A former Iranian beauty queen has been stuck at Manila’s international airport since 17 October, when Iran issued an Interpol notice for her arrest. Bahareh Zare Bahari says she will be killed if she is sent back home and is seeking asylum in the Philippines, where she has lived for six years. Iran says Bahari is wanted because of an offence committed in 2018, but she claims Tehran is attempting to silence her because of her public stand against the government
Continue reading...Category Archives: Philippines
Quarter of world’s pig population ‘to die of African swine fever’
World Organisation for Animal Health warns spread of disease has inflamed worldwide crisis
About a quarter of the global pig population is expected to die as a result of the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
Global pork prices are rising spurred by growing demand from China, where as many as 100 million pigs have died since ASF broke out there last year. In recent months, China has been granting export approval to foreign meat plants and signing deals around the world at a dizzying rate. US pork sales to China have doubled, while European pork prices have now reached a six-year high.
Continue reading...Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte rides his motorbike before crashing – video
Rodrigo Duterte, the 74-year-old president of the Philippines, was filmed riding his motorbike in the compound of the presidential palace in a video shared on social media by a senator. The leader later crashed, hurting his elbow and knee, but suffered no major injury, senior aides have said
Continue reading...Philippines’ war on drugs fuels attacks on land defenders – report
Study shows martial law in an island territory is also being used as pretext for violence
President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and declaration of martial law in an island territory are being used as a pretext to attack people defending their land and environment in the Philippines, new research shows.
The resource-rich archipelago in south-east Asia is the world’s most murderous country for people who oppose logging, destructive mining and corrupt agribusiness. At least 30 people were killed in the Philippines last year, following 48 in 2017, dislodging Brazil from the top spot for the first time since the independent watchdog Global Witness began monitoring in 2012.
Continue reading...Hundreds of children die in Philippine dengue epidemic as local action urged
Health ministry calls for greater efforts to deal with mosquito-borne disease at village level as death toll reaches four figures
The Philippine health ministry has urged local officials to ramp up efforts to combat dengue fever after the death toll from the epidemic reached 1,021.
The young have born the brunt of the outbreak, with children under the age of 10 accounting for more than a third of the deaths recorded in the eight months up to August, when a national epidemic of the mosquito-borne disease was declared.
Continue reading...Philippines culls 7,000 pigs in outbreak of African swine fever
Infected pigs found in two towns near capital Manila, as country becomes latest to be hit by disease
The Philippines has reported its first cases of African swine fever, becoming the latest country hit by the disease that has killed pigs from Slovakia to China, pushing up pork prices worldwide.
The virus is not harmful to humans but causes haemorrhagic fever in pigs that almost always ends in death. There is no antidote or vaccine and the only known method to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull of affected livestock.
Continue reading...American charged with human trafficking after trying to carry baby out of Philippines in a bag
Jennifer Erin Talbot arrested at Manila airport after hiding six-day-old baby in a sling bag
A US woman who attempted to carry a six-day-old baby out of the Philippines hidden inside a sling bag has been arrested at Manila’s airport and charged with human trafficking.
Jennifer Erin Talbot was able to pass through the airport immigration counter without declaring the baby boy but was intercepted at the boarding gate by airline personnel.
Continue reading...Philippines declares epidemic after dengue fever kills more than 600
Cases have gone up 98% after the government banned a vaccine widely blamed for causing the deaths of children
An outbreak of dengue fever in the Philippines has been declared a national epidemic after causing hundreds of deaths this year in the wake of a government ban on the vaccine.
The country has recorded 146,062 cases of dengue from January through to 20 July this year, 98% more than the same period in 2018, the department of health said. The outbreak has already claimed the lives of 622 people. The group worst affected have been children below the age of 10.
Continue reading...The disinformation age: a revolution in propaganda
Troll farms, bots, dark ads, fake news ... from Putin’s Russia to Brexit Britain, new methods are being used to change politics and crush dissent. It’s time to fight back
Father came out of the sea and was arrested on the beach: two men in suits standing over his clothes as he returned from his swim. They ordered him to get dressed quickly, pull his trousers over his wet trunks. On the drive the trunks were still wet, shrinking, turning cold, leaving a damp patch on his trousers and the back seat. He had to keep them on during the interrogation. There he was, trying to keep up a dignified facade, but all the time the dank trunks made him squirm. It struck him they had done it on purpose, these mid-ranking KGB men: masters of the small-time humiliation, the micro-mind game.
It was 1976, in Odessa, Soviet Ukraine, and my father, Igor, a writer and poet, had been detained for “distributing copies of harmful literature to friends and acquaintances”: books censored for telling the truth about the Soviet Gulag (Solzhenitsyn) or for being written by exiles (Nabokov). He was threatened with seven year’s prison and five in exile. One after another his friends were called in to confess whether he had ever spoken “anti-Soviet fabrications of a defamatory nature, such as that creative people cannot realise their potential in the USSR”.
Continue reading...How should we cope with climate crisis? Ask survivors to take the lead | Nanette Antequisa
As well as investing billions in reinforcing cities against climate disasters, we should support those feeling its impact right now
It was my birthday recently, and it was sad to “celebrate” with another climate disaster here in the Philippines.
Heavy flooding destroyed the work of farmers in Kapatagan Valley, the rice-growing area of Lanao del Norte province on the island of Mindanao. I know the area well – it is where I started my aid work in the early 1990s.
Continue reading...How Hong Kong maids became caught in a ‘humanitarian tsunami’
Migrant workers who become pregnant by their employers face dismissal, homelessness and a swift return home
The sun had not yet risen in Hong Kong when Sally*, a domestic worker, was woken and told she needed to leave immediately. As she lay on the sofa, confused, Sally saw her employer standing over her with a piece of paper he wanted her to sign. It was a resignation letter he had written for her. She was being let go because she was pregnant. Her employer, a German man in his 50s, is the father of the child.
Sally, 39, from Manilla in the Philippines, is one of the 390,000 domestic workers – mainly from poorer Asian countries – who keep Hong Kong functioning. One in every 20 employees in Hong Kong is a migrant worker, and most of these are women of child bearing age.
Continue reading...The Catholic rebels resisting the Philippines’ deadly war on drugs
President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent crackdown has left 20,000 dead, and in a devout country, he has repeatedly hurled insults at bishops, the pope – and even God. But only a handful of Catholic activists are brave enough to speak out. By Adam Willis
One of the most famous victims – and a rare survivor – of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs is a 30-year-old pedicab driver named Francisco Santiago Jr. In September 2016, while cycling through central Manila, Santiago was abducted by a Philippine national police (PNP) officer posing as a passenger. Santiago’s name was not on the “kill list” of the PNP’s now-infamous drug-sting operation known as Oplan Tokhang, or “Operation Knock and Plead”, but he had become a target, nonetheless.
After he was taken to a police station and beaten for the better part of a day, Santiago was led back into the streets and shot multiple times, suffering wounds to his chest and arms. Thinking him dead, one officer approached Santiago and placed a pistol next to his hand. Santiago waited, barely breathing as blood pooled around him, until he heard the hurried sounds of journalists arriving at the scene. He sat up, pleading for his life and waving his blood-soaked arms in surrender. By the next morning, local newspapers had already assigned Santiago a new name: Lazarus.
Continue reading...UN launches ‘comprehensive’ review of Philippine drug war
Human rights commission votes to ‘get the facts’ on three years of bloodshed claiming an estimated 20,000 lives
The human rights body of the United Nations has agreed to begin investigating President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs in the Philippines amid accusations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and crimes against humanity.
A resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights council on Thursday, which passed narrowly by four votes, authorised the United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, to examine evidence of thousands of deaths at the hands of the police and so called “death squads”. She will present her report in a year.
Continue reading...Australia urged to invest in recycling manufacturing after Indonesia sends rubbish back
Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests
Australia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.
Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.
Continue reading...‘War on drugs’ makes Philippines fourth most dangerous country – report
Duterte’s violent anti-drugs operations are responsible for 75% of civilian deaths this year
President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a “war on drugs” has made the Philippines the fourth most dangerous place in the world for civilian-targeted violence, according to a report that places the country behind conflict-ridden Yemen.
The report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled) identifies India as the most dangerous country, with 1,385 violent events that targeted civilians. Second place is Syria with 1,160, followed by Yemen with 500, and the Philippines with 345. It supports comments made recently by Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, who voiced concerns over ongoing human rights abuses in the Philippines and the “extraordinarily high number of deaths – and persistent reports of extrajudicial killings – in the context of campaigns against drug use”.
Continue reading...‘The odour of burning wakes us’: inside the Philippines’ Plastic City
In Valenzuela City, residents blame recycling plants for pungent smells and respiratory illnesses
As noon approaches in Valenzuela City and residents prepare to have their lunch, a pungent smell of melted plastic swirls through the air, killing everyone’s appetite.
“It gets suffocating in the evening. We have to close our windows despite the heat and bury our noses under our blankets when we sleep,” says Rosalie Esplana, 40.
Continue reading...More than 200 people taken to hospital after Imelda Marcos’s birthday party – video report
Chaos erupted at a huge party to celebrate the 90th birthday of the former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos on Wednesday, with more than 200 friends and supporters taken to hospital in Manila with suspected food poisoning. The health ministry said 261 people had been taken to hospital by Wednesday afternoon after eating food that had been prepared for 2,500 people. Guests were fed rice, boiled eggs and chicken adobo, a traditional Filipino dish of meat stewed in vinegar and soy sauce
Philippines: Isis claims bombing that killed five on Jolo island
Officials say local affiliate Abu Sayyaf was likely behind blast that targeted elite army unit
Five people including three soldiers were killed in a bombing targeting an elite army unit in the Philippines’s restive south, which Islamic State claimed was a suicide attack, authorities and experts said.
The military said the kidnap-for-ransom group and Isis-affiliate Abu Sayyaf was likely behind the midday blast on the island of Jolo on Friday, which also left nine other soldiers wounded.
Continue reading...Where does your plastic go? Global investigation reveals America’s dirty secret
A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations
- This week we’re exploring plastic pollution as part of our six-month Toxic America series. Please support this journalism and help us hit our $150,000 goal
What happens to your plastic after you drop it in a recycling bin?
According to promotional materials from America’s plastics industry, it is whisked off to a factory where it is seamlessly transformed into something new.
Continue reading...Dutch hostage killed in Philippines during gun battle
Birdwatcher Ewold Horn, kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in 2012, dies as army fights militants
A Dutch birdwatcher held by Islamic State-linked militants was killed on Friday during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers in the southern Philippines, according to the military, which said he was shot by his captors as he tried to escape.
Ewold Horn, held hostage since 2012 by Abu Sayyaf, was fatally wounded as soldiers fought a 90-minute gun battle with the jihadists in Sulu province on their stronghold, Jolo island.
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