Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Why a section in Duterte’s “State of National Emergency” Proclamation is very worrying

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Analysis by Raïssa Robles

Analysis---WEB-raissarobles.comHaving immersed myself all of last year and the better half of this year on the late Dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ “Proclamations” and other issuance, I feel I have some working knowledge on the topic of emergency laws.

On the face of it, President Rodrigo Duterte appears to confine Proclamation No. 55 to the Abu Sayyaf problem.

As Commander-in-Chief, it is his prerogative to decide how best to meet the problem.

Having said that, I can’t think of any other Philippine president who met this problem with a “State of National Emergency” that applies to the entire country.

True, the Abu Sayyaf or elements sympathetic to it did plant a bomb on board a Super Ferry in March 2004. But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not proclaim a “State of National Emergency” then.

You can read my piece on the Super Ferry bombing by clicking on the link below.

Bombing feared in Ferry disaster —> 

Nor did Arroyo declare a “State of National Emergency” when the bombing reached Manila, where a bus was bombed along EDSA in Makati City on Valentine’s Day. Here is my piece on that.

Manila on high alert after bombings—>

Now there’s a certain Section in Duterte’s Proclamation No. 55 which caught my eye.

“WHEREAS, based on government intelligence reports, there exist credible threats of further terror attacks and other similar acts of violence by lawless elements in other parts of the country, including the metropolitan areas.”

This section states that there are “credible threats” not only of “further terror attacks” but also by “other similar acts of violence by lawless elements in other parts of the country, including the metropolitan areas.”

This Section is no longer just talking about the Abu Sayyaf but has included a catch-all phrase – “lawless elements” and these are elements “in other parts of the country, including the metropolitan areas” – which would include the entire Metro Manila.

Whereas we know that the Abu Sayyaf is a specific group based in the south, we are not told who these “lawless elements” are — scattered across the nation include Metro Manila.

Recall what Peter Tiu Lavina, who started out as Mayor Duterte’s executive assistant and has been with Duterte for years, said after the bombing. Lavina said the likely bombing suspects included “an alliance of all anti-Duterte forces” that in turn includes the “Drug Lords” and “the political opposition providing the brains and the hecklers”.

Why a Malacanang official’s Facebook post following the Davao blast is extremely worrying—>

Hardly reassuring is the second to the last paragraph of Duterte’s Proc 50 that states that all measures to be taken by the military and police would give “due regard to the fundamental civil and political rights of our citizens”.

Even with the Constitution fully operational at this time, too many questionable deaths have taken place as a result of Duterte’s aggressive “drug war”. In addition, we know how Duterte really feels about human rights.

Duterte’s Proclamation No. 55 also has no time limit.

Expect another proclamation soon that will elaborate on his fight against these “lawless elements”.

♦   ♦   ♦

I have been the recipient of many messages telling me to “move on”, “matanda ka na”, don’t be bitter”, etc.

They don’t try to understand what I’m getting at.

I am all for battling the drug menace, but I believe the problem is greatly exaggerated into a national crisis. The fact that there are too many people ending up killed by unknown elements show that the police is hardly in control of what’s going on in the streets. The police operations are also vulnerable to extortion by rogue cops.

The previous administration had “tanim bala”. How sure is the police force that “tanim shabu” is not going on among its ranks? It is for this very reason that previous administrations controlled anti-drug operations because of the big possibility of abuse and extortion.

♦   ♦   ♦

By the way, there is NO conspiracy or collusion among the foreign media to place President Duterte in a bad light.

BUT, there is a media FEEDING FRENZY now over Duterte and his “war on drugs”. Duterte just makes irresistible copy. Alan has been asked several times by BBC and RTHK to report on Duterte. Al Jazeera tried to get him for some interviews. A Dutch journalist also asked me about it.

Last week, one of the editors of South China Morning Post (HK) phoned me to ask me to do a “Newsmaker profile” on Duterte.

I did not ask for the assignment. My editor simply wanted a piece on a man who has been making headlines around the world.

My original title for my Newsmaker piece was “Duterte’s death-driven development”.

SCMP placed a different title but kept my text intact.

Here is an excerpt below:

The Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte: saviour or madman?

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 27 August, 2016, 12:00pm

UPDATED : Saturday, 27 August, 2016, 12:34pm

COMMENTS: 39

By Raissa Robles

When Rodrigo Duterte warned people, “don’t vote for me because it will be bloody”, he won the Philippine presidency by a landslide with 16.6 million votes. He had tapped into public anger, fear and helplessness against rising crime.

After two months in office, Duterte’s drug war has resulted in 1,900 deaths – 750 of them caused by policemen who said they acted in “self-defence” during “buy and bust” operations. The rest of the dead, murdered by unidentified men, are considered “deaths under investigation”, Police Director General Ronald de la Rosa told a Senate probe this week. Government critics say “DUIs” are extrajudicial or vigilante killings.

These unexplained killings have been laid at Duterte’s doorstep, since he has repeatedly encouraged killings as a way to solve nagging problems. Two years ago, while mayor of Davao City, he told rice smugglers to stop or “I will really kill you, I’m not joking.”

On August 18, he told citizens who were being made to go back and forth by government officials for processing their papers, “shoot them. I’ll take care of you, really”.

Now he seems to be turning the gun on China. A week later, giving his strongest statement yet against the country, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea, he warned that an invasion by China would “be bloody and we will not give it to them easily”.

Before this, he had called China’s Xi Jinping (習近平) “a great president”.

Murder and death are two themes that run through Duterte’s administration.

To employers who continue to practice “contractualisation”, or firing workers after five months to avoid making them permanent staff, Duterte said: “You choose: Stop contractualisation or I will kill you. I am the president.” Duterte’s office means he is immune from any legal suit.

Apparently seeing the shock register on the faces of the audience, Duterte added: “Ah, that’s just hyperbole.”

Taking a cue from the president, his new customs commissioner, ex-marine officer Nicanor Faeldon, told the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry last month what he would do with corrupt customs personnel who were costing the bureau 300 million pesos in taxes daily. “If I cannot touch them legally,” he said, “I will have to start shooting them one by one.”

Duterte was the first local politician to make killings a key campaign platform.

During his campaign sorties, the 71-year-old veteran politician repeatedly promised, to ecstatic standing-room-only crowds, that the fish in Manila Bay would grow fat from feeding on criminal corpses.

Although he told his former law school classmates after getting elected that he didn’t mind retiring with “the reputation of Idi Amin” – who was accused of murdering up to half a million people in Uganda – Duterte bristled when an international human rights group warned his “drug war” could turn into genocide. “Genocide is when you kill people for no reason at all,” he fumed.

He became furious when Agnes Callamard, UN rapporteur on summary executions, criticised last week Duterte’s bounty offer for “dead or alive” drug dealers and his shoot-to-kill order against politicians involved.

“My order is shoot to kill,” Duterte said. “I don’t care about human rights. Believe me. I don’t give a s**t about what they will say.”

Callamard said: “Directives of this nature are irresponsible in the extreme and amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law.”

Apparently Duterte did care about what the UN thought.

Two days later, during a 3am press conference, he blasted the UN and threatened to pull the country from it and form a new group that might include China. Anyway, he said, the UN was useless. It had not ended wars and “had not done any good for the Philippines”.

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay had to give an assurance that the pull-out would not happen. Yasay excused the president’s outburst saying: “The president was tired, disappointed, hungry when he made the statement.” Duterte then contradicted Yasay by saying he was just joking.

Duterte reserved his special venom for Senator Leila de Lima who had insisted on conducting a probe into extrajudicial killings this week and who had linked him to “Davao Death Squads” in 2009.

Duterte branded De Lima “immoral” for having an affair with her driver-bodyguard, whom he claimed was her conduit for pay-offs from jailed drug traffickers while she was still secretary of justice. On August 24, Duterte gleefully told reporters that De Lima – a legally separated woman – had found a new lover. Duterte named him even though he said this man was not involved in drug dealing.

De Lima admitted that she and her former driver-bodyguard were once close but strongly denied any drug links.

There is a case for believing the administration has been intent all along on death as a policy. The government has made no provision for accommodating the flood of drug addicts who, terrified by Duterte’s threats, have turned themselves in. Some sources say as many as half a million have already surrendered. Rather than be put in rehabilitation centres the addicts who surrendered were ordered to go back home, after their names and addresses were noted.

The murderers seem to have been using these names and addresses as a death list. Many of the victims so far had earlier surrendered.

Duterte, his aides and supporters look at the growing body count and don’t see a massacre. They see progress. DUIs are simply collateral damage in the attainment of a good thing, which is to eradicate crime, give every Filipino a comfortable and safe life and bring economic progress to the nation.

This week, as a Senate probe on “extrajudicial killings” got underway and the police finally gave official statistics on the kill rate, Duterte said: “We are 104 million [population], you [care] about – how many? – 1,600 being killed. You’re not even sure how many died in police encounters, how many committed suicide, how many were killed out of anger by others?”

His rage was understandable. He had promised to transform the nation into a booming Davao City, a pocket of peace in the country’s troubled south, where foreign investors flocked. Few residents there questioned Duterte’s extreme approach while he was mayor for more than 21 years.

Ernesto Pernia, former lead economist at the Asian Development Bank and now Duterte’s economic planning secretary, called the killings “a necessary evil” on the path to development.

Pernia blamed the media for giving foreign investors a biased, negative view of the administration’s war on drugs.

To read the rest, please click on this link.

Thanks to Doris Bigornia for posting on Twitter a copy of Proc 55.

Comments

  1. “Wait till Obama is back in US”

    Somebody whispered this phrase to Du30 while walking towards Obama when he was shaking hands bidding farewell to each ASEAN Leaders in the room.

    Remarks prompted Du30 to turn around and walk away from the direction of Obama.

    Laotian Ministry of Information was also displeased with Philippine Communication Office, specifically Sec Andanar for disseminating false information to Philippine reporters on the sitting arrangements of the leaders during ASEAN Gala Dinner event last Wednesday. Andanar was bluntly told of his intentional disinformation to Philippine media knowing he acknowledged receiving the true copy of the Seating matrix.
    Andanar profusely apologized without giving an excuse to the staff of Laotian Ministry.

    Grading Du30’s first International diplomatic foray is a disaster, not only by him but also many members of his staff. Also, presidential aide Go was admonished by US secret service for taking unauthorized picture of Obama in the background of his selfie. He was told such private conversation with other leaders by US president might be wrongly interpreted causing political repercussions in US. Seems Go was told to move away but he took his selfie anyway.

      • Yes, it’s Black Propaganda to the FILIPINOS the same way method by Hitler’s Goebel and Japanese media thru Public address system.

        Here is another propaganda:
        Duterte boasts that Obama, Ban and the rest of ASEAN leaders were stunned and silent when he showed pictures of Americans killing Filipino Moslems during PHL-AMERICAN war. How petty and dumb are Du30 and his Apologists for staging such childish behavior?

        Du30 was referring to a war more than a century ago which he compared to his war on drugs known to all the foreigners that it’s a war of FILIPINOS against FILIPINOS. If he truly believes that foreigners killing FILIPINOS is similar to his drug war then Du30 should expel all the Spaniards from the Philippines. They shot the national hero Rizal in broad daylight! Du30 should have advised the American Indians to banish European descendants from America for killing Geronimo and extinction of Mohawks tribe, hi hi hi!

        ASEAN leaders were stunned because Du30 showed his ignorance and poor intelligence worldwide.
        Kapish!

        Who are Du30’s intelligent boys of summer? Blue Eagles and Maroons are laughing all the way to Christmas!

        He he he!

        • I sought the dictionary for the meaning of

          brilliant.

          Here is what it says — brilliant is an adjective meaning:

          1. shining brightly; sparkling; glittering; lustrous

          2. distinguished; illustrious

          3. having or showing great intelligence, talent, quality, etc.

          4. strong and clear in tone; vivid; bright

          5. splendid or magnificent

          I can’t fit Yasay’s use of the word to any of the above.

          May be it is:

          brilliant — an adjective a sycophant uses to describe a master’s action.

  2. ‘Do the killings in the right way’. . . news report per Pres. Obama.

    ‘No problema’. . .Pres. Du30.

    What’s the killings-counts now?

  3. WHY MARTIAL LAW DICTATOR FERDINAND MARCOS
    SHOULD NEVER BE BURIED AT LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI

    Here are some strong legal arguments on why the late martial law dictator Ferdinand Marcos should never be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery), borrowing from the words of the Supreme Court in its decision in court case G.R. No. 88211:

    ——- QUOTE ——-

    The Court cannot close its eyes to present realities and pretend that the country is not besieged from within by a well-organized communist insurgency, a separatist movement in Mindanao, rightist conspiracies to grab power, urban terrorism, the murder with impunity of military men, police officers and civilian officials, to mention only a few. The documented history of the efforts of the Marcose’s and their followers to destabilize the country, as earlier narrated in this ponencia bolsters the conclusion that the return of the Marcoses at this time would only exacerbate and intensify the violence directed against the State and instigate more chaos.

    As divergent and discordant forces, the enemies of the State may be contained. The military establishment has given assurances that it could handle the threats posed by particular groups. But it is the catalytic effect of the return of the Marcoses that may prove to be the proverbial final straw that would break the camel’s back. With these before her, the President cannot be said to have acted arbitrarily and capriciously and whimsically in determining that the return of the Marcoses poses a serious threat to the national interest and welfare and in prohibiting their return.

    It will not do to argue that if the return of the Marcoses to the Philippines will cause the escalation of violence against the State, that would be the time for the President to step in and exercise the commander-in-chief powers granted her by the Constitution to suppress or stamp out such violence. The State, acting through the Government, is not precluded from taking pre- emptive action against threats to its existence if, though still nascent they are perceived as apt to become serious and direct. Protection of the people is the essence of the duty of government. The preservation of the State the fruition of the people’s sovereignty is an obligation in the highest order. The President, sworn to preserve and defend the Constitution and to see the faithful execution the laws, cannot shirk from that responsibility.

    We cannot also lose sight of the fact that the country is only now beginning to recover from the hardships brought about by the plunder of the economy attributed to the Marcoses and their close associates and relatives, many of whom are still here in the Philippines in a position to destabilize the country, while the Government has barely scratched the surface, so to speak, in its efforts to recover the enormous wealth stashed away by the Marcoses in foreign jurisdictions. Then, We cannot ignore the continually increasing burden imposed on the economy by the excessive foreign borrowing during the Marcos regime, which stifles and stagnates development and is one of the root causes of widespread poverty and all its attendant ills. The resulting precarious state of our economy is of common knowledge and is easily within the ambit of judicial notice.

    ——- UNQUOTE ——-

    To allow the late Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is to hurl insult to the Filipino people, run counter to the Supreme Court determination and decision, and do irreparable harm to our judicial system.

    • I like to put emphasis on these statements by the Supreme Court:

      ” We cannot also lose sight of the fact that the country is only now beginning to recover from the hardships brought about by the plunder of the economy attributed to the Marcoses and their close associates and relatives, many of whom are still here in the Philippines in a position to destabilize the country, while the Government has barely scratched the surface, so to speak, in its efforts to recover the enormous wealth stashed away by the Marcoses in foreign jurisdictions. Then, We cannot ignore the continually increasing burden imposed on the economy by the excessive foreign borrowing during the Marcos regime, which stifles and stagnates development and is one of the root causes of widespread poverty and all its attendant ills. ”

      And for all what the Supreme Court said, the Marcoses still have the gull to ask for a heroes burial of Ferdinand Marcos? What a bunch of #@* !!!

      • wow Yvonne thank you for sharing this info..

        Indeed walang kasing kapal ng mukha ang mga Marcoses by insisting the Dictator SOB be buried in Libingan at walang kasing manhid si President SOB for insisting on the same as well.

        Ang mga foot tongue ina nagsamasama, at etong si President SOB nananakot pa.
        ng martial law.

    • A very good case. It contains strong counter-answers of the Sol Gen and the AFP et. al., totured logic that FM is entitled to be buried at the LMB.

      Counter-Answer No. 1. The Marcoses have never thought nor done to apologize FM & Co.’s plunder.

      Counter-Answer No. 2. The Marcoses have never returned the plundered wealth.

      Counter-Answer No. 3. The victims and their heirs have not been completely fully paid in damages for the deaths, etc. under FM’s Martial Law.

      Counter-Answer No. 4. This case about FMarcos is not a political question as FM regime was the root causes of widespread pvoerty and all its attendant ills.

      and Counter-Answer No. 5. The country and people cannot continue to pretend for the realities that happened because of the sakim and abuse of power by FM and Company.

      The people, majority of them, concur in this SC En Banc judgment – name of this case and date promulgated. . .

      G.R. No. 88211 September 15, 1989

      FERDINAND E. MARCOS, IMELDA R. MARCOS, FERDINAND R. MARCOS, JR., IRENE M. ARANETA, IMEE MANOTOC, TOMAS MANOTOC, GREGORIO ARANETA, PACIFICO E. MARCOS, NICANOR YÑIGUEZ and PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION ASSOCIATION (PHILCONSA), represented by its President, CONRADO F. ESTRELLA, petitioners,
      vs.
      HONORABLE RAUL MANGLAPUS, CATALINO MACARAIG, SEDFREY ORDOÑEZ, MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO, FIDEL RAMOS, RENATO DE VILLA, in their capacity as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Executive Secretary, Secretary of Justice, Immigration Commissioner, Secretary of National Defense and Chief of Staff, respectively, respondents.

      CORTES, J.. . . ponente.

      Link

      http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1989/sep1989/gr_88211_1989.html

  4. More on the Duterte Way: Burying Marcos in Heroes Cemetery

    During Pnoy’s time I was wondering what could be the scenario if a Marcos Loyalist gets elected as President and how his Solicitor General would argue favoring Hero Cemetery burial for the Corrupt SOB and the compensation paid by RP government to the Dictator SOB’s victims. Share ko lang the interesting observation of Inquirer Editorial today below:

    EDITORIAL
    Which part of Marcos?

    It isn’t clear yet how the Supreme Court will rule on the Marcos burial, but the second day of oral arguments on whether the dictator’s remains can be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani gave the watching public another reminder of the historical absurdity at the center of the idea.

    To evade the (inevitable and entirely appropriate) criticism that to bury Ferdinand Edralin Marcos in public ground named the cemetery of heroes is in fact to treat him like a hero, the Duterte administration has argued that the man who ruled the Philippines during the martial law era would be buried not as a hero but simply as a former soldier and a former president.

    During Wednesday’s oral arguments, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen queried Solicitor General Jose Calida:
    “You take the position that the intention of the government is not to honor the body of Ferdinand Marcos as the
    body of a hero, although the Libingan’s name is Libingan ng mga Bayani. So, how can you explain that?”

    It is fair to say that Calida’s answers were tied up in logical knots. “As I said, your honor, in my opening statement, that is not the purpose, to bury him as a hero. But by military standards, your honor, former president Marcos fits into the definition of a hero.”

    Leonen’s follow-up was immediate: “Wait, excuse me, counsel, a while ago …
    you said that there was no intention to honor … that there was no intention to bury him, the president, as a hero.” Calida replied: “Yes, and we stand by that, your honor. However, based on the military [criteria] given to a Medal of Valor awardee, he fits into the definition which was proposed by petitioner [Rep. Edcel] Lagman, your honor.”

    The exchange then took an interesting turn; Leonen asked Calida repeatedly whether a Medal of Valor awardee was by definition a hero. The government’s chief lawyer finally said that based on Presidential Decree No. 1687, a Medal of Valor awardee can be considered a hero. “Who issued the presidential decree?” Leonen asked. Calida must have known that he had walked into a trap of his own making, because he gave a nonresponsive answer. “This was issued March 24, 1980.”

    It was Marcos, of course, who issued the decree. (He is the only one in our history to govern by “presidential decree.”)

    A dubious Medal of Valor awardee had imposed a law recognizing Medal of Valor awardees as heroes. Even more important, however, was that Calida had conceded Leonen’s point. “By the definition, your honor, he is a hero.” So you are going back on your original position? the justice asked. “But we will set that aside, your honor.”

    Leonen’s retort was one for the books. “Which part of Marcos will you not bury as a Medal of Valor awardee, and which part will you bury? It’s the same person.”

    Indeed it is. The administration’s legal argument is deceptive; it is based on the position that Marcos need
    not be a hero to be buried in the heroes’ cemetery, a facility administered by the military. At the same time,
    the administration acknowledges that, according to military standards, Marcos fits the definition of a hero he himself helped define.

    Another exchange between Calida and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno deepens the sense of absurdity that threatens to overwhelm our recent history. To probe Calida’s argument that burying Marcos in the Libingan would not diminish the recognition the state has granted the many victims of martial rule, because “the victims have already been recognized under the law” in part through the payment of reparations, Sereno asked where the P10 billion set aside for the reparations came from. “I believe, your honor, it is part of the [Marcoses’] ill-gotten wealth.”

    To which Sereno replied: “All right. So in other words, money that had been stolen from the Filipino people itself is going to be paid to the victims. Where is the reparation… where is the acknowledgement, where is the confession, where is the penalty on the part of the Marcoses?”

    President Duterte’s campaign promise to the Marcos family that the dictator would be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is no penalty; instead, it is a reward that subverts our history.

    Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/97191/which-part-of-marcos#ixzz4JhgcIrMg
    Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

    • Thank you Canada dry. This is the reason why I love this blog and the comments that go with it. I get to read the news, current events and the brilliant analyses of the CPMers. With the so many trolls on Facebook and their disgusting memes and fake news, this blog gives me a better perspective of what is happening. Kudos to Raissa and the active contributors of this blog.

    • The absurdity of Solgen Calida’s argument at the SC Orals on the government proposed Marcos burial at LNB was exposed with the series of questions by CJ Sereno and Justice Leonen.

      That is what is called defending the indefensible.

  5. ang aking masamang pakiramdam is that the worst is coming pag dating ni duterte sa pinas:

    1. davao bombing

    2. declared state of lawlessness

    3. Duterte, Inday Sara quarrel over sacking of TF Davao commander in wake of night market blast
    from gmanews Published September 8, 2016 7:52pm

    4. from abs-cbn: Sara Duterte loses two of her babies 3 days after davao bombing.
    ABS-CBN News Posted at Sep 08 2016 12:06 PM | Updated as of Sep 08 2016 04:17 PM

    parang fake assassination ni enrile. ano ito sisihin ni duterte ang davao bombing sa pagkamatay ng 2 fetus ni sara? kahit nagkalat sya sa summit meeting ang kakahiyan na binigay nya sa anak nya ay hindi puedeng gawin rason na namatay ang 2 fetus.

    • those 2 dead fetus have to come out somehow. if not coming out, maybe,sara did not have triplets. sabi ng tatay, drama queen daw si sara.

      no heartbeats daw, maybe because the fetuses are autistic? and being uncommunicative. sara ought to wait a few days, there might be new development.

      • he, he, he, abi nako, state of lewd-li-ness.

        dabaw commander hindi sinuntok ni sara, sacked only. dabaw komander has no idea how lucky he was. next time, his name will be on narco-list. put there by digong, maybe.

      • kung totoo na walang heartbeat ang 2 fetus, nagprofused bleeding na yan. tapos raraspahin para hindi mapoison ang ina. at least 3 days sa hospital after naraspahan. but she is as strong as a bull.

        press release sabi ni sara the remain fetus is doing well. fighting for his/her life

        • I heard nasabi na the human body is made to carry one fetus, not multiple.

          I think, the remaining fetus got rid of the other two, dahil ayaw na may ka-share sa sinapupunanan, gusto sa kanya lahat, he, he, he. naughty kid. started killing early on at marahil, sinuntok yong dalawa. it’s in the blood, violence is.

  6. Is there a cure for self imposed malignancy? Filipinos have a saying kwarta na , naging bato pa :)

    This is really the dumbest way to unfriend a POTUS and waste billion of dollars in aid for the country and the people.
    I guess with this rapid ” change” in the country, people better get ready to accept the detour where the country is going.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-barack-obama-insult-stock-market-loses-hundreds-of-millions-a7229696.html

  7. READ: Duterte, Obama shared handshake, ‘good conversation’—Cayetano
    “I don’t take these comments personally because it seems the phrase is used repeatedly including [the one] directed at the Pope. It seems to be just a habit, a way of speaking for him,” Obama said in a televised press conference at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Vientiene, Laos.
    READ: Duterte to Obama: Don’t lecture me on rights, PH not a US colony
    Obama said he met briefly with Duterte on Wednesday night.
    “I did shake hands with President Duterte last night,” Obama said.
    “It was not a long interaction,” he added.
    “What I indicated to him is that my team should be meeting with his and determine how we can move forward on a whole range of issues.”

    Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/144369/obama-shrugs-off-dutertes-tirades#ixzz4JfqHZhsZ
    Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

  8. In what attendees described as a “fiery address,” President Rodrigo Duterte veered off his prepared speech on Thursday at a meeting of the 18-nation East Asia group including United States President Barack Obama to launch a tirade on US military killings in the Philippines.
    This was according to three diplomats who were in the room who spoke to Agence France-Presse at the event in Vientiane, Laos.
    “The Philippine president showed a picture of the killings of American soldiers in the past and the president said: ‘This is my ancestor they killed. Why now we are talking about human rights,'” an Indonesian delegate said. The Philippines was an American colony from 1898 to 1946.
    The delegate described the atmosphere in the room as “quiet and shocked.”
    Another diplomat described the speech as “normal Duterte.”
    In response, Obama urged Duterte to conduct his crime war “the right way.”
    – See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/580691/news/nation/duterte-veers-off-speech-launches-tirade-on-us-killings-in-front-of-obama#sthash.hm0L4tPd.dpuf

    • Here is another source.

      Duterte ‘shocks’ summit meeting with tirade vs US

      Manuel Mogato, Reuters

      Posted at Sep 08 2016 09:50 PM

      Shows picture of Filipinos killed by Americans during US colonization

      Setting aside a prepared speech, Duterte spoke for more than five minutes about human rights and his campaign against drugs during the East Asian Summit in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, according to one Indonesian diplomat at the meeting.

      “Let me tell you about human rights,” the diplomat quoted Duterte as saying while displaying a picture of Filipinos killed by American soldiers about a century ago.

      “This is my ancestors being killed, so why now we are talking about human rights? We have to talk of the full spectrum of human rights.”

      Duterte launched into a tirade about US military killings in the Philippines when it was an American colony from 1898 to 1946, according to three diplomats that Agence France-Presse spoke with who were in the room.

      “The Philippine president showed a picture of the killings of American soldiers in the past and the president said: ‘This is my ancestor they killed. Why now we are talking about human rights,” an Indonesian delegate said.

      The delegate described the atmosphere in the room as “quiet and shocked.”

      Another diplomat described the speech as “normal Duterte.”

      Duterte spoke after Obama had delivered a speech that referred to human rights.

      Obama to Duterte: Do war on drugs ‘the right way’

      Interactive: Casualties of the drug war

      Duterte’s drive has won popular support at home but the killings have drawn expressions of concern from the United States, a close Philippine ally, and the United Nations.

      In a tirade before the Laos summit, Duterte insulted U.S. President Barack Obama and the White House responded by cancelling a two-way meeting.

      Philippine officials this week handed out a 38-page pamphlet at the summit that praised Duterte’s drug campaign. – with a report from Agence France-Presse

      http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/08/16/duterte-shocks-summit-meeting-with-tirade-vs-us

  9. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.

    A narcissist is always in denial.
    His world can be crumbling around him, but to him everything is still perfect. Image is everything.
    It is also why it always does crumble – the narcissist cannot rationalise or compromise, and has to constantly idealise his own ego, and have sycophants in permanent attendance to bolster his fragile ego and deep rooted inferiority complex. Reality and fantasy collide, but fantasy will eventually take over, and like many conditions it gets worse with age.

    Duterte is no different to an addict, which is maybe why he hates them so much – it is his outward projection of anger and self-hatred, and is trying to feel better by focussing elsewhere rather than admitting to his inner problems.
    He is clearly full of anger but is also obsessive and constantly needs his next fix just like the drug user as a means of avoidance. Take away an audience and he would have withdrawal symptoms. Take away his viagra and he would also have withdrawal problems.
    Publicity is his oxygene and attention seeking his raison d’etre. The greater the inferiority complex the bigger the needed fix.
    When his own tv programme is established he will soon abandon and demonise the mainsteam press, but until then he needs them just for his ego.
    He is not interested in other people, except as an audience. He is the center of his universe and that is all that matters. The words and actions are part of the play acting and the perverse pleasure he gets from manipulating others or abusing others. Rape fantasies are a common theme with malignant narcissists as are somatic complaints. He ticks all the boxes. A despicable specimen, and lower than the drug users he hates so passionately, and irrationally. Mirror, mirror…

    A paradox, but ultimately he is his own worst enemy, and in a position of power will take others down with him.
    He desperately wants attention and adulation, and total control – to be a rock star, or a god, just like his bff, the other son of god, cult leader quiboloy. If Davao is so blessed, why is it such a shithole and cultural desert.
    Duterte needs to have people laugh at his jokes, applaud his brilliance, a captive audience, etc. which is why he hates anyone who threatens to expose the reality of his stupidity, hypocricy, and naivety, which basically means anyone with a decent education and independence of thought.
    He consequently avoids being put in exposed situations at all costs, hence international meetings are his worst nightmare.
    At home he belittles people to make himself look better, but against his intellectual and social superiors he only proves that he is the dunce in the corner for the world to see.
    Emperors new clothes syndrome, and the world has seen duterte naked, and laughed at the little man.
    No wonder he didn’t feel well and kept missing meetings.

    At least China are happy. They are playing duterte like a puppet, and he doesn’t even see it. Narcissists are bad at reading other people, or situations, especially outside their comfort zone, which is why they do not like to move far from their center of power/familiarity.

    The die is cast.
    If people want tickets for the titanic, then so be it. Senator gordon and cayetano are selling them. Are they crazy, or just political mercenaries who would pimp out their wife, mother, and daughters for their own benefit.

    You can give people knowledge, but you cannot make them think, especially self-interested politicians and uneducated cult followers. Conformity is key. Individuality is the enemy, as is intellect which can see through the simplicity and expose the stupidity.
    Sadly few in power/influence have the courage or integrity.

    It is all becoming too surreal and too depressing.

    Fundamentally, and most importantly, people, and the administration, have lost sight of the key issues of poverty, unemployment, inequality, and education, as the drug war becomes an all consuming morbid teleservye, and as duterte rants about the past, but has no focus on the future. And that is the critical point with a malignant narcissist – their anger wants to destroy and kill, not inspire and build.
    In a fearful and negative environment, innovation and competition becomes non-existent, and with the luxury of the economic time-lag the real cost of the current climate/policies will only start to show/take hold in 12 months time.
    Then the shit will really hit the fan.

    I am going on bikini watch looking for any big packages to inspect.

    Happy surfing. Hope you survive the coming tsunami.

    • I did not see any MD or PHD after your name. How can you be so analytical of a person’s actions? Nor did I see anything that says you are a geopolitical analyst. I really envy your insight, it’s very revealing of your personality.

  10. To Raïssa’s detractors.

    They don’t try to understand what I’m getting at. – RR

    —

    What POTUS Obama wanted to tell POTPH Duterte. Not a ‘lecture’, rather IMO based from his experience.

    “Because the consequences of when you do it the wrong way is innocent people get hurt, and you have a whole bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem,” Obama to Duterte: Fight crime, terror ‘the right way’, http://www.rappler.com/nation/145619-obama-duterte-crime-war-right-way

    • The State Department people should not have aired what the US President was going to tell the PHL president. How can two heads of state meet one on one when the other is telling the other what he intends to talk about. A note verbal should have done the trick nicely. But no, they had to bait DU30. Like what the Americans did, Filipinos, should have rallied behind our president, not bash him. That is why we cannot move forward, because of people like you who sow fragmented ideas in peoples heads.

    • I fail to see the relevance of the video to what the issue is, namely DU30’s gaffes, intentional or not. But I did like the part when US president Ronald Reagan called Mikhail Gorbachev’s mother a whore, considering that Reagan is supposedly super conservative.

  13. SINO ANG MAS SIPSIP SHOW!:PALABAS NA!

    A Current national past time fascinating to watch in the Philippine politics is who among Philippine politicians can out perform each other in licking Du30’s ass.

    The players are:
    Cayetano
    Alvarez
    Pimentel
    Ping Lacson
    Grace Poe
    Drilon
    Sotto

    Last week’ winner: Cayetano!

    This week’s winner:
    Senator Gordon! Yehey! He outdicks them all. Sarap Sarah ba Senator?

    Who could be next week?
    Abangan…

  14. Out of his fiefdom the bully soon displays the colors of a coward.

    Duterte’s card has been well and truly marked by the international community.
    A big mouth with a small brain.
    A big ego with no balls.
    The hypocricy of democracy
    The rule of law is martial law
    A cavalcade of clowns

    “Colorful” – a diplomatic euphemism for crazy

    He needs to go back to being a bar stool bore in his davao club. The outside world is above and beyond him, and his fellow clowns.

    At least he is rising rapidly in the world’s worst president ranking. Soon he will be next to idi amin.

    As one comedian said –
    ‘Does this guy duterte have an oedipus complex, or what’
    ‘No, the son of a whore just wants to know who his mother is’

    Dirty dog duterte did perform well as Xi Jinping’s Shih Tzu lapdog. He will be given an extra boner for his obedience. Woof, woof.
    And there is always mongrel cayetano sniffing around like a flea infested stray trying to get in on any action going, with the cross breed gordon setter panting at the thought of a cavity search, and the inbred miniature pimentel whimpeting in the corner. A dog’s dinner, and a puppy administration.
    Andanar is the pooper-scooper, the chap with the crap.

    Life is a bitch, or a beach.
    16 million chose a son of a bitch.
    Some people are almost destined to be used and abused.
    Masochists meet sadist duterte – hope you will be happy together.

    • Agree..

      16 million chose a son of a butch and 100 million gets f***ed up everyday.

      Philippines has become like a family whose pedophile dad from abroad came home and the daughters and sons gets brutalized everyday. The wife and the kids can’ t do a thing because he always carries a gun and threaten to shoot anyone of them and he controls the purse.

    • 16M people chose an SOB? – without assuming office yet, tanim-bala suddenly stopped; the abus bombed Davao City in retaliation for an all-out war now on-going in Sulu to destroy once-and-for-all the vicious kidnap-for-ransom bandits that’s giving us a black-eye internationally for quite a time now; his election promise to eradicate/minimize illegal drugs has reduced the incidence of crime significantly although many of his critiques/political nemesis cry for human rights violation/collateral damage that cannot be avoided when the pushers/drug traffickers are armed and prone to fight back;

      In anticipation of more bombings, a state of national emergency has been declared that tasked the military and the police to suppress violence in Mindanao and preventing its escalation in the rest of the country.

      Instead of calling him an SOB, are we not lucky to have a strong leader with guts and political will during these troubled times?

      • ‘Instead of calling him an SOB, are we not lucky… ?’

        No. He is mentally sick to start with.

        Big time, larger fishes are scot-free of his EJKs. He had one under his nose, yet allowed him to fly away.

        Recently, speaking of lists of big time coddlers in gov’t, he seems incoherent whether FVR is a source of one list, later retracts as a ‘fabrication’!

        Would you expect a coherent policy or consistency there? What if kalahari, baycas, parengtony happens to be in that list and consummated? CPM would be mourning because of mistaken identities. Unless –

        • are we lucky or not lucky to have this kind of president? i choose we are lucky to have such kind of president who has the will to improve the lot of the massa and not the few non-massa who controls the economy and everyday on-goings of the country. he has the will to stop the corruption of the few politicos and the abuses of the countable powerfuls of narcogambling clans. surely his will to cut the strings of the majority of puppet finoys from the manipulation of the few narcogamblingkorapabusive clan will disrupt the daily routines of finoy everyday living. when some not normally the practice is change, some people bark and these people are normally those whose pocketbooks are very much impacted.
          yes, the finoys are lucky to have a president who will stand toe to toe with a co-equal as a person. i do look at a glass half full. and i do not entertain the idea that the glass is not half empty.

        • true, digong is mentally sick and ought to be in sanitarium, not let loose spewing human rights hatred and showing century old pic going back to 1898. ancestors daw niya ang nasa pic. I bet, if dna test is done, digong is not thier kin. liar, liar his pants on fire.

      • when hungry mouse sees cheese on the trap, mouse feels lucky too. but, is mouse lucky?

        ignoring huge red flags makes one unlucky.

    • Margaret Thatcher once said something like, “If a person starts to call you names, then he has no brain.” Something along those lines.