By Cecilia Yap and Jeff Kearns
President Rodrigo Duterte (click here) plans to order the termination of a longstanding military pact with the U.S., the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported, though the U.S. State Department reiterated that relations between the nations remain strong.
The Inquirer report, citing presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo, follows Duterte’s threat in January to end the agreement after Washington canceled a visa for a senator who used to lead his drug war.
Such a move could upend the decades-long alliance as Beijing continues its rise as a military power from the contested waters of the South China Sea to nations across Asia. The threat hasn’t been officially confirmed by the government. The U.S. has been seeking to reassure allies in Southeast Asia of its commitment to the region....
...The U.S. alliance with the Philippines is its oldest in the region and remains as important as ever, the official said, without directly addressing the Inquirer report....
By Richard Javad Heydarian
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (click here) was given the red carpet treatment during a recently concluded five-day visit to Russia, underscoring the two sides’ budding economic and strategic ties.
While counterterrorism, defense and trade all featured prominently on the diplomatic agenda, discussions of possible Russian energy exploration in the South China Sea sent a strong signal to China, while mooted big arms deals aimed a shot across the US’s bow.
By forging closer ties with Russia, Duterte is seeking to recalibrate the Philippines’ diplomacy vis-à-vis China, a maritime rival and threat, and America, a long-time treaty ally which has nonetheless sharply criticized his government’s human rights record....
Since when are deaths not deaths? Duterte claims his death squads are making legitimate progress on drug dealers. Drug dealers? The death penalty is not issued for drug dealers in any First World Country, unless they committed murder. Even "El Chappo" received a life sentence, but, in the Phillipines under Deterte, drug ANYTHING is killed by death squads.
By Nick Aspinwall
The body of an alleged drug dealer lies on the ground after he was killed by an unidentified assailant in Manila on March 23, 2018.
Early in the morning of March 30, (click here) Philippine security forces set out to execute dozens of search warrants in the remote towns of Canlaon, Manjuyod, and Santa Catalina on the country’s southern Negros Island. Within hours, the operation had left 14 farmers dead. The Philippine National Police says the “Negros 14,” as they are now known, were communist rebels killed after refusing arrest and firing at police officers. Filipino and international rights groups refute this claim. A fact-finding report by a Philippines rights coalition, based on witness interviews, says that police forced family members to stand outside of their homes before entering and killing their targets, planting firearms as they departed in order to claim they faced armed foes.
The chilling report conjures images of the Philippine drug war, known as Oplan Tokhang—“tokhang” translates to “knock and plead.” Drug war tactics, which the country’s human rights commission says could be responsible for as many as 27,000 extrajudicial killings, have become the foundation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s developing counterinsurgency strategy—and rights groups allege its range of targets is growing to include an expanding list of those whom Duterte and his allies consider their enemies....
There needs to be global sanctions against Duterte and his henchmen.
