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[smjjames]

The most logical explanation I can think of is that he got pretty drunk at his private party with entrepeneurs, and bragged in an exagerated way. Our media probably got the raw footage, your own media was probably asked to make the story sound less like drunk talk to not embarrass Duterte.

Um o-o our media is pretty much open like 'other media' out there. While there is the common bias within media, there's less of hush-hush going on. Although my note back there was more from memory since I haven't been updated with our news lately, with memory going back to June.

...And it's pretty much less 'drunk talk' given that we've pretty much known Duterte to say...things for quite some time.
These however are new news to me. o_O

...Also could you make a new thread with a better OP about this, or for a general SEA politics thread? I remember RedKing making one but it seems to not be active.

EDIT: just came across this NYT photo reportage about the drug killings that have been ongoing since Duterte became president.
warning, graphic.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-drugs-killings.html?_r=1

There's also more to it that a dedicated thread to countries in this part of the world-thread would help
When 'more to it' includes ideas like [death penalty; senate checks on witnesses of 'death squads' or if it's true or not; stuff surrounding De Lima that I lack the time to type, etc], and that's only a tiny bit of what I wanted to post about but couldn't as mentioned above.

Oh, also the Marcos burial. That too. [An actual better discussion than Duterte given the context here :V] But everyone's seemingly(?) posting only about Duterte and him saying dum things. x___x Also our VP resigning from the presidential cabinet. Also-...we need a better thread

RedKing did make a thread for East Asian politics, though it also covers SE Asia, and the Indian subcontinent region. But yeah, it's not active.

[Tiruin]

I'm not stopping you from posting backstories, viewpoints, and other news from the area. In fact, I'm sure a lot of people, including me would find it interesting to read about. I'm not sure why changing the OP would be required. I already changed the topic title to be neutral. The OP is just what was in the news at that time.

Oh
I really lack the time though to dig up links and stuff (hence my lacking activity overall). And it'll take some time to get things up to date to what's been happening now since the past months.

[smjjames]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/asia/philippines-ex-duterte-death-squad-member/index.html

How the hell did you guys end up electing a murderer for president? I get that the Philippines is pretty corrupt compared to the US, but still?... dang....

It's like, where's the vetting....

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Pretty sure the murders were a part of the appeal.

[Reelya]

Promising death of the wrongdoers is a common thing in elected officials, not just in Philippines. GW Bush held the record for ordering executions in the USA when he was elected to President. Is there really a huge difference between government mandated killings and extrajudicial killings. It could be argued that a quick death is preferable to being entered into a crooked Death Row situation that drags your death out for years.

In 152 executions, a record at the time, GW Bush only gave clemency once, and it was to a convicted serial killer, who was convicted of killing 157 people. Ironically, the only person GW Bush didn't put to death was the only man in Texas accused of killing more than he did. Perhaps he had the guy exonerated so Mr Bush could stay at #1.

[smjjames]

Promising death of the wrongdoers is a common thing in elected officials, not just in Philippines. GW Bush held the record for ordering executions in the USA when he was elected to President. Is there really a huge difference between government mandated killings and extrajudicial killings. It could be argued that a quick death is preferable to being entered into a crooked Death Row situation that drags your death out for years.

In 152 executions, a record at the time, GW Bush only gave clemency once, and it was to a convicted serial killer, who was convicted of killing 157 people. Ironically, the only person GW Bush didn't put to death was the only man in Texas accused of killing more than he did. Perhaps he had the guy exonerated so Mr Bush could stay at #1.

I'm talking about extrajudicial killings here, and Duterte claims to have killed with his own hand, and not because he was in combat in Vietnam or anything.

[Reelya]

I'm just saying a rubber stamp on a government killing vs an extra-judicial killing isn't always that cut-and-dried different. Bush killed more people than Duterte, because of strings he pulled (including bombing cities and killing civilians), whether or not his people had official badges or not. It's just that i don't think small-scale local killings are necessarily more evil than institutionalized warmongering, mass killing of thousands of civilians and maintaining concentration camps such as Guantanamo, just because it was less hands-on and everyone involved can cite they were "just following orders". And Bush was also a major enabler of Uribe in Colombia, who oversaw mass murder no matter how to stretch it.

I'm not saying Duterte is at all justified, but I'm a bit bemused by the "how could such a person get elected?" thing, which presupposes that equally-bad people don't already get elected in western nations.

[smjjames]

George W. Bush never killed anybody with a pistol in his hand and with that pistol, that's the difference. Or even claimed to have killed people.

Seems like you're trying to say that I'm a hypocritical American and maybe I am..... or maybe not.

[Reelya]

I don't think having goons (even goons with official badges) to do your killing makes you a better person. Hitler never claimed to have personally killed a Jew.

The promising of death for wrongdoers is pretty prevalent in the USA, many election campaigns are entirely posited on it. At least from the right/conservatives. Sure, they promise to be the person pulling the switch on the electric chair rather than holding a gun, but the effect is the same, the politician is selling themselves as someone who'll kill to make america great again.

The main difference might actually be the power of central authority. It's lot weaker in Philippines than in the USA. Both have extra-judicial killings connected with authority. But in the USA it's done with more rubber stamps and acquittals of uniformed officers, or the cover of military just following orders. In a powerful state, killings by those connected with authority are more likely to be hand-waved away through legal machinations, whereas in states with weak central authority, they're more likely to be killings by clandestine groups linked to authority.

[martinuzz]

The new yearly budget for the Philippine Committee for Human Rights has been set to 16 euros by the Philippino parliament, with 119 out of 152 votes in favour.
Last year they got 12.3 million euros, but Pantaleon Alvarez, chairman of parliament, stated that 'when the organisation wants to protect criminals, let them get their money from criminals as well then', and called them 'useless'.

So the Philippine Committee for Human Rights now has a total of 16 euros to spend on investigating the claims of police brutality and random killings.

The war on drugs in the Phillipines is very controvesial. Since Duterte became president in june 2016, 7000 people have been killed, amongst whom many children that were either users, or groomed by criminals to run errands.
2500 of those were killed by the police, the rest were killed by masked death squads.
The police consistently claims self defense, but international Human Right Watch has investigated a lot of cases now, and concluded that in nearly every case, suspects were just murdered in cold blood, after which a gun a drugs were planted on the body by the police.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/jaarbudget-filipijnse-mensenrechtencommissie-vastgesteld-16-euro~a4516260/
http://nationalpost.com/news/world/police-killing-of-17-year-old-boy-spurs-protests-against-philippine-drug-war

[Tiruin]

If I had a story for everytime someone misspelled either my country of the name for people of said country ...I'd be where I am now.
But I'll edit in here (phone wifi) more details lest the whole world viewing this just reinforce the whole "lots of dead people" stereotype >_>

Because of a lot more going on than stupid, corrupt/incompetent cops. 

but Pantaleon Alvarez, chairman of parliament, stated that 'when the organisation wants to protect criminals, let them get their money from criminals as well then', and called them 'useless'.

It'd help to get a more wholesome story than how unrealistically generalizing this is x.x

[Paxiecrunchle]

Posting to watch

[martinuzz]

If I had a story for everytime someone misspelled either my country of the name for people of said country ...I'd be where I am now.

Apologies. I did try, the first two instances are correct, but I guess at the third one my old faulty finger memory took over.

But I'll edit in here (phone wifi) more details lest the whole world viewing this just reinforce the whole "lots of dead people" stereotype >_>
Because of a lot more going on than stupid, corrupt/incompetent cops. 

but Pantaleon Alvarez, chairman of parliament, stated that 'when the organisation wants to protect criminals, let them get their money from criminals as well then', and called them 'useless'.

It'd help to get a more wholesome story than how unrealistically generalizing this is x.x

I dunno man. Please believe me when I say that I'm not trying to bash the Philippines, nor am I trying to spread fake news. I am just genuinely concerned about te safety of my fellow human beings living in the Philippines.
If I have to choose between believing various highly regarded international media, and the UN Human Rights Committee, or the word of a forumite who keeps promising to elaborate on a different perspective but doesn't really go beyond giving a more diplomatic and polite variant of "mean fake news, sad", I'm inclined to choose the former. Please do not take that personal, I am just trying to describe my perception.

I'm not stopping you from posting backstories, viewpoints, and other news from the area. In fact, I'm sure a lot of people, including me would find it interesting to read about.

[ChairmanPoo]

I, for one, would like to get Tiruin's thoughts on the situation.  The picture we're shown is worrying... but it doesn't necessarily follow it's real, and/or complete. I know first hand sometimes the perception of things can be very skewered

[smjjames]

I, for one, would like to get Tiruin's thoughts on the situation.  The picture we're shown is worrying... but it doesn't necessarily follow it's real, and/or complete. I know first hand sometimes the perception of things can be very skewered

Same here. I mean, we don't know if the agency has a corruption problem, otherwise it's a "What the hell?" situation.