He has done nearly everything else except formally announce it, because if he does, under Commission on Elections (Comelec) rules he could be liable to charges of premature campaigning, but perennial absentee senator-cum-boxer Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao seems determined to run for President in 2022. He has reportedly narrowed his choices for vice-presidential running mate to…
Going into its last year in office – with President Duterte saying he’s “somewhat sold on the idea” of running for vice president in next year’s elections – his government has been put on the global spotlight this week for reported human rights violations. The spotlighting came from three global human rights watchdogs, each separately…
These attacks underscore once again how far the Duterte administration can go in silencing the press. The recent cyberattacks are not isolated from other forms of assault on the Philippine media. These are part of Duterte’s arsenal of weapons as a “predator of press freedom,” an apt description from the Reporters Without Borders.
By RENAN ORTIZ
The return of authoritarian rule is a constant threat, and progress an increasingly elusive goal in the Philippines. Democratization and development have too often foundered on the shoals of government indifference, incompetence, and antipathy. A process that began during the reform and revolutionary periods of Philippine history, democratization has been interrupted, delayed, weakened, and sabotaged…
“If you have this coalition, you have a list of people who are there and can arm themselves. I will order the police. If you are qualified, get a gun and help us enforce the laws.” This was what President Duterte reportedly said, on June 25 at Camp Crame, in his keynote speech after he…
“Extrajudicial confessions are universally recognized as admissible in evidence against an accused provided they are voluntarily made and corroborated by evidence of the actual commission of the crime.”
Nothing can compensate for the loss of a husband, a father, and in some instances even a wife, a mother, and a child — or for that matter, for the years of want and deprivation inflicted by the sudden demise of a family breadwinner. Mostly unremarked except in studies by such institutions as the University of the Philippines is the humanitarian crisis that afflicts those left behind by the heads of families who, alleged to be either drug addicts or drug pushers, were systematically gunned down on the strength of what the police understood to be the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte to “kill, kill, kill.”
We are not surprised by the results of the recent digital forensic. State agents and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) have consistently labeled us as communist fronts for pursuing journalism for the people. Still, we are angered that taxpayers’ money is being spent to bring down our website, and to deny our readers access to our reportage.
With regime change can come the restoration of the rule of law and the democratic space that have been eroded and restricted by the provincial despotism that has been despoiling this country and its people since 2016. The return of some measure of civility in politics and governance is another possibility. There are as well the increased chances of ending the pandemic and reviving the economy. And, most of all, is the likely recovery of the rights to free expression and press freedom on which true journalism thrives, and without which authentic change is next to impossible.
She formally requested for authority to her office to begin investigating Duterte’s war on drugs for possible crimes against humanity involving murder. She proposed to include in the investigation the pattern of drug-related EJKs observed in Davao City during Duterte’s tenure as mayor from Nov. 1, 2011 to 2016, noting that in that period, the Philippines had already ratified the Rome Statute of 2002, a treaty establishing the ICC.