Friday, July 13, 2018
Sheila Smith: Japan's China Challenge. -- "The rise of China has put many countries around the world on notice. Some may see it as an exciting shift in the world order, and others may approach it with caution. However, no country feels China's rise more deeply than Japan. Dr. Sheila Smith, an expert on Japanese and regional politics, will discuss how Japan’s relationship with a rising China influences Japanese domestic and foreign policy. Whether it be conflicts in the East China Sea, managing a volatile North Korea or strategies of island defense, Smith will explore the policy issues testing the Japanese government as it tries to navigate this storied and often complex relationship."
Sanitation: Can courts foster access to sewage treatment?
Sanitation in Brazil: Can courts foster access to sewage treatment syste...
Monday, July 2, 2018
Bulwark of democracy no more.
See - https://backroompolitics.net/2018/06/21/ph-justice-system-apparatus-oppression/
"x x x.
The Supreme Court has officially become a willing tool for the furtherance of injustice and persecution in the country.
With the same vote of 8-6, the highest court of the land denied the motion for reconsideration filed by former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and, thus, affirmed with finality its earlier decision ousting her as the top magistrate of the land.
Source: Supreme Court ousts Sereno in historic ruling
This means that no one from the eight justices who voted to grant the petition for quo warranto initiated by Solicitor General Jose Calida, despite its utter unconstitutionality, changed his or her mind.
They don’t give a damn if the country’s justice system is destroyed. They wanted her out, by hook or by crook.
On the same day Sereno’s appeal was denied, the same Supreme Court ruled in another case to junk the civil suit aimed at recovering billions of pesos plundered by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda and their known cronies.
The ruling affirmed a 2011 Sandiganbayan decision dismissing the said civil suit because of the alleged failure of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to prove that the Marcoses and their close associates conspired to steal from the public coffers.
June 19, 2018 was a day we live in infamy as the powerful Gods of Padre Faura dealt the Filipino people serious and fatal blows. It was Jose Rizal’s 157th birthday. But with everything that is happening with our God forsaken country, even our national hero will surely decline to celebrate his special day.
It was a double whammy to the nation as the so-called guardians of our freedoms and liberties became willing protectors of past and present tyrants and notorious thieves.
It is the same Supreme Court who ruled that Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Just because he is a former president and soldier. Notwithstanding the well-documented atrocities committed during his tyrannical rule.
About 70,000 were put behind bars after being branded as “enemies of the State.” Around 34,000 were tortured. 3,240 had been salvaged which is now commonly known as extra-judicial killing. Hundreds disappeared. Hundreds more were raped and sexually molested. And for the so-called honorable men and women in Padre Faura, he is entitled to a hero’s burial. Revisionism perpetuated no less by highest court of the land.
It is the same Supreme Court who has wasted all the gains and accomplishments of the Aquino administration in its anti-corruption crusade. Allowing Juan Ponce-Enrile to be released on bail on a supposedly non-bailable offense. Dismissing the plunder and other cases against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo without giving the Ombudsman prosecutors ample and reasonable time to present their evidence.
It is the same Supreme Court who legitimated Rodrigo Duterte’s martial declaration in Mindanao and its extension. Despite the absence of factual and legal basis and even if the constitutional safeguards and limitation were blatantly violated.
It is the same Supreme Court that refused to grant succor to Senator Leila de Lima who has been incarcerated on invented, legally-defective and politically motivated drug charges. The lady senator whose only sin is to opposed the murderous and anti-people policies of the incumbent president is languishing in jail on what acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio described as the “grossest injustice in recent history.”
The Supreme Court has become a refuge for scoundrels like the Marcoses, Arroyos, Enriles and Dutertes of this world while turning a blind eye to the persecution of De Lima and the injustice suffered by Sereno. It has effectively turned the Philippine justice system into an apparatus of oppression.
"x x x.
The Supreme Court has officially become a willing tool for the furtherance of injustice and persecution in the country.
With the same vote of 8-6, the highest court of the land denied the motion for reconsideration filed by former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and, thus, affirmed with finality its earlier decision ousting her as the top magistrate of the land.
Source: Supreme Court ousts Sereno in historic ruling
This means that no one from the eight justices who voted to grant the petition for quo warranto initiated by Solicitor General Jose Calida, despite its utter unconstitutionality, changed his or her mind.
They don’t give a damn if the country’s justice system is destroyed. They wanted her out, by hook or by crook.
On the same day Sereno’s appeal was denied, the same Supreme Court ruled in another case to junk the civil suit aimed at recovering billions of pesos plundered by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda and their known cronies.
The ruling affirmed a 2011 Sandiganbayan decision dismissing the said civil suit because of the alleged failure of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to prove that the Marcoses and their close associates conspired to steal from the public coffers.
June 19, 2018 was a day we live in infamy as the powerful Gods of Padre Faura dealt the Filipino people serious and fatal blows. It was Jose Rizal’s 157th birthday. But with everything that is happening with our God forsaken country, even our national hero will surely decline to celebrate his special day.
It was a double whammy to the nation as the so-called guardians of our freedoms and liberties became willing protectors of past and present tyrants and notorious thieves.
It is the same Supreme Court who ruled that Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Just because he is a former president and soldier. Notwithstanding the well-documented atrocities committed during his tyrannical rule.
About 70,000 were put behind bars after being branded as “enemies of the State.” Around 34,000 were tortured. 3,240 had been salvaged which is now commonly known as extra-judicial killing. Hundreds disappeared. Hundreds more were raped and sexually molested. And for the so-called honorable men and women in Padre Faura, he is entitled to a hero’s burial. Revisionism perpetuated no less by highest court of the land.
It is the same Supreme Court who has wasted all the gains and accomplishments of the Aquino administration in its anti-corruption crusade. Allowing Juan Ponce-Enrile to be released on bail on a supposedly non-bailable offense. Dismissing the plunder and other cases against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo without giving the Ombudsman prosecutors ample and reasonable time to present their evidence.
It is the same Supreme Court who legitimated Rodrigo Duterte’s martial declaration in Mindanao and its extension. Despite the absence of factual and legal basis and even if the constitutional safeguards and limitation were blatantly violated.
It is the same Supreme Court that refused to grant succor to Senator Leila de Lima who has been incarcerated on invented, legally-defective and politically motivated drug charges. The lady senator whose only sin is to opposed the murderous and anti-people policies of the incumbent president is languishing in jail on what acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio described as the “grossest injustice in recent history.”
The Supreme Court has become a refuge for scoundrels like the Marcoses, Arroyos, Enriles and Dutertes of this world while turning a blind eye to the persecution of De Lima and the injustice suffered by Sereno. It has effectively turned the Philippine justice system into an apparatus of oppression.
x x x."
The Philippine Government’s Anti-Drug Campaign: Emerging Evidence and Data
See - http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1003944/intl-local-professors-verify-5000-deaths-in-ph-due-to-drug-war/amp?__twitter_impression=true
"x x x.
Int’l, local professors validate 5,000 deaths in PH due to war on drugs
by Gabriel Pabico Lalu
inquirer.net
Professors and fellows from local and foreign educational institutions have validated the deaths of over 5,000 individuals due to the Philippine government’s war on drugs.
A research they’ve done on the subject matter, entitled “The Philippine Government’s Anti-Drug Campaign: Emerging Evidence and Data”, said 5,021 have died due to the drug war from May 10, 2016 — the day when President Rodrigo Duterte was elected — to September 29, 2017.
Of this number, 2,753 were killed in official Philippine National Police (PNP) operations, and 1,907 were killed by unknown assailants. A total of 355 bodies were also discovered or found, with alleged links to the campaign.
This inter-school study’s figure is higher than the number reflected on Philippine National Police records, which places the number of killed at 4,251, between July 1, 2016 to April 30, 2018.
However, it is way lower than what drug war critics estimate, which was at between 12,000 and 20,000.
Researchers from Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle Universities and the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism of the Columbia Journalism School said the project aimed to create a single, barest minimum record for those killed in the drug war.
“We pursued this project of the research program of the government’s anti-drug campaign to build a database of those who have been killed,” Professor Clarissa David, Senior Research Fellow of the Ateneo School of Government said before presenting their study on Monday.
“[This is] not for any other reason but to make sure that there is some kind of record, of those who lost their lives,” she said.
READ: PNP admits 4,251 killed in war on drugs
Bystanders and a policeman look at the body of a woman, later identified by her husband as that of Nora Acielo, still clutching the school bag of her child, are reflected in a pool of water after she was shot by still unidentified men while walking with her two children to school at a poor neighborhood in Manila on Dec. 8, 2016. AP PHOTO
Difference in numbers
Meanwhile, David explained that their tally differs from PNP’s because the research used reports from different media outfits in the country — which started their drug lists even before President Duterte was sworn into office on June 30, 2016.
“Leading up to election day, my understanding is that media itself started the counts. The rhetoric about how this drug campaign will go is already in the news, there were already threats being made,” she said.
“This is by no means a unique instinct. The top media organizations started a list of their own. It’s something that we all shared — this instinct, this understanding that these killings need to be recorded and accounted for,” she added.
“In this project, we consolidated all available lists, searched for more media-based information and built a victim-level database of drug-related killings committed during this administration’s anti-drug campaign,” David explained.
Jennilyn Olayres cradles partner, an alleged drug pusher Michael Siaron, who was killed in Pasay City on July 23, 2016. INQUIRER file photo / RAFFY LERMA
Majority were poor
The inter-school research revealed the following:
(1) Majority of those who died belonged to poor sectors: 98 tricycle drivers; 32 construction workers/carpenters; 24 vendors; 19 jeep barkers/dispatchers; 16 farmers; 12 jeep drivers; 15 habal-habal/pedicab drivers; and seven garbage collectors;
(2) Many of the victims were low-level drug suspects: 47 percent were alleged to be small-time drug dealers; eight percent were supposed to be drug users, and one percent were suspected drug couriers;
(3) Few of those killed in the drug war were “big time” drug suspects: one percent were so-called narco-politicians; one percent were police officers allegedly involved in the drug trade; and another one percent were suspected drug lords;
(4) Old and young victims: 22 of those killed were minors while 34 were senior citizens;
(5) “Mistaken identities:” 24 of the killings were cases of “mistaken identities;”
(6) Drug surrenderees: 533 drug war victims had previously surrendered to Oplan Tokhang, the administration’s house-to-house operation of communicating directly with suspected drug dependents;
(7) Buy-bust operations, sweep searches: Out of the 2,753 deaths due to police operations, 58 percent were after buy-bust operations, 15 percent during the serving of warrants, six percent during raids, four percent in checkpoints, and three percent from sweep searches;
(8) Drug lists: 1,149 of the victims were previously included in the drug watch-lists of police and barangay officials;
(9) Police and “vigilante” operations: From those on the drug list, 531 were killed in police operations, 573 were killed by unknown assailants, and 45 were found dead.
(10) Killed near their homes: For assailant-led killings, 29 percent were killed inside or near their homes, 44 percent on streets or alleys, and 17 percent inside a vehicle.
For PNP-led operations, 23 percent were killed inside or near their homes, 13 percent on streets or alleys, and five percent in drug dens. /vvp
x x x."
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