Pamunuan ng SM Malls, ipinatawag sa mandatory conference ng DOLE

Ipinatawag ng Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) sa mandatory conference ang pamunuan ng SM Malls dahil sa umano ay mga paglabag nito sa labor standards. Ayon kay DOLE Undersecretary Dominador Say, bukas isasagawa ang mandatory conference, kung saan inaatahasang humarap ang pamunuan ng SM Malls.

Ito ay makaraang makitaan umano ng mga paglabag ang SM sa labor standards.

Hindi naman na inisa-isa ni Say ang mga paglabag ng SM, pero isa sa binanggit nito ang aniya ay maghapong pagtayo ng mg saleslady sa lahat ng branch ng Mall.


Sinabi ni Say na sa kabuuan ng duty ng mga saleslady o salesman, sila ay maghapong nakatayo at hindi nakakaupo.

Kaugnay nito, sinabi naman ni DOLE Sec. Silvestre Bello III na unti-unti ay tumutugon naman na ang SM sa mahigpit na pagbabantay ng pamahalaan hinggil sa pagpapatupad ng contractualization o end of contract (ENDO) ng mga kumpanya.

Katunayan ayon kay Bello, umabot na sa 4,800 na mga manggagawa ang ni-regular sa mga SM Malls.

Tiniyak naman ni Bello na bagaman unti-unti ay nagreregular na ang SM ng kanilang mga manggagawa, hindi naman isasantabi ng DOLE ang mga makikitang paglabag nito sa labor standards.


Una nang sinabi ng labor group na Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) na ang SM ang number one violator kung ang pag-uusapan ay ang security of tenure ng mga manggagawa dahil mayroon itong 34,000 contractual employees nationwide.

BREAKING: Philippines’ extrajudicial violence traces roots to Aquino admin according to The New York Times

A New York Times article has confirmed what some of us have been saying all along – that the root of the problem in the Philippines that the current government is facing today can be traced to former President Benigno Simeon Aquino. It is funny though how it had to take foreigners to validate what Get Real Post writers have been writing about for six years. This is what they had to say about the previous administration:

But the true roots of the problem can be traced to the administration of Mr. Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino III. That is because, experts say, the true cause of this kind of extrajudicial violence is the public’s loss of confidence in state institutions and its turning instead to more immediate forms of punishment and control. Mr. Aquino, elected in 2010 on promises to support the rule of law and human rights, failed to fix the Philippines’ corrupt and ineffective justice system. His administration also faced a series of security-related scandals, including a hostage crisis in Manila in 2010. And, perhaps most critical, Mr. Aquino was perceived as lazy and soft, unwilling to take the necessary steps to solve the country’s problems. Frustration with the government’s inability to provide basic security led to rising public demand for new leaders who would take more decisive action to provide security.

It is also ironic that while BS Aquino’s supporters share the New York Times article because it is mostly critical of President Rodrigo Duterte’s policy on illegal drugs, they gloss over the part where the NYT writer blames the former President for his failure to crack down on the drug trade and his failure to fix the slow justice system. BS Aquino’s supporters also turn a blind eye to the fact that the drug problem became an epidemic during his term. His government was given a list of politicians and members of the military and police who were involved in drug trafficking but they just sat on it. They also tolerated the way convicted drug lords continued to operate inside the prison walls.

 More importantly, BS Aquino also set a precedent for denying due process to his political enemies, which is why ordinary Filipinos have become frustrated with the Philippines’ justice system. They would now rather take matters into their own hands. This was what I wrote prior to BS Aquino stepping down:

The application of selective justice in the Philippines is the reason why Filipinos are getting increasingly frustrated at the current government. BS Aquino’s Daang Matuwid or so-called “straight path” only works for his friends and allies. No wonder Duterte’s vigilante style of justice has become acceptable to a lot of people. If the justice system is broken anyway, people think it is better to take matters into their own hands. They are tired of politicians like BS Aquino and Mar Roxas who say they are “decent’” but do not have any qualms about destroying people who get in their way. Corona was never found to be guilty of corruption by a real court. His only offence was in the discrepancy in his Statement of Assets and Liability Net Worth (SALN), which by law, government officials are allowed to correct whenever discrepancies are found. Most public servants would be guilty of that but they are spared from the persecution Corona was subject to under BS Aquino and his minions. BS Aquino keeps bragging about being the first President to impeach a sitting Supreme Court Chief Justice. He couldn’t have done it without the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and pork barrel funds and a corrupt Congress.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand why majority of Filipinos approve of Duterte’s brand of justice. They waited for six years for BS Aquino to do something about the increasing violence in the country but they were disappointed. The media is only highlighting the killings now but incidence of drive-by shootings had become more brazen in recent years even before Duterte came to power. The people have become angry and helpless reading news about victims of rape, assault and robbery even in broad daylight perpetrated by drug gangs. To a lot of Filipinos, it is better that drug dealers and pushers be dead than innocent people, which is why they do not feel sorry hearing of people dying during police operations or in the hands of unidentified suspects. Some Filipinos even cheer when they find out drug dealers and pushers are killing each other.

People would accuse me of giving the situation my seal of approval. They are wrong. I am merely giving my own observation of what is happening in the country. I saw it coming. I am not entirely surprised that people are dying on the streets. Duterte did warn everyone that he would go after drug traffickers while he was still campaigning. Besides, life has always been cheap in the Philippines. The violence was ignored in the past because it involved mostly the lower classes. It is part of Filipino culture to ignore what is happening to others if it doesn’t involve members of their inner circle of family and friends. In the Filipino vernacular, it is called kanya-kanya.

 It is only now that there is outrage coming from so-called “civil society” because some members of the upper classes are now getting killed or caught in the middle of Duterte’s war on drugs. In other words, some folks were in denial there was a problem to begin with. Again, that is the fault of BS Aquino who made people believe everything was under control. He was good at hiding problems or pretending there was none. This is why the news that there were city mayors who were coddling drug lords came as a rude shock to everyone. Even celebrities were not spared in the naming and shaming. If there is one thing positive about Duterte’s drug war, it appears that it doesn’t discriminate or favour anyone, rich or poor. Everyone involved in the drug trade is getting equal treatment.

The New York Times is saying that a culture of vengeful punishment is taking hold in the Philippines. This is nothing new. It has always been like that in the Philippines. It is still a primitive country pretending to be civilised. Most people don’t even understand the concept of rule of law. If they did, they wouldn’t have tolerated how BS Aquino treated his political enemies even back then.

BREAKING NEWS : Two Africa President Magufuli and Mugabe,Praise Duterte,say he is a 'hero' and he is the most influential leader in the world.

Duterte instilled courage in our social and academic spheres of Africa,two Africa President have said."

If it were not for his(Duterte's)culture of revolution and economic freedom we would not have understood the need to fight for economic freedom in our countries.

He indeed,instilled courage in us,"said President John Magufuli of Tanzania."Rodrigo Duterte is the most influential leader in the world.I can attest to this,"Magufuli added.

On his part,Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe described Duterte as "the most courageous man who will not allow neocolonialism in his country.

"He congratulated him for his unrelenting efforts on war against drug.Mugabe said he has known Duterte since he was Mayor of Davao City,a highly urbanized city on Mindanao Island in the Philippines.Mugabe criticized the United States President for meddling in Philippines politics,"Obama should deal with the issues affecting US because America has more challenges than Philippines.He should leave Duterte alone.

" The two African Presidents spoke while attending the Africa United Summit (AU)in Cameron,West Africa.

The effect of drugs on the brain

This story is a supplement to Philstar.com NewsLab's special report on Duterte's war on drugs.

MANILA, Philippines — On the day he was sworn into office, President Rodrigo Duterte gave a speech to a crowd in a Manila slum in which he called on ordinary citizens to kill drug addicts in their own community.

Almost three months later, more than 3,000 suspected drug offenders were reported killed in the government’s “Double Barrel” drive—both from legitimate police operations and vigilante-style or unexplained killings.

The rising body count has shocked the world and sparked alarm among global human rights groups, including the United Nations. Irked by criticisms, Duterte took pains to explain why drug users are dangerous, especially meth or shabu users who usually resist arrest by fighting back at police officers.

“You must remember that those who are already in shabu for almost one year, they are dead. They are the living walking dead. They are of no use to society anymore,” he said.

But what’s in illegal substances that makes it difficult to quit? The answer, according to health experts, lies in the brain.

“In a very layman’s explanation, it (drugs) really destroys the brain. Tinutusta 'yung utak,” said Jerome Go, a psychiatrist at the Chinese General Hospital and the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center.

Under the influence of drugs, users could do some things that are not really their own willing or not properly calculated.

“Yes, it could result (in) something destructive or disastrous,” the psychiatrist added.

Dr. Alfonso Villaroman, chief of the Bicutan Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, said, however, that there should be a distinction between drug users and drug addicts. These categories should not also be equated with drug dependents.

Those falling under these latter categories, he said, should be treated as patients because there is a road to recovery.

DENR spares 11 firms in massive mining audit

The government has spared only 11 companies of the country’s 41 operating metallic mines as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) released the results of its audit aimed at putting an end to irresponsible operations in the Philippines.

 

In a briefing Tuesday, Environment Undersecretary Leo Jasareno, head of the mining audit team, said only 11 did not get recommendations for suspension while 20 will be given seven days to address the audit findings. Operations of the 10 companies earlier suspended will remain suspended.

 

“So far, we have suspended 10. Eleven passed the audit and 20 need to get their acts together,” Environment Secretary Gina Lopez said.

 

Among mining operations spared are:

 

• Pangilinan-led Philex Mining Corp. 
• Nickel Asia Corp.'s Rio Tuba Nickel Corp., Cagdianao Mining Corp. and Taganito Mining Corp. 
• Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp.
• Techiron Resources Inc.
• Platinum Group Metals Corp.
• Philsaga Mining Corp.
• Greenstone Resources Corp.
• Apex Mining Co. Inc.
• Pacific Nickel Philippines Inc.

 

“They are running their operations much better than the others. However, in efforts to get better, even if they passed, I still want to talk to them and push them a little better,” Lopez said.

 

Meanwhile, companies that are on the verge of total suspension include:

 

• Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.
• MarcVentures Mining and Development Corp.
• OceanaGold Philippines Inc.
• Filminera Resources Corp.
• Strongbuilt Mining Development Corp. 

 

Meanwhile, AAMPhil Natural Resources Exploration and Development Corp.,  Adnama Mining Resources Corp., Minimax Mineral Exploration Corp., Carrascal Mining Corp., Century Peak Corp. and CTP Construction and Mining Corp. have been asked to respond to the DENR's audit findings.

 

The DENR will also suspend:

 

• SR Metals, Inc.
• Hinatuan Mining Corp.
• Wellex Mining Corp.
• Krominco Inc.
• Libjo Mining Corp.
• Norweah Metals and Minerals Co. Inc.
• Oriental Synergy Mining Corp.
• Sinosteel Phils HY Mining Corp. 

 

Jasareno said majority of the reason for suspension of the companies include discoloration due to siltation, soil erosion, lack of social development and rehabilitation projects, destruction of the forest, no tree cutting permits and inadequate preventive measures on the mining areas. 

 

Mining companies involved are yet to issue their official statement regarding the department’s recent orders. 

 

As most of the mines eyed for suspension are nickel mines, Jasareno said it constitute 55.5 percent of the country’s total nickel production value based on last year’s data. 

 

The 20 mining companies will be given seven days to answer and then a final decision will be made.

 

“Each mine will be provided a report. They will be given one week to respond then the department will review their explanation once we receive them,” Jasareno said.

Chamber laments findings

On the other hand, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) decried the mine audit results which recommended for the suspension of eight of its members which include Filminera Resources Corp., Marcventures Mining and Development Corp., Agata, CTP Construction and Mining Corp., Hinatuan Mining Corp., Benguet Corp., Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp. and OceanaGold Philippines Inc.

 

The Chamber lamented how the whole mining audit was done in a punitive manner rather than objectively. 

 

“When you suddenly change the rules of the game, there should have been an earlier dialogue between companies and the DENR given that the audit report was already finished in August. As early as August, the alleged violations could have already been addressed instead of setting a trap for suspension,” COMP Vice President for Policy Ronald Recidoro said. 

 

Since the start of the audit, 10 mining firms had been suspended including all operations in Zambales – Benguet Corp. Nickel Mines Inc., Zambales Diversified Metals Corp., LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc. and Eramen Minerals Inc. – for breach of environmental standards.

 

Other firms that were suspended include the country’s only iron-producing mine Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp., Samar-based operations Mt. Sinai Exploration Mining and Development Corp., EMIR Mineral Resources Corp., Berong Nickel Corp., Claver Mineral Development Corp., and Citinickel Mines and Development Corp.

 

Lopez reiterated that any decision that the department will make will be based on what is best for the greater majority.

 

“Resources of the country must be utilized in a way that benefits the greater majority. I want the DENR to be not regulatory but developmental,” she said.

 

“I’m not against mining. I’m vehemently against the adverse effect that may happen and are happening. I want us to be better than Canada and Australia,” Lopez added. 

 

While some miners questioned the mining audit process, Jasareno emphasized that it was a compliance to the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte himself to determine adequacy and efficiency of environmental protection measures; identify gaps in environmental protection measures; and determine penalties in case of violations.

 

The audit team was composed of the DENR central and regional offices, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Environmental Management Bureau, third part experts including the Departments of Health and Agriculture and civic society organizations. 

 

The audit’s checklist focused on safety and health, mine environmental management, social development, mining tenement, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste.

 

Next month, the DENR will start the audit of 65 operating non-metallic mines.

Zamboanga City on alert for arms shipments to Abu Sayyaf

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Security forces have stepped up monitoring for war materiel that someone might try to slip to the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu and Basilan.

 

This, after police intelligence agents arrested three suspects and seized a cache of rifle grenades, high-powered rifles and ammunition in a village beside the Philippine National Police headquarters in San Juan, Metro Manila.

 

The weapons and ammunition, which have been traced to the Government Arsenal, were supposed to go to the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, police said.

 

Chief Inspector Helen Galvez, spokesperson of the Zamboanga City Police Office, said they are in close coordination with the military and port security to monitor and thwart attempts to sneak war material to the bandit group, which has been the target of intensified military operations.

 

“We have intensified our monitoring in the port areas even in the finger wharves that are loosely operated,” she said.

 

Galvez said police are also validating information passed to the presidential hotline on guns and ammunition being smuggled to the Abu Sayyaf through Zamboanga City.

 

The interception of the arms cache was the result of cooperation between the police and the military.

 

“We shared intelligence reports. Malaki ang tulong ng pulis sa ating intensified police and military operations,” Maj. Tan said.

AFP: We will crush Abu Sayyaf supporters

Tan stressed that the military will not tolerate anyone providing support to the Abu Sayyaf.

 

“With our previous pronouncement, since the suspect is said to be a former politician, nagbigay kami ng statement before na kahit sino pa ‘yan sasagasaan yan ng AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) as long as ganoon ang ginagawa nila,” he said.

 

He said security forces have been working together to find the source of the Abu Sayyaf's weapons and ammunition and stop the flow of war materiel to the group.

 

“We are very concerned [because] the Abu Sayyaf group is not running out of supply of guns and ammunitions despite the series of encounters [and the ] recovery of their armaments,” he said.

 

Tan also said the military is concerned because the Abu Sayyaf seems to be using weapons from the Government Arsenal.

 

“Iyan ang pinakamasakit na gawin mo sa kapwa mo sundalo. We are angry and we don’t tolerate it,” Tan said.

Ombudsman finds Honasan, 9 others liable in PDAF scam

The Office of the Ombudsman on Monday found probable cause to hold Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II and nine others liable for the alleged misuse of P29.1 million from the scrapped Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered the filing of Informations against Honasan and the following officials:

• Political Affairs/Project Coordinator Chief Michael Benjamin
• National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) Secretary Mehol Sadain
• Acting NCMF Chief Accountant Fedelina Aldanese
• NCMF Director Galay Makalinggan
• NCMF Chief Sania Busran
• Acting NCMF Chief Aurora Aragon-Mabang
• NCMF cashier Olga Galido
• Focus Development Goals Foundation Inc. officers  Giovanni Manuel Gaerlan and Salvador Gaerlan

Honasan and the nine officials will face cases at the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court for allegedly violating the Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019).

The Ombudsman, through its investigation, discovered that, in April 2012, the Department of Budget and Management released P30 million as part of the Honasan’s PDAF with the NCMF as implementing agency.

The money was intended to finance small and medium-scale enterprises and livelihood projects for the benefit of Muslim Filipinos in communities in the National Capital Region and Zambales.

The Ombudsman said that documents from June 2012 show that Honasan endorsed Focus Development Goals Foundation, Inc. as partner NGO for the project without complying with procurement requirements. A disbursement voucher and a check allegedly shows that Honasan and the other respondents facilitated the payment via two tranches amounting to P29.1 million.

“The check, dated 30 May 2012, and disbursement voucher approving the payment were prepared by public respondents in favor of Focus even before (1) the NGO was informed that it was found qualified to undertake the project on 04 June 2012; (2) the MOA was signed by the Office of Senator Honasan, NCMF and Focus; and (3) Honasan authorized the release of funds to Focus,” an excerpt of the Ombudsman’s resolution approved on Sept. 21, 2016 read. 

Honasan also failed to submit his counter-affidavit during the investigation despite the issuance of an order to do so.

“The repeated illegal transfers of public funds to the NGO, resulted in the quantifiable, pecuniary losses to the government, thus constituting undue injury within the context of Section 3(e) of R.A. No. 3019,”Morales said. 

In August 2015, the National Bureau of Investigation also filed malversation, bribery and graft complaints against Honasan for the alleged misuse of PDAF in illegal transactions with suspicious NGOs linked to alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles’. Honasan was accused of taking home P1.750 million kickback.

Honasan, in January, called the allegation ridiculous. He said that the kickback that he supposedly received from the scam was so small that he could have gotten more money had he asked his friends for cash.

The senator, who ran for vice president in the May elections, has denied the allegations as early as 2013.

“All records regarding use of development funds being managed by my office are subject to accounting and auditing procedures according to law,” Honasan said then. 

 

“Any allegations, insinuations of irregularity must be backed up by evidence in the proper courts of law subject to due process and not politically motivated, suspicious or malicious trial by publicity,” he added.

After Fed, Duterte gov't shrugs off latest financial market sell-off

The government downplayed anew the local financial market sell-off on Monday, with the finance chief set to embark on his first overseas trip to meet with multilateral lenders amid concerns on President Rodrigo Duterte's harsh rhetoric and drug war.

"How can you change based on an election? You must change on what you actually see," Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez told reporters on the sidelines of the budget hearing at the House of Representatives.

"I mean we are still paying our debt. Our global debt is going down...You look at the dollar is doing around the world. You know when (US Federal Reserve chair Janet) Yellen says we might raise the rate, that will affect us, its not only our situation," he said.

Dominguez is set to represent the Philippines at this year's spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from October 7 to 9 in Washington D.C.

He will be accompanied by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia and central bank Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.

Asked if he is willing to answer "issues" on the Duterte administration, Dominguez said "it will depend what issues will be brought up" without elaborating.

Duterte's three-month-old government has been haunted by a 22-day foreign fund outflow at the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) as of Monday.

PSEi closed 1.18 percent or 91.14 points down at 7,632.46, unable to sustain its more than two-percent recovery after the US Fed decided to keep rates steady last week.

The peso, meanwhile, sank to a seven-year low against the greenback at 48.215 in morning trading. Trading was ongoing as of this post.

At the bond market, the government awarded P20 billion worth of Treasury bills with lower interest rates across-the-board, indicative of investors' flight to safer assets.

Finance Assistant Secretary Paola Alvarez shrugged off recent developments, which came after Duterte criticized the US and the EU for meddling on the government's anti-drug war.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay had also sounded defiant on his address to the UN General Assembly, asking nations to let it continue its anti-drug campaign even amid allegations of human rights violations.

"If one were to ignore the political noise generated by certain groups, one could clearly hear the voices of continued optimism over President Duterte’s commitment to bring real change," Alvarez said in a statement, without specifying which groups was she talking about.

Part of this is the four tax reform packages being planned, the first of which was already submitted to the Lower House for scrutiny.

"We put a package where both WB, IMF and many foreign governments said they agree with," he said. Dominguez has met recently with envoys from China, EU and Spain.

Sought for comment, Emilio Neri Jr., lead economist at Bank of the Philippine Islands, said there clearly are some political concerns in the Duterte administration worrying investors.

"The performance in T-bills is consistent since the tendency is really to go to safer assets. If they have issued long-termed (bonds yesterday), it would have been different," Neri said.

"Part of it is really due to political uncertainties. While there is no science to use to clearly gauge how much of it is coming from such, it is fairly clear that part of it is due to politics," he added.

Trillanes to present validated information on Matobato claims

MANILA, Philippines – Is self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato credible? The allies of President Duterte say no, but Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said he will prove them wrong.

According to Trillanes, he will be presenting “verifiable information” to his colleagues to show that Matobato was telling the truth.

Matobato, claiming to be a hitman of the so-called Davao death squad, twice appeared before the Senate committee on justice and human rights in its inquiry into the alleged extrajudicial and summary killings of suspected drug offenders.

Trillanes maintained Matobato was consistent in his testimonies, contrary to the claims of his colleagues that included Sens. Richard Gordon, Panfilo Lacson and Alan Peter Cayetano, who all claimed it was full of inconsistencies.

“In the coming days I will show them the truth. I will show my fellow senators that while they are trying to confuse the witness, I am digging for information that could be validated,” Trillanes said in Filipino.

Trillanes did not elaborate on what exactly he would be presenting, but said it would corroborate the claims made by Matobato.

“If this person is indeed bogus, then why are they so afraid that they removed the chairperson of the committee?” Trillanes said, referring to Sen. Leila de Lima, the erstwhile head of the committee.

Lacson said there were just too many inconsistencies in the testimonies of Matobato for him to be considered a credible witness.

He said it was now hard to tell which of Matobato’s narrations were true because of his flip flopping statements during the hearings.

Based on the account given by the relatives of a certain Sali Makdum, who Matobato claimed was killed by the DDS for being an international terrorist, Lacson said it appears as though the two of them were involved in some real estate transactions.

The statements of Makdum’s relatives, which came out in a television news program, gave Lacson the impression that there was a personal tiff between Matobato and Makdum.

He also cited reports regarding the attempted killing of Department of Agrarian Reform regional adjudicator Abeto Salcedo Jr. last October 2014 in Davao, which was reportedly perpetrated by Matobato.

Salcedo has claimed recognizing Matobato during the Senate hearings as the person who tried to kill him. This was personally relayed to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who relayed the information to his colleagues in the Senate.

Just like the case of Makdum, Lacson said the attempted killing of Salcedo was apparently land-related, and made him question if Matobato was indeed a member of the DDS.

The committee has agreed to invite the alleged members of the DDS who were identified by Matobato during an executive session.

They will be appearing before the committee in a hearing that could be held on Wednesday next week.

Many of the personalities mentioned by Matobato are policemen.

Lacson said the committee would have to discuss what to do with the invited persons once they appear before them.

If they would be presented to Matobato in a police line-up style, Lacson said he and the other committee members would have to decide on what they would do if they are positively identified as DDS members.

Addicts to reach 4 M, so let’s stop this now

Rody orders cops to destroy ‘narcotics apparatus’

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – “What am I supposed to do with the four million?”

The number of drug addicts in the country is expected to soar from 3.7 million to four million by the end of the month, President Duterte told a gathering of policemen on Friday as he rallied authorities to destroy what he called the “narcotics apparatus.”

“There are three million addicts now in the Philippines, of late. Huwag mo na lang bilangin iyong (Don’t count the) 700,000, it’s going up. It’s going to reach a million mark by the end of this month; one million drug addicts plus three million reported by PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency), it’s four million,” the President said.

“And if we cannot destroy the apparatus now it will really be a bigger problem in the future,” the President said.

The rising number of drug addicts also indicates “narcopolitics” has definitely entered the Philippine democracy, the President told police officers and personnel belonging to the Region 12 Police Office in Tambler, General Santos City.

The President said that from three million as earlier reported by anti-drug authorities, 700,000 more drug addicts have been recorded since the President assumed office last June 30.

The 700,000 included those who have voluntarily surrendered to authorities in various parts of the country at the onset of the Duterte administration’s intensified campaign against the drug menace.

The President said the four million mark is the same level as Indonesia, which has a bigger population.

“But while Indonesia has more than 300 million population, we have over 100 million and yet we share the same number of drug addicts at four million,” the President said.

He lamented that people have not yet fully realized that he came to power midstream or when there was still no budget yet for the rehabilitation of more than 700,000 drug addicts who surrendered.

“There are people who are ignorant really how the budget works, that there is a fiscal year from January to December and I came in in the middle of the year, so what I am using now is the budget for this year that was prepared by the last administration last year,” he added.

“Nobody, nobody at that time knew the magnitude of the drug problem. And the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development… they do not have the budget for rehabilitation,” he also pointed out.

He said it would be unlawful to realign budgets just to have funding for rehabilitation.

Rehab camp in Agusan

Meanwhile, an Army camp in Mindanao has become the pioneer military host of a drug rehabilitation center.

The Army’s 401st Infantry Brigade has opened a two-hectare drug rehabilitation facility inside its camp in partnership with the provincial government of Agusan del Sur.

The center, called the Residential Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (RTRC), was inaugurated Friday with chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo as guest of honor representing the President.

The RTRC can accommodate 60 patients at any given time and shall be managed and administered by the provincial government of Agusan del Sur.

The establishment of the RTRC is in line with the province’s drug rehabilitation program called Substance Use Recovery and Enlightenment (SURE).

SURE aims to give victims of drug use a second chance at life and keep them away from drug syndicates.

Gov. Eddiebong Plaza of Agusan del Sur praised the local Army unit for its significant support for his anti-drug campaign.

Plaza said his province takes pride in having the 401st Brigade as an adopted Army unit and a partner in his provincial development programs.

The Army camp based in the town of Prosperidad has a total land area of 334 hectares.

Col. Cristobal Zaragoza, the Army’s 401st Brigade commander, said the unveiling of the rehab facility was part of a team collaboration between the military and the local government.

“We will give our all-out support to this campaign,” said Zaragoza. “A drug-free province is necessary for a drug-free country.”

De Lima a failure as head of the CHR and DOJ, now also a failure as a senator

“I might be jumping to conclusions, but what if it is true?” Those are the words of Senator Leila De Lima in her privilege speech right after she said “The implication is that we have a group of serial killers and mass murderers right within the ranks of the organization which is supposed to protect and serve the people…”

Damn. I won’t blame other people if they start swearing at De Lima. She believes her own lies. She admits to not having the evidence to prove her allegations that there are members of the Philippine National Police who are abusing their power but she already talks to the media, particularly the members of foreign media as if what she’s saying has been proven without a shadow of a doubt.

The fact that her privilege speech was addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte is already accusatory. Without providing evidence of her “theory”, she already painted Duterte as the mastermind behind her ousting from the Senate Justice Committee investigating the alleged extrajudicial killings. Her accusations are an insult to the Senators who can think “independently”. De Lima seems to be accusing them too of collaborating with Duterte to undermine her. That is not going to earn her any brownie points among her colleagues. She is digging her own grave. She already earned the ire of some senators and, as such, she should quit talking while she’s ahead. She just keeps yakking away. Her privilege speech is enough to give most people a headache. It was all about how she had become a victim in her crusade to stop the alleged “extrajudicial killings”.

Granted, the head of the Executive branch of government does have a track record of strong-arming members of Congress into doing what he wanted them to do, specifically during BS Aquino’s term. This was evident during the impeachment and trial to remove the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona from his post. But there was strong motivation among the congressmen and senators to accede to BS Aquino’s wishes back then — because they had to appease the President so he could give them funds from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), both of which had been scrapped after the Supreme Court ruled they were illegal. This is not the case with the current administration. Besides, the circumstances of De Lima’s ouster from the Justice Committee chairmanship is different from Corona’s ouster from the Supreme Court. De Lima’s was more of a random decision based on conduct unbecoming of a senator that she had exhibited.

Indeed, De Lima wasn’t ousted because she was critical of Duterte or because she was digging into his alleged role in the Davao Death Squad. She was ousted by her own colleagues because they believed she was using the Senate to get back at her enemy. In other words, she was abusing her position and dragging the reputation of the Senate through the mud. To quote Senator Win Gatchalian:

Senate committees are tasked with shaping policy direction and crafting legislative reforms. Unfortunately, under the leadership of Senator De Lima, the committee on justice had become a hollow vehicle for the fulfillment of personal political vendettas.”

“We simply had to put a stop to that,” Gatchalian’s statement said.

He said the decision “was a difficult one.” But he added that “In the end, I am confident that we made the right choice to protect the integrity of the Senate and to safeguard its reputation as a true and faithful instrument to further the interests of the Filipino people.”

De Lima is definitely not objective anymore. She has an axe to grind. Some say she is behaving like a mad woman. If she feels like the whole world is conspiring against her, then she should now appreciate what former President Gloria Arroyo felt when she was denied her right to travel abroad and her right to presumption of innocence back in 2011. That was the time De Lima stopped Arroyo at the airport as she was leaving to seek medical treatment abroad and detained her even when there was no case against her at that time.

De Lima is now holding on to the sole witness against Duterte, Edgar Matobato – a witness she did not tell the other members of the Justice Committee she will be presenting beforehand. In her privilege speech, she did not really explain why she did not tell Senator Panfilo Lacson about Matobato. She just said that as early as 2009, “Edgar Matobato has already been identified by one DDS witness as a companion of said witness in one of his DDS.” As if that makes any sense at all. This raises the question as to why De Lima didn’t use him earlier. I dare De Lima supporters to ask her why she didn’t use Matobato against Duterte when she was still the Chair of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) or when she was Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

What the hell is wrong with people who still believe in De Lima’s drama? She failed in her roles in the CHR and DOJ, now less than six months in the Senate, she is proving to be a failure as a senator too. There are still gullible people who believe in people who play the victim card. They pose a hindrance to Philippine progress.

Some of De Lima’s supporters say they would rather believe the words of Matobato — a murderer who confesses in his role in the Davao Death Squads — than the words of a convicted drug lord like Herbert Colangco. While both Matobato and Colangco are both scumbags who are just trying to save their own asses because they don’t have a choice, Colangco’s testimonies against De Lima are supported by the fact that he ran Bilibid like he owned the place and he did it with impunity since as he insinuated, De Lima turned a blind eye to his activities because she was getting a cut from his seedy profits:

During a congressional inquiry on drug proliferation at the New Bilibid Prisons, Colangco likened the prison facility’s maximum security compound to the Manila red-light district in Roxas Boulevard.

“Ang maximum po ay ginawa ko talagang parang Roxas Boulevard. Kahit walang dalaw, sample model binayaran ko ng P25,000 sa labas, ibebenta ko sa loob ng P75,000,” Colangco said in the House of Representatives.

(I turn the maximum [security prison] into Roxas Boulevard. A sample model I pay P25,000 for outside, I sell for P75,000.)

Colangco said he was running a resort-like hotel with facilities like air-conditioning and shower inside the maximum security compound.

He earlier confessed selling boxes of beer during his concerts in the Bilibid, which he said Senator Leila de Lima had allowed in exchange for share in the money.

How can De Lima explain these allegations? She was DOJ Secretary for six years but did not stop or was too incompetent and, possibly, too corrupt to stop the debauchery that went on inside the national penitentiary. This is an outrage. This is something her supporters need to address too. They can’t let her off the hook just because they hate Duterte. The current problems Duterte has to deal with are the result of the previous government’s ineptitude, which De Lima was a part of. She just doesn’t have the moral high ground to criticise Duterte for her own failures.

I do hope that the new Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre will file formal charges against De Lima soon so De Lima can have her day in court. We all know that senate hearings are mostly in aid of grandstanding politicians, not legislation.

Duterte invites EU, UN rapporteurs to debate on drug menace

President Rodrigo Duterte continued to wage a word war with international bodies on Thursday as he challenged the United Nations and the European Union to come to the Philippines for a debate on human rights and extrajudicial killings.

 

The UN and the EU have raised concerns over Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs, which has so far claimed the lives of about 3,000 suspected drug offenders. About half of the deaths have been attributed to vigilantes and to drug syndicates.

 

The UN has criticized the president for his supposed lack of understanding of human rights institutions and principles while the EU Parliament has asked Duterte to investigate and to put an end to the “current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings.”

 

Duterte, who once threatened to pull the Philippines out of the UN and later dismissed his statement as a joke, said he would not obey “unreasonable mandates.”

 

“I’m inviting the United Nations (secretary-general) Ban Ki…what’s the name of that devil again? Ban Ki-moon, Ban Ki-Sun. I am inviting the EU. Send the best player of your town. Even the rapporteurs, come to the Philippines,” the president said during the inauguration of a power plant in Misamis Oriental.

 

“I’ll write them a letter to invite them for an investigation but in keeping with the time-honored principle of the right to be heard. After they ask me questions, I’ll ask them one by one,” he added.  

 

Duterte said he would ask the UN rapporteur whether he knows the name of his first victim, the reason why he was killed, what time he was executed and how it was done.

 

“(It will be an) open forum. You can use the Senate, Folk Arts Theater, everybody will be invited,” the chief executive said.

 

“Manood kayo. Tignan niyo kung paano ko lampasuhin iyang mga yawang yan (Watch how I demolish these devils).”

 

Duterte maintained that security forces are not behind the torture and extralegal killings of drug personalities.

 

“I asked the police to go after them and if they present violent resistance, kill them. With those words, many were killed but they were the ones who fought [with authorities],” the president said.

 

“With regard to those who were killed with their hands tied, those were the handiwork of co-conspirators in the drug trade,” he added, noting that he had urged drug personalities to report their companions to authorities.

 

Duterte lambasted anew the US and Europe for lecturing about human rights despite their past atrocities.

 

The president slammed US President Barack Obama for his supposed failure to stop the killing of African Americans. He also chided the US for using weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to invade Iraq

 

Duterte likewise criticized European nations for allegedly oppressing Arabs and Muslims, calling the Middle East “a destroyed part of the planet.”

 

“Now, the EU is issuing warnings on killing criminals. I told them ‘f**k you. Why are you threatening me?” he said.

 

“Even the rapporteur of the (UN), why are you complaining so much about me threatening the criminals of the drug syndicates if you consider the fact that we have now three million and 700,000 drug addicts?”

 

Duterte said the issue of extrajudicial killings has been used by his political rivals to discredit him. He maintained that he has no links to the so-called Davao Death Squad, the vigilante group accused of executing several criminals in the city.

'Killer' rep a ploy by political rivals, Duterte says

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday addressed allegations that he was involved in summary executions while he was mayor of Davao City, saying political rivals used his tough stance on crime to try to discredit him.

"You must have heard, because it's a popular issue, at that time and until now, that killer daw ako. That I kill men, and they want me in prison," Duterte said during a visit to the Philippine National Police's Camp Vicente Alagar in Cagayan de Oro.

Edgar Matobato, a witness at the Senate inquiry into the drug-related killings said last week that Duterte, while mayor, formed the so-called Davao Death Squad vigilante group and ordered several killings of suspected criminals. Matobato said he carried out around 50 killings himself.

Duterte, speaking to police officers on Thursday, said that Davao City was in chaos during the transition between the administrations of Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino. Duterte was appointed officer-in-charge vice mayor after the 1986 People Power revolution and was elected mayor in 1988. 

The president said that, at the time, the government gave guns to people who identified themselves as anti-communist.

"A lot of tao sa Davao halos may armas. And it became an anarchy for everybody," Duterte said.

He said that to maintain order in the city, he told criminals there to surrender peacefully and to not offer violent resistance or they would die.

"Sabi ko sa pulis, just do your work. Arrest them, overcome the resistance and if there is violence, kill them."

This, he said, was used against him by political rivals.

"Every time may mamatay, aking kasalanan," Duterte said.

In December 2015, Duterte said in an interview over DZMM that he had killed suspected criminals in the past, including three kidnappers who refused to surrender when he ordered them to put their hands up. 

He also previously admitted links to the DDS, but reversed himself and said that this was not true.

"I always use the word. Walang DDS dyan. That is Davao Development System. That is my guiding principle," he said in May 2015. He also denied an earlier admission that he had people killed as mayor.

 

Duterte also said Thursday that the government will invite officials of the United Nations and European Union, which have been voicing concerns on a rise in drug-related deaths in the country since June, to look into the situation in the Philippines.

He said, however, that the representatives should be ready for a debate, saying the investigation would not be a "one-way street."

Duterte is turning the Philippines back into a REAL southeast Asian country

Why the sudden interest of the foreign media in the Philippines? It is because they found a bogeyman in its current president, Rodrigo Duterte, to feast upon. Indeed, Duterte is living up to the smear that goes way back to the campaign leading up to the 2016 elections that he is the “Donald Trump of the Far East”. Westerners, after all, are utterly convinced of the undisputed ascendancy of their way of life — where the individual and her entitlement to “human rights” trumps all else.

The Philippines is, of course, the United States’ Mini Me. It is a quaint legacy of American aspirations to create a beacon of democracy in the region to assure a world fearful of the communist onslaught that at least one southeast Asian domino will remain standing as the others (as the thinking at the time went) fell. Many Filipinos continue to cling to the old notion that their duty as a people lies in upholding that mission to be instrumental to the containment of any threat to America’s hegemony in the region.

Times have changed. As we have seen, the ascent to power of Duterte manifests a change in what Filipinos consider to be the good of their society. Duterte replaces that traditional “good” long considered to be embodied by the “victors” in the 1986 “people power revolution” now known simply as “the Yellows”. Duterte won on the back of mass disillusionment over the broken promise of 1986 that was 30 years in the slow making. Under the Yellows, liberalist democracy was perverted beyond all recognition and turned into nothing more than a pillar that propped up an expanded class of oligarchs that consolidated and concentrated power in Imperial Manila.

Duterte is turning the Philippines back into a true southeast Asian country. He is, in effect, attempting to address the root cause of a national identity crisis suffered by Filipinos over the last three decades. Southeast Asia is home to autocratic “democracies” — states that have, one way or another, found a balance between outwardly being what the West think the world’s nationsought to be and, from the inside, being what they really are.

This is the confusion evident in how foreign media is currently “reporting” the situation in the Philippines. Its sources of information for these “reports” are the corporate media minions of the Yellows — self-anointed “heroes” of free speech that have used that lofty status to hypnotise an entire society. Was it Duterte that snapped Filipinos out of that state of hypnosis? More likely it was the failed administration of former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III that did the job and paved the way for Duterte’s rise to power.

Either way, it does not matter now. What matters is the future under Duterte’s government. De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras wrote in a Facebook post how Duterte now presents his people with “a breath of empowering uncertainty that creates spaces for us to redefine ourselves, our politics, our international relations.”

Change is, of course, uncomfortable. In the case of what is happening to the Philippines today, it comes across as confronting to what some have called the disente (“decent”) classes who have, hook line and sinker, embraced the American Way of “human rights”. For the first time in a long time, perhaps, we are confronted with the uncomfortable possibility that there are alternatives to this dogma. Contreras writes…

For once, we have a President that forces us to recalibrate, to re-examine our friendships with the US, to deconstruct the alien elements of a very individualistic human rights construct in the face of our cultural nuances as a communalistic society where rights are seen not as individual entitlements but in the context of social relationships.

This, it seems, is the reason that, at the grassroots, Filipinos fundamentally do not have a problem with Duterte. The problem, as is becoming ever more evident, lies with an oligarchic class unwilling to give change a chance.

This change, after all, requires doing things differently. What, after all, has liberal democratic ideals delivered to the average Filipino? It is this lack of results at the levels in Philippine society where voters are most numerous that the oligarchic classes that are in the midst of a shrilly crying Bloody Extrajudicial Killing! seem to be oblivious to. Instead, their Taliban-like adherence to the artefacts of Western imperialism have put them out of sync with the pulse of Philippine society at large. To continue to apply the same methods and expect different results is, quite simply, a sad form of insanity. Change, therefore, should involve a courageous embrace of diffent approaches.

Unfortunately, this small elite clique of disente change-averse Filipinos control a vast information dissemination industry that they are now desperately using to cobble together a power base to re-launch their bid to re-take the top government posts they regard as theirs by birthright and pedigree. In this context, it is understandable why foreign media are complicit in this undertaking — because the very ideologies upon which their industries have also been founded is being put to the test in the Philippines.

But to be truly southeast Asian is to grow and develop according to one’s sovereign terms. This is how Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia did it. And this is how Vietnam and the other new Indochinese members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are doing it. Duterte is showing Filipinos an option that, in all ironies, never occurred to them — that it can be done the southeast Asian way. The American Way was a fun ride in Disneyland. But to prosper in the manner that only southeast Asia does, the Philippines needs to go back to the basics and start planting rice.

When Filipinos learn to once again keep busy with the business of producing stuff and beingindependent, the shrill “human rights” slogans of The Huffington Post and The Economist will fade into mere background noise — sources of quaint intellectual amusement for the irrelevant disentecrowd as they tap their self-important tweets on their iPads while sipping their Starbucks lattes.