Philippines Election - BBC: Hardliner Duterte 'Set For Presidency'

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Media captionRodrigo Duterte has a persuasive story to tell, Jonathan Head reports

Hardline anti-crime candidate Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte looks set to become president of the Philippines after polls gave him an unassailable lead.

Mr Duterte, who stirred controversy during campaigning with his incendiary comments, said he accepted the apparent mandate with "extreme humility".

An accredited poll monitor said he led with most ballots counted, but this does not represent an official result.

The 71-year-old credited his success to his tough stance on law and order.

His record as the crime-crushing mayor of the southern town of Davao, once notorious for its lawlessness, earned him the moniker The Punisher and resonated with voters.

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Image copyrightAP

Image captionElection officials have said there was a record turnout at polling stations

Other driving issues of the election campaign were pervasive corruption, as well as the poverty and inequality experienced by many Filipinos despite economic growth under outgoing President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino.

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Analysis: Jonathan Head, BBC News, Manila

Rodrigo Duterte, a man dubbed by his rivals as an executioner who would bring terror to the Philippines, has won the presidency by a clear margin, polling nearly twice as many votes as his nearest rivals.

But what is less clear is what he will do with the job. His blunt promise to sweep away criminals and corrupt officials won him the backing of millions of Filipinos weary of ineffective governments.

But he has so far offered few policy details. A spokesman has already pledged a radical overhaul of the political system. Human rights groups have warned he may repeat what happened in the southern city of Davao, where as mayor he is accused of allowing death squads to murder hundreds of alleged criminals.

Mr Duterte has a formidable task in a country still hampered by poverty and poor infrastructure - just meeting the lofty expectations he raised during his campaign will be hard enough.

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'I will do my best'

Election officials have said there was a record turnout at polling stations, with more than 81% of the 54 million registered voters casting a ballot. Senators and about 18,000 local officials including mayors are also being elected.

The vice president looks likely to be Leni Robredo, a social activist who is currently slightly ahead of Bongbong Marcos, the son of a former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) poll monitor said that with 90% of the presidential ballots counted, Mr Duterte had more than 14.8m votes - about 39%. The PPCRV is accredited by the election commission to monitor counting but its reporting does not represent an official tally.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionGrace Poe said it was time to give Mr Duterte "a chance"

The winner is decided on a simple majority of votes cast. Manuel Roxas is in second place with 9m (23%). Senator Grace Poe had been considered a frontrunner but looked set for third place. She has conceded defeat, promising to "co-operate with the healing process" after a turbulent campaign.

'Extreme humility'

Mr Aquino is standing down as the constitution limits presidents to one six-year term. As Mr Duterte rose in opinion polls ahead of voting, Mr Aquino had tried to unite other candidates against him, warning his election could mean a return to dictatorship for the Philippines.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionThis election represented the highest voter turnout in the Philippines, but in one village in Muntinlupa there was a protest rally over a poll dispute

But on Monday, as his lead extended, Mr Duterte told AFP news agency: "It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people."

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Duterte: From 'Punisher' to president

• Born in 1945 into a political family but with a more modest background than many Philippine politicians.
• Married twice but now single, he says he has several girlfriends.
• A lawyer, he became vice-mayor of Davao in 1986 and mayor in 1988. He has also previously held a seat in congress.
• Built a reputation fighting crime, militancy and corruption. He has promised to continue his tough stance as president, but has offered few specific policies.
• Well known for incendiary comments, such as saying he would kill thousands of criminals without trial.

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Mr Duterte has made many controversial statements during his campaign, saying that he would massacre criminals and drug-users, joking about the rape of an Australian missionary and saying he would dissolve congress if it didn't agree with him.

He has also given forthright opinions on the Philippines' territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, saying he would sail to disputed islands and plant the Philippine flag there.

The Philippines has taken one of its claims to a court of arbitration at the Hague. On Monday, he said he would seek multilateral talks over the issue, to include the US and Japan.

Europe and Donald Trump

TUE, MAY 3, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR 

IN MY OPINION

It seems that  Donald Trump’s foreign policy for European politicians is just “a scary mess”. This speech, meant to assuage America’s allies worried about a possible Trump presidency, backfired badly. It left European observers stunned, nauseous and alarmed.

In an apparent effort to tone down his inflammatory rhetoric and appear presidential, Donald Trump refrained from repeating the controversial proposal that had originally catapulted him in the media spotlight and made him a darling of right-wing zealots in the US and abroad. His promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico did not feature at all in what was billed as the Republican front-runner’s major foreign policy address. In fact, Trump did not even mention Mexico or Mexican immigrants, which he had insulted incessantly during his presidential campaign once in his 3,496-word speech.

Instead Donald Trump, reading from a teleprompter – presumably intended to prevent him from veering off-script on a topic he has shown to have little knowledge about – tried to lay out a coherent foreign policy. It did not work!

Donald Trump did speak in full sentences, did not insult anyone and did not brag about his personal success and wealth. But that alone does not make a coherent foreign policy platform.

That is because the content of his speech did little to assuage worries about a Trump presidency. Essentially, his foreign policy speech was a repetition of his populist mantra “Make America great again/America First” coupled with a laundry list of contradictions and vague promises like these: Trump told Washington’s partners that “America is going to be a reliable friend and ally again” only to threaten to leave them high and dry should they not cough up more money for their own security in NATO and generally follow America’s lead.

Trump wants to reconfigure NATO and force allies to pay more. Trump repeated his statement that he would get rid of the “Islamic State” terror group very quickly, preferably with the help of Middle Eastern countries, but again failed to give any specifics. Trump threatened again to launch trade wars to create new or renegotiate existing trade agreements that are favorable to the United States, again without offering any details how and why US’ trading partners might be willing to agree to such deals.

European observers (and count me in as German national!) were shocked by what they heard from Trump on foreign policy. “I came away, I must confess, with a vague sense of nausea,” said Federiga Bindi, who holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Integration at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. “Trump is the ultimate populist, he managed to mix elements of America-ueber-alles, ultra-pacifism, acerbated militarism and gawkiness.”

“I am European, and I heard the American version of Le Pen, Orban and other European populists who want to make us believe that working together through pooling sovereignty is the source of all evil,” said Josef Janning, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“As a student of US diplomatic history, it is profoundly troubling and disturbing to hear someone who is very likely to become the Republican party’s flag bearer in the elections refer often and forcefully to America First, which by all accounts represents one of the darkest moments in American populism as it applies to international affairs,” said Vincent Michelot, a political science professor at Sciences Po University in Lyon.

Trouble for Europe? A big Yes! If Trump’s speech was envisaged as an effort to rebuild bridges with the Republican Party’s foreign policy establishment which had blasted the candidate in an open letter last month, that also did not work, said Matthew Kroenig, a national security scholar at Georgetown University and a foreign policy advisor for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.”If this was meant to be a serious foreign policy speech, it did not deliver,” said Kroenig. “If anything, this speech should make us more, not less, concerned about what a President Trump’s foreign policy would look like.”

For Europe specifically, noted Janning, the unilateralism and America first rhetoric espoused by Trump could mean “a lot of trouble for Europe as it may prompt US interventions in the Islamic world which will fail or have serious after effects.” Janning’s French colleague Michelot was “alarmed and disheartened” by what he heard from the Republican front-runner. But for Michelot at least, Trump’s remarks served an – unintended – positive purpose:

“The speech also represents a confirmation that barring some catastrophic event in the summer or early fall, the next president of the United States will be a woman.”

Asia and Donald Trump? Another story – or the same?

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter.

A safe space for children in Guiuan in Eastern Samar

 

UNICEF Philippines‏@unicefphils

Young artists from Eastern Samar help decorate the first disaster-resilient evacuation centre in the Philippines.

Asia's New Battlefield: The Philippines' South China Sea Moment of Truth

BY RICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN

A specter is haunting Asia—the specter of full Chinese domination in the South China Sea. Latest reports suggest that China could soon move ahead with building military facilities on the Scarborough Shoal, a contested land feature it has occupied since 2012. This would allow China, according to a Mainland source, to “further perfect” its aerial superiority across the contested waters. By building a sprawling network of dual-purposes facilities, and more recently deploying advanced military assets to its artificially created islands, China is inching closer to establishing a de facto Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the area. Integrating the Scarborough Shoal into its burgeoning defensive perimeter across the South China Sea will not only give it an upper hand in the contested waters, but also allow China to place the Philippines’ capital and industrialized regions within its strategic reach.

Philippines marines in training drill

This is nothing short of a nightmare for the Philippines, which is already struggling to protect its supply lines in the Spratly chain of islands due to growing Chinese military assertiveness in contested waters. Unlike most of Chinese occupied features, which lie well beyond the immediate shores of other claimant states, the Scarborough Shoal is located just about 120 nautical miles off the coast of the Philippines, well within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)—and also its continental shelf. To put things into perspective, the shoal lies nine hundred kilometers away from the closest Chinese coastline. For Manila, the contested land feature is arguably what James Shoal is to Malaysia and Hainan is to Mainland China.

Manila lost control over the shoal after a tense standoff with Chinese coast guard forces in the middle of 2012. But for more than a century, the Philippines has treated Scarborough Shoal as its northernmost outpost in the South China Sea. In fact, as far back as the Spanish colonial era, the Southeast Asian country has treated the shoal as the natural extension of its national territory. During Cold War years, it was a gunnery range and regular area of naval exercises for American forces, which accessed military bases in the Philippines. Read more

PDP-Laban says Trillanes' Accusations are Getting Ridiculous

PRESS RELEASE

29 April 2016

PDP-Laban says Trillanes’ accusations are getting ridiculous by the day, calls him “inventor of the week”

“We won’t be surprised if next week, Mayor Duterte will be accused of hiding trillions of pesos," PDP-Laban spokesperson Atty. Paola Alvarez said regarding the accusations hurled by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV against her political party’s presidential bet, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte.

“This is getting ridiculous by the day. Two days ago, Sen. Trillanes accused Mayor Duterte of having an undeclared P211 Million bank account. Today, he said the mayor’s accounts had P2.4 Billion worth of transactions. What’s next, Mayor Duterte is behind the $81 Million Bangladeshi bank heist? This is already the height of absurdity," Alvarez said.

"Sen. Trillanes should be voted 'inventor of the week'. He is becoming more of an inventor than a senator,” Alvarez added, reiterating the challenge made by Duterte for Trillanes to sign an affidavit before the tough-talking mayor opens his bank accounts.

“We call on Sen. Trillanes to execute an affidavit and reveal where and when he got his information and why he released it. Mayor Duterte already committed to open his bank accounts as long as Sen. Trillanes signs an affidavit. It’s now in his hands. If the senator is confident of his information, he wouldn’t mind signing his name to a legal document to back up his claim,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez also slammed the rivals of Mayor Duterte, whom she said have found it fashionable nowadays to sign bank waivers.

“When Mayor Duterte and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano signed a bank waiver and challenged their rivals to do the same, no single candidate heeded their call. Now that Mayor Duterte is leading the presidential election and is on the brink of victory, they not only joined Sen. Trillanes’ ridiculous accusations, they are now signing bank waivers left and right. It is downright hypocritical,” she said.

Alvarez asked Duterte’s supporters not to be distracted from making the Duterte-Cayetano win in the election and achieving real change. She said that in the coming days leading to the elections, her group expects more accusations will be thrown against their standard-bearer.

"As the enemies of change become more desperate, we expect the attacks to become more vicious. We are also afraid that this will be a prelude to a possible massive election cheating. Thus, we call on the supporters of the Duterte-Cayetano tandem and the general public to exercise extreme vigilance amid the confusion and lies being peddled by groups with the intention to deprive the people of their rightful choice this coming election," Alvarez concluded. 

Marian Rivera Flaunts Sexy Figure Months After Giving Birth

ABS-CBN News

MANILA – Four months since she gave birth to baby Maria Letizia, Marian Rivera wowed her social media followers with her beach-ready body.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the actress flaunted her sexy figure while wearing a two-piece bikini.

The photo was taken in Busuanga, Palawan where she and her husband, actor Dingdong Dantes, took their daughter on her first vacation.

The celebrity family also spent their Lenten break in the beach paradise.

Only hours after the photo was posted, Rivera’s picture immediately garnered more than 46,000 “likes” and more than 1,000 comments.

Some netizens were sarcastically asking the actress if she actually gave birth, while others inquired about how she managed to get her sexy figure back so soon.

Rivera gave birth to Maria Letizia in November 2015.

The breakthrough?

TUE, APRIL 26, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

It’s not the first time, that representatives of most countries have signed a document for a better world climate. Last Friday, the Paris climate deal has been signed in New York. By signing the four-month-old agreement, the nations pledged to join the fight against global warming.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened the ceremony on Friday, describing the accord as “history in the making” in his address to the UN General Assembly. Envoys from more than 170 countries signed the climate deal over the course of the day, setting a new record. “Today you are signing a new covenant with the future,” Ban told the gathering on Friday. “The era of consumption without consequences is over.”

For Germany, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks was on hand to sign the commitment, which will then require ratification in parliament. Famous Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio also addressed the international officials, telling them they were the “last best hope” for saving the planet. “We can congratulate each other today, but it will mean absolutely nothing” if the envoys fail to implement the deal, DiCaprio said. And this also my opinion. And not only mine. Indeed, if the envoys fail to implement the deal, this signing a new covenant with the future will remain as a piece of scratch paper. Nothing else. Nothing more.

Despite Friday’s signing ceremony, most individual countries are still obliged to ratify the agreement in their own parliaments. Will this happened? And when? In New York, French President Francois Hollande said he would urge his parliament to ratify the accord “by the summer” of 2016. Hollande also called on the EU to “lead by example” and complete the procedure before the year is up. “There is no turning back now,” he said in a brief address to the assembly. Of course not Monsieur Presidente.

The agreement is set to come into force after 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global polluters formally join it. International leaders have set 2020 as the target date, but many climate experts believe it could happen much sooner. In my opinion: it should happened sooner! On Friday, Beijing’s representatives announced China would ratify the deal by September. The US also intends to finalize the procedure during this presidential election year. They seem not yet to be in a hurry … !

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (how long?) also spoke before the assembly in New York, pledging that her country would restore and reforest 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forests and 15 million hectares of degraded pastures, but offering no timetable. Indeed, the country is in a “grave, serious moment.

International leaders agreed on a global effort to curb climate change in December last year. The deal aims to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times. Currently, average temperatures are almost 1 degree Celsius higher than before the industrial revolution. Countries are obliged to report on their progress and update their targets every five years. However, there is no penalty if the states miss their emission goals. A nation can also withdraw from the treaty, but not during the first three years after the deal goes into effect. After deciding to pull out, the national government would need to wait for a one-year notice period.

The document also encourages rich countries to help poorer states cut pollution and adapt to climate change. Although no exact amounts were specified, wealthy nations had previously pledged to provide $100 billion (89 billion Euro) annually by 2020.

Is it really the breakthrough? For the sake of our following generations, it should be!

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit www.germanex patinthephilippines.blogspot. com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.

Netizens Delcare Duterte Winner of Third and Final Presidential Debate

PRESS RELEASE

25 April 2016

Netizens declare Duterte winner of third and final Presidential Debate

For the third time in a row, netizens favored presidential candidate and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte's performance in the PiliPinas Presidential Debate on Sunday (April 24), according to Rappler, a social media news organization.

Garnering an overwhelming 65.63% of the total votes, the tough-talking mayor won the first part of the debate. Administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II and Senator Miriam Santiago were a far second with 12.5%, followed by Sen. Grace Poe with 8.13%, and Vice President Jejomar Binay with 1.25%.

The first part of the town hall debate featured representatives of different sectors, such as a fisherman, an OFW, and a Muslim. They directed questions at the five presidential candidates on issues covering the West Philippine Sea, overseas Filipino workers, and traffic in Metro Manila.

Rappler's respondents once again declared Duterte the winner of the second round of the debate, with 65.97% of the total votes. Roxas came in second with 17.12%. Santiago was at third with 11.27%, followed by Poe with 3.97% and Binay with 1.67%.

The second part of the debate featured a Fast Talk portion, where the moderators asked the candidates whether they agreed or disagreed with various issues, such as a Marcos burial in the heroes' cemetery, and house arrest for former President Gloria Arroyo.

"Duterte won the debate, not mortally wounded"

Meanwhile, political analysts weighing in on the upcoming presidential elections praised Duterte's performance in the third and final presidential debate.

Speaking before ABS-CBN’s “Huling Harapan,” Manila Bulletin’s Leandro Coronel stressed that, out of all the candidates who participated in the debate, Duterte proved to be the clear winner.

“Duterte was not mortally wounded contrary to what we expected because of the issues (that have been thrown against him). The clear winner (in the debate) was Duterte,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, in Rappler’s blow-by-blow coverage of the debate, De La Salle University assistant professor Richard Heydarian pointed out how the Davao Mayor was able to show his political will in trying to address Mindanao’s enduring problem on terrorism. #

Life’s quintessence

SAT, APRIL 23, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

Almost 16 years ago, a good friend of mine gave me a book written by the establisher and founder of the Scotish Free Church, Thomas Chalmers, who lived from 1780-1847. During this time, I resided already in the Philippines for good and did some marketing work in the former Bishop Thibault Media Center near the San Pablo Church in Juna Subdivision in Davao City, while writing a column for the Catholic Herald and hosting radio shows for the former DXGN 89.9 FM “Good News Radio”.

Chalmers treated life’s quintessence with plenty  flowering words. Yes, don’t be afraid and do live for something… !

Human beings live, move and have to pass away – free from worries, but unknown and un-noticed. They live such an irreproachable life -reputable, but so incomprehensible and inscrutable. Chalmers was very right….

Why do people live like that even knowing they have to leave the platform of life one day? Why are people sometimes afraid to live and allow something or someone to block them-selves? Still in my mind is one statement of Brother Francis Castro from the Little Brothers of Jesus. I quoted it several times already and it really became my life’s motto: “I feel the burning flame inside me that makes me jump out of the bed … and hurry to work!”

Life’s quintessence can be also this: Kindness, by helping the blind man crossing a street; hospitality, by practicing generous reception of strangers and guests (my very first impression, when I step on Philippine soil in June 1976!); helpfulness, by taking care of some-body, who is weak and dependent….

Believe me: your moment of virtue will never be destroyed by time’s storm. Henri Nouwen, a devotional writer and speaker, whom I also admire very much, spent two hours daily bathing, shaving, dressing, and feeding a man, who was so profoundly  could not speak or walk. Very clear, in that daily act of loving, Nouwen exemplified the compassion and sacrifice of Christ.

Love and mercifulness shared with people, who cross our path – and nobody will forget us. In our daily life, we do have plenty of situations, where we could show our real calling. Good deeds are shining like stars from heaven. Deeds of love and service may not seem to be an efficient use of time and energy, but they are never wasted. Our life doesn’t run clock-counter-wise. The clock’s hands are the time dictators of everyone. So: do live for something!

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Email: doringklaus@ gmail.com, or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit wwwgermanex patinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic. blogspot.com .

University in Bohol Goes Solar to Cut Power Costs

By: Leo Udtohan, Philippine daily Inquirer

AN EMPLOYEE of Holy Name University in Tagbilaran City checks the 1,100 solar thin-film panels installed on the school’s rooftop. HNU is the first academic institution to fully integrate solar-power energy system in Bohol province and the Visayas. LEO UDTOHAN/INQUIRER VISAYAS

TAGBILARAN CITY—Officials of Holy Name University (HNU) gathered on the rooftop of the school’s Scanlon Building on Friday to inaugurate solar photovoltaic power plant.

“We are not only saving electric bill, but HNU is helping conserving the environment. It is equivalent to planting more than 2,000 trees,” said Fr. Vicente L. Uy, the school’s vice president for administration.

Uy said the plant would reduce HNU’s monthly bill of P700,000 by at least P100,000.

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“We believe there are other (sources of) energy in the environment we could tap. Solar energy is safer and cheaper. We really contribute to the cooling of the earth,” said Fr. Francisco Estepa, HNU president.

Formerly known as Holy Name College and Divine Word College of Tagbilaran, HNU is a Catholic, private, coeducational school run by Society of the Divine Word (SVD). It offers programs in elementary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate levels and has a student population of 7,200.

The solar plant, composed of 1,100 solar thin film panels, can produce 100 kilowatts of electricity, said Rynor Jamandre, president of Orion Group International Inc.

He said concerns about pollution, environmental degradation and resource depletion had led to an increasing awareness of the importance of developing solar energy.

Founded in 1947, HNU is the first academic institution to fully integrate solar-power energy system in Bohol and the Visayas. Other universities in Manila have tapped solar energy—La Consolacion College, Manuel L. Quezon University, St. Scholastica’s College and Mapua Institute of Technology.

HNU’s solar power plant is the largest thin-film solar installation in the country, Jamandre said. Most projects, he noted, were using crystalline solar panel.

The power production can be remotely monitored from Android or iPhone devices.

Jamandre cited the many advantages of solar power.

“You save your energy bill every month; the roof will always be cooler because you have a cover of solar panels. And the most important is we save on carbon emission. It’s very important because global warming is a reality. We are doing our part to make it happen one project at a time,” he said.