[SCMP] Leila de Lima invoked a famous ’People Power’ revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, in her strongest comments yet against Duterte and his drug war
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is a "serial killer" who should be forced out of office, one of his chief critics said on Tuesday, as she faced arrest on drug charges she insisted were meant to silence her.
Senator Leila de Lima invoked a famous "People Power" revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, in her strongest comments yet against Duterte and his drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.
"There is no more doubt that our president is a murderer and sociopathic serial killer," De Lima told news hounds, as she called on cabinet to declare him unfit to lead, and asked ordinary Filipinos to voice their opposition to his rule.
De Lima said the constitution allowed for a majority in his cabinet to force him to step down by ruling that he was mentally incapacitated, and urged it to do so. If the cabinet members did not, De Lima referred to the mass uprising that ended the "iron fist" of Marcos’s dictatorship in 1986.
"Now the time has come again for us to be brave and stand up to another criminal dictator and his evil regime," De Lima said.
The government last week charged De Lima [1], a former national human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. commissioner, with orchestrating a drug trafficking ring when she was justice secretary in the previous administration.
De Lima, 57, her supporters and rights groups have said the charges against her are manufactured to silence her as well as intimidate other people who may want to speak out against him.
She could be detained anytime, although the courts hearing the cases must issue an arrest warrant.
When asked about De Lima’s comments, presidential front man Ernesto Abella simply described them as "colourful language" and pointed out that Duterte would allow public demonstrations against him.
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[SCMP] A former education minister in Moslem-majority Indonesia facing a run-off vote against a Christian to be Jakarta governor, on Tuesday denied pandering to Islamists to win support and said he could unite the capital after a divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... election.
Anies Baswedan is set to take on Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Jakarta’s first Christian and ethnic Chinese governor, in a second-round vote on April 19. Purnama got the most votes in a first round, on February 15, but not by enough to avoid a run-off, unofficial counts show.
Campaigning for the poll has been overshadowed by religious tensions, with protests led by hardline group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) against Purnama, and calls for voters to choose a Moslem.
Photographs of Baswedan meeting FPI leader Habib Rizieq were widely published in media, leading his critics to accuse him of tarnishing his reputation as a moderate Moslem.
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[SCMP] Malaysia said on Tuesday it was still waiting for a family member of the murdered half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... to claim his body, while the cause of death had yet to be determined. Another story sez he's in the country, but he's probably keeping a low profile to avoid Vietnamese chicks.
"We hope that the next of kin comes," Noor Hisham Abdullah, director general of health, said, clarifying that one of Kim Jong-nam’s sons was not in Malaysia as reported by some media.
The senior health ministry official also said that no wounds or obvious puncture marks were found during the postmortem on the 45-year-old’s body, nor was there any sign of a heart attack.
The government’s clarifications came a day after Rooters news service and some local media had reported that the son, Kim Han-sol, was due to arrive in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Monday evening from Macau.
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[AA.TR] The government of Myanmar said on Tuesday that four Rohingya villagers were found dead in a conflict-torn area of country’s western Rakhine state.
The Office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a blurb that the bodies of three women and a man were found buried near Luu Pan Pyin village in the Maungdaw area last Thursday, Feb. 16.
"Police are investigating who these victims are," it said, adding that the three bodies bore deep wounds, while a woman had no internal injuries.
The bodies were found a day after the government announced the end of military operations in the area predominantly occupied by members of the stateless Rohingya minority group.
Myanmar has been under international criticism for its military crackdown on Rohingya civilians in the northern part of Rakhine State, which has been under military lockdown since a gang killed nine coppers last October.
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#1
the rohingya, like all muslims, are a problem for surrounding non-muslims, hence their treatment.
they can all go next door to Bangladesh where their religion of peace is compulsory
[AFP] Abu Sayyaf militants were likely behind an attack on a Vietnamese cargo ship in which one crew member was killed and six others abducted, Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Tuesday.
The MV Giang Hai was hit by unknown gunmen Sunday near the southernmost Philippine island of Baguan near the Malaysian coast. Yasay said, "We can only assume that they were taken by Abu Sayyaf people but this has to be verified," but added that it was "likely".
Prior to the latest incident the military said the Abu Sayyaf were holding 27 hostages. They include Filipino, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and German hostages, as well as a Dutchman abducted in 2012.
Yasay said Vietnam's foreign minister raised the issue at an informal ASEAN ministerial retreat in the Philippines this week. At least six Vietnamese crew members of another vessel had been abducted in the area in November last year.
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[UNTV] The Philippine military's Public Affairs Office chief, Colonel Edgard Arevalo confirmed on Monday that "Al Abdullah," a spotter for the Abu Sayyaf, was killed in a gun battle with government forces who were on patrol in the waters of Bacungan Turtle Island in Tawi-Tawi.
Arevalo said Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi disclosed that the troops acted upon a report of the presence of armed kidnap for ransom group in the area, prompting them to invite Abdullah for questioning. He said, "Nakausap nila si Abdullah at inamin ni Abdullah na sya ang may-ari ng bahay (They talked to Abudallah who admitted he is the owner of the house) where the armed men stayed and was among the reported men sighted."
Abdullah asked to enter the house. He returned with an M16 rifle and began the fire fight which resulted in his death. It coulda happened that way, I'll betcha. Continued on Page 47
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[Bangkok Post] A man was gunned down in an ambush while returning home in Pattani province late on Sunday night. Pol Lt Col Sompong Rongyang, chief investigator for the Nong Chik district police department, said the attack occurred about 11:30 p.m. on a road in tambon Dato.
Usman Chemama was returning home on a motorcycle when he was shot with an AK47 rifle by an attacker hiding on the roadside. He was hit in the neck in the neck and later taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
North Korea
[UNTV] The Philippine military's Public Affairs Office chief, Colonel Edgard Arevalo confirmed on Monday that "Al Abdullah," a spotter for the Abu Sayyaf, was killed in a gun battle with government forces who were on patrol in the waters of Bacungan Turtle Island in Tawi-Tawi.
