Philippines Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has dismissed comments by Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go that “politics” is behind the filing of a proposed concurrent resolution calling on regulators to temporarily allow television giant ABS-CBN to operate as Congress deliberates on its franchise application.

The Senate has the prerogative to pass a concurrent resolution expressing its “sense” on the matter, which does not have the force of law, unlike a joint resolution that needs to be passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives and signed by the president, Drilon told reporters on Wednesday.

“Being a neophyte senator, he (Go) may not be aware of our tradition and our rules. Precisely, a concurrent resolution does not go through the president because it has no force and effect of a law. It is just a sense of the Senate. There is no politics here,” Drilon said.

READ MORE: ‘Speak truth to power’ – Varsitarian reports

“We are not depriving the President of the right to veto or approve,” he added.

Drilon’s earlier proposed joint resolution seeks to extend ABS-CBN’s franchise until the end of 2022, prompting an accusation from Go that opposition senators did not want President Rodrigo Duterte to have a hand on the issue. Duterte steps down on June 30, 2022.

Go, on Monday’s Senate inquiry into the ABS-CBN franchise, gave an idea as to why the Duterte-controlled House of Representatives was stalling on the TV network’s licence renewal.

He said Duterte was displeased over ABS-CBN’s supposed refusal to air his 2016 campaign ad that was a response to an attack ad financed by an arch-critic, then senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

ABS-CBN on Monday said Commission on Election restrictions in the final stretch of the 2016 campaign prevented the Duterte ad from being aired, and that it returned the payment, but Duterte refused to accept it.

Go countered that it took a year for ABS-CBN to address the Duterte campaign’s grievance. “Remember, in an election campaign, especially in a presidential campaign, there is no tomorrow. Every second matters,” he said.

Guevarra vs Puno
Drilon, along with Senator Grace Poe, also dismissed comments by retired chief justice Reynato Puno that ABS-CBN cannot operate when its 25-year franchise expires, based on a 2003 court ruling.

The franchise expires on May 4, 2020, reckoned from the date of effectivity of 15 days after publication, which is April 19, 1995, according to the Department of Justice.

Drilon said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s opinion – that ABS-CBN could be allowed to operate on a provisional authority from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) given Congress’ lack of time to pass a new franchise – should be binding throughout the Executive Branch.

“Guevarra said that on grounds of equity, the ABS-CBN can continue. Again, this is an opinion expressed by no less than the secretary of justice, whose opinion is binding on the entire executive branch, so this must be extended due respect.”

Guevarra gave his opinion on the franchise issue during Monday’s Senate inquiry called by Poe.

Drilon said he was in favor of doing what was “necessary in order to allow an objective debate on the renewal of the franchise, without the threat of ABS-CBN being closed.”

In fact, even without the concurrent resolution, a provisional authority would still be valid, he said.

‘Man of wisdom’
“That is the view of Secretary Guevarra; that is the view of Speaker Cayetano; and that is the view of Senator Poe as chairman of the committee on public services,” Drilon said.

Poe said that while Puno is a “man of integrity and wisdom,” a lot had happened since the 2003 ruling that he penned.

“And in fact, hundreds of franchises go through both houses of Congress and because of that, the cure of Congress, because sometimes they don’t have enough time to deliberate on it, is to direct the NTC to grant the provisional license,” Poe told ABS-CBN’s Karen Davila.

Poe also said that even without any resolution from Congress, ABS-CBN should continue operating, “even just by precedents of the acts of Congress in recent years.”

Several companies have been given provisional licenses, she pointed out, citing PT&T, Globe, Smart, GMA Network, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and Marine Broadcasting.

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

• More ABS-CBN television saga reports

By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

Reporters have finally got the chance to ask President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday whether he would sign a bill granting a new franchise for TV giant ABS-CBN. His response: “I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.”

Duterte, speaking for the first time since his top aide, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, said in a Senate inquiry on Monday that he was displeased with ABS-CBN’s refusal to air a political ad during the 2016 presidential campaign, said he would be put in a “difficult position” if the bill arrived on his desk.

He said he might even ask media to help him out on making a decision. “I will cross the bridge when I am there. Maybe I will call the media to help me out. It is a difficult decision really,” Duterte told reporters following an oath-taking of officials at Malacañang Palace.

READ MORE: The ANC Brief – a threat to press freedom

Duterte nonetheless accepted the apology made by ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak over the non-airing of the ad, which Duterte supporters have used as evidence of the network’s alleged bias against the president.

ABS-CBN has said ad limits in the final stretch of the 2016 campaign prevented the airing of the ad. The ad was in response to an attack ad paid for by Duterte’s arch-critic, then senator Antonio Trillanes IV, featuring children reacting to clips of Duterte uttering bad language.

Duterte did not accept a P2.6-million refund from ABS-CBN. On Wednesday, he said ABS-CBN could give it to a “charitable institution of their choice”.

The president also claimed that he had no hand in the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor-General Jose Calida before the Supreme Court, in which the top government lawyer accused ABS-CBN of violating the terms and conditions of its 25-year franchise, which expires on March 30.

‘Healthy distance’
“I kept a healthy distance from it…they are now deliberating in Congress: the lower house (House of Representatives) and the Senate. There is a plan that they will pass a joint resolution. But fundamentally really the decision is with the House, not so much in the Senate, because the constitution says all of these things must originate from the lower house,” Duterte said.

“I leave it to Congress,” he added.

The tussle over the ABS-CBN franchise is widely viewed as a press freedom issue. Duterte last year vowed to block the network’s franchise and accused it of serving as a mouthpiece for the opposition and the “oligarchs”.

The government previously sued Rappler, a news website critical of Duterte, for tax evasion and violating the constitutional ban on foreign ownership in mass media, and barred Rappler reporters from covering government events.

Calida’s petition does not cite the non-airing of the ad. It claims that ABS-CBN went around the foreign ownership ban by accepting investments from foreigners through investment instruments known as Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs). It also claimed that ABS-CBN illegally charged subscribers to a digital movie channel and illegally acquired a franchise for a mobile phone service.

ABS-CBN has denied any wrongdoing, and told the Supreme Court on Monday that it had the necessary licences from the National Telecommunications Commission.

Also on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said ABS-CBN did not violate the law in issuing PDRs, which entitles holders only to dividends and not ownership.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue also said the TV network did not owe any taxes to the government, refuting claims by Duterte supporters on social media that ABS-CBN was cheating on its tax payments.

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

• Rappler challenges president’s ‘media powers’
• Other ABS-CBN reports

By Neil Joshua N. Servallos in Manila

The University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, which has the biggest and oldest journalism school, has released a statement supporting television broadcaster ABS-CBN, adding its voice to the growing clamour against a petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor-General to shut down the country’s largest media network.

“We are one with [ABS-CBN] in their commitment to continue their service to the Filipino people and the global community,” UST said in the statement posted on the university’s social media accounts.

“ABS-CBN has won numerous awards for its entertainment, news, and public service programs at the USTv Students’ Choice Awards. We offer our prayers for the network to be able to renew its franchise,” it said.

READ MORE: Campus publications call for autonomy, protection of press freedom

UST journalism faculty members have released a statement calling Solicitor-General Jose Calida’s petition “a deadly virus inflicted upon citizens, with pandemic consequences on the people’s right to know”.

“The country is better off with ABS-CBN than without it. Our democracy needs a press that is free from the pressures wantonly exerted by those in power,” the statement read.

Calida filed a quo warranto petition on February 10 in a bid to revoke the ABS-CBN franchise a month before its expiration, claiming the network was engaging in highly abusive practices.

Calida faulted the TV network for getting money from foreign investors and circumventing the ban on foreign ownership of mass media, illegally charging subscribers to a digital channel, and illegally transferring the franchise of mobile unit ABS-CBN Convergence Inc.

The UST journalism faculty urged the House of Representatives and the Senate to ignore Calida’s quo warranto petition and to approve ABS-CBN’s franchise application “post-haste”.

Neil Joshua N. Servallos is a reporter with The Varsitarian. The Journalism programme in the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines, collaborates with the Pacific Media Centre.

ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Lopez Katigbak has broken his silence amid the controversy over renewal of the Philippine TV giant’s broadcast franchise, which expires in one month.

Katigbak, in a video posted on the ABS-CBN News site and aired over flagship newscast TV Patrol on Thursday, vowed to follow the process of renewing the network’s licence and answer all allegations raised by Solicitor-General Jose Calida in a quo warranto petition filed with the Supreme Court last week.

“Wala po kaming nakikitang dahilan para hindi magtuloy ang paglilingkod ng ating ABS-CBN. Gayun pa man, kami ay handang sumunod sa anumang proseso na dapat pagdaanan ayon sa batas,” said Katigbak, president of ABS-CBN since 2016.

[We don’t see any reason to stop the service of our ABS-CBN. Nonetheless, we are willing to go through whatever process is required by law.]

READ MORE: Background to the ABS-CBN television saga

Calida accused ABS-CBN of circumventing the constitutional ban on foreign ownership, pointing to ABS-CBN having issued Philippine Depositary Receipts to foreign investors, illegally charging subscribers to a digital movie channel, and illegally operating a mobile service.

ABS-CBN has denied any wrongdoing, and legal experts have said that the supposed “highly abusive practices” of the TV network were not enough grounds to shut down the country’s largest television network and should be raised instead before regulatory agencies or lower courts, not the Supreme Court.

Katigbak also thanked individuals and groups that had expressed support for ABS-CBN.

“Ang mga pahayag ninyo ay nagbibigay sa amin ng tibay ng loob at lakas, lalong lalo na sa oras ng matinding pagsubok [Your statements give us courage and strength, especially in these trying times],” he said.

Expiry means shutdown
Also on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon warned that ABS-CBN would have to shut down when its 25-year franchise, under Republic Act 7966, expires on March 30, 2020.

ABS-CBN’s Carlo Katigbak speaking on TV Patrol [In Tagalog].

Drilon told ABS-CBN News reporter Karen Davila that pronouncements by some lawmakers that ABS-CBN would be allowed to operate on a temporary license until the end of the current session of Congress, as legislators deliberate on the franchise extension, were mere theories.

“There are Supreme Court decisions that say that the National Telecommunication Commission cannot issue an operating permit without a franchise being granted to the licensee. That has been settled by the Supreme Court. Therefore on April 1, if there is no extension of the franchise, tapos na [it’s finished],” he said.

Drilon said a resolution of both houses, which he proposed earlier this week, was needed to temporarily extend the franchise, adding “I do not want to risk the livelihood of 11,000 ABS-CBN employees on a theory that ABS-CBN and its 11,000 workers can continue after March 30 without a franchise.”

Presidential signature needed
But it must be signed by President Rodrigo Duterte, who had vowed to block a new franchise for ABS-CBN, he said.

“Let me make it very clear, once enacted our joint resolution has the effect and force of a law and it must be approved by the president,” he said.

On Friday, the Malacañang Palace appeared to backtrack on Duterte’s previous statements against ABS-CBN and told Congress to do its job.

“You know, the president made utterances against ABS-CBN. He made certain statements like, ‘I’ll shut down.’ But hindi naman literally iyon e [It’s not literal]. He wants to shut down the fraudulent practices of your network,” Duterte spokesman Salvador Panelo told ABS-CBN’s Karen Davila.

“Why does the speaker (House Speaker Alan Cayetano) have to take a cue from Malacañang? Why do members of Congress have to wait for what the President will say about anything?”

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

• NZ media academic warns shutting key television channel would be step towards ‘dictatorship’

Solicitor-General Jose Calida asked the Supreme Court today to issue a gag order against ABS-CBN, claiming the Philippines’ largest television network was engaging in “propaganda” to sway the justices in the quo warranto case seeking to void its franchise.

Calida filed the “very urgent” motion a week after bringing ABS-CBN to the High Court, accusing the Lopez-led TV network of employing “highly abusive” practices and that its franchise should be forfeited.

The Solicitor-General cited a background video about the quo warranto case by senior reporter Christian Esguerra, and commentaries on the ABS-CBN News website.

READ MORE: Will media freedom survive in the Philippines?

Under the sub judice rule, courts restrict discussions on the merits of pending cases, to avoid prejudgment and influence on the court that could lead to a miscarriage of justice.

Violators may be liable for indirect contempt, based on the Rules of Court.

But there has to be “clear and present danger,” meaning “the evil consequence of the comment must be ‘extremely serious and the degree of imminence extremely high’ before an utterance can be punished,” Associate Justice Noel Tijam wrote in a 2018 decision on a gag order in the case of the quo warranto petition that led to the ousting of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, which Calida also initiated.

“Freedom of speech should not be impaired through the exercise of the power of contempt of court unless there is no doubt that the utterances in question make a serious and imminent threat to the administration of justice. It must constitute an imminent, not merely a likely, threat,” Tijam’s decision stated.

Risk of contempt
Reacting to Calida’s gag order petition, Senator Panfilo Lacson said: “I hope the Supreme Court will not include the Senate or any of its committees in the gag order, if issued as petitioned by the Solicitor-General, in deference to the settled jurisprudence that tackled similar issues in the past.”

“What may be covered, though, are the resource persons who will be invited to shed light on this instant case involving the franchise of ABS-CBN as they are not exempt from the sub judice rule, which covers litigants and witnesses, members of the bar and the public in general,” he said in a statement.

“Thus, they may run the risk of being cited for contempt once they express their opinions that might pose a clear and present danger in the administration of justice by directly influencing the members of the Court in rendering their votes to resolve the pending petition for quo warranto,” Lacson said.

Senator Grace Poe, who was set to conduct an inquiry into the ABS-CBN franchise, said the hearing would push through “according to our constitutional mandate.”

“It is up to the Supreme Court to act on that motion under existing laws and jurisprudence where it recognised the jurisdiction of its co-equal branch,” she said in a statement.

Calida’s quo warranto petition has earned condemnation from media workers, academics and other stakeholders, many of them describing it as an attack on press freedom.

President Rodrigo Duterte had vowed to block the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, which expires at the end of March 2020.

There are moves in the Senate and House of Representatives to give ABS-CBN a temporary licence to allow it to operate while lawmakers discuss the renewal of its franchise. Some 11,000 jobs are at stake.

The High Court gave ABS-CBN 10 days to comment on Calida’s petition.

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

• Philippine protesters back ABS-CBN survival against Durterte

New York-based Human Rights Watch has led a barrage of condemnation against the Duterte government’s “assault on media freedom” by filing a court petition to void the franchise of ABS-CBN, the largest television network in the Philippines.

The petition for quo warranto accuses ABS-CBN of skirting the ban on foreign ownership of mass media and illegally operating a digital for-pay channel and a subsidiary for mobile and digital TV platforms. The publicly listed company denies the allegations.

Shares in ABS-CBN fell 1.76 percent to 16.70 pesos each following news of the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor-General Jose Calida, who campaigned for President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 election.

READ MORE: Duterte top state lawyer asks Supreme Court to shut ‘abusive’ media network

HRW said in a statement that the Philippine Congress should thwart the Duterte government’s “misuse” of regulatory powers, adding that Calida’s action could prevent the renewal of ABS-CBN’s 25-year franchise, which expires on March 30.

“Philippine legislators have a responsibility to uphold media freedom and resist administration efforts to pressure news outlets to toe the government’s line,” said HRW Philippines researcher Carlos Conde.

“President Duterte’s administration should cease its politically motivated legal actions against the network.”

HRW also said the Philippines licence renewal process allowed Congress to put “inappropriate pressure” on broadcast networks.

‘All-out assault’
“The administration’s attempt to cancel ABS-CBN’s franchise or deny its extension is not just an attack on a single network, but an all-out assault on media freedom,” Conde said.

“Complaints against broadcasters should be addressed in the proper forum, such as the National Telecommunications Commission.”

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) also denounced the government’s move, citing ABS-CBN as a “cornerstone of Philippine democracy and the free press for its independent and critical reportage and massive following in the country and abroad”.

“The constitutional violation and other legal infractions raised by the Solicitor-General in his quo warranto petition before the Supreme Court have been denied by ABS-CBN and questioned by some members of the legislature, which has exclusive rights to grant such franchises,” FOCAP said.

“These moves politically harass and threaten a pillar of the media industry that employs thousands of Filipinos and has played a crucial part in helping fight official corruption and abuse for decades.

“We call on Congress to act independently. We call on our Supreme Court Justices to side with the people’s right to truthful and independent news, the Constitution and democracy. We call on our media colleagues to close ranks in this perilous time,” FOCAP said.

The University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication said Calida’s action was “another blatant attack on the freedom of the press”.

Silencing media voices
“In filing a ‘quo warranto’ against ABS-CBN, the current administration demonstrates the lengths that they will go to silence critical media voices,” it said in a statement.

“It has been 34 years since we won back our right to information and a free press through the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

“However, government actions such as these show us the volatility of this hard-won freedom, the need to remain vigilant so as to not allow history to repeat itself,” it said.

“As we have seen in the recent past, multiple tactics have been used to attack the media—from the legal harassment of ABS-CBN and Rappler to the use of spurious data and fake news against media institutions like VERA Files and the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism.”

Opposition senator Francis Pangilinan criticised the Duterte government for “training its guns” on critics amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Another opposition lawmaker, Risa Hontiveros, argued that a quo warranto petition wouldn’t succeed.

“The provision attacks a corporation that was not legally incorporated. ABS-CBN, is, of course, legally incorporated,” she said.

‘Vindictive move’
“I see the Solicitor-General’s quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN as an attack on the free press and a vindictive move against critical journalism,” she added.

The leader of the Senate minority, Franklin Drilon, cast doubt on Calida’s motivation, noting that the petition, which would require weeks – if not months – to resolve, would become useless when ABS-CBN’s franchise expired next month.

“If between now and March, Congress decides to hear the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN — all these issues raised by SolGen Calida in his quo warranto petition can be taken up during the hearing,” Drilon said.

Felipe F. Salvosa II is coordinator of the Journalism Programme in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

A New Zealand media academic and freedom advocate has warned that shutting down the Philippines’ largest and most popular media network would be a move toward dictatorship.

Professor David Robie, director of the New Zealand-based Pacific Media Centre and journalism professor at Auckland University of Technology, said President Rodrigo Duterte’s displeasure toward ABS-CBN Corporation was not enough reason to deprive it of a franchise.

“There’s no justification in doing that [not renewing the franchise of ABS-CBN]. Doing that is moving towards dictatorship,” Dr Robie said in the recent annual memorial John Jefferson Siler lecture-forum at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

READ MORE: Ampatuan massacre justice aftermath with more fear of warlords, corruption

Duterte has vowed to block the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, which is pending in Congress. The president claims ABS-CBN swindled him during the 2016 campaign when the Lopez-led television network did not air his political ad.

The ad was in response to a 30-second spot paid for by then opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV, showing children reacting to the ex-Davao City mayor’s profanity-laden speeches.

“Your franchise will end next year. If you expect it to be renewed, I’m sorry. I will see to it that you’re out,” Duterte said in remarks at Malacañang Palace last month.

Congress has yet to act on the renewal of ABS-CBN’s 25-year broadcasting franchise, which will expire this March.

Journalists rallied yesterday for a “black Friday” protest in support of the ABS-CBN Corp. urging Congress to “repudiate” President Rodrigo Duterte’s “vindictive assault” on the channel and extend the media company’s franchise.

‘Open season’ against journalists
Dr Robie, who is also convenor of the Pacific Media Watch freedom project, talked about human rights and press freedom violations in the Indonesian-ruled region of West Papua, saying it was “open season” against journalists.

He also recalled the 2009 Ampatuan massacre on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao that killed 58 people, including 32 journalists, which marked its 10th anniversary on November 23.

“What you experience in the Philippines is replicated around the world,” Dr Robie said, blaming much of the increased global dangers for journalists on hostile anti-media rhetoric from leaders such as US President Donald Trump and President Duterte.

“We have many leaders around the world…who are basically, constantly attacking and denigrating the media,” he added.

• Journalists hold ‘black Friday’ protest in support of ABS-CBN
• Duterte ‘personally spearheading’ assault on media – NUJP
• Dr Robie’s John Jefferson Siler memorial UST lecture in pictures

The Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology is highlighting the threats to media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region in an event next week marking its 10th anniversary.

Following the International Day of Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists earlier this month, the PMC is hosting two guest speakers in a panel addressing:

• the so-called “war on drugs” in the Philippines and the extrajudicial killings estimated by officials at more than 7000 while human rights agencies claim a higher figure; and
• human rights violations in West Papua.

The event features Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, speaking on journalist safety and the culture of impunity.

The Philippines is the country with the largest single massacre of journalists – 32 on the island of Mindanao in 2009, where a three-month urban siege against jihadists in Marawi City has recently ended with a toll on many newsrooms.

The deadly crackdown on drugs reportedly eased up last month when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police to leave action to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), saying the shift was to target “big fish”.

Human rights advocates had accused Duterte of waging a “war on the poor”, but Mangahas argues that there has been no real change in strategy.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week in Manila the deaths “require investigation”.

Tabloid Jubi editor Victor Mambor (at wheel) with Johnny Blades in West Papua. Image: RNZ Pacific

Johnny Blades, a senior journalist of RNZ International, will also speak about his challenging experiences in West Papua, especially during an “official” visit to the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian provinces in 2015.

Media freedom
The panel will be chaired by founding PMC director Professor David Robie, who has campaigned for many years on media freedom issues and was in Jakarta for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference in May.

A former Pacific Affairs Minister, Laumanuvao Winnie Laban, who launched the PMC a decade ago this year, will also be attending.

Professor Berrin Yanıkkaya, head of the School of Communication Studies at AUT, will launch a graphic new media book, Conflict, Custom & Conscience: Photojournalism and the Pacific Media Centre 2007-2017, edited by Jim Marbrook, Del Abcede, Natalie Robertson and David Robie.

She will also launch the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.

A special video by Sasya Wreksono highlighting the PMC’s achievements over 10 years will be screened along with a photographic exhibition of the research centre’s evolution.

Seminar: “Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific”
Thursday, November 30, 2017 5.30pm-8pm
WG126, School of Communication Studies, AUT
55 Wellesley St, Auckland
Refreshments will be provided
Admission free
RSVP by November 24 to:
communicate@aut.ac.nz

• More information and invitation
• The event on Facebook
• Livestreaming link

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano in Adelaide

Allowing refugees to be economically active in host societies may help solve a “broken” refugee system, says an Oxford University academic.

Professor Alexander Betts of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre told the audience at a public lecture hosted by the University of Adelaide’s Hugo Centre for Migration and Population Research recognition of refugees’ economic potentials would possibly create a “sustainable refugee system fit for purpose in the 21st century”.

Dr Bett’s view comes as European countries continue to struggle to accommodate Syrian refugees fleeing civil conflict and extremism.

In the US, President Donald Trump has slashed the maximum number of refugee entries to 45,000 in 2018, said to be the world leader in refugee resettlement’s most restrictive number in 70 years.

Myanmar and its Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, continue to receive flak over the country’s brutal crackdown on some 370,000 Rohingya refugees.

Australia has been criticised by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for “violating” the rights of asylum seekers to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, all of which was dismissed by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The country continues to hold some 2200 refugees and asylum seekers in offshore detention centres on Nauru.

Refugees own businesses
Citing findings by a Refugee Studies Centre’ survey of South Sudanese and Somali refugees in Uganda, Dr Betts said refugees are not economically isolated.

Dr Betts said a fifth of refugees surveyed by the centre owned a business, with 40 percent of employees being Ugandan.

He said refugees in Uganda had approximately 200 “distinct livelihood activities” run by skilled professionals.

Less than one percent of refugees surveyed had no formal income-generating activity, Dr Betts added.

“The findings in Uganda show what’s possible when refugees are given those opportunities,” Dr Betts said.

Over the past year, Uganda had taken in 1.3 million people – the equivalent of 2000 people a day fleeing famine, drought and violence – more than what any European country accommodated in the 2016 refugee crisis, Dr Betts added.

The economic success of refugees presented a different picture in Kenya amid stricter regulations, the centre’s survey showed.

Reliance on community
This is due to the fact refugees are only able to work in some refugee camps.

Dr Betts and his team found refugees in the camp at Kakuma rely more on community leaders, family and neighbours than they do on the social services provided by international organisations and NGOs.

His team also found the greatest barriers to being economically active related to supply and demand for goods, rather than life’s daily struggles in refugee camps.

Well known for research which reframes refugees as economic contributors, Dr Betts has pushed for the fusion of refugees into countries special economic zones.

The Refugee Studies Centre worked with Jordan to pilot the “Jordan Compact”, which allowed Syrian refugees to work in manufacturing companies found in these special economic zones.

Jordan was willing to grant 200,000 work permits to Syrian refugees across three to five years. In return, multilateral organisations gave Jordan concessionary loans and tariff exemptions.

Dr Betts said the project had achieved “mixed results”, however.

‘Innovative’ pilot project
Only 51,000 Syrian refugees had work permits – 2 percent of which were women – while a handful of multinational investors invested in Jordan.

“The Jordan Compact is an innovative pilot where lessons can be learned in spite of the most strict regulatory environments.

“Refugees have access to work, labour rights and forms of labour protection while helping rebuild post-conflict Syria,” Dr Betts said.

With global data revealing 10 developing countries host 60 percent of the world’s refugees, Dr Betts called on countries to rethink their refugee systems.

He said refugee assistance should be a combination of rescue, autonomy, and a “route out of limbo”.

This could be achieved through reimagining resettlement policies and visa systems for refugees.

“Even with rescue and autonomy, it is surely not reasonable for refugees to remain in limbo for more than five years,” he said.

“There may be alternative ways to manage these movements sustainably to benefit refugees and host countries.

“It will start by helping people help themselves.”

In a bid to set a new Guinness world record, 16,729 students from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines, today trooped to the UST Open Field to thank their teachers.

The attempt to break a world record was part of UST’s celebration of the National Teachers’ Month from September 5 to October 5, reports Rappler.

Next Thursday, the country will also celebrate National Teachers Day, paying tribute to the everyday heroes who have been helping mould the country’s future generation of leaders.

At the UST Open Field, the students spelled out: “My teacher is my hero!”

The Rotary International District 3000, Rotary Club of Perambalur New Gen, Roever Group of Educational Institutions based in India are the current holders of the largest human sentence record.

On August 10, 2016, they organised 16,550 participants to spell out “You can, you will” in celebration of the World Youth Day.

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano 

A second-tier Australian team ruled a basketball kingdom that is the world’s largest by size: Asia.

The Boomers swept past the opposition, including a gritty Iran side last night, 79-56, to claim the FIBA Asia Cup championship in Beirut, Lebanon.

Australia swept all six matches in both preliminary and knock-out phases, beating opponents by an average of 28.83 points.

In the final, Australia led 12-2 to start off the game, but Iran soon gained ground. With the margins 16-14, guard Jason Cadee made a back-to-the-basket shot over Iranian center Meisam Mirzaetalarposhti with 2.5 ticks left in the first quarter.

From there, world number ten Australia were never threatened by world number 25 Iran, three-time champions of the old FIBA Asia Championships.

The gold medal match was the first FIBA Asia Cup which covers the old Asia zone and the Oceania zone, which Australia ruled for decades.

The scary part is Australia’s Beirut squad had none of its eight current NBA players led by Andrew Bogut and Patty Mills. There were only two holdovers of the 2016 Rio Olympics team who barely missed the bronze medal over Spain: David Andersen and Brad Newley.

On average, Adelaide 36er Mitch Creek led the Boomers in scoring (14.7 points per game) while fellow 36er Matthew Hodgson towed Australia in the rebounding department (6.6 rebounds per game).

Australia’s offensive attack was more balanced, to the point no Boomer made it to the tournament’s mythical five and the top five players in the major statistical categories like points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and three-point shooting percentage – an exception is overall field goal shooting percentage, which Creek topped (68.5 per cent field goal).

That alone reflects the depth of the Australian basketball program. Asian countries like Iran, China and the Philippines had some of their best players skipping the tournament or retiring from international play. But some of their leagues’ best players played in Beirut.

Australia’s long-time Oceania rival New Zealand lost to Korea in the bronze medal game, 71-80. China snatched fifth spot over Lebanon (79-78) while the Philippines got some end-game luck to beat Jordan for seventh place (75-70).

The entire FIBA Asia Cup mattered for countries’ current world rankings. But the tournament did not create any impact on the forthcoming home-and-away qualification matches for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.

These matches, patterned after football’s FIFA World Cup qualifications, begin November 2017 and end November 2018. Australia is bracketed with Japan, the Philippines and Chinese-Taipei.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.

• Korea, Iran in with a shot to challenge Australia, NZ for basketball crown
• Australia, NZ slug it out for FIBA Asia Cup crown

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano in Adelaide 

Two former Asian champions earned the right to square-off for a finals ticket and possibly an opportunity to beat Australia or New Zealand in the ongoing FIBA Asia Cup in Beirut.

Former Asian Games champion Korea (world number 30) was too hot, too slick and too tough on defense in a masterful 118-86 win over previously unbeaten Philippines in the first quarterfinal yesterday.

Former three-time FIBA Asia Championships titlist Iran then broke the hearts of home fans by beating Lebanon, 80-70 in the second quarterfinal tussle.

The two countries will meet in the upper bracket of the semifinal round Saturday, August 19.

The lower bracket of the semifinal round is yet to be determined with games today pitting long-time FIBA Oceania champions Australia versus reigning FIBA Asia champions China, and New Zealand battling underdogs Jordan.

Winners of the last two quarterfinals matches will meet in the other semifinal match. Should the Boomers and the Tall Blacks win, only one team from the Pacific will head on to the finals slated Sunday, August 20.

Korea upset New Zealand, 76-75, in during a Group B preliminary round match. And with the way they played against the Tall Blacks and against the Philippines’ Gilas players, the Koreans may enter the finals.

Korea played with a younger batch of players. Its stalwarts in either FIBA Asia or the FIBA World Cup such as guard Yang Donggeun, shooters Cho Sungmin and Kim Taesul and the Moon brothers are have given way to the younger players like centers Oh Sekeun and Kim Jongkyu, and guard Sun Hyungkim.

Iran still has ageless Hamed Haddadi, part of a triumvirate that towed Iran’s title runs in the 2007, 2009 and 2013 FIBA Asia Championships (former name of today’s FIBA Asia Cup). That triumvirate included players who have retired from FIBA play: small forward Samad Nikkahbahrami and Mahdi Kamrani, both former mythical five selections in previous FIBA Asia tournaments.

Given the reformatting of continental tournaments, as well as qualification for the 2019 FIBA World Cup to be held in China, the former Asia and Oceania zones merged into one FIBA zone (Asia).

The merger made Australia the zone’s top team (world number 10), followed by China (number 14) and New Zealand (number 20). Australia, with a line up filled with at least six NBA players, almost won the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Most of the teams at the FIBA Asia Cup did not field in their best players. Some teams are reserving these players when the FIBA World Cup qualification tournaments, featuring home-and-away games (similar to football), begin this November.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.

• Australia, NZ slug it out for FIBA Asia Cup crown 

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano in Adelaide

Basketball countries in the rugby-crazed Pacific will try to rule a merged Asia-Pacific regional zone when the quarterfinals of the new FIBA Asia Cup begin today in Beirut, Lebanon.

That is even if many countries in the ongoing continental hoops showcase did not send their best players.

Like Australia. With the merging of the old FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania zones beginning this year, the world number 10 is tipped to rule the tournament over defending 2015 FIBA Asia champion China (number 14) this August 17th.

The other team that did not send its best players is world number 20 New Zealand. And even if it lost to Korea, 75-76, in Group D preliminary action, the Tall Blacks are primed to make it to the semi-finals.

Owing to changes in the format of FIBA’s international competitions, many countries across the world have opted to keep their players for the home-and-away 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers that begin this November 22. The new format for spots in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China are similar to that of football’s qualification format in the triennial FIFA World Cup.

Australia sent a crew made up players from its National Basketball League (NBL) led by Rio Olympics veterans David Andersen and Brad Newley. The country has eight NBA players —Patty Mills, Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Joe Ingles, Thon Maker, Aron Baynes, and 2016 top rookie pick Ben Simmons— who can all form a formidable FIBA World Cup team. (Andersen plays in the French league as Newley returned to the NBL after a stint in the Spanish league).

And even with the NBL players towing the Boomers, Australia breezed past Japan (84-68), Hong Kong (99-58) and Chinese-Taipei (90-50). The Boomers will play a struggling Chinese team, with the latter playing minus former NBA center Yi Jianlian and NBA rookie Zhou Qi.

New Zealand, for its part, still topped Group C (the “Group of Death”) in Lebanon despite the loss to Korea. New Zealand, Korea and host Lebanon all had 2-1 win-loss cards but the Tall Blacks had the superior quotient.

New Zealand thumped Kazakhstan, 70-49 and endured a rowdy hometown crowd to beat Lebanon 86-82.

The Tall Blacks team in Beirut differs from the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament squad in Manila last July 2016. Missing in Beirut include brothers Corey and Tai Webster, center Isaac Fotu, Thomas Abercrombie and Mika Vokuna. Only Shea Ili and Jordan Ngatai are remnants from the Manila squad who are in Beirut.

Adelaide 36er Mitch Creek banners the Boomers’ scoring binge during preliminary play (15.7 pts. per game) as his team balances its offensive arsenals. Meanwhile, Ili of the Wellington Saints (14.7 pts. per game) tows the Tall Blacks offense.

If Australia beats China and New Zealand hurdles Jordan August 17, the two face off in the semi-finals August 19.

But the other topnotchers in two other preliminary groups, Iran (Group A) and the Philippines (B), hope to make it to the Final Four as well.

Two-time FIBA Asia Champions Iran, with former NBA Center Hamed Haddadi and two others left from its previous champion squads, meet Lebanon today.

The biggest surprise is the smallest team, the Philippines. Without its naturalized American Andray Blatche and three-time Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) most valuable player June Mar Fajardo, and with only a week’s practice, Southeast Asia’s only qualifier upset China (96-87) and breezed past Iraq and Qatar to top Group B.

However, an old continental nemesis —Korea— awaits the Filipinos. Korea always breaks generations of Philippine teams in continental meets such as the old FIBA Asia Championships and the quadrennial Asian Games.

The breakthrough came at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships in Manila when the Philippines upset the Koreans and qualified for the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

The now FIBA Asia Cup was previously called as the FIBA Asia Championships and the older Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championships. The now FIBA World Cup was then the FIBA World Championship and the World Basketball Championships.

No matter who wins the Beirut conclave, results will not affect the FIBA World Cup Qualification matches. The home-and-away matches will be on November 2017 and on February, June, July, September and November 2018.

Australia is bracketed with Japan, the Philippines and Chinese-Taipei. New Zealand is grouped along with Korea, China and Hong Kong. Iran is the luckiest as it is bracketed with Kazakhstan, Iraq and Qatar.

The FIBA Asia zone offers seven slots for the 32-team FIBA World Cup in China. Australia, New Zealand (Oceania zone), Iran, the Philippines and Korea (Asia zone) played at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.

Imagine your Catholic parish priest rushing or abruptly ending a mass because his wife or his child met an accident. Or that priest is budgeting a part of a parish’s funds for his wife’s and his children’s needs.

Such scenarios are not impossible if married men are allowed to be ordained as suggested recently by Pope Francis, say Filipino canon law experts and priests.

“What if in the long run such marriages of these ‘married priests’ won’t last,” asked Father Stephen Mifsud, MSSP.

“So we’ll have another case of separation or divorce. What will parishioners say?”

These concerns are just some of the reactions generated by Pope Francis’ previous statement that the Church should be open to allowing married men to enter the priesthood.

The statement was made as the Church is grappling with the declining number of priests and the aggressive proselytising by other Christian sects, including evangelicals.

“What the Pope seems to be considering lately, especially in places where there is a dearth of priestly vocations, is the possible ordination of married men to the priesthood. [This is for] men who have not made a vow of celibacy,” Bishop Pablo David of the Diocese of Caloocan in Metro Manila said in a Facebook post.

Married priests exist
Bishop David explained that there were married priests in other parts of the world, as in the case of Anglican priests who converted to the Catholic Church and the non-celibate clergymen of the Eastern Orthodox churches.

In the Philippines, about 60 married priests who are now living with their respective families have formed a group called the Philippine Federation of Married Catholic Priests (PFMCP).

Members of the 25-year-old PFMCP have asked the Vatican to recognise their group but have yet to receive a response.

The PFMCP is one of four federations of married Catholic priests worldwide, the others being continental networks: the North Atlantic Federation, the European Federation and the Latin American Federation.

PFMCP member Father Jose Elmer Cajilig said that in the group’s seeking of Vatican recognition, married priests are a reality.

“Even in Europe, there are many married priests in the ministry,” he said in Visayan dialect.

Cajilig had his priestly faculties suspended by the Archdiocese of Jaro in Iloilo province (central Philippines), but he continues to minister in the area.

‘I’m still a priest’
Cajilig currently lives with his common-law wife and four children, and hears mass on two chapels there on Sundays.

“Although, I’m no longer part of the Archdiocese of Jaro, I’m still a priest. My masses are still valid,” Cajilig said.

Father Jim Achacoso, a canon lawyer and consultant of the Philippine Catholic bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Canon Law, said the ordination of married men is not the same as allowing clerics to marry.

“What Church law demands is perpetual celibacy in its ordained ministers. So even if married men were ordained, it would mean that they will have to remain celibate thereafter. The prohibition to get married comes with ordination,” Achacoso said.

He explained that married men who are capable of exercising the ministry with all its demands should also live in “complete and perpetual chastity”.

And as for PFMCP, Achacoso said the group’s members have proven themselves “incapable of being faithful to their first love”.

For Bishop David and Achacoso, only those married men who can give up married life can be ordained.

Pope Francis open
In an interview by German weekly Die Zeit in March, Pope Francis acknowledged that there was a shortage of clerics due to what he described as a “vocation crisis”.

When the magazine asked Pope Francis if he was open to ordaining married men of proven virtue, or viri probati, the pontiff agreed.

The pope also maintained that optional celibacy was not the solution to the problem.

The Vatican processes at least 500 married priests a year who want to return to the ministry.

But some priests are open to the idea of ordaining married men.

Like Father Mifsud, a Maltese missionary serving in Bataan province (north of Manila, on Luzon Island), who said the Catholic Church had been losing adherents to other religious groups because of the lack of priests.

“If viri probati is a solution, why not? Because of the decline in vocations, we could be losing our Catholic faithful to other sects —as we have already experienced in some parts of the country where there are less priests,” Father Mifsud said.

Catholic priest ratio
While about 85 percent of the 100 million Filipinos in the Philippines are Catholics, there are only 9,433 priests, according to the 2016-2017 Catholic Directory of the Philippines. Thus, the ratio is a Catholic priest for every 8,500 Filipino Catholics.

The ordination of married men would be one way to allow the Church to reach the “ideal” ratio of one priest for every 2,000 parishioners, Father Mifsud said.

But canon lawyer Monsignor Rey Monsanto disagreed, saying the move may “create a lot of chaos”.

“This [ordination of married men] will give a precedent and priests may just get married and later go back to the Church,” Monsanto said.

He said such arrangements might bring more confusion and could put the requirement of priestly celibacy in jeopardy.

“This will be tantamount to having optional celibacy, which is not in the purview of the Church,” Monsanto said.

Father Casibjorn Guy Quiacao is an MA in Communication student at the University of Santo Tomas, and produced this story for the graduate class Global Journalism Practice and Studies.

• Read more University of Santo Tomas Journalism stories

Uncertainty surrounds the effectiveness of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ban on smoking.

In an executive order titled E026, Duterte ensured an earlier ban on smoking in enclosed public places and on transportation.

Two months after Duterte’s announcement in May, University of Santo Tomas political scientist Edmund Tayao says “we have yet to see if its implementation will be good”.

Despite the positive health benefits of the ban, anti-smoking advocacy group Health Justice Philippines estimates about 240 Filipinos still die a day — or 87,600 a year — due to smoking-related diseases.

The Philippines ban on public smoking has existed since the Tobacco Regulation Act 2003, which bans smoking in public places such as schools, hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, and public transport.

Elevators and stairwells also fall under the act, while regulations have also been slapped on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

Duterte’s executive order enforcing the earlier ban did not come as a surprise, as he has been a long-time enforcer of anti-smoking since his time as a former mayor of Davao City.

Ban ‘good news’
Duterte’s stand against smoking in Davao City – the most economically-progressive urban enclave in Mindanao island – is now being continued by current mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio.

But while E026 has its critics, Duterte’s reinforcing of the 2003 ban came as good news for 75-year-old widow Juliana Cruz, who lost her husband Rogelio three years ago due to lung complications.

Since he was 15-years-old, Rogelio had consumed two packs of imported, blue-sealed cigarettes daily.

Prior to his death, Rogelio lost his left lung due to a ballooning cyst and had his ribs removed.

The couple were supposed to build a house, but all of their savings went to Rogelio’s hospital bills.

“I was really mad at my sons since they are also smoking. You have seen the fate of your father, but you have not learned from that,” Cruz said.

Duterte’s smoking ban is also good news to smoking victims like cancer survivor Emer Rojas of the anti-tobacco group New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP).

Reduce victim numbers
“We may be able to reduce the number of victims, like us,” Rojas said.

The ban’s enforcement is also seen as one of the toughest in the wake of how other countries have implemented their own smoking bans.

An association of thoracic (spine) doctors in Greece appealed to the government recently to crack down on violations, as seven out of 10 Greeks were exposed to second-hand smoke when visiting bars, restaurants and cafes — all prohibited areas.

Soon-to-be Olympic Games host Japan saw some of its world-level athletes banding together with academics and cancer patients to demand the Japanese government to ban smoking in public indoor places.

About 15,000 Japanese die of second-hand smoking annually, a University of Tokyo health policy professor was quoted as saying.

World leaders themselves have also been lax when it comes to observing smoking bans.

In a March state visit to China, Czech Republic President Milos Zeman got Chinese cigars from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

World leaders lax
Government media reported that since Xi quit smoking in August 2016, 300 million Chinese smokers were “inspired” to quit too.

Controversially, Zeman ignored China’s smoking ban by smoking at Xi’s dinner and on the flight to Beijing – the Chinese government has banned smoking in many indoor places, such as hospitals, schools, sports stadiums and public transport.

Despite the apparent ongoing challenges of enforcing a smoking ban in the Philippines, industry lobby group Philippine Tobacco Institute said in a statement it had “always supported regulation of public smoking”.

Their support comes in spite of impacts to the local economy and businesses through a sin tax reform law (Republic Act 10351, passed in 2012) that imposed hefty tax rates on cigarette products.

Before this year, the law provided brackets of taxes for cigarette products depending on their price.

Currently, cigarettes are taxed uniformly at P30 (NZ$80c) a pack.

Jerome P. Villanueva is an MA in Journalism student at the University of Santo Tomas, and produced this story for the graduate class Global Journalism Practice and Studies.

• Read more University of Santo Tomas Journalism stories

Drug dealers and users at a private university in the Philippines capital of Manila are confident they will survive President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”.

The students say this is because Duterte is going after those who peddle methamphetamine (shabu) and party drugs such as ecstasy.

They claim their drugs – marijuana and cocaine – are currently flying under the administration’s radar.

One of the students, “Bossing”, from a private university in Metro Manila, therefore continues his trade of not only marijuana, but also acid and cocaine.

“Duterte’s focus is on shabu and party drugs. I’m only using marijuana and cocaine.”

Bossing, who has frequently used marijuana since his time in junior high school, says he is not “scared” of Duterte.

“I am not using shabu.”

‘Not really a target’
Another student at a private university, ‘Jeremy’, holds a similar view and feels Duterte condemns the use of shabu more than marijuana.

“I feel the president is lenient to marijuana. What he is looking for is shabu. With marijuana, it will be unfortunate if you get caught using it, but you the marijuana user, is not really a target.

“I am quite scared but I feel I am safe.”

Jeremy’s friend “Ranz”, also a marijuana user since third year junior high school, is more scared of the barking K-9 units in train stations than the controversial operations of the Philippine National Police against drug users and dealers.

“I am not dealing with shabu,” he says.

Ranz, who admitted voting for Duterte in the May 2016 national elections, says marijuana users like himself are “small time” and therefore do not care about accusations of extrajudicial killings.

“What the f— do we care about those things?”

Police corruption allegations
Bossing, Jeremy and Ranz admit they “feel protected’ by what they claim is a culture of corruption among police.

Ranz says this is because the police force is “poor”, so bribe money from suspected drug users.

Drug dealers, meanwhile, are an “escape route”.

“Even if one pretends to be a rich person, the police would not care about you and it is already your advantage.”

Ranz says he wants the ‘war on drugs’ to continue.

“Shabu is the only problematic drug that should be eliminated. Keep it up,” he encouraged.

On May 31, 2017, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) held a public consultation to determine the feasibility of requiring college students to undergo a drug test prior to enrolment.

‘Actively confront’ drugs
The idea had been floated the previous year by the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), who urged CHED on September 2, 2016, to “actively confront” drug testing “with due consideration to academic freedom of higher education institutions, the principle of reasonable regulation of educational institutions, and accessibility of quality education for all”.

However, Bossing, Jeremy and Ranz are adamant mandatory drug testing will not stand in the way of their habit or stop other college students from taking drugs.

“There many ways to avoid getting caught, like borrowing someone else’s urine samples.”

In the past, when Jeremy and Ranz were selected for a random drug test – authorised by the Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 – they said they did not take marijuana for a month prior to the test.

Their results were “negative.”

With the result, Ranz says he can use it to protect himself “from any harm” he may endure.

But as long as Bossing, Jeremy, and Ranz stay away from shabu, they “are going to survive the war on drugs”.

Roy Abrahmn Narra is an MA in Journalism student at the University of Santo Tomas, and produced this story for his graduate class Global Journalism Practice and Studies.

• Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ killings spark row during NZ human rights seminar
• Curbing illegal drugs now development plan target in Philippines 

Also by Roy Abrahmn Narra:

• Philippines tries to reverse trend in new HIV detections

Fishermen from the archipelagic province of Romblon in the Philippines are opposed to planned deep sea mining ventures in the area amid fears it will destroy their livelihoods.

One of these fishermen is 55-year-old Agosto Rivera. Fishing is his livelihood, with the fish nets and blue sea of Odiongan Bay –- part of Tablas Island –- his constant companion for 43 years.

With a PHP300 (NZD$8) daily bounty from fishing, and sometimes a PHP5000 (NZD$140) commission when doing deep sea fishing, the sea has been the lifeblood of Rivera’s wife and 10 children.

But Rivera’s livelihood, and that of the estimated 1390 fisher folk in Odiongan Bay, is said to be in danger. Rivera’s fears are echoed by local government leaders and cause-oriented citizens (known locally as Romblomanons) who are wary of prospective deep sea mining operations that the firm Asian Palladium Mineral Resources, Inc. wants to conduct in Romblon’s Tablas Strait.

The lure is palladium, a rare, malleable and ductile metal that can be used as petroleum or as a material for specialized alloys or pieces of jewelry. “Very few countries have deposits of palladium,” the company’s geologist, Louie Santos, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in June 2016.

To get to Tablas Strait’s palladium, however, Asian Palladium must conduct deep sea mining across a 10.6ha area. This comes after Asian Palladium secured a 25-year Financial and/or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTTA) from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

But as Asian Palladium is waiting for the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s approval to its FTTA application, Romblomanons continue to reject the company’s plans for deep sea mining in the area, which began more than a year ago.

No mining allowed
Romblomanons’ opposition came towards the end of the term of former Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino III in May 2016 when Asian Palladium applied for the FTTA. Upon the assumption of Rodrigo Duterte as president on June 30, 2016, then environment secretary Regina Paz Lopez promised the local government of Odiongan that no mining, including that of Asian Palladium, “will be allowed.”

Lopez ordered the closure and suspension of identified mining companies across the country after assessment teams reportedly found hazards in these firms mining operations. But the Philippine legislature’s Commission on Appointments bypassed Lopez’s appointment thrice, and she was replaced by former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Roy Cimatu.

It is such moves which have invigorated local anti-mining groups, such as the Romblon Ecumenical Forum Against Mining (REFAM), as closed or suspended companies remain poised for a reversal of Lopez’s orders.

“We will not let up in our advocacy,” says REFAM’s Sherryll Fetalvero.

Fetalvero, who is also a professor with Romblon State University, says the group has been “guarding” the province from mining projects.

“The strength of Romblon is the vigilance of the people.”

Some 127,853 signatures –- three-fourths of the province’s voting population –- have been collected from residents of Romblon province during anti-mining signature campaigns in the past. REFAM has also pushed for 125 anti-mining resolutions by local government officials, in the face of no province-wide environment act.

Long-standing opposition
Current protest in Romblon is not the first time the province has opposed mining operations.

Eight years ago, Altai Philippines Mining Corporation was given a cease-and-desist order by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau for its planned metallic mining operations in Romblon’s Sibuyan Island, said to be rich in gold. This came after rising levels of atmospheric mercury were discovered by residents on the island.

In 2011, residents also protested against Ivanhoe Philippines, Inc., which applied for government permission to explore minerals in Tablas Island. Residents’ protest against Ivanhoe spanned nine months from January to September and was regarded as the shortest anti-mining campaign in the Philippines by civil society groups. Ivanhoe subsequently withdrew its exploration permit application on September 30, 2011.

Long-standing opposition in Romblon is not the first anti-mining advocates have asserted doubts on the safety of deep sea mining.

Deep sea mining in Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2014 by Canadian firm Nautilus Minerals was halted following large protest by Papuans led by advocacy groups Bismarck Ramu and the Ocean Foundation’s deep sea mining campaign. The company subsequently removed its ships as its former seabed mining project – Solwara 1 – was referred to as an “experiment” by critics.

As to the mining firms trying to seek permission and operate in Romblon, however, Fetalvero says REFAM has a “tried-and-tested formula” to beat the firms as anti-mining messages continue to be promoted across the province.

“We stop mining companies by making sure they will not be able to get a certificate of publication from the towns of Romblon. That way, we will be able to question the technicalities of an approval by the DENR.”

Rachel E. Llorca is an MA in Journalism student at the University of Santo Tomas, and produced this story for her graduate class Global Journalism Practice and Studies.

• PNG seabed mining an environment experiment based on ‘false hope’, say critics
• ‘No’ to seabed mining in the Pacific, says PNG’s Cardinal Ribat

The year 2016 was a landmark year for the Philippines with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) setting annual and monthly records that are the highest since the country started counting HIV incidence 33 years ago.

This coincides with a new development plan for the country that is targeting a reverse trend for the number of new HIV detections in a year, meaning the growth rates of new infections are declining.

The year-end dataset of the Department of Health’s HIV and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) Registry of the Philippines (HARP) noted that there were 750 cases in December 2016 alone, a month’s high.

The year 2016 tallied a total of 9,264 cases (including 1,113 full-blown AIDS cases and 439 deaths). The 33-year-total of recorded HIV cases, including deaths, is already near the 40,000 mark (39,622).

With the 9,264 total in 2016, the DOH said an average of 25.38 Filipinos have contracted HIV in a day. This contrasts with only one person a day in 2008.

Though latest 2017 figures are yet to be released, a Manila social hygiene clinic physician told Asia Pacific Report the unnamed centre had received 31 cases alone last month.

The Philippines passed a reproductive health law five years ago but it has yet to be fully implemented given court cases and strong opposition from the Catholic Church and from pro-life advocates.

Condom distribution plan
Months into the Rodrigo Duterte administration, the president had issued Executive Order 12 calling for the immediate implementation of Republic Act 10354 (Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act 2012).

Recently, health officials said recently DOH was set to distribute condoms.

Even schools are target distribution centres, say health officials, but Catholic-run schools and universities are vehemently opposing it.

Year-on-year, there were more adolescent deaths in 2016 (88 compared with 64 in 2015). HIV cases reported among Filipinos aged 15-to-24 at the time of their being reported reached 10,720 cases.

But a significant number — more than 60 percent of the 39,622 cases — contracted HIV through homosexual contact.

The Philippines is said to be a “low-prevalence” HIV country, with the 39,622 cases well below one percent of the total Philippine population. However, its annual growth rates of HIV infection rate are among the fastest in the Asia-Pacific region, says a December 2016 report by the US-based Human Rights Watch.

“The country’s growing HIV epidemic has been fuelled by a legal and policy environment hostile to evidence-based policies and interventions proven to help prevent HIV transmission,” HRW said.

HRW criticisms
Human Rights Watch also criticised the Philippine government for “failing to adequately target HIV prevention measures at men who have sex with men (MSM)”, also citing the “woefully inadequate” HIV prevention education in schools and the “non-existent” commercial marketing of condoms to MSM populations.

In reply, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, D.D., president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said condom distribution in schools “will stimulate immorality”.

Dr Diana Mendoza, from a Manila-based social hygiene clinic, told Asia Pacific Report the Philippines could prevent an HIV epidemic especially through empowering citizens through awareness and protection.

In Tacloban City, site of supertyphoon Haiyan in 2013, a Catholic parish priest said that instead of condom distribution in schools, an “ABC method” may work: “A – abstinence from sex outside marriage; B – be faithful to one another; and C – conversion of heart to the value of love and sacredness of sex as a gift of God in marriage”.

This “ABC” advice from Father Raymund Sotto of the St. Rafael the Archangel parish in Tacloban City counters the policy advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO): the proper and consistent use of condoms will be “highly effective: in preventing HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).

The recently-released 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan under the Duterte administration noted the “substantial increase” in newly-diagnosed HIV cases since 2010. The report added that the “the increased reported cases may be due to better surveillance and testing methods.”

The Duterte government will also propose to the Philippine legislature to amend the current Philippine HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act 1998 (Republic Act 8504) to make the law “more responsive and relevant” to the current rise of HIV cases in the country, the PDP reported.

Jerome Villanueva and Roy Abrahmn Narra are graduate journalism students of the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Catholic diocesan priest Father Casibjorn Qiua is taking up a graduate degree in communication from the same university.

• The 20177-2022 Philippine Development Plan

Curbing illegal drugs “holistically” is now an explicit mandate as provided by the Philippines government’s 2017-2022 Development Plan, released last week.

Chapter 18 of the Development Plan says that government targets the significant reduction of “all forms of criminality and illegal drugs” through a “holistic program that involves combating not only crimes but also the corruption that leads to the perpetuation of such acts”.

The portion on curbing illegal drugs in the PDP comes at a time that President Rodrigo Duterte revived community visits to warn drug users and pushers, called locally as Oplan Tokhang.

At the same time, the Philippine National Police Director General Roland dela Rosa has announced yesterday the launching of “Operation Double Barrel Reloaded”.

The operation is said to be a “kinder, gentler” approach for law enforcers to confront the illegal drug problem, dela Rosa told reporters.

More than 7000 suspected users and pushers have been reported killed since Duterte assumed office on 1 July  2016.

These killings are linked to the rise of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that have been lambasted by critics — but shrugged off by Duterte supporters as not being the president’s policy —  that have criticised by international human rights groups, former heads of state, and the United Nations.

‘Suppressing the flow’
The Development Policy declares the country’s national anti-illegal drugs strategy included “suppressing the flow of illegal drugs supply through sustained law enforcement operations and reducing consumer demand for drugs and other substances”.

While the PDP mandated drug rehabilitation and massive preventive education and awareness programs, government is set to arrest and prosecute police personnel “involved in the use and trade of illegal drugs through counter-intelligence operations” prosecution.

Noting also the entry of Chinese, African and Mexican drug syndicates to the Philippines, government will also work with local and foreign law enforcement counterparts, as well as other international anti-drug organisations.

All these plans are part of a “holistic” approach to curb the drug problem, the PDP wrote. The plan also noted the data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that there are around four million drug users, and that 47 percent of villages (barangays) nationwide are “drug-affected.”

“The government has therefore adopted a holistic approach in addressing criminality and illegal drugs,” the PDP says. “As these initiatives are expected to result in high incidence of apprehensions, the government must also upgrade its jail faiclities and substantially increase drug rehabilitation centers.”

The PDP also says that “respect for human rights should be upheld and observed at all times” in all of law enforcers’ activities against criminality.

Recently, the US-based Human Rights Watch published a chapter on the Philippines and observed that Duterte could be liable to a lawsuit before local courts and even the International Criminal Court, the latter for alleged “crimes against humanity”.

Narcotics board concern
The UN-aligned International Narcotics Control Board (ICNB), in a March 2 release of its annual report, indicated the board’s concern about extrajudicial killings.

The board called on the Philippines government to “issue an immediate and unequivocal condemnation and denunciation of extrajudicial actions against individuals suspected of involvement in the illicit drug trade or drug abuse; to put an immediate stop to such actions; and to ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice in full observance of due process and the rule of law”.

Extrajudicial action “is fundamentally contrary to the provisions of… three international drug control conventions,” the ICNB report said.

The Malacañang called the HRW report “thoughtless and irresponsible” when the group’s report wrote the country had a “human rights calamity” given rising extrajudicial killings — allegedly perpetrated by police.

Such a “human rights calamity,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, may have been averted due to actions by government.

Abella cited the more than 1.1 million pushers and users who voluntarily surrendered and the construction of drug rehabilitation centers.

“Is it a human rights calamity when the sheer scope and magnitude of an emerging narco-state have been exposed?” Abella said.

‘Ransom scheme’
Dela Rosa recently formed within the PNP the Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) that replaced the old Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) given the involvement of several of the latter group’s officers in a reported “Tokhang for ransom scheme”.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) indicated in its 2013 to 2016 figures that anti-illegal drug operations such as entrapments and arrests rose exponentially during the last six months of 2016 (the first six months of Duterte’s presidency).

In 2016, PDEA and partner law enforcement agencies had conducted 34,007 operations,  arrested 28,056 people, and filed 23,887 reports. These total figures are the highest over a four-year period (2013 to 2016).

Contrast the extended statements on illegal drugs 2017-2022 PDP to the 2011-2016 PDP provision on illegal drugs. The latter PDP wrote: “Modernise and upgrade facilities for law enforcers such as the PNP and the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) crime laboratories, forensic investigation facilities and equipment.

“Improve capacities of prosecutors and law enforcers particularly NBI agents in the investigation and prosecution of special cases involving economic or white-collar crimes such as money laundering, tax evasion, smuggling, human trafficking, violations of intellectual property rights and antitrust laws, illegal drugs and even cases involving extralegal killings and other human rights violations as well as violation of environmental laws.”

Jerome Villanueva is a graduate journalism student of the University of Santo Tomas. Assistant Professor Jeremaiah Opiniano supervises the undergraduate and graduate journalism degree programmes.

More 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan stories

Students and staff filed their first two stories this week for the innovative website published in partnership with Evening Report.

Roy Abrhamn Narra and Carlo Casingcasing reported an exclusive story showing how Canada’s latest global terrorism blacklists were tagging the Philippines as having the third highest number of “individual terrorists” behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq while journalism coordinator Assistant Professor Jeremaiah M. Opiniano covered Philippines Environment Secretary Regina Lopez’s crackdown on mining companies in a bid to encourage a “green economy”.

Twenty three mining companies have been been served with closure notices and  five others face suspensions. One company involved has assets in New Zealand.

Opiniano was pleased with the collaboration and said UST was working towards a more comprehensive partnership with the PMC and School of Communication Studies.

Professor David Robie, director of the PMC and editor of Asia Pacific Report, welcomed the development, saying: “We are delighted to have UST on board and their input will help boost coverage of the Philippines, especially with more depth.”

He said that since the live feed of the Philippines presidential election last year, the website had experienced a strong Filipino interest and this was reflected by the growing audience among the Philippines diaspora in New Zealand.

Asia Pacific Report also collaborates with other journalism schools around the region, including at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and Wansolwara newspaper.

• Two new journalism degrees in Philippines

The Philippines is among the world’s top sources of metallic deposits like nickel. But in this Southeast Asian mining haven, love may have been lost between the Philippine government and the mining industry.

The country’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has ordered the closure of 23 mines and the companies operating them, plus suspending five others. The firms’ closures and suspensions were recommended by experts who conducted mining audits for the DENR between July and August 2016.

The audits were done in response to reports of these mining firms’ compliance or non-compliance with prevailing regulations on responsible mining and maintaining of environmental standards.

Philippines’ Environment Secretary Regina Lopez is in hot water from the mining industry given her closure and suspension orders, all announced in early February.

Policy and legal battles related to the months-old government of President Rodrigo Duterte have triggered a closer watch on the mining issue.

Mining sector protests
The controversy erupted after February 2 with the announcement of the cancellation and suspension orders by Lopez. Six days later, Lopez had signed the cancellation and suspension orders of the 28 affected companies.

The DENR also released results of the mining audit online explaining why the firms’ mining operations were ordered cancelled or suspended.

Protests followed from the mining sector, especially the industry association Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP). The group said an estimated PhP70 billion (NZ$1.9 billion) in gross production value and some P20 billion (NZ$556 million) in taxes would be lost because of these closure orders, and some 67,000 workers may be displaced.

The COMP said the orders were released “without due process,” but Lopez said  on February 10 that DENR “meticulously observed due process.”

Lopez was referring to the work of the multi-sectoral audit teams that looked at the mining projects in the identified areas. Experts from the central and regional offices of the DENR; from the DENR attached agencies like the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB and the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB); experts from the Departments of Health and Agriculture; and representatives from various civil society organisations conducted the audits.

The multi-sectoral audit teams, Lopez explained, used criteria on the requirements of the different mining and environmental laws of the country. The teams also did cross-auditing, with auditors who reviewed the projects come from another Philippine geographical region. Lopez added the teams also staged entry and exit conferences with stakeholders, including the mining companies.

Seven days were given to the companies to respond to the technical results of the audits and the “show cause” orders. Afterwards, and spanning five months, a technical review committee conducted further review on the companies’ replies to the audit teams’ reviews

Bombardment
After the February 2 announcement from Secretary Lopez, COMP sought the help of the economic managers of Duterte’s cabinet, including Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez who co-chairs with Lopez an inter-agency Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC).

On February 9, Secretaries Lopez and Dominguez — as MICC co-chairs— decided to form a multi-stakeholder committee that will review and advise DENR on Philippine mining operations, to include the recent decisions handed out to the 23 closed and five suspended mining firms.

The mining companies had operations in identified mining hotspots of the country, such as Benguet province (north of Manila, in Luzon island), Zambales province (in the western part of Luzon island), Surigao del Sur (in eastern Mindanao island), Dinagat Island (also in eastern Mindanao), and Eastern Samar (in eastern Visayas region).

Zambales province saw four mining companies —BenguetCorp Nickel Mines, Inc., Eramen Minerals, Inc., LNL Archipelago Minerals, and Zambales Diversified Metals Corp — ordered closed due to alleged illegal logging activities, and for conducting mining operation near a river that had led to siltation in the municipality of Sta. Cruz. Nickel is said to be being extracted there close to a watershed.

Seven mining firms operating in Dinagat Islands were also ordered closed for a build-up of silt on coastal waters: AAM Philippines Natural Resources Exploration, Krominco, Inc., SinoStell Philippines H.Y. Mining Corp., Wellex Mining Corp., Libjo Mining Corp., and Oriental Vision Mining Corp.

In Surigao del Sur province, a further seven mining firms were ordered closed, also for silt in coastal waters and for mining in watersheds: ADNAMA Mining Resources Corp., Claver Mineral Development Corp., Platinum Development Corp., CTP Construction and Mining Corp., Carrascal Nickel Corp., Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. and Hinatuan Mining Corp.

Companies Mt. Sinai Exploration Mining and Development, EMIR Mineral Resources and Techlron Mineral Resources, with operations located in Eastern Samar, were also ordered closed not only because of the siltation of coastal waters, but because of the destruction of a functional watershed.

Mining audits
Apart from the 23 firms whose operations were ordered cancelled and closed by DENR, five other firms were given suspension orders. These are Berong Nickel Corp., OceanaGold Phils., Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp., Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. and Strong Built Mining Development Corp.

DENR conducts mining audits on a regular basis. Some of the firms whose licences were cancelled by Lopez were suspended in previous years and were asked to respond to findings of mining audits.

Some of the firms were also listed in the Philippine stock market, as a few others are joint ventures by a Philippine and a foreign company. For example, Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. is a joint venture between Filipino-run D.M. Consunji Inc. (DMCI) Mining Corp. and the Australia-headquartered Rusina Mining Corp.

Another closed firm, Oriental Synergy Mining Corp., was established by Qishu Mining Corp., a subsidiary of Qishu Enterprises with headquarters in Fujian, China.

Suspended company OceanaGold Philippines, for its part, is a subsidiary of OceanGold Corp., a mid-tier multinational gold producer with assets found in the Philippines, United States and New Zealand.

Other mining companies were also sued by local residents through the writ of kalikasan (nature), a legal remedy provided by the country’s constitution for anybody to sue those who allegedly violate environmental laws and cause environmental havoc.

Lopez alleged last Thursday that some mining firms had links to local politicians, allowing the industry to flourish.

High stakes
The Philippines houses the world’s leading supply of nickel, as it was estimated by the MGB that some PhP54.9 billion (NZ$1.53 billion) of nickel products were produced in 2015.

Nickel prices at the London Metal Exchange’s LMEX Index actually rose to a 16-month high last November 2016. But the stainless steel alloy’s performance at the LMEX dropped again since January, and the price of nickel rose to over-US$10,400 per tonne last Feb. 3 given Lopez’s closure order.

There are 40 metallic mines (including 27 nickel mines) and 62 non-metallic mines in the Philippines, not to mention five processing plants, 16 cement plants, and 2397 small quarries and sand and gravel operations. The Philippines’ mining operations are governed by the 1995 Philippine Mining Act, with some 9 million ha. of land identified to have “high mineral potential” says the MGB.

MGB data shows that the Philippines earned some US$2.8 billion (NZ$3.9 billion) in exports of minerals to Japan, Australia, Canada and China. The Philippines’ minerals industry is currently employing an estimated 236,000 workers, with a job in the mining sector said to be providing four indirect jobs. Mining companies had also paid some PhP25.78 million (NZ$717.2 million) in taxes in 2015.

But a report by the country’s National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) showed that the mining and quarrying industry contributed only less than a percent — 0.7 percent— of the country’s gross domestic product during the period 2000 to 2015. The sector also contributed 5.6 percent of total exports in the same 15-year period, as the mining sector also generated an average of 236,400 jobs from 2011 to 2015.

The Philippines is said to have as many untapped mineral deposits, according to industry experts.

COMP said in a strongly-worded February 7 statement that Lopez “has trained her guns on the legitimate (mining) operations, while turning a blind eye to un-permitted, undocumented, non-tax paying and non-compliant mining operations who are the real violators of the environment.”

‘Pose a danger’
Lopez’s closure and suspension orders, COMP said, “pose a danger to other industries” like logistics, processing companies, manpower and transportation service providers and even the education and health sectors.

“The country needs minerals and environmental policies to be handled with technical competence and sensitivity to the complexities of the issues,” COMP wrote. “We respectfully appeal to… President Duterte to thoroughly review the actions of (Lopez)… and their serious repercussions as a whole as they are without basis and legality.”

The environment secretary, a member of the Lopez family that runs a gamut of Philippine companies found in the media, power generation and distribution and energy sectors, however claimed to have the support of President Duterte.

She also wanted to prove a “green economy” model that, Lopez claims, “can provide more jobs than destructive mining.”

“My issue is not about mining,” Lopez said February 5. “My issue is about social justice.”

The closed and suspended firms have 15 days, possibly before February ends, to respond to the DENR’s cancellation and suspension orders.

Assistant Professor Jeremaiah Opiniano is coordinator of the undergraduate and graduate journalism degree programmes of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.

Blacklists developed by the Canadian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) have tagged the Philippines as having the third highest number of individual terrorists behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The DFAIT list of more than 1800 identified individual terrorists, and a separate list for groups, was released by Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions last week and posted under the office’s anti-terrorism financing page.

About 68 Filipinos were identified on that February 2017 DFAIT list, with the Philippine total behind the 113 of Saudi Arabia and the 88 of Iraq.

The listed Filipinos are affiliated with local rebel groups like the National Democratic Front (NDF) and Abu Sayyaf, which were identified by the Philippine government as terrorist organisations.

On the list is Jose Maria Sison of the National Democratic Front (NDF). The NDF group was negotiating a peace deal with the Philippine government until President Rodrigo Duterte ordered government negotiators on February 4 to pull out of the talks.

Another person on the list is Mukhlis Saifulla, one of the suspects in the bombing of the Light Railway Transit couches on 30 December 2000.

Also on the list is Julkipli Salim Salamuddin, an Abu Sayyaf member arrested in 2003 for a bombing incident in Zamboanga City that killed three, including an American green beret (special force) officer.

Some Filipinos detained
Some of those Filipinos identified in the list have been detained, like five of them who are members of the Rajah Solaiman Movement

The DFAIT also has a separate list of terrorist groups. Those from the Philippines made part of the list include the Aub Sayyaf group, the New People’s Army/Communist Part of the Philippines, the Southeast Asian group Jema’ah Islamiyah that has operations in the Philippines, and the Rajah Solaiman Movement.

The lists’ release comes at a time Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had called for the end of peace negotiations between the government and the NDF, as well as his orders to pummel the Abu Sayyaf group.

In the list of individuals, Yemen was ranked fourth with 43 terrorists. Syria (36) and Russia (33) were fifth and sixth.

Other countries included in the DFAIT terror list (individuals) is the United Kingdom (26), France (23), Turkey (10), and even the United States (seven).

US President Donald Trump earlier banned the entry of nationals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen to the US as part of his administration’s anti-terror campaign.

But among the groups listed, three Filipino groups who were earlier identified to be linked with ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) were not in the DFAIT list: the Ansarul Khilafa Philippines, the Maute group, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Maute group tagged
Duterte tagged the Maute group, allegedly led by Abdullah Maute, as behind the September 2, 2016, bombing of a night market in Davao City (President Duuterte’s hometown) that killed 14 and injured 70 people.

The Canadian terrorism database has included notorious terrorists like Ibrahim al-Asiri, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasir al Whuayshi, as well as Hasan Izz-al-Din and Abdul Rahman Yasin (both tagged by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation as among the most wanted terrorists). Among the groups included in the list were ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Boko Haram.

The lists were posted on the anti-terrorism financing page of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. Last year, though not related to terrorist financing, the Philippines was on the receiving end of the world’s largest online bank hacking incident that saw the Bangladesh central bank lose US$81 million to casino operators based in Manila.

Some money had been recovered and returned to the Bangladeshi government, while a Filipino-run remittance company and a commercial bank are being investigated.

Roy Abrhamn Narra and Carlo Casingcasing are graduate journalism students of the University of Santo Tomas. This story was reported as part of the course “Global Journalism Practice and Studies” at UST.

• Canadian anti-terrorism financing website

“Moving on without justice being served is not moving on—it’s giving up.”

This was the reminder of University of the Philippines professor and anti-Martial Law advocate Professor Crispin Maslog to University of Santo Tomas journalism students and faculty in a public forum held in Metro Manila at the weekend.

Dr Maslog, a former publisher of a weekly newspaper in Dumaguete that was closed down due to Martial Law between 1972 and 1981, urged millennials to open their eyes to the damages to the mass media the Marcos era had brought, even though they were not yet born at the time it happened.

“People without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture [are] like [trees] without roots,” Dr Maslog said, quoting Jamaican political leader and journalist Marcus Garvey.

“The mass media became very critical and Marcos clamped down on the mass media with his military forces,” he said.

“There were the years of protest, social unrest…The youth were taking to this stage to rally against corruption, that’s an old issue.”

Protesters and journalists were beaten and students were tortured, went missing, or found dead, Maslog added, citing Ricardo Manapat’s book on Martial Law.

The chairman of the Manila-based Asian Media Information and Communication Center also slammed the government for its poor education system and the mass media for misleading stories about Martial Law that caused ignorance of the people on the issue.

“It is not the students’ fault. It should be the government and the mass media that should be blamed for misleading information,” Dr Maslog said.

Likewise, Pacific Media Center director Professor David Robie emphasized truth as the core of journalism.

“Journalism is really about truth, any experience of truth, and establishing that truth,” Dr Robie said.

He was speaking about a digital strategy on human rights for journalists and cited the PMC’s own Asia Pacific Report of successful examples of independent campus based media.

Dr Robie added that it was important for journalists to achieve independence in their job of disseminating stories, noting that fact verification through multiple crosschecking and research is a fundamental part of a journalist’s job.

The forum titled Asia-Pacific Journalism for Filipinos Lessons by Seasoned Journalists and Journalism Educators was organised by the Faculty of Arts and Letters Department of Communication and Media Studies in partnership with the Journalism Graduate School, Research Center for Culture, Education and Social Issues-Research Interest Group on Communication.

Dr Robie also ran a workshop on Asia-Pacific reporting.

Maria Eden T. Dino reports for The Flame, official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas’ Faculty of Arts and Letters Department of Communication and Media Studies.

• Martial law amnesia
• Martial law and independent media forum

By a special correspondent in Manila

To mark the 44th anniversary of Martial Law in the Philippines today and to call to mind the atrocities it had inflicted on its victims, thousands of youth and students from across the country have joined street protests as part of the “Youth Action Day for Education, Peace, and Human Rights”.

In a news release, militant youth group Anakbayan said that thousands of university students walked out of their classes to join the protest actions.

Students from various universities in Metro Manila, Baguio City, Pampanga, Laguna, Cebu, Iloilo, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and other major regional centers walk out of their classes to press their demands for free education, peace talks, and respect for human rights.

“We are here in the streets to urge President Rodrigo Duterte to bring his promised ‘change’ to the education sector by taking decisive actions against tuition hikes,” Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said.

Among Metro Manila campuses that held walkouts were the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) main campus in Sta. Mesa, UP Diliman, UP Manila, as well as several private schools in the University Belt in Manila.

The protest action included a caravan, with the assembly point at the University of Santo Tomas area, which was set to proceed to historic Mendiola Bridge near the Malacañan Palace.

Anakbayan condemned the Marcos dictatorship not only for its corruption and human rights violations but also for initiating the deregulation of the education sector resulting in a 5,000-7,000 percent hike in tuition from P700-P2,600 (up to NZ$75) a semester in 1982 to P40,000-80,000 (NZ$1145 – $2290) this year.

Duterte encourages activities
Earlier in the day, Malacañang said that President Duterte encouraged activities to mark the event as long as the protesters won’t cause inconvenience to the public.

“We understand some groups would mark the anniversary through public assembly,” Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement.

“The President encourages various activities to commemorate the occasion as long as they are peaceful and no public inconvenience or destruction of properties may ensue,” he added.

Andanar, meanwhile, reminded that September 21 was a regular working day.

At the University of Santo Tomas at the weekend, veteran communications professor Crispin Maslog gave a compelling presentation on “Martial law for the millenials”, showing some highlights of the injustices and atrocities under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos under Martial Law between 1972 and 1981.

He noted that of more than 400 people present, mostly student journalists and faculty, only half a dozen had been alive at the time of Martial Law.

Visiting professor David Robie, director of New Zealand’s Pacific Media Centre, also gave a lecture on a “digital publishing strategy for human rights” featuring Asia Pacific Report.

GMA News Network

• Students urged never to forget Martial Law atrocities
• Crispin Maslog: A love-hate relationship with President Duterte
• Philippines president ‘hit man’s’ allegations