Duterte's shocking, shrewd shot at the Philippine presidency

The Philippine election frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte appears intent on shocking his way to the presidency. 

MANILA: Rodrigo Duterte launched his profanity-laced campaign to become President of the mainly Catholic Philippines with a tirade against the pope that included branding the revered figure's mother a prostitute.

On the hustings since, the 71-year-old has joked about wanting to rape a murdered Australian missionary, and vowed to kill tens of thousands of criminals then pardon himself for mass murder.

Duterte has also bragged about his Viagra-fuelled serial adultery, called his daughter a "drama queen" for talking about being sexually abused, and told lawmakers he would shut down Congress if they did not follow his orders.

Using such tactics -- which have drawn comparisons with US Republican Donald Trump and similarly upended conventional political wisdom -- Duterte has become the shock favourite to win Monday's (May 9) election.

While it is easy to be fooled by Duterte's controversial comments, analysts say he has shrewdly created an image as an anti-establishment figure capable of providing quick solutions to deep-rooted problems such as crime and poverty.

"He has become the symbol of frustration, maybe even desperation, of those who have put their trust and hope in the elite in this country," Manila-based political analyst Ramon Casiple told AFP.

Since the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the Philippines has been mostly ruled at local and national levels by a small group of families backed by powerful businessmen -- a system that has helped entrench one of Asia's biggest rich-poor divides.

The current president, Benigno Aquino, belongs to such a clan and has in the final stages of his rule been fiercely criticised for what many voters regard as perpetuating an economic model that favours the wealthy.

Aquino has overseen an economy that has grown by an average of six percent a year since assuming the presidency in 2010, and won international plaudits for trying to tame crippling corruption.

But roughly one quarter of the nation's 100 million people still live below the poverty line, barely changed from six years ago.

TARGETING THE ELITE, CRIMINALS

Duterte, a lawyer who has ruled the major southern city of Davao for most of the past two decades, has on the campaign trail repeatedly criticised the elite and the national power structure.

"When I become president, by the grace of God, I serve the people, not you," he told reporters this week, referring to the elite.

"Shit. My problem is the people at the bottom of society... my problem is how to place food on the table."

Duterte says the key to eradicating poverty is to end crime, and he is offering a brutal solution that bypasses a notoriously corrupt and inefficient judicial system -- ordering security forces to kill criminals.

He promises to end crime within six months of his presidency, a seemingly impossible goal that nevertheless millions of Filipinos are embracing.

A rank outsider in the presidential race a few months ago, Duterte is now front-runner with a double-digit lead over his rivals in surveys.

Aquino's preferred successor, Mar Roxas, a US-educated scion of a powerful political family, is in equal second, struggling to overcome perceptions he has no empathy for the poor.

DEATH SQUAD FEARS

To prove that he can end crime, Duterte has regularly pointed to his record in Davao, which he says he has turned into one of the Philippines' safest cities.

Human rights groups allege Duterte's zero-tolerance approach to crime has included running vigilante squads that have killed more than 1,000 people.

Duterte bragged in a recent television interview about running the squads, saying 1,700 people had actually been killed, and at other times denied any knowledge of them.

But he has been unequivocal about his vows to unleash hell on criminals, making those plans a central feature of every campaign speech.

In one address to a crowd in a small town in the northern Philippines attended by AFP, Duterte smiled as he gave business advice to those in the crowd to start up funeral parlours in preparation of him winning the election.

"The funeral parlours will be packed... I'll supply the dead bodies," he said, to huge cheers and laughter.

His aides regularly brief journalists that Duterte's outrageous language is part of an act, and that he will be far more moderate once he is ensconced in the presidential palace.

Aquino, whose mother led a "people power" revolution that overthrew strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, thinks otherwise.

The president, who is limited by the constitution to a single term, has repeatedly warned voters they risk another dictatorship if they elect Duterte.

For Clarita Alia, a 62-year-old slum dweller in Davao, the fears are a lot more personal. Alia lost four sons, the youngest aged 14, to what she and rights groups believe were the death squads.

"He has no morals," Alia told AFP at her shanty home this week. "God help us if they win... parents look after your children."

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North Korea stages once-in-a-generation party congress

North Korea raised the curtain on Friday on its biggest political show for a generation, aimed at cementing the absolute rule of leader Kim Jong-Un and shadowed by the possibility of an imminent nuclear test.

The first ruling party congress for nearly 40 years drew thousands of selected delegates from across the country to Pyongyang for what, in theory at least, was a gathering of North Korea’s top decision-making body.

The 33-year-old Kim, who was not even born when the last Workers’ Party Congress was held in 1980, was expected to deliver a keynote address which will be minutely scrutinised for any policy shift or personnel changes in the governing elite.

The 1980 event was staged to crown Kim’s father Kim Jong-Il as heir apparent to his own father, the North’s founding leader Kim Il-Sung.

While the agenda—and even the duration—of the event is still unknown, its main objective is widely seen as confirming Kim Jong-Un’s status as legitimate inheritor of the Kim family’s dynastic rule which spans almost seven decades.

The congress is also expected to confirm as party doctrine Kim’s “byungjin” policy of pursuing nuclear weapons in tandem with economic development.

Propaganda party

Ahead of the gathering, national and Workers’ Party flags lined the broad, rainswept streets of Pyongyang, while banners carried slogans such as “Great comrades Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il will always be with us”.

Another slogan stretched across the street defiantly proclaimed: “Defend the headquarters of the Korean revolution at the cost of our lives.”

Since Kim took power after the death of his father in December 2011, North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests and two successful space rocket launches that were widely seen as disguised ballistic missile tests.

Even as the international community responded with condemnation and sanctions, Kim pressed ahead with a single-minded drive for a credible nuclear deterrent with additional missile and technical tests.

There has been widespread speculation about the North preparing another nuclear test to coincide with the congress, as a defiant gesture of strength and intent.

Nuclear state

Just hours before the party congress opened, the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea issued a statement underlining the country’s status as a genuine, and unapologetic, nuclear power.

“Regardless of whether someone recognises it or not, our status as a nuclear state that is armed with H-bombs cannot change,” the statement said.

Analysing the most recent satellite pictures of the North’s test site at Punggye-ri, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University on Thursday said there was no clear evidence one way or the other of whether an underground test was imminent.

South Korean government officials believe the North is ready to conduct a test as soon as the order is given, and say a decision might have been taken to test during the congress, which the world’s media have been invited to cover.

Officials in Seoul say they expect the event to last four days, with the opening day devoted to Kim’s speech and a lengthy report on the party’s achievements.

State television set the tone with its first broadcast Friday morning, with an announcer voicing the people’s “deepest gratitude” to Kim Jong-Un for preparing this “grand political festival”.

Some analysts predict significant personnel changes as Kim brings in a younger generation of leaders, picked for their loyalty to him.

Preparing for the congress involved mobilising the entire country in a 70-day campaign that New York-based Human Rights Watch denounced as a mass exercise in forced labour.

(AFP)

Philippine soldiers killed in operation against Islamist militants

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Philippines Islamist militants hostages
Philippine soldiers killed in operation against Islamist militants
Latest update : 10/04/2016






© Mark Navales, AFP | Archival picture shows Philippine soldiers on an operation against Islamic militants in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on March 1, 2016
Article text by NEWS WIRES

A Philippine offensive against the extremist Abu Sayyaf group after a spate of kidnappings has left 18 soldiers and five fighters dead in the worst violence in the troubled south this year, authorities said Sunday.

Saturday's clashes on the strife-torn island of Basilan came after an April 8 ransom deadline set by Abu Sayyaf, who had threatened to behead some of their foreign hostages.

At least four soldiers were beheaded in the fighting which involved about a hundred Abu Sayyaf, regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.

"This is part of the military operations against the Abu Sayyaf," launched after a series of abductions of foreigners, he told reporters.

Another military spokesman said the soldiers were on their way to attack an Abu Sayyaf hideout when they were ambushed.

"Our group was heading to attack them. On the way, they were ambushed," Colonel Benedict Manquiquis, spokesman for the unit involved in the battle, told radio station DZRH.

"The enemy had the high ground so no matter where our soldiers fled to seek cover, they could still be hit by the heavy firepower and improvised explosive devices of the members of the Abu Sayyaf group," he said.

Major Tan said that 53 soldiers and about 20 Abu Sayyaf had also been wounded in the violence but he did not give details.

The clash came shortly after a retired Italian priest being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf was freed on Friday.

Last month the Abu Sayyaf posted a video to their Facebook page in which a Norwegian and two Canadian hostages said they would be killed if the ransom was not paid.

While the ransom amount was not specified, the militants in an earlier video demanded one billion pesos ($21 million) for each of the three foreigners.

Since the April 8 ransom deadline passed there has been no word on the hostages' fate.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of militants known for kidnapping foreigners and demanding huge ransoms.

Eighteen other foreign hostages are being held in the Philippines, most or all of them thought to be in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

The group was established in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

It has been blamed for the country's worst terror attacks, including a 2004 Manila Bay ferry bombing that claimed 116 lives.

Its leaders have in recent years pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group that controls vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.

They are based in the southern islands of Basilan and Jolo which both have large Muslim populations.

Various Muslim separatist insurgencies in the southern Philippines have claimed more than 100,000 lives since the 1970s.

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After the massacre: Indonesia's first step in healing

Official symposium held for the 500,000 people killed during 1960s communist purge, but truth still elusive for victims.

Jakarta, Indonesia - Sumini travelled from her village in Central Java to the capital to ask just one question: "What did I do wrong?"

Indonesian men and women in their late 60s and 70s, clearly tainted by a life of struggle, bravely grabbed their first opportunity to speak out in more than 50 years. Voices breaking with emotion, they spoke clearly and undeniably about mass killings, torture, and unlawful detentions that started in 1965.

Sumini, then 18 years old, had joined a women's organisation linked to the Communist Party because she wanted to empower female farmers. Though she survived, she spent years in prison without any trial and faced discrimination formthe rest of her life.

The Indonesian government's decision to open this dark chapter has been lauded by human rights advocates, but it was a long time coming. It took years of pressure from activists and the film by Joshua Oppenheimer who gave the world a gruelling inside look with the Act of Killing, but most of all the courage of thousands of survivors who never stopped fighting for justice.

Their testimonies at a government-sponsored symposium in Jakarta were fragments of a long-hidden truth. They reveal a military that was ordered to go on a murder spree in villages around the country after General Suharto took power. The Communist Party, then the second largest in the world, got the blame for a failed coup and the murder of six generals.

A process of justice was not enough, Suharto and his troops aided by paramilitary groups, Islamic organisations, and the CIA decided to wipe out anyone remotely linked to the Communists.

Researchers estimate that at least half a million people died. As a result, Indonesia lost a whole generation of intellectuals, farmers, and social activists.

After decades of anti-communist propaganda, the killers still to this day believe they did the right thing. The massacre of 1965 is one of the worst in the 20th century and still divides Indonesians.

The government of President Joko Widodo was the first to break the silence - despite pressure from the military and conservative groups that still insist that talking to victims means giving room to communism. Just last week a discussion organised by survivors before the government symposium was forcefully broken up after threats by a radical group.

But from the start of the Jakarta symposium it was clear that the government was still not prepared to reveal the full truth. A high-ranking general active in 1965 and the government's security minister immediately denied any mass killings took place. Minister Luhut Pandjaitan estimated that fewer than 1,000 people died - a shocking statement for survivors to hear.

They had travelled from all over the country hoping to be able to hear and tell the truth. But instead of walking out angrily, most just shook their heads and continued their mission of truth-telling.

The response showed how immune victims have become after decades of official lies, and how firmly they wanted to use this unique - and maybe only - opportunity to tell their side of the story.Their hopes for justice and a formal government apology are slim. But now the government has opened a Pandora's box.

President Joko will have to come up with a solution acceptable to all those millions of Indonesians whose rights have been denied for more than half a century.

A truth and reconciliation commission, South Africa-style, has been mentioned. But so far the government seems only interested in reconciliation - not so much in the truth.
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Rescuers race to find survivors after deadly quake in Japan

Rescuers searched through rubble for possible survivors Friday after a powerful earthquake in southern Japan left at least nine people dead and hundreds injured, though officials said the toll was unlikely to rise dramatically.

More than 44,000 people fled their homes to community centres and schools after the 6.5-magnitude quake struck the southwestern island of Kyushu on Thursday night, leaving lumps of broken concrete strewn in the streets.

Houses collapsed, factories stopped work and a high-speed train was derailed, while the roof of the treasured Kumamoto castle in the southern city of the same name was also damaged.

"The house shook up and down," said Nobuyuki Morita, 67, a resident of the worst-hit town of Mashiki in Kumamoto prefecture, adding that he was watching TV at home when the quake struck.

"I was really surprised," he said. "I had never experienced such a big quake since I was born."

He and his wife spent the night in their car as the roof of their house had collapsed and furniture toppled over.

More than 130 aftershocks followed the quake, which hit about 9:26pm (1226 GMT) on Thursday evening. While officials said that the frequency had begun to taper off, they cautioned there was a risk of further strong aftershocks for about a week.

As rescue workers toiled through the night, an eight-month-old baby girl was pulled from the rubble alive and unharmed.

"As far as we can tell from infrared images from a police helicopter, there appears to be a significant number of houses destroyed or half-collapsed," said disaster minister Taro Kono.

Rescuers were concentrating their searches in Mashiki, near the epicentre of the quake where eight of the nine deaths occurred.

On the streets, the remains of collapsed Japanese-style houses – many of them aged, wooden structures – could be seen, and damaged roof tiles lay in piles.

A rescue team with several search dogs patrolled around half-collapsed houses in the town but no new deaths have been announced for more than 11 hours.

Scores of people spent the night huddled in front of Mashiki's town hall, some in tears, while others wrapped themselves in blankets to ward off the nighttime chill.

‘MANY ARE IN A STATE OF SHOCK AND CONFUSION’

Nuclear plants safe

By Friday afternoon, the government said it had confirmed that 881 people were injured, at least 52 seriously. An official from the local Kumamoto disaster agency said at least nine were dead.

But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular press conference that the death toll was unlikely to sharply increase, but that search operations were continuing just to make sure.

He added that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to visit Kumamoto on Saturday to meet victims.

Gen Aoki, a Japan Meteorological Agency seismologist, urged residents to be on guard for more aftershocks and warned that rain in coming days could make the situation worse.

About 24,900 households in Kumamoto prefecture have been left without water, according to the government, a big improvement from an earlier figure of about 57,000.

Nuclear plants in the region were unaffected, but several major manufacturers including Honda, Bridgestone, and Sony said they had suspended operations at factories in the area.

Train services on Kyushu were temporarily halted after the earthquake and a super-fast bullet train derailed – luckily while it was empty – said Yusuke Nanri, a spokesman for operator JR Kyushu.

Bullet train services, however, remained suspended, JR said on its website.

Some 1,600 military personnel were joined by nearly 2,000 police officers and more than 1,300 firefighters to help in the search-and-rescue efforts, Suga said.

The initial quake, which struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles), was followed two and a half hours later by another measuring 6.4 magnitude, according to Japan's meteorological agency. The US Geological Survey measured it a lower 6.2 magnitude.

Japan, one of the most seismically active countries in the world, suffered a massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011 that sent a tsunami barrelling into the country's northeast coast.

Some 18,500 people were left dead or missing, and several nuclear reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.

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