Tag Archives: Philippines

U.S. launches quiet diplomacy to ease South China Sea tensions

A ship of Chinese Coast Guard is seen near a ship of Vietnam Marine Guard in the South China Sea

By Lesley Wroughton and John Walcott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is using quiet diplomacy to persuade the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian nations not to move aggressively to capitalize on an international court ruling that denied China’s claims to the South China Sea, several U.S. administration officials said on Wednesday.

“What we want is to quiet things down so these issues can be addressed rationally instead of emotionally,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private diplomatic messages.

Some were sent through U.S. embassies abroad and foreign missions in Washington, while others were conveyed directly to top officials by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials, the sources said.

“This is a blanket call for quiet, not some attempt to rally the region against China, which would play into a false narrative that the U.S. is leading a coalition to contain China,” the official added.

The effort to calm the waters following the court ruling in The Hague on Tuesday suffered a setback when Taiwan dispatched a warship to the area, with President Tsai Ing-wen telling sailors that their mission was to defend Taiwan’s maritime territory.

The court ruled that while China has no historic rights to the area within its self-declared nine-dash line, Taiwan has no right to Itu Aba, also called Taiping, the largest island in the Spratlys. Taipei administers Itu Aba but the tribunal called it a “rock”, according to the legal definition.

The U.S. officials said they hoped the U.S. diplomatic initiative would be more successful in Indonesia, which wants to send hundreds of fishermen to the Natuna Islands to assert its sovereignty over nearby areas of the South China Sea to which China says it also has claims, and in the Philippines, whose fishermen have been harassed by Chinese coast guard and naval vessels.

‘UNKNOWN QUANTITY’

One official said new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte remains “somewhat of an unknown quantity” who has been alternately bellicose and accommodating toward China.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that ahead of the ruling he had spoken to Carter, who he said told him China had assured the United States it would exercise restraint, and that the U.S. government made the same assurance.

Carter had sought and been given the same assurance from the Philippines, Lorenzana added.

China, for its part, repeated pleas for talks between Beijing and Manila, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying the it is time to get things back on the “right track” after the “farce” of the case.

On Thursday, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party said China had shown it can fix territorial issues via talks, pointing to agreement reached with Vietnam over their maritime boundary in the Gulf of Tonkin and ongoing talks with South Korea.

“China is a faithful defender of the principle that countries large and small are equal and has consistently upheld using consultations to resolve border issues on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect,” the People’s Daily said in a commentary.

Meanwhile, two Chinese civilian aircraft landed on Wednesday at two new airports on reefs controlled by China in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a move the State Department said would increase tensions rather than lower them.

“We don’t have a dog in this fight other than our belief … in freedom of navigation,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a briefing on Wednesday. “What we want to see in this very tense part of Asia, of the Pacific, rather, is a de-escalation of tensions and we want to see all claimants take a moment to look at how we can find a peaceful way forward.”

CONTINGENCY PLANHowever, if that effort fails, and competition escalates into confrontation, U.S. air and naval forces are prepared to uphold freedom of maritime and air navigation in the disputed area, a defense official said on Wednesday.

Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said confrontation is less likely if the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries work with the United States rather than on their own.

“I don’t think China wants a confrontation with the United States,” he told reporters. “They don’t mind a confrontation with a Vietnamese fishing boat, but they don’t want a confrontation with the United States.”

The court ruling is expected to dominate a meeting at the end of July in Laos of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang, will attend the ministerial.

Sino-American relations suffered two fresh blows on Wednesday as a congressional committee found China’s government likely hacked computers at the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the United States challenged China’s export duties on nine metals and minerals that are important to the aerospace, auto, electronics and chemical industries.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Yara Bayoumy, and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Kieran Murray, Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast)

China vows to protect South China Sea sovereignty

Protesters throws flowers while chanting anti-Chinese slogans during a rally by different activist groups over the South China Sea disputes, along a bay in metro Manila

By Ben Blanchard and Martin Petty

BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) – China vowed to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty over the South China Sea and said it had the right to set up an air defense zone, after rejecting an international tribunal’s ruling denying its claims to the energy-rich waters.

Chinese state media called the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague a “puppet” of external forces after it ruled that China had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by endangering its ships and fishing and oil projects.

Beijing has repeatedly blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, where its territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

“China will take all necessary measures to protect its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said in a front page commentary on Wednesday.

The case, covering a region that is home to one of the world’s busiest trade routes, has been seen as a test of China’s rising power and its economic and strategic rivalry with the United States.

Underscoring China’s rebuffing of the ruling, state media said that two new airports in the Spratlys, on Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, both received test flights from civilian aircraft on Wednesday.

Beijing called the Philippines’ claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea “baseless” and an “act of bad faith”. In a government white paper published on Wednesday, China also said its fishing boats had been harassed and attacked by the Philippines around the disputed Spratly Islands.

“On whether China will set up an air defense zone over the South China Sea, what we have to make clear first is that China has the right to… But whether we need one in the South China Sea depends on the level of threats we face,” Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters in Beijing, adding that China hoped to return to bilateral talks with Manila.

“We hope that other countries don’t use this opportunity to threaten China, and hope that other countries can work hard with China, meet us halfway, and maintain the South China Sea’s peace and stability and not turn the South China Sea in a source of war.”

U.S. officials have previously said they feared China may respond to the ruling by declaring an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, as it did in the East China Sea in 2013, or by stepping up its building and fortification of artificial islands.

China’s Liu also took aim at the judges on the tribunal, saying that as not one of them was Asian they could not possibly understand the issue and it was unfair of them to try.

COMPLICATED, UNCLEAR

The Philippines reacted cautiously to the ruling late on Tuesday, calling for “restraint and sobriety”, but the mood at President Rodrigo Duterte’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday was “upbeat”, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he had spoken to U.S. counterpart Ash Carter ahead of the ruling who told him China had assured the United States it would exercise restraint, and the U.S. made the same assurance. Carter had sought and been given the same assurance from the Philippines, Lorenzana added.

“The ruling can serve as a foundation on which we can start the process of negotiations which hopefully will eventually lead to the peaceful settlement of the maritime dispute in the South China Sea,” Charles Jose, a spokesman for the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, said.

One of the lawyers who argued the Philippines’ case said how and when the country would enforce the tribunal’s ruling was complicated.

“There’s no timeline for this game. It might have an extended period of gestation,” said Florin Ternal Hilbay, a former solicitor general. “I would assume our diplomats have read the decision and understand the complexities and consequences of enforcing the decision.”

Global intelligence firm Stratfor said fishermen from China or the Philippines were the greatest potential disruptors in the region, beyond the easy control of law enforcement.

“The greatest struggle for both countries will be to rein them in, preferably before they get to sea, lest they disrupt the delicate peace,” Stratfor said in a note.

In moves likely to antagonize Beijing, the coastguards of Japan and the Philippines took part in simulated rescue and medical response exercises off Manila Bay on Wednesday, part of what the two countries have called efforts to improve maritime security and combat crime and piracy.

Japan and China are involved in a separate territorial dispute in the East China Sea and Beijing has warned Tokyo against meddling in the South China Sea dispute.

PIVOT PRESSURE

Beijing’s ambassador to the United States earlier blamed the rise in tension in the region on the United States’ “pivot” toward Asia in the past few years. Cui Tiankai said the arbitration case “will probably open the door of abusing arbitration procedures.

“It will certainly undermine and weaken the motivation of states to engage in negotiations and consultations for solving their disputes,” Cui said at a forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. “It will certainly intensify conflict and even confrontation.”

South Korea on Wednesday announced the planned location of a U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense unit against North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats, a system that has angered China and prompted a North Korean warning of retaliation.

President Barack Obama’s top Asia policy adviser, Daniel Kritenbrink, said the United States had no interest in stirring tensions in the South China Sea as a pretext for involvement in the region.

“We have an enduring interest in seeing territorial and maritime disputes in the Asia Pacific, including in the South China Sea, resolved peacefully, without coercion and in a manner that is consistent with international law,” Kritenbrink said at the same forum.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen boarded a navy frigate in southern Taiwan ahead of its departure for the South China Sea early on Wednesday, a regular patrol pushed forward due to the Hague decision, which Taipei rejected.

“This patrol mission is to show the determination of the Taiwan people to defend our national interest,” Tsai said from the warship.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province to be united with the mainland eventually, and by force if necessary.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila, John Walcott and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Engen Tham in Shanghai and JR Wu in Tapei.; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie)

Tribunal overwhelmingly rejects Beijing’s South China Sea claims

anti-China protest group over South China Sea

By Anthony Deutsch and Ben Blanchard

AMSTERDAM/BEIJING (Reuters) – An arbitration court ruled on Tuesday that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and has breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights with its actions, infuriating Beijing which dismissed the case as a farce.

A defiant China, which boycotted the hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, vowed again to ignore the ruling and said its armed forces would defend its sovereignty and maritime interests.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said shortly before the ruling was announced that a Chinese civilian aircraft had successfully tested two new airports in the disputed Spratly Islands.

And China’s Defence Ministry said a new guided missile destroyer was formally commissioned at a naval base on the southern island province of Hainan, which has responsibility for the South China Sea.

“This award represents a devastating legal blow to China’s jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea,” Ian Storey, of Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, told Reuters.

“China will respond with fury, certainly in terms of rhetoric and possibly through more aggressive actions at sea.”

The United States, which China has accused of fuelling tensions and militarizing the region with patrols and exercises, urged parties to comply with the legally binding ruling and avoid provocations.

“The decision today by the Tribunal in the Philippines-China arbitration is an important contribution to the shared goal of a peaceful resolution to disputes in the South China Sea,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

U.S. officials have previously said they feared China may respond to the ruling by declaring an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, as it did in the East China Sea in 2013, or by stepping up its building and fortification of artificial islands.

China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

Finding for the Philippines on a number of issues, the panel said there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line, which covers almost 90 percent of the South China Sea.

It said China had interfered with traditional Philippine fishing rights at Scarborough Shoal and had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by exploring for oil and gas near the Reed Bank.

None of China’s reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, it added.

“2,000 YEARS OF HISTORY”

China’s Foreign Ministry rejected the ruling, saying its people had more than 2,000 years of history in the South China Sea, that its islands did have exclusive economic zones and that it had announced to the world its “dotted line” map in 1948.

“China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards,” it said.

However, the ministry also repeated that China respected and upheld the freedom of navigation and overflight and that China was ready to keep resolving the disputes peacefully through talks with states directly concerned.

In a statement shortly before the ruling, China’s Defence Ministry said its armed forces would “firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and maritime interests and rights, firmly uphold regional peace and stability, and deal with all kinds of threats and challenges”

The judges acknowledged China’s refusal to participate, but said they sought to take account of China’s position from its statements and diplomatic correspondence.

“The award is a complete and total victory for the Philippines … a victory for international law and international relations,” said Paul Reichler, lead lawyer for the Philippines.

Vietnam said it welcomed the ruling.

Taiwan, which maintains that the island it occupies, Itu Aba, is legally the only island among hundreds of reefs, shoals and atolls scattered across the seas, said it did not accept the ruling, which seriously impaired Taiwan’s territorial rights.

“This is the worst scenario,” Taiwan Foreign Minister David Tawei Lee told reporters, promising unspecified “action” from Taipei.

GROUND-BREAKING RULING

The ruling is significant as it is the first time that a legal challenge has been brought in the dispute, which covers some of the world’s most promising oil and gas fields and vital fishing grounds. [http://bit.ly/29AlvXc]

It reflects the shifting balance of power in the 3.5 million sq km sea, where China has been expanding its presence by building artificial islands and dispatching patrol boats that keep Philippine fishing vessels away.

The Philippines said it was studying the ruling.

“We call on all those concerned to exercise restraint and sobriety,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay told a news conference. “The Philippines strongly affirms its respect for this milestone decision as an important contribution to the ongoing efforts in addressing disputes in the South China Sea.”

Japan said the ruling was legally binding and final.

Oil prices jumped following the findings, with Brent crude futures <LCOc1> up almost 3 percent at $47.87 per barrel at 1130 GMT (7:30 a.m. ET).

The court has no power of enforcement, but a victory for the Philippines could spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases.

Ahead of the ruling, around 100 members of a Philippine nationalist group demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Manila, calling on Beijing to accept the decision and leave the Scarborough Shoal, a popular fishing zone off limits to Filipinos since 2012.

In China, social media users reacted with outrage at the ruling.

“It was ours in the past, is now and will remain so in the future,” wrote one user on microblogging site Weibo. “Those who encroach on our China’s territory will die no matter how far away they are.”

Spreading fast on social media in the Philippines was the use of the term “Chexit” – the public’s desire for Chinese vessels to leave the waters.

(Additional reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz and Martin Petty in Manila, Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing, Tim Kelly in Tokyo, John Walcott and David Brunnstrom in Washington, JR Wu in Taipei and Greg Torode in Hong Kong.; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie)

Southeast Asian Islamic State unit being formed in southern Philippines: officials

By Randy Fabi and Manuel Mogato

JAKARTA/MANILA (Reuters) – Southeast Asian militants who claim to be fighting for Islamic State in the Middle East have said they have chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the ultra-radical group, security officials said on Thursday.

The claim was made in a video that was recently posted on social media, possibly last week, a military intelligence official in the Philippines told Reuters.

The video is significant, experts say, because it shows that Islamic State supporters are now being asked to stay home and unify under one umbrella group to launch attacks in Southeast Asia, instead of being drawn to the fight in the Middle East.

Authorities in the region have been on heightened alert since Islamic State claimed an attack in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in January in which eight people were killed, including four of the attackers.

In the 20-minute video seen by Reuters, young men and some children in military fatigues are shown carrying and training with weapons, and holding Islamic State flags. A section of the video showed some of these men engaging in gunbattles in jungles but it was not clear where and with whom.

The video also showed three men apparently being executed, but it was not clear where and who they were.

The authenticity of the video and when it was taken could not be independently verified.

In the video, a man authorities in Malaysia have identified as Mohd Rafi Udin, a Malaysian militant currently in Syria, says in Malay: “If you cannot go to (Syria), join up and go to the Philippines.”

In the video, Udin also urges Muslims to unite under the leadership of Abu Abdullah, a Philippine militant leader who pledged allegiance to Islamic State in January.

Abu Abdullah, also known as Isnilon Hapilon, is a leader of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf. He is on the FBI’s most wanted list for his role in the kidnapping of 17 Filipinos and three Americans in 2001 and carries a bounty of $5 million.

The video was released to mark Islamic State’s acceptance of allegiances from jihadists in the Philippines, the first formal recognition of a Southeast Asian group, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of Malaysia’s police counter-terrorism unit.

“This video is not just propaganda, but is a serious threat. We are definitely expecting more attacks in this region,” Pitchay told Reuters.

Hapilon is known to be based in the interior hills of the island of Basilan in the Mindanao region of the southern Philippines. In April, at least 18 Philippine soldiers were killed and 53 wounded in an attack on his followers on the island.

KIDNAP GANG

For decades, Abu Sayyaf has been known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, and is one of the most brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the largely Christian Philippines.

The group has posted videos on social media sites this year pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

The latest video appears aimed at recognizing Hapilon as the Southeast Asian leader of the group, anti-terrorism experts said.

“I think this is a very significant video,” said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based security expert. “This acknowledges support from Indonesia and Malaysia.”

“It suggests there will be more efforts to get people to actually go to Mindanao to launch operations from there.”

The Jakarta attacks in January were claimed by Islamic State. But the attack did not bear the hallmarks of other spectacular strikes by the radical group – the militants lacked sophisticated weaponry and were amateurish in the execution.

Some security officials fear a more organized and better trained militant group could launch far deadlier attacks in the region.

But Philippine military officials dismissed these concerns, saying the video was just propaganda and should be ignored.

“People should not be bothered by this,” said Philippine military spokesman Restituto Padilla “Authorities are working on this. They can be identified, and they can be hunted down.”

(Additional Reporting by Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur and Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

drcolbert.monthly

China brushes off doubts over support on South China Sea, says it is growing

South China Sea

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday brushed off doubts about how many countries have offered support for its position in a case brought by the Philippines over Chinese claims in the South China Sea, saying the number of nations was growing daily.

China has stepped up its rhetoric ahead of an expected ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague on the Philippine case. China refuses to recognize the case and says all disputes should be resolved through bilateral talks.

China says more than 40 countries have offered support for its position, the most recent being Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

But only eight countries have come out in public support, including land-locked nations such as Niger and Afghanistan, says Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

On Wednesday, a senior U.S. official voiced scepticism at China’s claim that dozens of countries were backing its position, saying it was not clear even about what those countries may have agreed to.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said public reports showed at least 47 countries offering support, though the figure was not complete as some nations’ backing had not been publicly reported.

“The number of people supporting China rises by the day, so I have no way of giving you a precise figure,” she told a daily news briefing, adding that the actual number was not the most important thing.

“As long as you have an objective and impartial position, as long as you understand the main points of the history of the South China Sea and the essence of the so-called ‘arbitration case’, any unbiased country, organization or person will unhesitatingly chose China’s just position,” she said.

China claims almost all of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of maritime trade passes each year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims.

The Philippines is contesting China’s claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds of disputed islands and reefs and encompassing a vital global trade route.

The consensus among officials and analysts is that the ruling will go largely against Beijing.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

drcolbert.monthly

Philippines says China broke deal on South China Sea agreement

File photo of two Chinese surveillance ships which sailed between Philippines warship and Chinese fishing

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Thursday accused China of breaking a U.S.-brokered deal between the two nations on the Scarborough Shoal, an uninhabited rocky outcrop in the South China Sea.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines also claim the waterway, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne goods pass every year.

Beijing seized control of Scarborough Shoal, near the main Philippine island of Luzon, in June 2012, following a three-month standoff after a Philippine Navy vessel tried to arrest Chinese fishermen found illegally hauling giant clams there.

On Thursday, Aquino said the United States moved in quickly to resolve the standoff, brokering a “face-saving” deal by asking both nations to pull out their ships, but only the Philippines withdrew.

“Now, their continued presence is something that we have continuously objected to,” Aquino told reporters in his hometown in Tarlac, north of the Philippine capital.

“There was a deal, which we observed religiously. We hope the other side will do what we have done.”

China’s embassy in Manila did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Aquino’s remarks.

Beijing has denied ever making a deal with Manila and Washington, a Philippine diplomat who was involved in the negotiations told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

China has reclaimed seven reefs in the Spratlys islands, building two airfields, ports, lighthouses radars, and other military structures, which the United States has called a clear move to militarise the disputed area.

In March, Washington warned that China might next reclaim the Scarborough Shoal, after Beijing sent survey ships to the area, although a Philippine military aircraft despatched to check the reports did not find a survey ship there.

“China is not reclaiming Scarborough Shoal,” Aquino said, allaying the fears that Beijing might reclaim the shoal, just outside the former U.S. naval base in Subic.

There have been many “red lines” in China’s assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, Aquino added, such as harassing a survey ship hired by an Anglo-Philippine firm seeking oil and gas in the Reed Bank.

Both Reed Bank and Scarborough Shoal lie in the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone, Aquino said, calling China’s actions a violation of a 2002 pact on the South China Sea between China and ten Southeast Asian nations.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Philippine death squads very much in business

Clarita Alia shows photos of Fernando, one of four sons which have died in execution-style killings in Davao

By Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel Mogato

DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) – On May 14, five days after voters in the Philippines chose Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as their next president, two masked gunmen cruised this southern city’s suburbs on a motorbike, looking for their kill.

Gil Gabrillo, 47, a drug user, was returning from a cockfight when the gunmen approached. One of them pumped four bullets into Gabrillo’s head and body, killing the small-time trader of goods instantly. Then the motorbike roared off.

The murder made no headlines in Davao, where Duterte’s loud approval for hundreds of execution-style killings of drug users and criminals over nearly two decades helped propel him to the highest office of a crime-weary land.

Human rights groups have documented at least 1,400 killings in Davao that they allege had been carried out by death squads since 1998. Most of those murdered were drug users, petty criminals and street children.

In a 2009 report, Human Rights Watch identified a consistent failure by police to seriously investigate targeted killings. It said acting and retired police officers worked as “handlers” for death-squad gunmen, giving them names and photos of targets – an allegation denied by Davao police.

But a four-year probe into such killings by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines’ equivalent of the FBI, hasn’t led to a single prosecution, and one senior NBI agent told Reuters it will probably be shelved now that Duterte is set to become president. The nation’s Justice Secretary last week told reporters the probe may not be able to proceed.

Such impunity, and Duterte’s demands in recent weeks for more summary justice, could embolden death squads across the country, say human rights and church groups. Already there has been a spate of unsolved killings in nearby cities, with other mayors echoing Duterte’s support for vigilante justice.

“We’ve seen it happen in Davao and we’ve seen copycat practices,” Chito Gascon, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an independent Philippine watchdog, told Reuters. “Now can you imagine he is president and the national model for crime-fighting is Davao?”

Ask Clarita Alia, 62, who still lives in the Davao slum where her four sons were murdered, and she gives a mirthless chuckle.

“Blood will flow like a river,” she says.

 

DENIES DIRECTING KILLINGS

Duterte, who has been Davao’s mayor or vice-mayor for most of the past 30 years, has denied any involvement in the murders. “I never did that,” he said on the campaign trail in April, responding to allegations he had directed the killings. An Office of the Ombudsman investigation also found there was no evidence connecting Duterte to the murders.

He has, though, repeatedly condoned them.

For example, in comments to reporters in 2009, he warned: “If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination.”

And more recently he has vowed to wipe out crime in six months across the country by killing criminals, drug pushers and “sons of bitches” after he takes office on June 30.

“Do not destroy my country, because I will kill you,” the 71-year-old former prosecutor told a news conference in Davao on May 15.

He has also promised to restore the death penalty in the Philippines, warning he will hang the most heinous criminals twice: once to kill them, then again to “completely sever the head from the body”.

People here remember pre-Duterte Davao as a lawless battleground for security forces and Communist rebels. The city’s Agdao district was so violent it was nicknamed “Nicaragdao” after the then war-torn Central American nation.

Today, thanks to Duterte’s campaigns against drugs and crime, Davao today feels much safer, say the locals. But it still ranks first among 15 Philippine cities for murder and second for rape, according to national police.

 

ON WATCH FOR ASSASSINS

Reuters interviews with the families of four Davao victims, one of whom was a 15-year-old, showed that murders continued even as Duterte campaigned for the presidency.

All four killings occurred in the past nine months and bore the hallmarks of a loose-knit group that the locals call the Davao Death Squad.

The victims were shot in daylight or at dusk, three of them on the same street in a riverside slum seething with people. The killers rode motorbikes with no license plates, their faces hidden by helmets and masks.

Reymar Tecson, 19, was executed last August while sleeping at the roadside. A week later, Romel Bantilan, 15, was shot dead while playing a computer game less than 30 paces away.

Tecson’s family said Reymar was a drug user, but Bantilan’s family insisted that Romel was clean.

Romel had a twin brother, and their father, Jun Bantilan, said he had heard “rumors” that the other boy would be next. Most days Jun sits at the end of the street, watching out for assassins.

Nearby, in her tumble-down shack, Norma Helardino still wondered why her husband Danilo, 53, was shot dead in January. He didn’t use drugs, she said, although “maybe his friends did.”

The police filed a report but Helardino said she saw no sign of an investigation: “No witnesses came forward.” When asked who her husband’s killers were, she pointed to her tin roof and said: “Only God knows.”

The three dead males in the slum were “noted drug dealers,” said Major Milgrace Driz, a Davao police spokeswoman.

“It is their destiny to be killed because they choose to be criminals,” she said. “The mayor has already said there is no place for criminals in the city.”

Driz described 15-year-old Bantilan as a “recidivist” with a “criminal attitude” who had been repeatedly warned to mend his ways. She said he had delivered drugs for a gang which had probably murdered him over a money dispute.

Lack of witnesses meant the three murders remained unsolved despite diligent efforts to investigate, Driz added.

Responding to the Human Rights Watch allegations that the police conspire with the death squads, Driz said the police get the names of local criminals through a public hotline but don’t kill them.

 

CLOSED AND TERMINATED

Human rights activists say official investigations of death-squad killings have been hampered by a lack of witnesses, bureaucratic apathy and political influence.

The Human Rights Watch report called on the CHR to investigate whether Duterte and other officials had been involved or complicit in the deaths.

A CHR report three years later confirmed the “systematic practice of extrajudicial killings” by the Davao Death Squad. It, in turn, was successful in getting the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate whether Duterte was criminally liable for inaction in the face of evidence of numerous killings.

But in a January 2016 letter seen by Reuters, the Ombudsman told the CHR its investigation was “closed and terminated” because it had found no evidence that Duterte or the police were involved in the killings. The letter also dismissed the death squad as a product of “rumors and other gossips”.

The CHR report also triggered a probe by the NBI. Four years later, it is still ongoing, an agency spokesman said.

However, Secretary of Justice Emmanuel Caparas, who oversees the NBI, told reporters on Friday that the status of the investigation was unclear because a key witness, a former gunman, had left protective custody. “It’s really just a question now if the witness will surface,” he said.

And another NBI source, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to talk to the media, said the probe was now likely to be halted.

“Who will investigate the president?” he said.

(Editing by John Chalmers and Martin Howell)

New Law in Philippines to protect children after disasters

A boy wades through a flooded street in Jaen, Nueva Ecija in northern Philippines October 20, 2015, after the province was hit by Typhoon Koppu.

By Alisa Tang

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Child rights groups welcomed a new law in the Philippines requiring special emergency plans to protect children after disasters and said the legislation, the first of its kind in Asia, should send a message to other countries to follow suit.

President Benigno Aquino on Wednesday signed the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act into law, mandating the government to draw up plans to ensure the welfare of children affected by natural disasters, accidents and other unforeseen events.

“We know for a fact that the children are at risk in these kinds of situations because they are helpless,” Aquino said at the signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Manila.

“We hope to make a strong foundation and basis to take care of Filipino children whoever is elected into office,” the outgoing Philippine leader said in a statement posted online.

The law clarifies the responsibilities of various government sectors, ensures children’s basic needs are met, and strengthens the government’s mandate to build evacuation centers and temporary shelters with facilities for children as well as pregnant women, he said.

Save the Children described the law as an “enormous victory for children.”

“We know from experience that when disasters strike, children are always the most vulnerable,” Ned Olney, Save the Children’s country director who was present at the signing, said in a statement.

“This legislation … ensures that children have targeted humanitarian intervention, and that government services and communities are better prepared for future disasters.”

With the law signed a few days before the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit opens in Istanbul, Olney said “the Philippines is sending a strong signal to world leaders that children caught in disasters must be better protected.”

Plan International also welcomed the law and urged the government to fully implement it.

“Children often feel voiceless in times of disasters. This victory proves that they do have a voice,” Plan said.

The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year.

(Reporting by Alisa Tang, additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila, editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)

Philippines election victor Duterte plans government overhaul

A poster of presidential candidate Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte at a residential district during the national elections in Davao

By Neil Jerome Morales

DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippines’ president-elect, rough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans on Tuesday for an overhaul of the country’s system of government that would devolve power from “imperial Manila” to long-neglected provinces.

Duterte’s win in Monday’s poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat.

By Tuesday afternoon, the ballot count showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 6 million votes ahead of the second-placed candidate with 92 percent of votes counted from an electorate of 54 million.

It is not clear when Duterte’s victory will be officially declared but he is expected to take office on June 30.

Votes were also cast on Monday for vice-president. One day on, counting showed the outgoing administration’s candidate, Maria Leonor Robredo, ahead of the son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Duterte’s spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution which would switch from a unitary form of government to a parliamentary and federal model.

The proposal to devolve power from Manila fits with Duterte’s challenge as a political outsider to the country’s establishment, which he has slammed as self-serving and corrupt.

“The powerful elites in Manila who will be affected by this system will definitely oppose this proposal,” said Earl Parreno, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms.

Duterte’s spokesman said he would also seek peace agreements with rebel groups in the south of the archipelago, where the outgoing government has been using force to quell militancy.

The 71-year-old’s truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido.

That tapped into popular disgust with the ruling class over its failure to reduce poverty and inequality despite several years of robust economic growth.

SOUTH CHINA SEA TALKS

Duterte’s vows to restore law and order also resonated with voters. But his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country’s authoritarian past.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel told reporters in Vietnam that Washington respected the choice of the Philippine people and “will gladly work with the leader that they select”.

Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at-times comical remarks late on Monday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city.

Wearing a casual checked shirt and slouched in a chair, he said corrupt officials should “retire or die” and reiterated his support for police to use deadly force against criminals.

“I’ll behave if I become president,” he said, adding that he would not make state visits to countries with cold weather.

In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters on Monday that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea.

The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognize its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters.

Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region’s dominant security player and contests China’s development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea.

The influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, said that Beijing would not be naive enough to believe that a new president would bring a solution to the South China Sea disputes.

“Only time will tell how far the new leader, be it Duterte or not, will go toward restoring the bilateral relationship.”

FIGHTING THE ESTABLISHMENT

Duterte’s entertaining and profanity-loaded speeches have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers.

He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 percent under Aquino.

Duterte said on Monday he had been criticized for not discussing policy but would “hire the best economic minds”.

One of his advisers told Reuters spending on education would be lifted to benefit “disadvantaged regions” and rural development will be prioritized to spread wealth more evenly across the country.

“Everything seems to be in imperial Manila,” said Ernesto Pernia, professor emeritus of economics at the University of the Philippines. “He wants to give more attention to the lagging, the backward regions.”

Pernia said the pursuit of tax evaders and corrupt officials should bolster government revenues to fund extra spending.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in MANILA and My Pham in HANOI; Writing by John Chalmers; editing by Robert Birsel)

Trail in cyber heist suggests hackers were Chinese: senator

Bangladesh central bank

By Karen Lema

MANILA (Reuters) – A Philippine senator said on Wednesday that Chinese hackers were likely to have pulled off one of the world’s biggest cyber heists at the Bangladesh central bank, citing the network of Chinese people involved in the routing of the stolen funds through Manila.

Unidentified hackers infiltrated the computers at Bangladesh Bank in early February and tried to transfer a total of $951 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

All but one of the 35 attempted transfers were to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), confirming the Philippines’ centrality to the heist.

Most transfers were blocked, but a total of $81 million went to four accounts at a single RCBC branch in Manila. The stolen money was swiftly transferred to a foreign exchange broker and distributed to casinos and gambling agents in Manila.

“The hacking was done, chances are, by Chinese hackers,” Senator Ralph Recto told Reuters in a telephone interview. “Then they saw that, in the Philippines, RCBC particularly was vulnerable and sent the money over here.”

Beijing was quick to denounce the comments by Recto, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and a former head of the Philippines’ economic planning agency.

The suggestion that Chinese hackers were possibly involved was “complete nonsense” and “really irresponsible,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters.

Recto said he couldn’t prove the hackers were Chinese, but was merely “connecting the dots” after a series of Senate hearings into the scandal.

At one hearing, a Chinese casino boss and junket operator called Kim Wong named two high-rolling gamblers from Beijing and Macau who he said had brought the stolen money into the Philippines. He displayed purported copies of their passports, showing they were mainland Chinese and Macau administrative region nationals respectively.

“BEST LEAD”

Wong, a native of Hong Kong who holds a Chinese passport, received almost $35 million of the stolen funds through his company and a foreign exchange broker.

The two Chinese named by Wong “are the best lead to determine who are the hackers,” said Recto. “Chances are… they must be Chinese.”

The whereabouts of the two high-rollers were unknown, Recto added, saying the Senate inquiry “may” seek help from the Chinese government to find them.

Recto also questioned the role of casino junket operators in the Philippines, saying many of them have links in Macau, the southern Chinese territory that is the world’s biggest casino hub. “There are junket operators who are from Macau, so it (the money) may find its way back to Macau,” he said.

A senior executive at a top junket operator in Macau told Reuters there was “no reason” to bring funds from the Philippines to Macau.

“This seems more like a political story in the Philippines,” he said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The U.S. State Department said in a report last month that the gaming industry was “a weak link” in the Philippines’ anti-money laundering regime.

Philrem, the foreign exchange agent, said it distributed the stolen $81 million to Bloomberry Resorts Corp, which owns and operates the upmarket Solaire casino in Manila; to Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company, which is owned by Wong; and to an ethnic Chinese man believed to be a junket operator in Manila.

Wong has returned $5.5 million to the Philippines’ anti-money laundering agency and has promised to hand over another $9.7 million. A portion of the money he received, he said, has already been spent on gambling chips for clients.

Solaire has told the Senate hearing that the $29 million that ended up with them was credited to an account of the Macau-based high-roller but it has managed to seize and confiscate $2.33 million in chips and cash.

(Writing by Andrew R.C. Marshall; Additional reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)