Marcos victory opens old wounds for martial law victims in Philippines

May 13, 2022

By Thomas Maresca

MANILA, May 13 (UPI) -- As Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was closing in on the presidency of the Philippines earlier this week, playwright Boni Ilagan thought back to a morning almost 50 years ago.

Ilagan, then a 23-year-old student activist, was on the run from Bongbong's father -- dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. -- who had declared martial law and was hunting down political opponents and dissidents.

In April 1974, Ilagan's luck ran out. An intelligence unit burst into the safe house where he and his fellow publishers of an underground newspaper were hiding.

"They started the torture right there in the house," Ilagan, now 70, told UPI. "I think they wanted us to be demoralized immediately, so that we could offer no resistance."

For the next two years, he was held prisoner at Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Manila. Ilagan's captors burned his feet with a flat iron. They made him lie between two cots, suspended by only his head and feet, and beat him when he sagged or fell -- the torturers called it "San Juanico Bridge," named after a span Marcos built as a gift for his wife Imelda, now 92 years old.

Iligan's voice caught as he described how interrogators forced a stick into his penis, trying to get him to talk.

"It took a long time before I was able to share the details of this," he said. "I was in denial."

According to Amnesty International, the Marcos administration detained 70,000 people on charges of subversion, tortured 34,000 and "salvaged" 3,240 -- a euphemism for extrajudicial killings.

Ilagan's sister Rizalina was also arrested and "disappeared" in 1977, her name inscribed on a memorial wall that Boni visited after casting his vote on Monday.

With the presumptive victory of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the presidential election -- he won by a landslide of more than 16 million votes, according to still-unofficial results -- the memories of those dark years have grown closer than ever.

"It's unimaginable," Ilagan said. 'It's like a nightmare that I thought had been lost forever and now has been revived."

Another student activist, Neri Colmenares, was just 18 when he was arrested in 1978. He would spend a total of four years in prison, subject to frequent beatings and electric shocks.

However, Colmenares said it was the mental torture -- such as being forced to play Russian roulette with a loaded revolver -- that was worse.

"After three days of beatings, your body is so numb that no more pain can be added," he told UPI. "It was the mental torture that actually broke a lot of activists. I always say that it is probably because the mind is limitless. Therefore, the pain is limitless."

Both men have been active in keeping the memory of the martial law era alive and warning of the dangers of returning the Marcos clan to power.

Ilagan, a renowned playwright whose works portrayed the human rights violations of the Marcos dictatorship, is one of the leaders of the activist group Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law.

Colmenares, a 62-year-old human rights lawyer and former congressman, ran an unsuccessful campaign for a Senate seat this week on a ticket closely allied with Leni Robredo, the main opponent of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the presidential race.

"I was competing against Marcos more than I was competing for my senatorial position," Colmenares said. "Because among the candidates, I think I'm the only one who was tortured and arrested during Marcos era, so I felt a personal obligation."

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has never apologized or admitted to any wrongdoing from the two decades of rule that saw his family plunder up to $10 billion from the country. Instead, he ran on a campaign slogan of "together we will rise again" and praised his dictator father as a "political genius."

Meanwhile, opponents have been faced with a "firehose of disinformation," according to fact-checking group Tsek.ph, much of which has set out to rehabilitate the family's image and cast the Marcos era as a kind of golden age of the Philippines.

"Marcos has been exceptionally effective in using disinformation spread on social media to rebrand his family's history and create a devoted following," Liz Derr, founder of TrollExposer, a U.S.-based organization that roots out accounts and groups responsible for fake news on Facebook, told UPI.

"He has conditioned his followers to be impervious to fact checking and reliable sources," Derr said.

One widespread myth, used to explain the notorious kleptocracy's wealth, claims that Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was paid thousands of tons of gold when he worked as a lawyer for the descendants of a Philippine royal family.

Other accounts claim that only terrorists were arrested under martial law -- not activists or critics such as Ilagan and Colmenares. The lies are especially targeted at voters too young to have firsthand memories of the Marcos era, which ended when he was driven into exile by a popular uprising in 1986.

"I felt some resentment against the young people for believing," Ilagan said. "But I realized it was not their fault. It was the fault of our government, our institutions who failed to ensure that the lessons of history, especially during martial law, were taught."

"My main obligation is to tell people my story," Ilagan said. "So I tell my story. And I tell the story of my sister."

Source: United Press International (UPI).

Link: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/05/13/philippines-ferdinand-marcos-martial-law-Philippines/2611652445128/.

The rise and fall -- and rise again -- of the Philippines' Marcos family

May 6, 2022

By Danielle Haynes

May 6 (UPI) -- For decades, the name "Ferdinand Marcos" would have struck anger and fear in most Filipinos, and any association with the late dictator might have been the kiss of death for a political campaign.

But on Monday, voters in the Philippines are poised to elect the son and namesake of the onetime dictator into power more than three decades after his father was deposed.

Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. of the Federal Party of the Philippines heads into Monday's election with 56% of Filipinos saying they'd vote for him, according to a Pulse Asia Research Inc. poll released Monday. He has more than double the support of his next-nearest opponent, Vice President Leni Robredo (23%). Seven percent of respondents said they'd vote for former boxing champion Manny Pacquiao.

The support for the younger Marcos is remarkable given how far his family -- including his mother, Imelda Marcos -- fell during the People Power Revolution.

Ferdinand Marcos rose to power in 1965 after nearly two decades in politics -- first working for the first president after independence from the United States, Manuel Roxas, then as a member of the House of Representatives and Senate. He broke with Roxas' Liberal Party after failing to receive its nomination for president in 1965, and was ultimately elected as a member of the Nationalist Party.

Early in his presidency, Ferdinand Marcos won the hearts of Filipinos, building up the country's infrastructure and giving his beauty-queen wife powers beyond those of a typical first lady. A UPI article on his legacy published in the days after his 1989 death said his administration "originally was likened to the Camelot of the John F. Kennedy years in the White House."

Ferdinand Marcos was the first leader of the Philippines to serve a second term, but despite his re-election general favorability in his first term, he faced growing discontent, particularly among students.

Ferdinand Marcos implemented martial law in 1972, jailing opposition members -- including Benigno Aquino Jr. -- and using the armed forces to carry out his will. He used violence to suppress opposition to his rule, silenced media outlets, confiscated some half-million firearms, and oversaw a fraudulent referendum to ratify his martial law in 1973.

The Marcos administration faced fierce threats even within its own ranks, with the politicized military stamping out at least five attempted coups.

He gradually amassed more power and wealth for himself, to the tune of $28 billion, much of which he stole from the Central Bank of the Philippines. The U.S. government estimates he made off with up to $10 billion of that in exile.

The first couple came to be associated with excess and a decadent lifestyle. Imelda Marcos was famous for her collection of thousands of pairs of shoes, racks of gowns and Gucci handbags.

Ferdinand Marcos ended martial law in 1981, the same year he was elected to a third term. Growing discontent with his rule spurred a non-violent revolution in 1986. Over the course of four days in February, some 2 million people protested the regime's violence -- including the assassination of popular opposition leader Aquino -- election fraud and financial corruption.

Multiple political, military and religious groups joined in support of the effort, also known as the Yellow Revolution, and the first family ultimately fled, seeking refuge in Hawaii.

Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquina, was sworn in as president, a role she served for six years.

Ferdinand Marcos died at the age of 72 in 1989, still in exile in Hawaii. He initially was interred in a mausoleum on the island of Oahu, but his body was moved to a crypt in the Philippines in 1993.

In 2016, he was quietly given a hero's burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the national cemetery, to the outcry of those who remembered his brutal and dictatorial reign.

Despite protests against his burial at the revered cemetery, opposition to Imelda Marcos and his son, Bongbong Marcos waned in recent years.

The former first lady, now 92, returned to the Philippines in the 1990s and served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1998 and again for nine years beginning in 2010. Bongbong Marcos was governor and vice governor of Ilocos Norte for a combined 15 years, before serving in the House. He most recently served six years in the Senate.

Bongbong Marcos is running for the presidency as a member of the Federal Party of the Philippines, which was formed by supporters of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte. The party seeks to navigate the Philippines' unitary system of government to a federal one consisting of provinces or states.

His running mate is Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the daughter of the current president.

Though the younger Marcos has plenty of detractors from those who remember the atrocities of his father's regime, observers blame a lack of education about the dictatorship and misinformation by the Marcoses for the new support and BongBong Marcos' likely win.

Source: United Press International (UPI).

Link: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/05/06/philippines-philippines-election-ferdinand-marcos-history/5851651701744/.

Philippine leader Duterte announces retirement from politics

October 02, 2021

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday announced he was retiring from politics and dropping plans to run for vice president in next year’s elections when his term ends, avoiding a legal battle with opponents who question such a move.

Speaking before reporters, Duterte said many Filipinos have expressed their opposition to his vice-presidential bid in surveys and public forums. “The overwhelming sentiment of the Filipino is that I’m not qualified, and it would be a violation of the constitution,” Duterte said. “In obedience to the will of the people ... I will follow what you wish and today I announce my retirement from politics.”

The 76-year-old leader, known for his deadly anti-drugs crackdown, brash rhetoric and unorthodox political style, earlier accepted the ruling party’s nomination for him to seek the vice presidency in the May 9 elections. The decision outraged many of his opponents, who have described him as a human rights calamity in an Asian bastion of democracy.

Duterte announced his surprise withdrawal from the election after accompanying his former longtime aide, Sen. Bong Go, to register his own vice presidential candidacy with the ruling party at a Commission on Elections center.

Philippine presidents are limited by the constitution to a single six-year term and opponents had said they would question the legality of Duterte’s announced vice presidential run before the Supreme Court if he pursues his bid.

While two past presidents have run for lower elected positions after their terms ended in recent history, Duterte was the first to consider running for the vice presidency. If he pursued the candidacy and won, that could elevate him back to the presidency if the elected leader dies or is incapacitated for any reason.

Duterte's withdrawal could also pave the way for the possible presidential run of his politician daughter Sara Duterte currently serves as mayor of southern Davao city, and has been prodded by many supporters to make a bid to succeed her father. She has topped independent public opinion surveys on who should lead the country next.

But after her father initially declared that he would seek the vice presidency, Sara Duterte announced she would not run for president, saying she and her father have agreed that only one Duterte would run for a national office next year.

There was no immediate reaction from the president’s daughter, who has gone on a weeklong medical leave. Duterte took office in 2016 and immediately launched a crackdown on illegal drugs that has left more than 6,000 mostly petty suspects dead and alarmed Western governments and human rights groups. The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation of the killings but he has vowed never to cooperate with the inquiry and allow ICC investigators to enter the country.

Philippines' Duterte will 'die first' before facing ICC

September 16, 2021

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte would rather “die first” before facing an international tribunal, his spokesman said Thursday, the day after the International Criminal Court announced it would investigate allegations of crimes against humanity during his bloody war on drugs.

Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said the president was unfazed when he’d informed him late Wednesday of the court’s decision. “The president didn’t have any reaction, because from the get go, he has said that he’ll die first before he faces any international courts,” Roque told reporters.

“If there are any complaints, they should file it here in the Philippines.” The court on Wednesday said it had authorized an investigation requested by former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda into Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, saying it could not “be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation.”

More than 6,000 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed during the campaign, according to the government, but human rights groups say the death toll is considerably higher and should include many unsolved killings by motorcycle-riding gunmen who may have been deployed by police.

Duterte, who has cheered many of the deaths but denied condoning extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, is constitutionally prohibited from running for another term as president in elections next year. But he has announced he will run as vice president instead in a maneuver critics have said is an attempt to both maintain power and insulate himself from the ICC investigation, which has been expected.

Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the ICC's announcement comes at a “pivotal time” and that “human rights should be at the center of discussions when the Philippines chooses its next leaders.”

“No one is above the law,” she said in a statement. "Duterte’s government must immediately end the cycle of killings, remove those involved from the ranks of the police and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to trial.”

Duterte's chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, alleged that the Netherlands-based international court was “being utilized as a political and propaganda apparatus" by Duterte's political opponents. “While we expect that more theatrics will be employed by the detractors of the president as election season draws near, this blatant and brazen interference and assault on our sovereignty as an independent country by the ICC is condemnable,” he said in a written statement.

In her 57-page request, a partially redacted version of which the court released to the public, Bensouda argued that Duterte's aggressive approach and bellicose rhetoric toward drug traffickers had already taken shape when he served as mayor of Davao City, before he was elected president in 2016.

“Throughout his tenure as mayor, a central force of his efforts was fighting crime and drug use, earning him the nicknames ‘The Punisher’ and ‘Duterte Harry’ for the violent manner in which he sought to combat crime," Bensouda wrote.

“On multiple occasions, Duterte publicly supported and encouraged the killing of petty criminals and drug dealers in Davao City.” She dismissed the contention by Philippine authorities that deaths in the war on drugs resulted from police acting in self defense, noting that “statements by some public officials suggest that they considered the killings an achievement and an integral component” of the campaign, and that they were encouraged by Duterte as president.

“Duterte praised the increasing number of police killings as proof of the “success” of his “war on drugs,” she argued, adding that Duterte made public statements encouraging security forces to kill drug suspects, regardless of the level of threat.

The investigation will look at killings that took place during some of the time Duterte was mayor, and during his time as president between July 1, 2016 and March 16, 2019, the date the Philippines withdrew from the court.

Panelo, the presidential legal counsel, argued that if the court wanted to investigate it should have done so while the Philippines was a member of the ICC, and that now it has no jurisdiction. Last year, the court decided not to pursue an investigation into crimes allegedly committed by China against Uyghur and other minorities there, saying it did not have jurisdiction over non-members. The United States and Russia are other notable non-members of the ICC.

But Carlos Conde, senior Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch, said by focusing on the years that the country was still a member of the court, the ICC is well within its rights to investigate Duterte's actions.

He told reporters in Manila that Duterte's run for vice president does “not in any way afford him immunity from suit or investigation by the ICC.” "He will of course try everything in his power to frustrate the ICC from doing its job and its mandate,” Conde said.

Rising reported from Bangkok.

Filipino troops kill rebel commander, rescue last hostage

March 21, 2021

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops killed an Abu Sayyaf rebel commander blamed for years of ransom kidnappings and on Sunday rescued the last of his four Indonesian captives, the military said.

Marines wounded Amajan Sahidjuan in a gunbattle Saturday night and he later died from loss of blood on Kalupag Island in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi. Two other militants managed to flee and dragged along the last of four Indonesian hostages but troops finally rescued him on Sunday, regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr. said.

On Thursday night, three Indonesian men were rescued by police who also captured one of their Abu Sayyaf captors along the shores of South Ubian town in Tawi Tawi. The military said the Abu Sayyaf militants led by Sahidjuan were fleeing assaults in nearby Sulu province when their speedboat was lashed by huge waves and overturned off Tawi Tawi.

A military officer said the militants were attempting to cross the sea border to Tambisan Island in neighboring Malaysia’s Sabah state to release the captives in exchange for a ransom of at least five million pesos ($104,000), but the Philippine military got wind of the plan and launched covert assaults.

The officer, who has a keen knowledge of anti-Abu Sayyaf operations, spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to speak publicly. Vinluan said the rescue of the Indonesian men, the last known hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf, would allow government forces to finish off the ransom-seeking rebels.

“It will just be relentless in a massive and focused military operation because, now, we would not worry about kidnap victims getting hit,” Vinluan told reporters by telephone. Vinluan said there were about 80 Abu Sayyaf gunmen left in Sulu and outlying island provinces. One of their remaining elderly leaders, Radulan Sahiron, has fallen ill and was wounded in a recent offensive in Sulu, he said.

Sahidjuan, who uses the nom de guerre Apuh Mike, has been blamed for carrying out ransom kidnappings since the early 1990s. He was reportedly among Abu Sayyaf militants who attacked the southern largely Christian town of Ipil in 1995, where they killed more than 50 people after robbing banks and stores and burning the town center in one of their most audacious raids.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small but violent group that has been separately blacklisted by the Philippines and the United States as a terrorist organization for bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Some of its factions have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.

The militants have been considerably weakened by years of military offensives, surrenders and battle setbacks but remain a national security threat. They set off a security alarm in the region in recent years after they started venturing away from their jungle encampments in Sulu, a poverty wracked Muslim province in the largely Roman Catholic nation, and staged kidnappings in Malaysian coastal towns and targeted crews of cargo ships.

Philippine president approves amnesty program for rebels

February 17, 2021

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president has approved an amnesty program for Muslim and communist rebels who would agree to surrender their weapons as they return to normal life in the latest such attempt to tame rural insurgencies that have raged for half a century.

Thousands of guerrillas belonging to two large Muslim groups in the country’s south and a communist rebel faction could apply for the amnesty within a year after it gets approved by Congress, according to President Rodrigo Duterte’s signed orders made public late Tuesday.

The three rebel groups have signed separate peace deals with Duterte’s predecessors which have eased decades of fighting but have not been fully enforced due to unresolved issues. Leaders of the largest armed group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have been put in charge temporarily of administering a new Muslim autonomous region in the south while thousands of its fighters are disarmed.

“It’s welcome as long as it’s based on our peace agreement,” Moro Islamic Liberation Front spokesman Von Al Haq told The Associated Press by telephone. He said that his rebel group’s peace deal with the government provides for a general amnesty with an agreed manner of “decommissioning,” a subtle term for disarming thousands of its combatants in batches depending largely on government compliance with the peace pact.

Duterte also agreed to include former insurgents who once belonged to the main communist New People’s Army in his amnesty program. He labeled the NPA a “terrorist group” in his amnesty proclamation. His administration’s peace talks with the Marxist group collapsed after both sides accused each other of launching attacks despite peace negotiations brokered by Norway.

The 75-year-old Duterte has promised to resolve Muslim and communist insurgencies before he leaves office. His six-year term ends in June next year. “There is a need to reintegrate as soon as possible all rebels and insurgents into the mainstream society under the rule of law, including those who may have committed unlawful acts,” Duterte said in his amnesty proclamation.

The amnesty “shall extinguish any criminal liability for acts committed in pursuit of political beliefs” and restore political and civil rights, which were lost due to criminal conviction, the proclamation said.

The amnesty would not cover kidnappings for ransom, massacres, rape, terrorism, drug trafficking and certain crimes the U.N. says should never be covered by amnesties, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and torture.

The amnesty program excludes the notoriously brutal Abu Sayyaf and other small armed bands associated with the Islamic State group. The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and suicide bombings. It has been weakened by years of battle setbacks, surrenders and continuing military offensives but remains a security threat.

What Peace Prize says about freedom in Russia, Philippines

October 08, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prize sometimes recognizes groundbreaking efforts to resolve seemingly intractable conflicts, such as once-sworn enemies who sat down and brokered an end to war. In other years, the recipient is someone who promoted human rights at great personal cost.

The prestigious award also can serve as a not-so-subtle message to authoritarian governments and leaders that the world is watching. What does the selection of two journalists, Maria Ressa, 58, of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov, 59, of Russia, say about freedom of expression and the history of dissent in the countries of the 2021 peace prize winners?

“It is a battle for facts. When you’re in a battle for facts, journalism is activism," Ressa said Friday.

RUSSIA

Dmitry Muratov is part of a historic cycle that links him to two other Russian winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

When Andrei Sakharov, a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist turned political dissident, received the prize in 1975, the Cold War was at its height and the Soviet Union seemed invincible. The country's Communist leaders tolerated no dissent. Five years after becoming a Nobel laureate, Sakharov’s bold criticism of the Soviet regime got him sent into internal exile.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev allowed Sakharov to return from exile in 1986, and went on to win the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the Cold War. But while he was earning international accolades, Gorbachev was under attack from both members of the Communist old guard who opposed his reforms and democracy champions such as Sakharov who accused him of being indecisive.

The Soviet Union collapsed after a string of Soviet republics declared their independence and Gorbachev stepped down as president on Dec. 25, 1991. The former leader would use some of his Nobel Prize money to help a group of Russian journalists, including Muratov, buy computers and office equipment for their new independent newspaper in 1993. Gorbachev eventually became Novaya Gazeta's co-owner; Muratov was its editor from 1995 to 2017, and returned to the post in 2019.

Under his leadership, the publication has become the country’s top independent newspaper, broadly acclaimed internationally for its fearless reporting on the bloody separatist war in the Russian republic of Chechnya and on official corruption. The paper has taken a consistently critical look at the rollback of post-Soviet freedoms during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s more than two decades in power.

Several Novaya reporters and contributors were killed. The paper's leading reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, who relentlessly covered human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006.

A Moscow court convicted the gunman and three other Chechens in the killing, as well as a former Moscow police officer who was their accomplice. But on Thursday, the 15th anniversary of Politkovskaya’s slaying, Muratov noted that the Russian authorities never tracked down the person who ordered it.

“Regrettably, there is no probe going on now,” Muratov said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We don’t even know when an investigator last touched that criminal case.” He vowed that the newspaper would continue working to track down the mastermind of Politkovskaya’s killing on its own.

Muratov also pledged to use his Nobel Prize to help independent Russian journalists. Many people in Russia voiced hope that the prize, by emphasizing global support for media freedom, would help restrain the government's multi-pronged crackdown on independent media.

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines was one of the few places in Asia where freedom of the press seemed assured when Maria Ressa and other journalists founded the online magazine Rappler in 2012. The government of long-time dictator Ferdinard Marcos had muzzled the media, imprisoned opponents and tortured activists. But after the 1986 “people power” revolution toppled Marcos, a myriad of newspapers, lively radio stations and closely watched TV channels sprang up to chronicle the new chapter in the Philippines.

Their mission: delivering timely information to a Filipino population hungry for news. In the following years, the Philippines remained a dangerous place for journalists, a free-wheeling country where retaliatory violence often accompanied the freedom to speak up due to an abundance of firearms, legal impunity and political instability. It had one of the highest numbers of reporters killed each year.

Then came the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016. After campaigning on a promise to deal with widespread crime, he launched a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, enlisting police and unidentified gunmen who became the judge and jury for thousands of mostly poor suspects in Manila’s sprawling urban slums.

Rappler CEO Ressa and other staff members took to reporting the nighttime raids that left hundreds and then thousands dead in overwhelmed morgues. Police said they were acting in self-defense when officers gunned down alleged drug dealers. Few suspects were questioned in what human rights activists soon described as extrajudicial executions.

As the death toll mounted, so did Rappler’s stories, some of which suggested that weapons could have been planted on the people killed. In a Nov. 9, 2020, story, Rappler reporter Rambo Talabong quoted the last words of Vicent Adia, a 27-year-old man who was labeled a drug pusher and initially survived “a vigilante execution” only to be slain by a gunman at a hospital near Manila. According to Rappler, Adia had told his close friend: “The police are about to kill me.”

Duterte’s fury at journalists increased as well. The tough-talking president declared that “corrupt” journalists were not “exempted from assassination.” “In 2016, it was really, really laughable. And I thought, ‘Oh, doesn’t matter.’ I laughed,” Ressa said in a 2020 interview, recalling her disbelief that the president would make good on his lethal threats in a country where democracy and human rights had been restored.

Any hint of humor evaporated when she became a target. She was arrested and held for a night, prosecuted in a series of criminal cases, including tax evasion, and convicted of libel. She remains free on bail while the libel case is on appeal, but faces up to six years in prison.

At about the same time, Ressa began wearing a bulletproof vest because of threats. In the 2020 documentary “A Thousand Cuts,” by Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz, she is seen pleading with Facebook representatives to delete violent posts against her and to remove livestreams of Duterte supporters protesting outside Rappler's offices.

“The Philippine government filed 10 arrest warrants against me. In the last year, the government has prevented my travel four times, including when my mother was diagnosed with cancer and I needed to go to see my aging parents,” Ressa said in a Zoom interview after she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Duterte and other Philippine officials have said the criminal complaints against Ressa and Rappler were not a press freedom issue but a part of normal judicial procedures arising from their alleged violations of the law.

In June, a Manila court dismissed a cyber-libel case against Ressa arising from a complaint filed by a wealthy businessman. A 2012 Rappler article included allegations that the businessman was linked to illegal drugs and human trafficking, and that a car registered in his name had been used by the country’s chief justice.

The law under which Ressa was charged by the government, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, did not go into effect until months after the article appeared, according to Rappler. In August, another case against her was dismissed. Ressa has pleaded not guilty to charges of breaching a ban on foreign ownership and control of media outlets in the Philippines, as well as tax evasion charges.

“You don’t know how powerful government is until you come under attack the way we have. When all the different parts of government work against you, it’s kind of shocking,” Ressa said.

Associated Press writer Hrvoje Hranjski reported from Bangkok and has previously reported from Manila. Anna Frants in Moscow contributed to this report.

At least 11 killed in bomb attacks in southern Philippines

August 24, 2020

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Suspected Islamic militants set off bombs in a southern Philippine town on Monday, killing at least 11 soldiers and civilians despite extra tight security because of threats of suicide attacks by Islamic State group-aligned rebels, officials said.

Nearly 40 soldiers, police and civilians were wounded in the attacks, military and police officials said. Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan said at least five soldiers and four civilians were killed in the first attack, when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded at noon near two parked army trucks in front of a grocery store and computer shop in Jolo town in Sulu province.

“It was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device which exploded while our soldiers were on a marketing run,” Vinluan told reporters. A second blast nearby, apparently from a female suicide attacker, occurred about an hour later and killed the bomber and a soldier and wounded several others, a military report said. It said the suspected bomber walked out of a snack shop, approached soldiers who were securing a Roman Catholic cathedral and “suddenly blew herself up.”

Snipers were deployed in the area to guard against more bombers as the victims were carried to an ambulance. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Ronald Mateo said a seventh soldier was also killed in the bombings but did not provide further details.

A third unexploded bomb was reportedly found in a public market. Jolo was immediately placed in a security lockdown by troops and police. The bombings were the deadliest attack in the country this year and were staged as the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque condemned the bombings “in the strongest possible terms.”

Initial pictures seen by The Associated Press showed soldiers carrying a man from the scene of the explosion near an army truck while another victim lay on the road. The wreckage of a motorcycle and body parts were seen on the road.

The first bombing was carried out near a town plaza and the cathedral in the predominantly Muslim province. The country’s southern region is home to minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation and has been the scene of decades of Muslim separatist unrest, particularly in remote island provinces such as Jolo.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the military blamed an Abu Sayyaf militant commander, Mundi Sawadjaan. Military officials said last week that Sawadjaan had plotted bombings in Sulu using two female suicide attackers. Army troops were carrying out a covert operation to locate and capture Sawadjaan and the suicide bombers in June when four army personnel were stopped at a Jolo police checkpoint and later shot to death by a group of policemen.

The army angrily described the killings as a rub out and demanded murder charges be filed immediately against nine policemen. Police officials, however, say it may have been a mistaken encounter between the army and police forces.

The military has been waging a monthslong offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group aligned with the Islamic State group and listed by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist group for past bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings.

Its armed fighters have dwindled in number to a few hundred in recent years due to battle setbacks and surrenders, including a key commander, Abduljihad Susukan, who gave up to authorities two weeks ago after being wounded in battle.

Susukan has been blamed for kidnappings and beheadings of hostages, including foreign tourists. He reportedly surrendered through a Muslim rebel chief who has signed a peace deal and was cooperating with the government.

Military officials said they were not discounting the possibility that Monday’s bombings were staged partly in retaliation for the detention of Susukan, who is now in police custody and faces multiple murder and kidnapping charges.

Top militant linked to beheadings surrenders in Philippines

August 14, 2020

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A leading terror suspect who has been linked to beheadings of hostages, including two Canadians and a Malaysian, has surrendered after being wounded in battle, officials said Friday.

National police chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said Thursday night that Abu Sayyaf commander Anduljihad Susukan gave up after negotiations with police in southern Davao city, where he was served warrants for at least 23 cases of murder, 6 for attempted murder and 5 for kidnapping.

He is the highest-ranking commander of the small but brutal Abu Sayyaf group to be taken into custody so far this year. The military has been waging a years-long offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, which has been blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for past bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Many of its gunmen, mostly peasants and desperately poor villagers, have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.

Security officials have blamed Susukan and his men for playing a role in cross-border kidnappings of tourists and other victims from the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, including a Malaysian citizen, who was beheaded by the militants in 2015 in their jungle base in southern Sulu province on the day when Malaysia's then-Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived in Manila to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Susukan also helped finance the kidnappings in the south of two Canadian men, who were separately beheaded in Sulu in 2016 after the militants failed to get a huge ransom. Another Abu Sayyaf militant, Ben Yadah, murdered the two Canadians and remains at large, a military officer said.

Susukan surrendered to a Muslim rebel chief after the accidental explosion of his M203 rifle grenade in a gunbattle with troops in Sulu severed his left arm. Military officials had believed he was killed but later learned he was in the custody of Nur Misuari, who leads an armed group which signed a 1996 peace deal with the government.

Misuari flew from Jolo to Davao city on a private plane with a few companions that included Susukan on Sunday, sparking speculation he may be planning to present the terror suspect to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte has been staying in his hometown in Davao city, where Misuari also has a home. Although the president has appointed Misuari as a special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Muslim rebel chief has not been clearly authorized to hold talks with suspected terrorists.

“His giving himself up to Mr. Misuari is not the surrender contemplated under the law and does not make him immune from arrest,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said of Susukan in a statement.

Under a murky arrangement, Misuari and his rebel force have been allowed to keep their weapons in Sulu and outlying provinces under the 1996 Muslim autonomy deal in the south, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

Virus surges in India, Philippines; Australia imposes curfew

August 02, 2020

NEW DELHI (AP) — Surges of new coronavirus cases continued Sunday in India and the Philippines, which recorded another daily high to surpass 100,000 total infections, as officials across the globe considered stricter measures to stymie the spread of the pandemic.

A curfew was imposed on Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, following a spike in infections. Countries including the United States, India and South Africa are struggling to rein in their first wave of infections while South Korea and others where the disease abated try to avert a second wave as curbs on travel and trade ease.

Governments worldwide have reported 684,075 deaths and 17.8 million cases, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University. India's 54,735 new cases were down from the previous day's record 57,118 but raised the total to 1.75 million. The month of July accounted for more than 1.1 million of those cases.

The major cities of New Delhi and Mumbai might have passed their peaks, said a government expert, Randeep Guleria. Subways, cinemas and other public facilities are closed until Aug. 31. The Philippines reported 5,032 new cases, raising its total to 103,185, with 2,059 deaths.

On Saturday, leaders of Philippine medical organizations appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to reimpose a lockdown on the capital, Manila. They said the health system was in danger as personnel fall ill or quit due to fear or fatigue.

In Japan, the government reported 1,540 new cases, close to Friday's record of 1,579. The spike in infections, most of them in their 20s and 30s, prompted warnings young people were letting their guard down. Gov. Yuriko Koike of Tokyo, which has about one-third of the new infections, says she might declare an emergency to contain the outbreak.

In Florida, authorities were trying to prepare storm shelters while enforcing social distancing as Tropical Storm Isaias churned toward the heavily populated state. It was due to be near the coast early Sunday.

Florida reported 179 deaths on Saturday, raising its total to more than 7,000. The governor warned residents to expect power outages and said they should have a week’s supply of water and food. The United States has the world’s biggest number of confirmed cases at 4.6 million, or one-quarter of the total, and 154,361 deaths. White House coronavirus task force leader Dr. Deborah Birx said Sunday that the virus had entered a “new phase” in the U.S. as it has rapidly spread in rural and urban America.

“What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread," Birx told CNN’s “State of the Union” as she urged Americans to wear face masks and observe social distancing measures.

In Australia, Premier Daniel Andrews of the southern state of Victoria announced a 8 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew on Melbourne, a city of 5 million people. Schools statewide are to return to home-based teaching and day care centers were closed.

Andrews said there were seven deaths and 671 new cases since Saturday. “If we don’t make these changes, we’re not going to get through this,” Andrews said. Also Sunday, China and South Korea reported more infections but spikes in both countries appeared to be tailing off.

China had 49 new confirmed cases, up from the previous day’s 45. Thirty were in Xinjiang in the northwest, where authorities are trying to contain an outbreak focused on the regional capital, Urumqi.

Three cases were found in students who returned from Russia to Wuhan, the southern Chinese city where the pandemic began in December. Most anti-disease controls were lifted there after the ruling Communist Party declared victory over the disease in March.

Hong Kong reported 125 new infections as authorities tried to find the source of its latest outbreak. The Chinese government said a team of seven virus testing experts was sent to the city to help. South Korea reported 30 new cases, raising its total to 14,366 with 301 deaths, but said only eight were acquired in the country.

The government warned earlier case numbers would rise as South Koreans came home from the Middle East and other places with outbreaks. Authorities say cases from abroad are less threatening because arrivals are quarantined for two weeks.

On Saturday, the leader of a secretive Korean church was arrested in an investigation into whether the group hampered the anti-virus response after thousands of worshipers were infected in February and March.

On Saturday, South Africa reported 10,107 new cases, raising its total to 503,290. That put the country fifth behind the United States, Brazil, Russia and India in total cases, though its population of 58 million is much smaller than theirs.

In Europe, the number of new cases reported in Italy dipped below 300 for the first time. An employee in the Austrian chancellery tested positive for the virus but didn’t work directly with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian Press Agency reported.

McDonald reported from Beijing. AP journalists worldwide contributed to this report.

Duterte's allies dominate Senate race, shut out opposition

May 22, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president's allies won a majority of the 12 Senate seats at stake in the midterm elections, official results showed Wednesday, while the opposition's shutout heralds a stronger grip on power by a leader accused of massive human rights violations.

Elections officials proclaimed the winners after finishing the official count of the May 13 elections overnight. The tally had been delayed by glitches in automated counting machines. President Rodrigo Duterte backed eight winning aspirants to half of the seats in the 24-member Senate, including his former national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, who enforced the president's crackdown on illegal drugs in a campaign that left thousands of suspects dead and drew international condemnation.

Last week's vote has been seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte, who is midway through the single six-year term Philippine presidents are allowed under the constitution. His anti-drug crackdown, unorthodox leadership style, combative and sexist joke-laden outbursts, and contentious embrace of China have been the hallmarks of his presidency.

"Do I look like a rubberstamp?" Senator-elect Bong Go, a longtime Duterte aide, replied when reporters asked him about concerns that the new Senate would be beholden to Duterte. But he stressed he would back the president's war against criminality, corruption and illegal drugs and would support a bill to reimpose the death penalty for heinous crimes and drug trafficking. Go said Duterte has not given any illegal orders to him or anyone he supervised.

Duterte's three children also won races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. Voters also decided congressional, gubernatorial, mayoral and city and township races. Nearly 75 percent of more than 63 million registered Filipinos cast their votes in a strong turnout.

Analysts say many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to failures of past liberal leaders. Such a mindset has helped the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos make a political comeback, the latest example being his daughter, Imee Marcos, one of the winning Senate candidates who was endorsed by Duterte.

The president has aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent Senate to bolster his legislative agenda. That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability below the current 15, and revising the 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.

During the campaign, Go said he felt Filipinos were not ready yet to support a shift to a federal form of government partly because of a lack of adequate information campaign about its benefits. "It's a longshot and it'll be difficult for us to work for the approval of federalism at this time," Go said.

"My no. 1 agenda is the reimposition of the death penalty for drug trafficking," dela Rosa said in a separate news conference, adding the drug menace remains troubling despite Duterte's crackdown. The handful of opposition senators whose seats were not up for election and the independents who won office last week could potentially offset the strong majority Duterte's allies hold in the new upper chamber. At least seven senators are needed to block amendments to the constitution, which was passed with safeguards against dictatorship in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted by an army-backed "people power" revolt.

Opposition aspirants, who were set back by a lack of funding and other campaign issues, considered the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances in the Philippine national government given the solid dominance of Duterte's loyalists in the lower House of Representatives.

Unofficial tally shows Duterte allies winning big in polls

May 14, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Rodrigo Duterte's allies appeared to have overwhelming leads in elections for the Philippine Senate, one of the opposition's last bulwarks against a brash populist leader accused of massive human rights violations.

Preliminary results comprising 94 percent of returns from Monday's midterm elections showed at least eight candidates endorsed by Duterte were leading the races for 12 seats in the 24-member Senate. Official Commission on Election results are expected to be declared in about a week.

Those leading include Duterte's former national police chief Ronald dela Rosa, who enforced the president's crackdown on illegal drugs, a campaign that's left thousands of suspects dead and drawn international condemnation.

Monday's vote is seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte, who is midway through the single six-year term Philippine presidents are allowed under the constitution. His deadly anti-drug crackdown, unorthodox leadership style, combative and sexist joke-laden outbursts, and contentious embrace of China have been the hallmarks of his presidency.

Duterte's three children were also expected to win the races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. The 74-year-old maverick leader first carved a reputation as an extra-tough mayor, who hunted drug addicts and criminals on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and carried the nickname, Duterte Harry, after the gunslinging Clint Eastwood film character.

"Undoubtedly, the Duterte magic spelled the difference," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a news conference. "The overwhelming majority of the electorate have responded to the call of the president to support those whom he said would help pass laws supportive of his goal to uplift the masses of our people and give them comfortable lives."

Manila-based analyst Ronald Holmes, however, said that except for dela Rosa and Duterte's longtime aide, Bong Go, who entered politics for the first time without their own established bases of support, other leading administration senatorial contenders earned votes based on their own political track records.

The flipside of Duterte's perceived endorsment strength was the weakness of the opposition ticket and its campaign, said Holmes, who heads Pulse Asia, an independent pollster that predicted the dominance of Duterte's senatorial bets.

Another analyst, Richard Heydarian, said many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to failures of past liberal leaders from long-established political clans. Such a mindset has helped the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos make a political comeback, the latest through the senatorial bid of one of his daughters, Imee Marcos, who was endorsed by Duterte and whose vote tally in the unofficial results indicated a victory.

Duterte, who has shown little tolerance for critics specially those who question his anti-drug campaign, aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent Senate to bolster his legislative agenda.

That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability below the current 15 years old, and revising the country's 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.

Last year, opposition senators moved to block proposed bills they feared would undermine civil liberties. The handful of incumbent opposition senators whose seats were not up for election could potentially get backing from leading independent aspirants to veto Duterte's emerging majority in the upper chamber. At least seven senators are needed to block any proposal by Duterte's camp to revise the country's constitution, which was passed with anti-dictatorial safeguards in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted by an army-backed "people power" revolt.

"While we expect dissent to continue, we hope that that same be demonstrated with fairness and within the bounds of the law, as well as with deference to the leaders duly chosen by the electorate," Panelo said.

Aside from the drug killings, Duterte's gutter language and what nationalists say is a policy of appeasement toward China that may undermine Philippine territorial claims in the South China Sea have also been the cause of protests and criticism.

Opposition aspirants consider the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances given the solid dominance of Duterte's loyalists in the lower House of Representatives. Voters in Monday's elections made their choices for 18,000 congressional and local posts, including 81 governors, 1,634 mayors and more than 13,500 city and town councilors in 81 provinces. The elections were relatively untroubled, despite pockets of violence in southern Mindanao region, which is under martial law as government forces hunt down Islamic State group-linked militants and communist insurgents.

Duterte allies seek to dominate Philippine midterm polls

May 12, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's name is not on the ballot, but Monday's midterm elections are seen as a crucial referendum on his rise to power with a brutal crackdown on illegal drugs, unorthodox style and contentious embrace of China.

Nearly 62 million Filipinos have registered to choose among 43,500 candidates vying for about 18,000 congressional and local posts in one of Asia's most rambunctious democracies. The most crucial race is for 12 seats in the 24-member Senate, which Duterte wants to fill with allies to bolster his legislative agenda. That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability of child offenders and revising the country's 1987 constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits.

Opposition aspirants consider the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances given the solid dominance of Duterte's loyalists in the lower House of Representatives. Last year, opposition senators moved to block proposed bills they feared would undermine civil liberties.

Duterte's politics and key programs, including his drive against illegal drugs that has left more than 5,200 mostly urban poor suspects dead, have been scrutinized on the campaign trail and defended by close allies running for the Senate, led by his former national Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa, who first enforced the crackdown when the president took office in mid-2016.

Aside from the drug killings, Duterte's gutter language and what nationalists say is a policy of appeasement toward China that may undermine Philippine territorial claims in the South China Sea, have also been hounded by protests and criticism.

"This is very much a referendum on his three years of very disruptive yet very popular presidency," Manila-based analyst Richard Heydarian said. "Are we going to affirm or are we going to reject the 2016 elections? Was that an aberration and historical accident that we have to fix, or is this actually the beginning of the kind of new era or new normal?"

A May 3-6 survey by independent pollster Pulse Asia showed 11 of Duterte-backed senatorial candidates and four other aspirants in the winning circle, including only one from the opposition. The survey of 1,800 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Duterte himself remains hugely popular, topping ratings surveys with about 70 percent approval. While the election survey strongly indicated a favorable outcome for Duterte, there was a probability that the result could still change given the considerable number of undecided voters and narrow leads of some candidates.

Divided, cash-strapped and without a unified leader, opposition aspirants are fighting an uphill battle to capture the few number of Senate seats they need to stymie any hostile legislation. Many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to past failures of liberal leaders, Heydarian said. Such a mindset has helped the family of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to make a political comeback.

Among many dirt-poor Filipinos, however, the concern is day-to-day survival. "Martial law is scary but we're more afraid of dying in hunger," Arturo Veles, a jobless father of six, told The Associated Press.

Wiping away tears, Veles spoke outside his family's shanty in the humid squalor atop Smokey Mountain, a long-closed dumpsite in Manila's Tondo slum that remains a symbol of the country's appalling poverty. His asthma-stricken wife, Agnes, said that not one congressional candidate had treaded the fly-strewn and trash-littered path to their cluster of crumbling huts, probably because of the smell and filth.

Arturo Veles said the poor always suffer the most, indicating he and his wife would not vote for administration candidates. "They only see the poor, those using and selling drugs. That's the only thing they see, not the depth of our poverty."

Village guard Jose Mondejar, who lives in a Tondo community heavily festooned with elections streamers and posters, said Duterte's anti-crime campaign has reduced daytime robberies by drug addicts of passing cargo trucks by about 70 percent in his neighborhood.

"Criminals once even opened fire on our village hall because we were cracking down on them," he said. "Now you can walk around here without being pestered. Duterte's campaign has worked."

Ex-guard frees dozens of hostages in Manila mall, is subdued

March 02, 2020

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A recently dismissed security guard freed his hostages and walked out of a shopping mall in the Philippine capital on Monday, ending a daylong hostage crisis in an upscale commercial district near the police and military headquarters, officials said.

The former guard at the commercial complex, identified by police as Archie Paray, left the V-Mall in suburban San Juan city in metropolitan Manila with his hostages, who were secured by police. The suspect was allowed to speak before reporters and authorities for several minutes to describe his grievances against his superiors, whom he accused of corruption and abuse, before police approached and subdued him.

“I’m very thankful that everything ended up peacefully,” said San Juan city Mayor Francis Zamora, who negotiated with the hostage-taker to give up his weapons and guaranteed his safety shortly before the crisis ended.

About 60 to 70 people were held hostage by Paray, he said. Zamora said the suspect, who was armed with a pistol and possibly grenades, shot one person at the V-Mall before he rushed to the second floor and took hostages in an administration office. The victim was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.

Zamora said the suspect was a disgruntled former security guard. “He felt bad because he was removed as a guard,” Zamora told reporters, adding that the man tried but failed to convince fellow guards to join him.

He was apparently dismissed after abandoning his job in recent weeks without notifying management, Zamora said. The suspect later used his cellphone to deliver a message to the guards and the media, expressing his anger over a change in his work hours and accusing his superiors of corruption.

In a bid to appease the hostage taker, six officers in charge of overseeing the mall's security apologized to the suspect at an early evening news conference for their “shortcomings” and resigned or offered to quit.

“I’m asking for his forgiveness, and because of this, I’ll resign from my job so this crisis will come to an end,” said Oscar Hernandez, one of the security officers. Earlier in the day, more than a dozen SWAT commandos entered the mall, their assault rifles ready. Other policemen stood by outside, along with an ambulance.

The shopping complex, popular for its restaurants, shops, bars and a bazaar, lies near an upscale residential enclave, a golf club and the police and military headquarters in the bustling Manila metropolis of more than 12 million people, where law and order have long been a concern.

Three years ago, a gunman stormed a mall-casino complex in Manila, shot TV monitors and set gambling tables on fire, killing 36 people who were mostly suffocated by thick smoke. The gunman stole casino chips before he fled but was found dead in an apparent suicide in an adjacent hotel at the Resorts World Manila complex.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group, but Philippine authorities rejected the claim, saying the attacker was not a Muslim militant but a heavily indebted gambler.

Associated Press journalists Kiko Rosario in Bangkok and Joeal Calupitan in Manila contributed to this report.

Disgruntled ex-guard takes dozens of hostages in Manila mall

March 02, 2020

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police on Monday surrounded a shopping mall in an upscale section of Manila after a recently dismissed security guard opened fire and took dozens of people hostage, an official said.

Mayor Francis Zamora of San Juan in the Philippine capital said the gunman, who was armed with a pistol, shot one person at the V-Mall. The victim was in stable condition at a nearby hospital. Zamora said a police negotiator was trying to talk to the gunman — a disgruntled former security guard at the shopping complex — inside a mall administration office.

“He felt bad because he was removed as a guard,” Zamora told reporters, adding that the man tried but failed to convince fellow guards to join him. Aside from a pistol, the hostage taker was yelling that he had a grenade, but authorities could not immediately confirm that, Zamora said.

“We have evacuated all the people in the shopping center and we’re in a lockdown here in the entire mall,” he said. An initial police report said the hostage taker, who was identified as Archie Paray, shot a mall official before rushing to the second floor of the complex, where he was holding dozens of mostly employees in an office. The report said “more or less 50 staffs" were being held hostage, but it did not provide other details.

Zamora said about 30 to 40 people were being held, adding that his estimate was based on the size of the administrative office were they were being held. The suspect was complaining of “unequal treatment,” the police report said.

The man demanded to talk to fellow guards and the media, Zamora said, but it was not clear if officials would agree to those conditions. More than a dozen SWAT commandos were earlier seen entering the mall, their assault rifles ready. Other policemen stood by outside, along with an ambulance.

The shopping complex, popular for its restaurants, shops, bars and a bazaar, lies near an upscale residential enclave, a golf club and the police and military headquarters in the bustling metropolis of more than 12 million people, where law and order have long been a concern.

Associated Press videojournalist Joeal Calupitan contributed to this report.

3rd strong quake this month kills 5 in southern Philippines

October 31, 2019

KIDAPAWAN, Philippines (AP) — The third strong earthquake this month killed five people Thursday, injured several others and destroyed buildings that were already damaged by the earlier shaking in a devastated region in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Several cities and towns in the quake-hit area suspended school classes and office work due to fear of more tremors. Many residents may have returned to already-damaged houses despite the risks because of the humid tropical heat, causing some injuries due to falling debris, officials said.

A village hall collapsed in Batasan village in Makilala town of hard-hit Cotabato province and the village leader was pinned to death, Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said. Another man was pinned to death by a fallen tree and a woman died after being hit by heavy debris elsewhere in Makilala, government welfare officer Rosemarie Alcebar told The Associated Press by telephone. Two other villagers died due to quake-related injuries in Cotabato's Arakan town but details of their deaths were not immediately available, Alcebar said.

In Cotabato's city of Kidapawan, a small hotel partially collapsed, crushing the lobby and a bank on the ground floor and causing the building to lean on an adjacent hospital. Both the hotel and the hospital were ordered abandoned because of the previous quake damage but six employees and an engineer were inside Eva's Hotel when the ground shook at midmorning, Mayor Joseph Evangelista said.

"They're supposed to inspect the building with an engineer then it happened. They managed to run out," Evangelista told DZMM radio. The hospital and the hotel, its concrete columns precariously leaning and its rooms exposed without walls and windows, were cordoned off as they may collapse completely anytime.

In Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, a five-story condominium partly crashed down on its basement and rescue workers scrambled to bring out nine residents, one of whom was injured and brought to a hospital, officials said.

The residents of the 56-room building had been urged to evacuate after it was damaged by the earlier quake on Tuesday but some defied the warning. Duterte and his family were safe in his Davao city home but engineers would check the stability of his house just to be sure, said Brig. Gen. Jose Eriel Nembra, who heads the presidential security force.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the 6.5-magnitude quake was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) about 28 kilometers (17 miles) east of Tulunan town in Cotabato province. The region already was devastated by two powerful earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks this month.

At least eight people died in Tuesday's 6.6 magnitude quake, two were missing, 395 were injured and more than 2,700 houses and buildings, including schools and hospitals, were damaged, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

An Oct. 16 earthquake with a magnitude 6.3 killed at least seven people, injured more than 200 and destroyed or damaged more than 7,000 buildings. The Philippine archipelago lies on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," the arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur.

Philippine police chief resigns amid drug allegations

October 14, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine national police chief resigned on Monday after he faced allegations in a Senate hearing that he intervened as a provincial police chief in 2013 to prevent his officers from being prosecuted for allegedly selling a huge quantity of illegal drugs they had seized.

Gen. Oscar Albayalde said his decision relinquishing his post was accepted by Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano over the weekend but insisted on his innocence, saying he has never been criminally or administratively charged for the alleged irregularity. Albayalde resigned a few weeks before his scheduled retirement on Nov. 8.

Addressing the 190,000-strong police force in the last flag-raising ceremony he led at the national police headquarters, Albayalde ordered the policemen to continue serving the Filipino people well. "Do not let these challenges demoralize or stray you from your path," he said.

The allegations against Albayalde were the latest dark cloud to loom over the national police force, which has largely been enforcing President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead, alarmed Western governments and human rights groups and sparked complaints for mass murder before the International Criminal Court.

Albayalde headed the police force in Pampanga province north of Manila when 13 of his officers seized a large quantity of methamphetamine, a powerful and prohibited stimulant, in a raid. The officers later faced allegations that they presented a small fraction of the seized drugs in a news conference, possibly to foster their promotion, then hid and sold the rest, with suspicions being fueled when they purchased pricey SUVs not long after.

Albayalde's men allegedly freed a suspected Chinese drug lord in exchange for a huge bribe then arrested another foreigner, who they presented as the owner of the seized drugs. Albayalde pointed out that state prosecutors cleared the officers of criminal complaints they had faced for the alleged offenses.

Albayalde said the allegations against him may have been an offshoot of jockeying for the top police post that he would vacate if he has stayed in his post until his retirement. But two police officials, including a general who has retired from the force and is now a city mayor, testified in Senate hearings that Albayalde did not take adequate actions to have his men be criminally prosecuted.

One of the two officials, Aaron Aquino, who now heads the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, testified that Albayalde called him then to inquire about the status of the cases against his men. Albayalde acknowledged that as a result of the 2013 incident, he was put on a "floating status," which meant he was transferred to a regional police force without being given any specific assignment or post. Several months after, however, he was appointed as metropolitan Manila police chief and as national police chief in April last year.

"No protest was made on my appointment," Albayalde said. "Implicitly, it may be assumed that the president himself was aware of my appointment to that position." Asked in recent weeks about the possibility of firing Albayalde, Duterte replied he would allow Ano to make a recommendation to him after an assessment. The wait contrasts with Duterte's outright firing of other government officials accused of corruption and irregularities.

Duterte in China amid expectation he'll raise sea disputes

August 29, 2019

BEIJING (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was in Beijing on Thursday for a meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping in which the Southeast Asian leader is expected to discuss a ruling on the disputed South China Sea.

The 2016 Hague arbitration mostly invalidated China's claim to virtually the entire South China Sea and found that it violated the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. The row over the waters — a major global shipping route thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves — has for years marred China's relationship with the Philippines and other neighboring countries with territorial claims over the disputed area, where Beijing has transformed a string of disputed reefs into missile-protected island bases.

Duterte, however, has largely avoided the subject in favor of seeking warmer ties with Beijing. Philippine nationalists and left-wing groups have criticized the president for not immediately demanding Chinese compliance with the arbitration ruling, which came the same year Duterte took office.

The Philippine leader briefly mentioned the issue to Xi on the sidelines of an April conference for China's Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo indicated Duterte will raise the matter in a more direct way during this visit.

It's unlikely that Duterte's move will have any effect on China, said Jay Batongbacal, a maritime affairs scholar at the University of the Philippines. "China's position will not change just because Duterte changes tune," Batongbacal said. "At best, Duterte might be seen as using the arbitration discussion as a move to leverage other concessions. At worst, it may be just for show."

China refused to participate in the arbitration case initiated by Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, and has ignored the ruling. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said last week that the country's stance has not changed.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana asked Beijing this month to explain the activities of Chinese research vessels and warships in what the Philippines claims as its waters, and accused China of "bullying."

Lorenzana said that China did not ask for permission to send several warships through the Sibutu Strait at the southern tip of the Philippine archipelago on four occasions between February and July. He said two Chinese research ships have also been operating in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

Meanwhile, Philippine military spokesman Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo accused China of "duplicity," claiming the Chinese warships shut off their identification transponders while passing through Philippine waters to avoid radar detection.

China has said it is ready to work with the Philippines to jointly safeguard maritime security and order. In an apparent attempt to ease tensions ahead of Thursday's meeting, a fishery association in southern Guangdong province apologized this week for colliding with a Philippine fishing boat in June.

The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest after the fisherman said a Chinese vessel rammed their anchored boat and abandoned them as it sank in the Reed Bank. "I feel deep regret that this accident had to happen and I would like to express my deep sympathy to the Filipino fishermen," the president of the Guangdong Fishery Mutual Insurance Association said in a letter sent to the Philippine Embassy in Beijing.

Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines.

245 rescued from burning ferry in Philippine waters; 3 dead

August 28, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Fishing boats and passing ships rescued 245 people from a burning ferry overnight in southern Philippine waters, and the coast guard was still searching Wednesday though it wasn't clear if anyone was missing. A 1-year-old girl and two other people died.

The ship's manifest had 36 crewmembers and 136 passengers, 28 of them children, and the coast guard said investigators would ask the ferry owner and skipper to explain the discrepancy between the listed occupants and the number rescued.

Photos showed passengers wearing orange life vests waiting to be rescued at the loading bay of the ferry, which also carried some vehicles. Local news reports quoted some passengers as saying they jumped into the choppy waters in panic and were rescued by passing cargo and fishing vessels.

"We did not have any patrol ship in the area, so we alerted nearby ships and boats to render assistance because it was an emergency," coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said by phone. "It's good that a number of ships immediately responded. We have to recognize what they did."

The fire apparently started in the engine room. Orange flames and smoke consumed almost the entire vessel but the M/V Lite Ferry 16 stayed afloat, about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) off a port in Dapitan city of Zamboanga del Norte province, where it was heading after departing Santander town in central Cebu province Tuesday.

Search and rescue efforts were continuing, Balilo said around midday. It was unclear whether there were still people missing but no relatives have approached authorities to report any, and an ongoing search will continue, Balilo said.

A 1-year-old girl, a 60-year-old male passenger and a third person died, Balilo said. He did not have more details on the identity of the third person and the causes of their deaths. Meanwhile, in the northern Philippines, ferries were warned not to go to sea after a fast-moving storm blew across the main island of Luzon overnight. Heavy rains fell in northern provinces, but no casualties or major damage was reported, and the storm has weakened into a tropical depression.

Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained boats, overcrowding and weak enforcement of safety regulations. In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

8 dead, 60 hurt as quakes shake northern Philippine isles

July 27, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday, killing at least eight people, injuring about 60 and causing substantial damage.

The quakes collapsed houses built of stone and wood, arousing residents from sleep, said Roldan Esdicul, who heads the Batanes provincial disaster-response office. "Our bed and everything were swaying from side to side like a hammock," Esdicul told The Associated Press by cellphone from Basco town, the provincial capital. "We all ran out to safety."

More than 1,000 residents of hard-hit Itbayat island — nearly half of the island's population of mostly fishermen — were advised not to return to their homes and stay in the town plaza as successive aftershocks shook the region, he said.

"The wounded are still being brought in," Itbayat Mayor Raul de Sagon told a local radio station. He said more doctors may be needed if the number of injured from interior villages rises. The Philippine seismology agency said the quakes measured 5.4 and 5.9. A third quake magnitude 5.7 struck later Saturday.

Esdicul said he was already in his office with the provincial governor when the second and more powerful quake struck about three hours after the first shock. "We have to hold on because you can't stand or walk. It was that strong," he said.

The initial quake severely cracked the bell tower of the island's old limestone church, the 19th-century Santa Maria de Mayan, a popular tourist attraction. The tower collapsed when the second temblor hit the island, he said.

An Itbayat hospital was damaged but remained open. An air force helicopter and a plane were en route to Batanes to help ferry and provide aid to victims. Itbayat, part of the Batanes Islands, has a population of about 2,800 people and lies in the Luzon Strait that separates the Philippines and Taiwan. The islands are famous for their stone-built houses, coral walls and cogon grass roofs.