Saturday, December 03, 2016

Philippine news

Well I've been saying this for quite some time, but I'm happy someone in the USA has noticed.

Reuters (via Drudge) does mention the real reason why Duterte is mad at the USA:

not just it's pressure to stop the drug war, but the elephant in the room


In an article in Foreign Policy magazine before the U.S. election, Trump campaign advisers Peter Navarro and Alex Gray blamed the bilateral 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 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's low opinion of American security guarantees — and his recent move toward a China alliance," they wrote.

yes, Obama did nothing and even discouraged the Philippines from "aggression" (i.e. defend the fishermen trying to fish in their traditional areas).

As for the murders blamed on the gov't: The article mentions 2000 drug related deaths. Other articles put the number at 5000.

This Inquirer article crunches the numbers:

2000 by copes in raids on drug dens or during arrests.

Probably another 3600 who are "extrajudicial killings" or "vigilante killings".

The problem is that only some of these are EJK by government/police/military hit squads, i.e. guys who decide to become dirty Harry and kill the guilty without trial.

A lot of these are payback by people against those who escaped justice. Some might be by cops, or ex NPA members, who have access to guns, but some will be requested by ordinary folks.

And some, of course, are by drug pushers etc who are killing either witnesses or those they think ratted on them (i.e. informants).

and of course then we have ordinary robbers now using guns and killing instead of just robbing. They are probably not in the statistics. But a lot of robbers are drug users who need money. And these murders and robberies are why the public defends Duterte.

This week's NEJournal has a lot of stories about corruption, murder attempts against politicians and of course bribery/corruption that has allowed illegal logging to denude mountains that could lead to major floods, and claims of bribery behind the onion import scam that is devastating our onion farmers.

Includes this tidbit:

He said 3,717 suspected drug dealers were arrested, 805 of these in Nueva Ecija.A total of 307 were killed during police operations while 343 were victims of alleged vigilantes.Meanwhile, Aquino said the regional police is authenticating an inter-agency intelligence report that 18 Central Luzon officials, mayors and vice mayors among them, have links to drug syndicates.


compare and contrast to Chicago's 800 murders this year. Or the 15000 killed this year by Mexican drug gangs.



We have had at least three neighbors murdered in routine robberies over the last few years. Presumably by drug addicts. And the side effect is police and politicians who are on the take and look the other way.

Our new mayor says he is cleaning up the place, but my son sardonically notes his father's hands were not clean here.

True, but on the other hand, the ex mayor (who was buried last year with a big Mass complete with Knights of Columbus body guard) was behind the murders of our nephew, and although finally indicted never did get to trial. The result of this slow justice system was an additional hit on one of the witnesses that killed three bystanders (that coincidentally happened a few days after the original mayors daughter became mayor), plus several pay back murders against those involved in that family's murders, the latest this year.

In other words, one of the dangers of Duterte's aggressive drug war is that it encourages people to take justice in their own hands.

One of the problem is that unless you know all the backstory, you can't judge the story. So is the lovely lady outing corrupt officials, or is she just as bad as they are, and using the attacks as a smoke screen?

I have no idea. I can't keep up on all the politics.


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