Philippine Politics

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday slammed Iceland for recent changes to its abortion policy, suggesting the island nation’s decision to allow abortion as late as the 22nd week leaves it no room to condemn extrajudicial killings that have killed thousands in the Philippines.

Iceland’s been in Duterte’s crosshairs ever since July, when it submitted a resolution to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) calling for an investigation into the Philippines’ bloody drug war.

That resolution was supported by 18 out of 47 UNHRC members, giving Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet a year to prepare a comprehensive written report on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

In a speech at the Department of Agrarian Reform’s office in Quezon City, Duterte said that while he supports the use of contraceptives, he would never allow abortion to be legalized in the Philippines. “[A]bortion is out of the question. I will not allow it,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Those wondering why Duterte was bringing up abortion in a speech at a department tied to farmland distribution didn’t have to wait long for the answer.

“But do you know that in Iceland, they allow abortion up to six months [of gestational age]? Iceland allows the slaughter of the fetus inside the womb of the mother up to six months,” he railed. “Those sons of b*tches. They worry more about the drug lords and drug pushers who are killing our citizens and creating a social dysfunction.”

Iceland’s parliament did indeed pass a law in May allowing for the termination of a fetus up until the 22nd week of pregnancy — or just under six months. Some of his other fun facts about the country, however, were slightly shakier.

“I don’t understand those a**holes. Iceland is like that because they eat ice. They don’t have water. These sons of b*tches are idiots,” the president added.

We know, we know. He’s only “joking,” right? So would it be rude to point out that Iceland has enough clean drinking water that it’s safe to drink from the tap, unlike in many parts of the Philippines? And while it’s citizens don’t eat ice, they do love ice cream. But Duterte wasn’t done yet.

“Just imagine, six months? You allow an innocent human being [to be killed that’s] already thriving and living inside the mother’s body,” he continued. “These white people are shameless. And then they’re teaching me how I should do my job. I am sorry for you. That’s why you are condemned there in the ice forever. I hope you will freeze in time.”

Abortion, of course, is not just illegal in the Philippines, many Filipinos believe the medical procedure is highly immoral. In 2013, in a study undertaken by the Pew Research Center, 93 percent of Filipino respondents said that abortion is unacceptable, the highest percentage among any country surveyed. Despite its taboo nature, an estimated 473,000 Filipinas have abortions each year.

Aside from the UNHCR, the International Criminal Court is undertaking a preliminary examination into Duterte’s drug war, in spite of the Philippines’ exit from the organization in March. Human rights organization Amnesty International has called the drug war as “nothing but a large-scale murdering enterprise” that has killed thousands of Filipinos living in poor communities.

According to the Philippine National Police, 6,600 drug suspects have been killed in anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016. to May 31, 2019. However, many say the deaths are underreported, with the Commission on Human Rights saying in December that the number could be as high as 27,000.

British director and producer James Jones and French director and cinematographer Olivier Sarbil have teamed up to produced a documentary film titled "On the President's Orders," which focuses on Duterte's deadly campaign against suspected drug offenders in the Philippines.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Palace was "vexed by the continuous spread of disinformation against our country’s campaign against illegal drugs and criminality."

"Foreign audiences have been saturated with false and baseless narratives relative to the Philippine government's anti-narcotics approach, specifically on the nature and number of deaths arising from police operations against it," the Palace official said.

"Based on the trailer of - as well as the commentaries on - the American docufilm, "On the President's Orders," it appears that the same is the latest addition to these unmitigated vilifications. Even the title of the docufilm reeks with malice, making it appear that the drug-related deaths were done upon the orders of [Duterte]," he added.

Jones and Sarbil described the "On the President's Orders" as "the searing story of President Duterte's bloody campaign against drug dealers and suspected drug users and addicts in the Philippines, told with unprecedented and intimate access to both sides of the war - the Manila police and an ordinary family from the slum."

The screening of the documentary film is set in Los Angeles's The Landmark Theater on September 24 and October 17 and at the Leammle Monical Film Center on October 18, according to the documentary film's website.

On the website, the producers noted that those who are caught on camera are "the victimised slum communities and the police squads blithely executing their countrymen from a perverse moral high ground."

Panelo lamented that the "derogatory and biased" documentary film was used to create a "black propaganda" against the President and his administration.

"We find this derogatory and biased, if not outright fiction," he said.

"It is obvious that the film medium is riding on the coattails of the President's international popularity and success, and is being used as a medium to espouse a one-sided information bordering to black propaganda aimed at gullible foreign audiences who know little or zero-knowledge about the Philippines and its government," he added.

Panelo also claimed that the "On the President's Orders", together with its so-called "cinematic" investigation on drug-related deaths, "evidently has been deliberately overdramatized for the purpose, apart from putting the Philippines in a bad light, of creating a better cinematic experience for its audience."

He stressed that in creating a film, it was easy to select "fractions of video clips or soundbites" that serve the purpose of the filmmakers in "falsely portraying a dangerous Philippines and a murderous government while omitting scenes that reflect the opposite."

"Moviegoers are more inclined to watch a thrilling film that depicts a country as menacing instead of a lackluster motion picture showcasing its progress and development," Duterte's spokesman said.

Panelo then cautioned the potential viewers of the "On the President's Orders" to be circumspect in evaluating the "truthfulness" of the film.

He also informed them that Duterte's drug war is "anchored primarily on national security and public safety."

"Those who will watch the movie is advised and informed that the Philippines is an archipelago where the illegal drug trade is a billion-peso industry, in that 97 percent of small villages which we call barangays, have or had already been infiltrated," Panelo said.

"Three years to the war on drugs and residents in the country now feel safer and secure with seven out of 10 Filipinos being satisfied with the way President Rodrigo Roa Duterte handles the campaign," he added.

Panelo likewise reiterated "for everyone’s information, especially for those who do not reside in the Philippines," that drug-related killings in the Philippines are "absolutely not state-initiated nor state-sponsored."

He maintained that alleged drug suspects died either because of their resistance from arrest or execution initiated by drug syndicates.

"The President, as strict enforcer of the law, does not tolerate abusive police officers. They are not – and will never be – exempted from administrative sanction and criminal prosecution should there be an abuse on their part. As he stated in his first State of the Nation Address, those who abuse their authority will have hell to pay," Panelo said.

A group of war-displaced Japanese descendants in the Philippines will visit Japan from Monday to ask the government to grant them citizenship and support.

A Japanese nonprofit organization said on Sunday in Manila that four descendants will make the visit.

They plan to submit a petition from 40,000 people to lawmakers to request support from the Japanese government.

They say no progress has been made since the group's last visit to Japan four years ago.

They also say they've decided to make another trip because their average age has reached 80.

One of the descendants, 82-year-old Josephina Iwao, says she wants to be recognized as Japanese and she needs government support to make that happen.

About 30,000 Japanese emigrated to the Philippines before the Pacific War. Many children born to immigrants and local women were left behind after the war.

About 1,000 of these children have no nationality because their birth certificates and other official documents were lost during the war.

Unlike war-displaced children left behind in China, those in the Philippines have not received any support from the Japanese government.

Immigration to the Chinese continent was a state policy. But the Japanese government argues that the parents of the war-displaced children in the Philippines emigrated voluntarily for economic reasons.

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is validating reports that at least 3,000 Chinese military personnel are already in the country conducting intelligence operations.

AFP chief Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. said that his intelligence staff is coordinating with other government agencies to confirm the claim of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that 3,000 Chinese military personnel are doing intelligence operations in the country.

“We are in the process of validating the report of Sen. Lacson, that being a matter of serious concern. I have my staff for intelligence to confirm the said report,” Santos said.

Since he (Lacson) himself said it has to be validated, then it’s a raw intelligence report on his part. Then we have to investigate,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said at a press briefing yesterday in Malacañang.

“I’m sure the AFP is already validating that, given that it is being reported by no less than a senator of the Republic,” he added. But he said he could not issue statements “based on speculation and unverified report.”

“All we can say is we in the government are always concerned when any issue affects the national interest and national security,” he said.

Panelo said the government would make an “appropriate response” once the report about the supposed presence of PLA troops in the country is verified.

However, a senior military official downplayed Lacson’s claim, saying it is more likely that only 300 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese intelligence operatives are in the country.

The source also described Lacson’s report as an exaggeration and that while he doesn’t know the senator’s source, any country that undertakes foreign intelligence operations doesn’t deploy so many operatives.

He added if China wants to obtain information from other countries, it could always use cyber warfare which has less risk of exposure than deploying an army of agents.

The official said PLA troops are not trained to conduct foreign intelligence operations, much less deploy huge number of agents to a third country.

He said China has the Ministry of State Security that specializes in foreign intelligence and espionage, though some of its agents have been recruited from the PLA.

But for sure, he said, there are already Chinese intelligence operatives by the hundreds deployed in the country.

He also said the PLA members could be on an immersion mission similar to the pre-World War II concept.

Immersion, he said, in the military sense means forward deployment of soldiers in a country to be invaded, just like the Pacific War where some Japanese soldiers who passed themselves off as plantation workers were already present before the war broke out.

The source also said that with better Philippines-China relations, it is assessed that China will not take the risk of invading the country with very little strategic gain. – With Alexis Romero