Highlights: Year 1 of President Duterte’s administration
What should President Duterte focus on, after drugs?
2017 is shaping up as the bloodiest year, so far, in the Philippines’ war on drugs.
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If President Duterte has been adamant about one thing, it is that drugs are a menace to society, and therefore everyone involved in the drug trade will be killed.
During the campaign period, then-candidate Duterte promised to rid the Philippines of drugs in three to six months. With less than a month to go till his sixth month, the chances of that happening are dim. However, the unprecedented number of deaths have alarmed local and international groups alike.
READ: Rehab or Rubout
As of Dec. 1, 2016, data from the Philippine National Police show that more than 5,300 have died since the Duterte administration launched its all-out war on drugs. Of this number, police killed 2,004 drug suspects in anti-drug operations, while at least 3,370 were “deaths under investigation,” or cases where assailants are unidentified.
The Inquirer Kill List, which seeks to detail the names and stories of drug suspects and innocent casualties alike, has monitored only a handful of the reported PNP number. By its count, 1,657 people have been killed by either police or masked vigilantes since President Duterte was sworn into office at noon of June 30.
READ: The Inquirer Kill List
About 800,000 drug users and pushers have surrendered since the police launched a nationwide Oplan “Tokhang.”
To address the influx of drug surrenderers, local governments have begun holding weekly Zumba and prayer sessions. The administration also began funding the creation of new drug rehabilitation centers, the newest of which in Nueva Ecija spans 10 hectares and boasts 10,000 beds.
Martin Andanar said
MANILA, Philippines - The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) will conduct a multi-platform information blitz to highlight the Duterte administration’s accomplishments during its first year.
PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar said state-run media outlets are now preparing reports to be released on June 30, exactly a year after President Duterte assumed office.
“We are working on the report. It will come out on TV, radio and newspaper,” Andanar told Radyo 5 yesterday.
Andanar said his office aims to deliver the message across all platforms.
The office of presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella and the Philippine News Agency are preparing written reports while PTV-4 is coming up with a video presentation.
Radyo Pilipinas is working on an audio report while the PCOO is coming up with an online video report.
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‘Fast and furious politics’
While he has a communication team, Duterte is often his own spokesman, dishing out sound bites that shocked, provoked, pressured, comforted and challenged his audience.
He has made his mark as a disruptor who wants things done fast, even if it means shaking up institutions and challenging authority and traditions.
His iron fist governance is accompanied by tough, provocative statements that the PCOO has had to clarify or even downplay later on.
Political science professor Richard Heydarian said Duterte has demonstrated what he called a “fast and furious brand of politics,” citing Duterte’s swift action against illegal drugs and his determination to pursue talks with rebel groups.
“You can see that in his first year, the President engaged in a proactive transformation of the Philippines,” Heydarian told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.
“You may not agree with everything he said, his methods, his war on drugs but nonetheless, he is shaking up the system,” he added.
Alvin Ang, an economist of the Ateneo de Manila University, described Duterte’s first months in office as “shock and awe.”
“I think it had phases. The first three months was characterized by shock and awe… He is fixing a lot of things and there were disruptions,” Ang said.
“His continuing approach is overt mayoral type of management… He wants to reach out to as many people as possible but it can backfire. He will be weary. I guess the plans are good but you will see the reality that it’s not that simple,” he added.
Tough words
Describing Duterte’s pronouncements with the diplomatic words colorful and unconventional is making an understatement.
The tough-talking leader cursed at foreign nations – including the Philippines’ traditional ally the US – and diplomats whom he accused of meddling with the country’s internal issues.
He called US president Barack Obama son of a b**** and the European Union ‘crazy’ for allegedly interfering with his bloody war on drugs, which has left thousands of people dead.
Duterte also called a United Nations official an “idiot” after the diplomat called for an investigation on the killings linked to the Philippine government’s drug crackdown.
He would later claim that money from illegal drugs is fueling the terrorist activities in Marawi, a threat that prompted him to place the entire island of Mindanao under martial law last May 23.
Duterte also lashed out at his political rivals and even went as far as exposing the alleged romantic affair between his critic Sen. Leila de Lima and her married driver.
He also called another critic, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a “tulisan” or bandit as he accused the lawmaker of engaging in a “lucrative business” of collecting retainers from certain individuals.
LPA SPOTTED OF ILOILO CITY, NEGROS ORIENTAL
A LOW pressure area embedded in the
Intertropical Convergence Zone was spotted 30 kilometers east of
Northeast of Iloilo City, the state weather bureau said Friday, June 9.
This weather system will bring moderate to occasionally heavy rains and
thunderstorms over Visayas, the regions of Bicol, Caraga and Zamboanga
Peninsula, and the province of Palawan, the Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said in
its 11 a.m. weather update.
Residents in these areas are alerted against possible flashfloods and
landslides, Pagasa said.
Cloudy skies with light to moderate rains
and thunderstorms are expected over the rest of Mindanao, Bicol region
and the southern part of Quezon province.
Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms
will be experienced over Metro Manila and the rest of the country.
Light to moderate winds blowing from east to southeast will prevail over
the rest of Luzon with slight to moderate seas, said the bureau.
To JULY 01, 2017
WATCH: Nahuli na ang gumahasa at pumatay sa buong pamilya sa Bulacan!
Nakapanglulumo ang nangyari sa isang pamilya sa Bulacan
HUSTSYA SA KANILA!
Europe's extreme June heat clearly linked to climate change, research shows
Heatwaves that saw deadly forest fires in Portugal and soaring temperatures in England were made up to 10 times more likely by global warming, say scientists
Human-caused climate change dramatically increased the likelihood of the extreme heatwave that saw deadly forest fires blazing in Portugal and Spain, new research has shown.
Much of western Europe sweltered earlier in June, and the severe heat in England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland was also made significantly more likely by global warming. Such temperatures will become the norm by 2050, the scientists warned, unless action is taken to rapidly cut carbon emissions.
Scientists combined temperature records and the latest observations with a series of sophisticated computer models to calculate how much the global rise in greenhouse gases has raised the odds of the soaring temperatures.
They found the heatwave that struck Portugal and Spain was 10 times more likely to have occurred due to global warming. In Portugal, 64 people died in huge forest fires, while in Spain 1,500 people were forced to evacuate by forest blazes.
The intense heat was made four times more probable in central England, which endured its hottest day since 1976, and in France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, where emergency heatwave plans were triggered.
The analysis was carried out by World Weather Attribution (WAA), an international coalition of scientists that calculates the role of climate change in extreme weather events. “We found clear and strong links between June’s record warmth and human-caused climate change,” said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and part of WWA.
“Heat can be deadly – especially for the very young and the elderly,” said Friederike Otto, at Oxford University and also part of WWA. “This extreme event attribution analysis makes clear that European heatwaves have become more frequent, and in the South of Europe at least 10 times more frequent. It is critical that cities work with scientists and public health experts to develop heat action plans. Climate change is impacting communities right now and these plans save lives.”
The UK government’s official climate change advisers warned ministers on Thursday that their refusal to ensure new buildings are designed to deal with high temperatures could see annual heat-related deaths more than triple to 7,000 by 2040. Earlier in June, research showed that a third of the world’s population already faces deadly heatwaves as a result of climate change.
“Hot months are no longer rare in our current climate,” said Robert Vautard, at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences in France. “By the middle of the century, this kind of extreme heat in June will become the norm in western Europe unless we take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
China landslide: families' frustration grows as more than 100 feared dead
Families affected by huge slip that buried Xinmo village say they are concerned by a lack of information and the fate of orphaned children
Frustration grew on Monday among family members of victims of a landslide that buried a mountain village in southwestern China, with some complaining about a lack of information and asking why they had not been moved from an area prone to land slips.
At least 93 people remain missing, along with 10 confirmed dead, after a landslide crashed down on the village of Xinmo, in mountainous Sichuan province, as dawn broke on Saturday.
The government has sent some 3,000 rescuers, along with equipment, to the area and has promised to do all it can to look for survivors while restricting access for safety reasons.
The government of Mao county, where the village is located, posted on Monday drone video footage of the disaster zone, showing a dozen or so mechanical diggers shifting through a vast landscape of rubble, and promising to release updated information in a timely manner.
About 100 family members, unhappy with what they said was limited information, met government officials at a nearby primary school, saying they wanted to go back home, were concerned about the rebuilding process and whether it would be done by winter, and what would happen to children orphaned.
“These government officials have been lying to us these past three days,” a middle aged man from Xinmo village who has several relatives buried, told Reuters after the meeting, declining to give his name.
“They told us we could go back yesterday morning but they kept delaying and delaying giving us all kinds of excuses. They told us a central government official was going to come to visit us. He showed up and didn’t even bother to speak to us.”
Another relative said the government should have moved them out of an area they knew was prone to landslides.
“There have been landslides before but no one has ever suggested we move. The government knows its dangerous to live in these kinds of villages and yet they do nothing,” said the elderly man, who also would not provide his name.
The official China Daily cited Xu Qiang, a disaster expert at the Ministry of Land and Resources, as saying large-scale relocations in the area were difficult.
“Many of the villagers have been living here for generations and seen no major geological disasters,” Xu said. “This is their home and livelihood and it is very difficult to convince them to leave, specially when you only have a hypothesis and predictions.”
Heavy rain triggered the landslide, authorities have said.
Sichuan province is also prone to earthquakes, including an 8.0 magnitude tremor in central Sichuan’s Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.
Mao county sits next to Wenchuan. State media says the mountainside which collapsed onto the village had been weakened by the 2008 temblor.
County residents are primarily poor farmers of the Qiang ethnic minority and the area is the target of a poverty alleviation project, according to government officials.
China landslide: more than 100 people feared dead in village disaster
Rescue operation launched in Sichuan province after more than 60 homes in Xinmo village were engulfed by avalanche of rock
More than 100 people were feared dead after a landslide buried more than 100 villagers in south-west China’s Sichuan province.
Chinese state media said more than 60 homes were covered in rock and mud in Xinmo, a remote village in north Sichuan.
The debris slid half a mile down a steep slope to block a stretch of river and of road, according to Xinhua. A rescue effort was launched involving more than 1,000 workers.
Xinhua, quoting rescue headquarters, said 15 bodies were retrieved on Saturday, with 120 more people believed to have been buried.
The state broadcaster, CCTV, reported three people were pulled alive from the rubble: a couple and their two-month-old baby. Another child from the same family remained buried.
Photos from the official People’s Daily showed rescuers working into the night using using torches and trying to hear anyone trapped beneath the rubble. Water thick with mud flowed over the site, submerging a car pushed from the road, while police and residents pulled on ropes to try to dislodge large boulders.
Police closed roads in the county to all traffic except emergency services, the news agency said.
Wang Yongbo, a local rescue official, told CCTV an estimated 3m cubic metres (105m cubic feet) of earth and rock had come down.
There is an extensive network of dams in the area, which is close to the region of Tibet, including two hydropower plants in Diexi town near the buried village. Heavy rain caused the landslide, the provincial department of land and resources said, according to Xinhua.
The area is prone to earthquakes, including one in 1933 that resulted in parts of Diexi town becoming submerged by a nearby lake, and an 8.0 magnitude quake in central Sichuan’s Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.
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