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7 dead after Davao City Mayor Duterte declares war vs. drugs
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 26 March) – Two more drug suspects died in separate buy-bust operations in Toril District here before dawn Tuesday, after they allegedly resisted arrest, a police official said. This brought the number of fatalities to seven since Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte declared a “war” on illegal drugs last March […].....»»
An enchanted evening with the JSSP
Any party with the Johann Strauss Society of the Philippines is sure to blossom into something meaningful yet fun! We recently got together for an enchanted evening of music, culture and friendship at the South Pacific Night Fellowship Event. Inspired by the beloved book-turned-Broadway musical, the night paid homage to it from the invitation inspired by the musical’s poster, the tropical colors and decor, floral dress code, down to the performances. Those who showed up in the most authentic and best costumes won a special prize, too — congratulations, Chuck Gueco and Joy Melendres! US Ambassador, MaryKay Carlson Singapore Ambassador, Constance See Roselle Del Rosario and Rosalinda Wee Norman Jison and Lovelyn Segovia Monaco Consul, RJ Ledesma and India Ambassador, Shambhu Kumaran. Laos Ambassador, Sonexay Vannaxay, Cambodia Ambassador, Phan Peuv, Thailand Ambassador, Tull Traisorat. Seated- Egypt Ambassador, Ahmed Shehabeldin. Joy Melendres and Amelia Ting Gerry and Virginia Lane Fanny Blanco Dr. Elton See Tan n Carolyn Tan Dana Silverio, Ruby Chua, Manolyn Taylor and Michael Rosero Consul. Agnes Huibonhoa and Mayenne Carmona Chuck Gueco and Aiza Sun Bong Prada Lim and Mags Cue Bo and Hans Hauri Lilibeth Campos, Marissa Fenton, Consul General of Monaco, Fortune Ledesma and the author But all the fun aside, this is really all about JSSP’s mission to make a significant impact on our local community through art and music. South Pacific Night perfectly captured the enchantment the arts has over us, and the vibrant spirit the organization wishes to share with the community in whatever ways it can. JSSP has extended its support to talented music students and notable initiatives like the Arts for the People Program of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Philippine National Red Cross, and more in the education and arts spaces. It’s always fulfilling getting together with JSSP members. As you can see, we’re all smiles ‘til midnight! I raise a toast to JSSP, especially its devoted members who are tirelessly contributing their time to keep the organization’s mission alive. I raise my glass to the co-chairs of the event, Marissa Fenton and Lilibeth Campos, and to the entire JSSP. Cheers! The post An enchanted evening with the JSSP appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Parent to Karapatan: ‘Please stop posting about my son, I beg you’
Former Overseas Filipino Worker Jerome Christopher David, father of Job who was among three rebel fighters said to have been captured in a military encounter, asked the activist group Karapatan to stop posting on social media about his son and two companions and painting them as victims of abduction or enforced disappearance. “Sana itigil na ng Karapatan na mag-post sila sa Facebook na ang anak ko ay dinukot, tinurtyor, Hindi po totoo ‘yon, kayo mismo (Karapatan) ang nagko-commit ng human rights (violation) na walang permiso namin na i-post niyo ‘yung profile picture ng anak ko na sila ay dinukot,” said David appealed during a virtual press conference of the Integrated Communications Office Center, the media bureau of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. “Tama na po, ‘wag niyo na pong i-post ‘yan, pakiusap lang po. Kung ano man po ang inyong ipinaglalaban puwede niyo naman daanin sa matiwasay na paraan. Tama na po, ako na po ang nakikiusap sa inyo (Please stop your posts. Whatever is your advocacy, you can do it in a peaceful manner. Please stop, I'm begging you). My son is now living peacefully,” he reiterated. Brigadier General Randolph Cabangbang, commanding general of the Army’s 203rd Infantry Brigade, revealed to the media that the parents of Job, Alia Encela and Peter del Monte are contemplating taking legal action against Karapatan for alleged continued harassment. “In fact, I’m discouraging them (parents) not to file what they think is a writ of Amparo. Sabi ko wala namang nakikinig sa Karapatan. Having said that, we’re consulting lawyers, we’re studying it,” Cabangbang said. “To Karapatan, hands off our families, hands off our children,” he said. NTF-ELCAC spokesman Joel Sy Egco, who is also ICOC director-designate, reiterated his warning to Karapatan to stop their donation drives using what he called the “abduct-surface-donate-release” scheme. “Kahit ano pa ang sasabihin niyo, kayo-kayo na lang ang naniniwala sa sinsabi niyo sa inyong echo chamber mismo (Whatever you say, only you listen to each other within your echoc chamber). NTF-ELCAC continues to gather evidences of your scamming activities and in due time charges will be filed against you,” he said. Egco said ELCAC’s National Secretariat led by Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. will support and assist parents and the Army if and when legal charges are ready to be filed against Karapatan and other such organizations. “Again, Encela, del Monte and David are not detained, they voluntarily submitted themselves to be in the custody of the military as they’re undergoing the processes of rebuilding their lives ruined by the CPP-NPA-NDF before joining their families and to mainstream society,” he said. The three were captured by Army troopers on September 23, 2023 during combat operations in Sitio Malaglag, Barangay Lisap in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro. Cabangbang said he was relieved and looking forward to turning over the three former rebels to their parents safe and sound. "It’s a happy moment dahil buhay itong tatlo na sa di kalauna’y makakasama na nila muli ang kanilang mga magulang” (these three are alive and will be reunited soon with their parents), he said. During the conference, ICOC showed a 7-minute video clip of the parents and relatives of Encela, del Monte and David having happy moments hugging, laughing and eating together. Cabangbang also thanked the three former rebels for their voluntary insights and analysis of how their former comrades operate in his brigade’s area of operation. “For the past weeks, napakarami na po nilang naitulong sa ating brigade. They have been providing the necessary analysis and the information that we need, such that for the past two days may naengkwentro po na grupo nila because of their insightful analysis and correct and timely information,” Cabangbang added. In the encounter, the soldiers recovered three high-powered firearms and personal paraphernalia of the fleeing rebels. Cabangbang said they believed that two of the rebels were wounded because of blood traces from the recovered firearms and one of them could be the deputy commander of the group. “When I arrived here, there were only 15 NPA rebels in our AOR. Minus Alia, Peter and Job, only 12 remaining. We’ve already identified them all,” he said. Now, Cabangbang said, the three are reaching out to their former comrades to give up the armed struggle and surrender to the government. The post Parent to Karapatan: ‘Please stop posting about my son, I beg you’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Dead hero’s message
To many, Juan Luna is Spoliarium and Spoliarium is Juan Luna. Yet like most things in life, there is so much more to it than meets the eye. On 12 June, our 125th Independence Day, Ayala Museum unveiled to the public for free a long-lost artwork by the famous Filipino painter, who had been somehow superseded by modern adaptations of his brother Antonio’s life. Heneral Luna, the movie, brought the current generation up to speed with a moment in our history. Yet it wasn’t only the hotheaded general who had a short but colorful life. Juan Luna was born in Badoc, Ilocos Norte. He died at age 42 in Hong Kong, but in between, his talent and artistry ensured that his name would live forever. His most famous work, the Spoliarium, was entered at Madrid’s Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in May 1884. It was his biggest work on canvas, finished in eight months sometime after the Ayuntamiento de Manila had given him an art scholarship following a silver medal won for his painting, La Muerte de Cleopatra (The Death of Cleopatra) in 1881. For the art grant, Ayuntamiento required him to create a piece that “captured the essence of Philippine history,” according to some sources. The oil on canvas that depicts dead and bloodied gladiators now hangs in the main gallery of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Manila. The fact that this work inspired Jose Rizal to write his Noli Me Tangere — both men from the same generation of radical and highly educated Filipinos using their talents to illustrate the plight of our people at the time while urging the youth to feel and to think — is a subject of discourse in itself. That this still means something today, when even the current President has talked about how Filipinos have yet to be truly free, is another. In his 125th Independence Day speech at the Quirino Grandstand, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. talked about the “manifold un-freedoms prevailing in society that stand in the way of human development.” In his speech, he identified these as “the corrosive political and social conditions that make the nation not as free as we would like to profess and to believe, such as poverty, inadequate economic opportunities, disabling rather than enabling living conditions.” On the same day, Juan Luna’s missing work, the Hymen, oh Hyménée!, was unveiled to the public, with free entrance for a day. (The work is on view at Ayala Museum’s “Splendor: Juan Luna, Painter as Hero” exhibit until December this year.) Amazingly, the painting was found after nearly a decade-long search by art collector and León Gallery founder Jaime Ponce de Leon. The painting, considered “the holy grail of Philippine art,” was last seen in Paris 132 years ago where it won bronze at the Paris World Fair. The painting shows a Roman wedding feast (Hymen is the god of marriage in Greek mythology) and is said to have been painted while Luna was on his honeymoon with his wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera. Research revealed that his marriage to the “daughter of the Grand Inquisitor of Spain” was alleged to be rocky, marked with disapproval and later jealousy that led to a crime of passion. Based on a report in a network’s online news site, Ponce de Leon’s search for the Juan Luna painting could be likened to an adventure movie where our protagonist is on the hunt for a treasure lost for generations. He talked about how he went all over Europe trying to trace its whereabouts until he got that precious call one day in 2014 — “and was told to be at the doorstep of a certain aristocratic, lordly home in a European city by 10 [a.m.] sharp,” the report quotes Ponce de Leon. Finding it, he said, “reminds us that the first-ever world-famous Filipino was a painter!” Then again, of course, there is more to it than that. Having a long-lost work of art by Juan Luna returned to our country is like the dead master reminding us to take pride in our heritage, and to keep the Filipino spirit alive. The post Dead hero’s message appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
‘Tiamzons, 8 others were captured alive, tortured, killed’ – CPP
The Tiamzons were severely tortured with witnesses reporting that they "saw how the faces and bodies of the victims were smashed, apparently beaten with hard objects." The post ‘Tiamzons, 8 others were captured alive, tortured, killed’ – CPP appeared first on Bulatlat......»»
‘Time doesn’t heal’: Ukraine’s war widows count the cost
Olga Slyshyk began to fear the worst in January this year when her husband, Mykhailo, a military engineer serving on the front line in eastern Ukraine, didn't contact her on her birthday. It wasn't unusual for the 40-year-old trained lawyer to be offline for days at a time, but Slyshyk knew he would reach out -- one way or another -- on January 14 if he was alive and well. "I was sure he would call or find some way to congratulate me. But I had had a very bad dream and I already knew something was wrong," she told AFP in Kyiv wearing black and holding her two-year-old son Viktor. "On January 15, I found out he had died." More than one year after Moscow invaded, Slyshyk is among a growing number of women widowed by Russian forces and left to count the cost of Ukraine's determination to hold out and push Moscow's invasion back. Neither side has disclosed the exact figures of troops killed, though recently leaked US intelligence documents suggest as many as 17,500 Ukrainian servicemen have been lost. Slyshyk said a social media group for war widows she joined had more than 300 members after her husband was killed defending Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, but it had doubled in size since. President Volodymyr Zelensky last August hosted widows and their children at an honors ceremony to reassure next of kin their loved ones' sacrifice had not been in vain. "They will remain forever at battle. But they live on in the memory of their relatives," he said, greeting mourning women and their children one by one. Thirty-year-old Slyshyk, who was born in Mariupol -- a port city besieged and captured by Russian forces last spring -- said she often evokes the memory of her killed husband. "All the time. Both in my head and aloud. I'll be unable to open a tin can, weeping from frustration, and I cry out: 'Misha, I'm not even able to do this' and then suddenly, it opens." Daria Mazur, 41, said she learned of her husband's death in 2014 from graphic pictures of his bloodied corpse published on Russian media after fierce fighting with Kremlin-backed separatists. He was killed while withdrawing from Ilovaisk, an infamous and costly chapter of the conflict for Ukraine that saw hundreds killed that August as Kyiv troops pulled back in the face of advancing pro-Russian forces. "Time does not heal. You just get used to it. You accept it. You learn to live with it. And that pain just becomes a part of you," she told AFP in her kitchen in Kyiv, next to pictures showing her husband smiling with their child in his arms. They met on a beach in 2006, fell in love and married in 2010 in the southern region of Kherson, where Mazur fled from when Russia invaded last February. Her hometown is currently occupied by Russian forces. She said her final conversations with her husband, Pavlo, who was 30 when he was killed, betrayed a sense of foreboding. He knew the situation was precarious. "He told me: 'please promise me that no matter what happens to me, you will be happy,'" she recounted to AFP. "These guys are giving their lives so we can live on," she added, referring to Ukrainian servicemen fighting now. It was precisely this need to go on that pushed Oksana Borkun, who also lost her husband to the Russian invasion, to create "We Have to Live," an organization that supports widows -- the same group that Slyshyk joined. Borkun said that while the government offers financial and psychological support, she wanted to go a step further. "The girls face a huge amount of pain. You can say it's possible to go crazy from it. Life is going on around you, and you want to talk to those who understand." The organization gathers money for widows, offers logistical and moral support, too, but chiefly it provides a platform -- mainly online -- for already nearly one thousand widows country-wide to share. For Slyshyk, her husband's family has proven a stronger pillar of support than her own. Her mother, who is also a widow of two years, lives in Donetsk, a pro-Russian stronghold city captured by separatists in 2014 and does not support Ukraine in the war. The fact they have both lost their husbands has not brought them together, she said. Months after Mykhailo's death, Slyshyk is torn when weighing whether his sacrifice was worth it. "He said he was going there for me and Viktor," she recounted, explaining her husband believed Ukraine had no choice but to fight back and win. "But if you want me to be safe, to be ok, I need you by my side, not somewhere else," she added, swallowing back tears. "For now, I'm emotionally conflicted". The post ‘Time doesn’t heal’: Ukraine’s war widows count the cost appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
CHR probes killing of NDFP consultant Ericson Acosta, peasant organizer
Rights group Karapatan said Acosta and his companion Jimenez were captured alive at around 2 a.m. on November 30 in Kabankalan City, but they were later tagged as casualties in an alleged encounter with the military......»»
NDF-Negros: Military murdered peace consultant-poet Ericson Acosta
NDF-Negros spokesperson Bayani Obrero said in a statement that Acosta and a companion were captured alive at around two o’clock in the morning of November 30 but were announced as casualties in a “fake encounter” a few hours later. The post NDF-Negros: Military murdered peace consultant-poet Ericson Acosta appeared first on Bulatlat......»»
BREAKING NEWS | 2 climate activists found
Rights group Karapatan and other groups confirm that environmental activists Eco Dangla and Jak Tiong are "no longer in the hands of their abductors, bruised but alive." The post BREAKING NEWS | 2 climate activists found appeared first on Bulatlat......»»
CHR alarmed by war vs drugs in Davao City
THE Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is alarmed by Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte’s “war against drugs”, as seven drug users were killed from different barangays in the city over the weekend, just a few hours after his declaration......»»
Oplan Harabas yields 3 drivers positive for drugs
FOLLOWING the surprise drug test conducted by the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Davao and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on public utility vehicles (PUVs) last March 26, 2024, two taxi drivers in Davao City were found to be positive for drugs......»»
88% of Pinoys oppose Cha-cha – Pulse Asia
Public opinion on Charter change, which last year was roughly divided among Filipinos, is now largely skewed toward those opposed to changing the country’s Constitution, a survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed......»»
Cebu City buy-bust: Over P12M ‘shabu’ seized from 2 HVIs
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Police confiscated over P12 million worth of suspected shabu from the possession of two men during a bust-bust operation in Brgy. Bulacao, Cebu City on Tuesday evening, March 26. The buy-bust operation was conducted at around 10 p.m. in Lower Sario in Brgy. Bulacao. One of the suspects was identified as.....»»
Mandaue drug bust: P476,000 ‘shabu’ seized from HVI
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Authorities seized suspected shabu worth at least P476,000 from a 45-year-old man described as a high-value individual during an anti-illegal drugs operation in Mandaue City early on Wednesday morning, March 27, 2024. The operation took place along Realty Road in the North Reclamation Area in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, Cebu. The.....»»
Most Filipinos reject Charter change, lifting foreign ownership restrictions
An overwhelming majority of Filipinos oppose changing the 1987 Constitution at this time, according to a new Pulse Asia Survey, with results showing Filipinos in all regions and all socio-economic classes did not support the lifting of foreign ownership restrictions in key industries......»»
CHR probes Davao drug war deaths
The Commission on Human Rights yesterday expressed grave concern over Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte’s recent declaration of a war on drugs in the city......»»
Drayber, konduktor sa bus sa Ecoland terminal gipaubos sa drug test
Drayber, konduktor sa bus sa Ecoland terminal gipaubos sa drug test.....»»
PDEA: 7 drivers yield positive results in drug testing
PDEA: 7 drivers yield positive results in drug testing.....»»
‘Oplan Harabas’ starts
THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Davao Region (PDEA-Davao) has started its surprise drug test on bus and van drivers under “Oplan Harabas”, part of Oplan Biyaheng Ayos, on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2024......»»
Drug killings 95 percent lower than in previous admin
The number of deaths recorded under the Marcos administration’s war on drugs has decreased by over 95 percent, in contrast to the bloody anti-drug campaign of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte......»»