ve taken out the bunks, as they could only hold two patients. Now, his patients sleep crammed on rubber foam mattresses on the floor.
Sometimes 30 new patients come in each day, but at most they’re only able to discharge seven.

“Most of them are here because of fear,” he says. “The crackdown (has) made them fear that they will be incarcerated or even worse, killed.”
He says his staff is finding the huge number of patients tough to deal with.
“We’re relying on group therapies — one-on-one counselling has drastically been affected.”
He’s pleased that addiction has become a more visible issue but the deaths, he thinks, are avoidable.
“These people are victims,” he says. “Not criminals. ”
Philippines police chief: 300 dirty cops will be brought to justice
‘The things, the years that I lost’

160828130020 ar rehab inmate philippines super 169
“A.R.,” an inmate at the DOH-TRC Bicutan Rehabilitation Center

“You can call me A.R.,” he says.
He’s keen to use an alias as he doesn’t want to be identified as a drug user — anything that can link him to that murky underworld could come back and haunt him, in the form of a bullet from a vigilante — or a police officer’s — gun.
He’s a chronic meth user, classified at the DOH-TRC Bicutan Rehabilitation Center as a “drug dependent.”
Before he came in here he says he was smoking at least a gram a day of “shabu,” — the local name for meth.
Through the gaping space where his front teeth used to be, he tells me that he used almost every day for 16 years.
“The main thing is the regrets — the things, the years that I lost. When I was on the drug, it was normal to be aggressive,” he says in the local language, Tagalog, translated by a rehab center official.
He’s what Filipinos teasingly call a “nose bleed” — a local who never bothered to learn English.
The joke, which doesn’t translate terribly well, is that their noses start bleeding when they try to speak the language.
A.R. says he’s worried that, despite this six-month stint getting clean, he’ll soon fall back into his old ways when he’s out.
“The drugs are too cheap,” he says. “It’s so hard to break the loop.”
‘I’m here because of the president’
160828130252 alex quezon city jail inmate super 169
“Alex,” an inmate in the Quezon City jail.
Quezon City Jail is so crowded prisoners take turns to sleep.
It’s always been busy, officials tell us, but since the war on drugs began numbers are steadily mounting.
Inmates range from shy teenagers to worn, haunted men in their eighties — over 4,000 inmates in a prison supposed to hold 800.
Alex, a 29-year-old call center worker with a pockmarked face and a crude dragon tattooed on his right arm, has been in this mass of yellow-shirted humanity for little over a month.
He was arrested for a “9165” violation — the slang used for a drugs charge. It’s the name of the drugs act enacted in 2002.
He was drunk, he says, and fighting with his wife when neighborhood officials showed up and accosted him. Alex says he only had a little shabu on him but it didn’t matter.
He was hustled away to the cops and now finds himself incarcerated, potentially for years while he waits for a court date — fighting for floor space to sleep on.
“I’m here because of the president’s (drugs) policy,” he says, through a guard’s translation.
“Before, you wouldn’t get arrested for such a small amount.”
The food is terrible, he says, grasping at the wire fence and looking out over the prison compound and its impossibly cramped conditions. Life in here is especially tough for the new guys, he adds. “It’s hard to find a place to sleep, especially when it rains.”
Life inside the Philippines’ most overcrowded jail
‘We might as well abolish our courts’
160828125011 chel diokno super 169
Human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno.
Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, one of the Philippines’ foremost human rights lawyers, says that under Duterte, the country is experiencing a climate of fear worse than the dark days of martial law under late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, enemies of the state were branded “communist,” he says.
“Now, it’s ‘drug user,'” says Diokno, the chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG).
“The presumption is reversed — you have to come forward (these days) and prove your innocence. It’s harder than during the Marcos years. Anything goes.”
In a nationally televised speech in June, Duterte made his feelings plain to everyone. “If (a criminal) fights, and he fights to the death, you can kill him.” He went on to say, “Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun … you have my support.”
From a human rights perspective, Diokno says he’s “disgusted.”

Philippines population data
He says due process is being trampled on, from the bodies of those killed in police operations, to “knock and plead” operations, where police invite suspected drug users to surrender to local authorities for registration.
The government insists these are entirely voluntary registrations. Those who register are sent to rehab. But Diokno says the procedures are in his view “warrantless arrests.”
Suspects are “made to sign documents incriminating themselves, which is a violation of our bill of rights,” he laments, arguing that many of those targeted are poor and unaware of their legal rights.
Despite repeated freedom of information requests, he says he’s seen no formal guidelines for prosecuting this bloody war on drugs.
“Law officials (are) acting as judge, jury and executioner. We might as well abolish our courts.”
Duterte: Political rival a ‘robber’ and ‘immoral woman’

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]]> 4611 Philippines drug war deaths climb to 1,800, president spars with U.N. https://9newsng.com/philippines-drug-war-deaths-climb-to-1800-president-spars-with-u-n/ Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:09:54 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=4135 Philippine Senator and professional boxer Manny Pacman

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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has recorded about 1,800 drug-related killings since President Rodrigo Duterte took office seven weeks ago and launched a war on narcotics, far higher than previously believed, according to police figures. Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa told a Senate committee on Monday that 712 drug traffickers and users had […]

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]]> Philippine Senator and professional boxer Manny Pacman

9News Nigeria

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has recorded about 1,800 drug-related killings since President Rodrigo Duterte took office seven weeks ago and launched a war on narcotics, far higher than previously believed, according to police figures.

Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa told a Senate committee on Monday that 712 drug traffickers and users had been killed in police operations since July 1.

Police were also investigating 1,067 other drug-related killings, Dela Rosa said, without giving details. The comments came a day after Duterte lashed out at the United Nations for criticising the wave of deaths.

As recently as Sunday, the number of suspected drug traffickers killed in Duterte’s war on drugs had been put at about 900 by Philippine officials. But this number included people who died since Duterte won the May 9 presidential election.

Duterte said in a bizarre and strongly worded late-night news conference on Sunday the Philippines might leave the United Nations and invite China and others to form a new global forum, accusing it of failing to fulfil its mandate.

However, his foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, said on Monday the Philippines would remain a U.N. member and described the president’s comments as expressions of “profound disappointment and frustration”.

“We are committed to the U.N. despite our numerous frustrations and disappointments with the international agency,” Yasay told a news conference.

Last week, two U.N. human rights experts urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings.

Yasay said Duterte has promised to uphold human rights in the fight against drugs and has ordered the police to investigate and prosecute offenders. He criticised the U.N. rapporteurs for “jumping to an arbitrary conclusion that we have violated human rights of people”.

“It is highly irresponsible on their part to solely rely on such allegations based on information from unnamed sources without proper substantiation,” he said of the United Nations.

Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of the president, started a two-day congressional inquiry into the killings on Monday, questioning top police and anti-narcotics officials to explain the “unprecedented” rise in killings.

“I am disturbed that we have killings left and right as breakfast every morning,” she said.

“My concern does not only revolve around the growing tally of killings reported by the police. What is particularly worrisome is that the campaign against drugs seems to be an excuse for some law enforcers and other elements like vigilantes to commit murder with impunity,” De Lima said.

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

 

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]]> 4135 Philippines remains committed to the United Nations – foreign minister https://9newsng.com/philippines-remains-committed-to-the-united-nations-foreign-minister/ Mon, 22 Aug 2016 06:13:26 +0000 http://www.9newsng.com/?p=4106 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while delivering a speech during the 115th

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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine is not leaving the United Nations, the foreign minister said on Monday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to quit the body after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs. Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Duterte’s statement “is a […]

9News Nigeria

]]> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while delivering a speech during the 115th

9News Nigeria

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine is not leaving the United Nations, the foreign minister said on Monday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to quit the body after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Duterte’s statement “is a statement expressing profound disappointment and frustration”.

“We are committed to the U.N. despite our numerous frustrations with this international agency,” Yasay told a news conference.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Michael Perry)

 

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