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Tag: Philippines

  • Duterte Gives The Middle Finger, Literally, To EU

    Duterte Gives The Middle Finger, Literally, To EU

    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.

    Mr 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 (Sept 20) 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 w****” and cursing the United Nations.

    Mr 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.

    Mr 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”.

    Mr 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, Mr Duterte said their parliament 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.

     

    Source: TODAY Online

  • Three Indonesians Freed By Militant Abu Sayyaf Group: Philippine Military Spokesman

    Three Indonesians Freed By Militant Abu Sayyaf Group: Philippine Military Spokesman

    Three Indonesian fishermen held by Islamic State-linked rebels in the Philippines have been released, the Philippine military said on Sunday, just hours after the militias freed a Norwegian man after a year-long ordeal.

    The victims – identified as Lorens Koten, Teodurus Kofung and Emmanuel – were released by the Abu Sayyaf on Saturday night at an undisclosed place in Sulu, said Major Filemon Tan, spokesman in the military’s Western Mindanao Command. They were taken on July 9 this year from Malaysian state of Sabah, he said.

    The Indonesians were set free just hours after the same group notorious for kidnappings, beheadings and extortion released Norwegian captive Kjartan Sekkingstad, who was set to meet President Rodrigo Duterte in Davao City on Sunday evening.

    Sekkingstad was taken from an upscale resort on Samal island in Davao del Norte along with a Filipina, who has already been freed, and two Canadians, whom the militants later executed.

    While it is widely believed that no captives are released by the Abu Sayyaf without the payment of ransom, the Philippine government said it did not pay the group and was unaware of any payment made by other parties for the release of the victims.

    “I would like to reiterate that the government maintains the no-ransom policy,” Communications Minister Martin Andanar said. Now if there was a third party who made the payment, if it’s the family (of the victim), we are not aware of that.”

    Tan said Sekkingstad and the three Indonesians were flown separately on Sunday afternoon from Jolo, Sulu. The Indonesians have been turned over to Indonesian authorities, he said without giving further details.

    Tan insists the release of the kidnap victims was a result of the ongoing intensified military operations against the Abu Sayyaf, with the assistance of the Moro National Liberation Front, one of the two major Muslim rebel groups based in the south of the mainly Catholic nation.

     

    Source: TODAY Online

  • 177 Bakal Jemaah Haji Indonesia Terkandas Di Filipina, Jadi Mangsa Penipuan Sindiket

    177 Bakal Jemaah Haji Indonesia Terkandas Di Filipina, Jadi Mangsa Penipuan Sindiket

    Gara-gara terpengaruh dengan tawaran satu sindiket untuk menunaikan ibadah haji menggunakan kuota haji Filipina, seramai 177 rakyat Indonesia kini ditahan di Depot Tahanan Imigresen negara itu.

    Media-media tempatan melaporkan kesemua warga Indonesia itu terpedaya dengan sindiket ejen haji sebuah syarikat tempatan yang ‘menawarkan’ khidmat membawa jemaah negara itu menerusi penerbangan dari Manila, Filipina.

    Sindiket itu dikatakan mengenakan bayaran sehingga AS$10,000 (S$14,000) bagi setiap bakal jemaah haji dan mereka berlepas dari Sulawesi Selatan ke Manila pada 19 Ogos lalu.

    Naib Presiden Indonesia Jusuf Kalla ketika mengulas kejadian itu berkata sebanyak 177 bakal jemaah haji itu ditahan pihak berkuasa Filipina kerana kesalahan menggunakan pasport Filipina.

    Beliau berkata kerajaan Indonesia sedang berusaha membantu mereka supaya tidak dikenakan hukuman.

    Menurutnya mereka adalah mangsa penipuan dan pemerintah Indonesia meminta supaya kesemua mangsa sindiket itu dibebaskan pihak berkuasa Filipina.

    Sementara itu, media-media online memetik jurucakap Kedutaan Indonesia di Filipina sebagai berkata bahawa mangsa sindiket haji itu secara berperingkat ditempatkan di Kedutaan Besar Indonesia di Filipina.

    “Walaupun dipindahkan ke kedutaan itu, mereka masih tidak dibenarkan pulang ke tanah air kerana perlu membantu siasatan.

    “Kedutaan telah memaklumkan kepada pihak berkuasa Filipina bahawa mereka adalah mangsa dan tidak mengetahui mengenai modus operandi ejen terbabit,” kata jurucakap itu.

    Kesemua mangsa ditahan di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Manila ketika hendak berlepas ke Jeddah setelah pihak berkuasa mendapati pasport mereka mencurigakan dan mereka tidak boleh berbahasa Tagalog iaitu bahasa kebangsaan Filipina.

    Setelah disiasat, kesemua 177 jemaah haji itu didapati bukan warga Filipina dan mereka memasuki negara itu sebagai pelancong sebelum diberikan pasport Filipina bagi tujuan menunaikan haji.

    Kuota Haji Filipina dikatakan tidak dipenuhi umat Islamnya setiap tahun. Sementara itu, Kerajaan Arab Saudi menetapkan kuota 168,000 jemaah haji dari Indonesia tahun ini.

    Bagaimanapun, waktu menunggu giliran haji di Indonesia kini adalah lebih 20 tahun ekoran jumlah yang mendaftar untuk menunaikan ibadah itu semakin meningkat setiap tahun.

    Source: Berita MediaCorp

  • Kill Drug Traffickers, Set Fire To Their Homes

    Kill Drug Traffickers, Set Fire To Their Homes

    The Philippines’ police chief has called on drug users to kill traffickers and burn their homes, as he seeks to maintain momentum in President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial war on crime that has claimed 2,000 lives.

    “Why don’t you give them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire to register your anger,” Mr Ronald Dela Rosa said in a speech aired on television yesterday. “They’re all enjoying your money, money that destroyed your brain.

    “You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing them is allowed because you are the victim.”

    Mr Dela Rosa was speaking on Thursday to several hundred drug users who had surrendered in the central Philippines.

    When asked if President Duterte supported Mr Dela Rosa’s call to commit murder and arson, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella denied that was the police chief’s intent.

    “There is no such call. It’s a passionate statement,” Mr Abella told reporters yesterday without elaborating.

    Mr Dela Rosa’s comments followed Mr Duterte’s own controversial directives that have sparked criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups.

    Mr Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a promise to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals in an unprecedented blitz that would eliminate illegal drugs in six months.

    When he took office on June 30, he told a crowd in Manila: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself, as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”

    Days after his election win, he also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers.

    UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard said such directives “amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law”.

    However Mr Dela Rosa and Mr Duterte have insisted they are working within the law, while their aides have dismissed some of their comments as “hyperbole” meant to scare drug traffickers.

    Nevertheless, Mr Dela Rosa told a Senate inquiry this week that the confirmed number of people to have died in the drug war was 1,946.

    He said police had shot dead 756 suspects and there were another 1,190 killings under investigation, but these were likely due to drug gangs murdering those who could implicate them.

    “I admit many are dying, but our campaign, now, we have the momentum,” he told the Senate.

     

    Source: The Straits Times

  • Philippines Drug War Deaths Climb To 1,800; US ‘Deeply Concerned’

    Philippines Drug War Deaths Climb To 1,800; US ‘Deeply Concerned’

    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. On Sunday, Duterte railed against the United Nations for criticising the wave of deaths.

    The United States, a close ally of the Philippines, said it was “deeply concerned” by the reports, and U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner urged Duterte’s government to ensure that law-enforcement authorities abided by human rights norms.

    The drug trafficking crackdown and some strongly worded criticisms Duterte has made of the United States since coming to power present a dilemma for Washington, which has been seeking to forge unity among allies and partners in Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China, especially in the strategic South China Sea.

    Toner made the dilemma clear in responses to questions at a regular State Department briefing in Washington, in which he referred to Duterte as “a plain-speaking politician.”

    “We continue to make clear to the Philippines government … our concern about human rights, extrajudicial killings, but we are also committed to our bilateral relationship and strengthening that bilateral relationship,” he said.

    Toner said there was no question of the United States turning a blind eye to rights abuses and that the relationship with Manila, while good, was “frank and candid.”

    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 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.

    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. U.S. officials declined comment on Duterte’s U.N. remarks.

    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.

     

    Source: ChannelNewsAsia