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...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...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...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...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...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...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...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
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...A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations
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...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.
Continue reading...Container ship M/V Bavaria, with tonnes of garbage on board, has left Subic Bay on a 20-day journey to Vancouver
The Philippines has made good on a threat by President Rodrigo Duterte and put 69 containers of what its officials called illegally transported garbage on a ship that is heading to Canada.
The nation is one of two in south-east Asia that have protested being treated like dumpsites by wealthier countries.
Continue reading...Jeepneys are being phased to help ease city congestion, but the move will also cause unemployment for experienced drivers – and higher fares for commuters
Continue reading...Region begins pushback against deluge of plastic and electronic waste from UK, US and Australia
For the past year, the waste of the world has been gathering on the shores of south-east Asia. Crates of unwanted rubbish from the west have accumulated in the ports of the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam while vast toxic wastelands of plastics imported from Europe and the US have built up across Malaysia.
But not for much longer it seems. A pushback is beginning, as nations across south-east Asia vow to send the garbage back to where it came from.
Continue reading...Loyalists’ victories in midterm elections will hand populist president more power
The architect of Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines has almost certainly won a senate seat in the country’s midterm elections, prompting concerns among victims’ groups.
Former police chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa is among Duterte’s allies who were on track to take nine of 12 open seats in the upper house, with 95% of ballots counted. The senate has previously been a bulwark against some of the president’s most controversial proposals.
Continue reading...Unofficial results show president’s allies have won nine key upper house seats, traditionally a bulwark against his controversial policies
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies were poised for victory in midterm polls, according to unofficial results on Tuesday, signalling firm approval of his policies and clearing a path for his most controversial plans.
Duterte’s deadly drug war has drawn international censure, but is central to the populist appeal that has buoyed his remarkable popularity among Filipinos since taking the presidency in 2016.
Continue reading...At least six widows are taking up the political fight in this year’s midterm elections
At least six widows of slain male politicians are standing in the Philippines’ midterm elections, extending a decades-long tradition of women in the country refusing to let their murdered spouses’ agendas die with them.
“I have a lot of things to do for Rodel, for the people of Daraga,” said Gertrudes Batocabe, who took over her late husband Rodel’s mayor candidacy in the central Philippines city of Daraga when he was shot dead in December. “It’s not really automatic that the wife takes over, but in this case I cannot see my opponents sitting down,” she told AFP.
Continue reading...Election seen as referendum on president’s policies, with critics of the government fearing president’s grip on power will tighten
Filipinos have started voting in midterm polls that are being seen as a crucial referendum on Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs, unorthodox style and contentious embrace of China.
The poll is expected to strengthen the controversial president’s grip on power, paving the way for him to deliver on pledges to restore the death penalty and rewrite the constitution.
Continue reading...Top official condemns lack of focus on record 41 million people left homeless in their own countries after fleeing violence
Record numbers of people have been forced from their homes by conflict in a crisis that has received “pitiful” international attention, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council has said.
A total of 41.3 million people were living in a state of internal displacement by the end of 2018 due to violence, researchers for the organisation found, with increasing numbers unable to return home for protracted periods. This is a rise of more than a million on the previous year.
Continue reading...Rumour-mongers in Binalonan face £3 fines and three hours litter-picking if they indulge in local tittle-tattle
When the lethargic heat of summer set in, the residents of Binalonan, a small town in the Philippines, used togather under the trees and share stories about their neighbours, swapping titbits about rumoured scandals, affairs, bankruptcies and divorces.
But no longer. In local law imposed on the town, which is north of the capital Manila, such gossip, or “chismis’” as it is known in the Philippines, is now illegal.
Continue reading...