Argue posted:

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/10/11/1632627/duterte-keep-us-ties-asks-if-military-alliances-needed-all posted:

“I do not mean to cancel or abrogate the military alliances but let me ask you: Do you really think we need it? If there is a war? If we engage in skirmishes, do you think we really need America?” Duterte said after the oath-taking of new appointees in Malacañang.

“Do we need China and Russia -- for that matter, do we need somebody? If they fight, if they launch ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) or Poseidon (either a type of US military aircraft or a discontinued US ballistic missile), there will be no more American aid to talk of. There will no more be a country strong enough to rule,” he added.

“When that time comes, we won’t need anything but a priest. If you want, you can recite the mi ultimo adios (National hero Dr. Jose Rizal's 'My Last Farewell').”

Duterte said US should watch its “arrogance” as Russian President Vladimir Putin gets what he wants.

“Let’s not make any mistake. If he wants something, he will really get it. He wanted Crimea and he simply went there to occupy it. America was not able to do anything,” the president said.

In March 2014, the Crimean government declared its independence from Ukraine. Crimea later voted in a referendum to join the Russian Federation. Russia has since annexed the former Ukranian territory.

“So let us go for alliances that would contribute to health, to education, if there’s a world out there waiting for our children. Otherwise, we need to protect them,” he added.

Officials previously claimed that Duterte does not intend to antagonize the US but was merely emphasizing the need for the Philippines to pursue a more independent foreign policy.

Duterte continued with his anti-US rhetoric Tuesday, criticizing the superpower for allegedly imposing its will on the Philippines.

“America, I’m serving notice to you. I cannot tolerate your style wherein you just order us around if they want to,” he said.

Duterte lashed out at the US anew for the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police.

“Tell us why is there now a great divide between the blacks and the (whites). That’s your issue but nobody can question that. Nobody has ever heard (anyone) demanding (an) investigation by the Human Rights (Council) of the United Nations,” he said.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/11/16/duterte-on-gay-us-envoy-totoo-naman posted:

(This Goldberg, for the second time, it's true. What's wrong if you are gay? What I said is true and had started the ruckus. He started it because he rode onto a statement of mine that was a narration of a true event.)

quote:

(Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and I talked to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He was okay. I had a rift with his ambassador, his gay ambassador. He meddled during the elections, giving statements. You're not supposed to do that.)

The Saddest Rhino posted:

lol at duterte's fake news site http://dw-tv3.com/about/ "we specialise in just breaking news and spreading rumours"

Deceitful Penguin posted:

So now, he's going against public smoking?

Xelkelvos posted:

poo poo, that idea about a vape business for my brother to start in the Philippines might be even better than me and my dad thought

CommieGIR posted:

And the comments are people praising him and writing loving poetry about The Pinoy Lion.

And then others calling him the leader Africa needs

Tricky D posted:

According to the article, e-cigs are also covered under the ban.

TROIKA CURES GREEK posted:

Someone actually trusting chinese statistics that's utterly precious.

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

so, uh, what stats should we trust

ones pulled directly from your rear end in a top hat?

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Trust nothing and believe no-one

and welcome to the world of Chinese Studies~

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

so... basically we should either go see for ourselves or take wild shots in the dark

Disharmony posted:

Errr...

quote:

'I will play with you. I am very sure they cannot be brighter than me,' says President Rodrigo Duterte, confident he can outsmart foreign officials if they probe drug killings

MANILA, Philippines – If officials from the United Nations, United States, and European Union accept President Rodrigo Duterte's invitation to investigate drug killings in the Philippines, they should be ready to answer his humiliating questions.

He gave this warning during a speech at a business convention on Thursday, October 13.

"I've been a trial lawyer for many years, paikutin talaga kita (I will make you go round and round) in public. I will ask 5 questions that will humiliate you," he said with glee. (READ: The 100-day word war: How Duterte handles criticism)

"And I will ask you 10 questions for you to agree with me," Duterte added.

He said the open forum during which he would subject foreign officials to his grilling would be "entertainment."

"Bantayan 'nyo 'yan (You wait for it), you watch it all. Maganda 'yan (It will be good). It will give you an entertainment," said the President.

Duterte seemed confident he can outsmart the foreign officials or prove them wrong.

"I will play with you. I am very sure they cannot be brighter than me," he said.

He then cautioned them against underestimating the Philippines.

"Akala kasi ng mga buang na 'yan (Those fools think) we're a small nation when maybe God gave you the money, but we have the brains," he said.

Duterte had previously verbally invited US President Barack Obama and officials from the UN and EU to come to the Philippines to investigate extrajudicial killings linked to his drug war.

In his Thursday speech, he included Secretary of State John Kerry, and said he has already written letters of invitation.

"That prompted me to write letters. I invited President Obama, the Secretary of State, the EU, the United Nations, the Human Rights Commission. Come here, investigate me," he said.

So far, a letter to UN rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard has been released by Malacañang. Callamard, however, said she has yet to receive it.

Upon hearing about the release of the letter, Callamard told Rappler she welcomes the invitation but seeks "freedom of inquiry" and "non-retaliation" from the Philippine government.

In the invitation, the Palace said Duterte's right to "due process" means he should be allowed to pose questions to Callamard. It told Callamard she would be asked to swear under oath before responding to ensure she tells "nothing but the truth."

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

so, uh, what stats should we trust

ones pulled directly from your rear end in a top hat?

TROIKA CURES GREEK posted:

Not chinese ones, young goon. Are you really that ignorant about how made-up they are?

ianmacdo posted:

My favorite was the 1996 rocket disaster. The space rocket went sideways into a nearby village complex, destroying it completely. China's official report no deaths. Everyone some how evacuated safely. Just ignore all those corpse sized bags getting transported away.

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

so, uh, what stats should we trust

ones pulled directly from your rear end in a top hat?

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Hello my name is thomas friedman and as my twink rentboy was waxing my moustache I was struck by the fact it is now no longer the American century but the Chinese as I looked at the Chinese takeout box he'd brought me earlier, which reminded me of my time being paraded through chinese potemkin schools in Shanghai

The Philippines hitching their dog cart to the Chinese dragon is a way to rocket them to global relevance, and their strong, but tough leader is the one to do it.

Please read the next few paragraphs of moronic metaphors mixed with completely inadequte statistical data in my op ed in an actual newspaper, with actual journalists, which doesnt include me

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Hello my name is thomas friedman and as my twink rentboy was waxing my moustache I was struck by the fact it is now no longer the American century but the Chinese as I looked at the Chinese takeout box he'd brought me earlier, which reminded me of my time being paraded through chinese potemkin schools in Shanghai

The Philippines hitching their dog cart to the Chinese dragon is a way to rocket them to global relevance, and their strong, but tough leader is the one to do it.

Please read the next few paragraphs of moronic metaphors mixed with completely inadequte statistical data in my op ed in an actual newspaper, with actual journalists, which doesnt include me

Sephyr posted:

Not bad, but needs more references to apps and interwebs and at least two disjointed pseudo-rhetorical questions ("Can the digital ape survive in the century of the inverted dollar sign?")

8/10, would flatten the world again.

Ytlaya posted:

I went to a high ranked undergraduate business school and The World is Flat was assigned reading for one of my junior year classes (I think international business?). I remember being genuinely confused as to how our professor, who is presumably a smart person, what with being a tenured professor at a high ranked university, could think that this book is worthwhile. At the time I assumed I was just missing something, but later I realized that a large portion of people involved with finance and business are just really dumb.

Fojar38 posted:

People involved in finance and business are pathologically incapable of thinking past the current quarter which is why you may remember all those charts in 2010 projecting China to have a gdp of $100 trillion by 2050

GlassEye-Boy posted:

Yes but you seem to have some kind of bug up your butt about china making anything you say about the subject suspect as well.

Grouchio posted:

So Luzon's expecting to get an even more powerful version of Haiyan on Tuesday/Wednesday. Have there been proper evacuations? How would a president like Duterte respond?

TROIKA CURES GREEK posted:

Not chinese ones, young goon. Are you really that ignorant about how made-up they are?

Fojar38 posted:

There are no trustable stats when it comes to China.

quote:

DESPITE claims that “all roads lead to [Senator Leila] de Lima” in its investigation into the illegal drug trade in the national penitentiary, the House committee on justice will not recommend charges against her, as some members of the panel said they did not have direct evidence to tag her as the leader of the drug matrix exposed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Instead, the committee found the need to reimpose the death penalty and to legalize wire-tapping in cases involving illegal drugs.

Panel chairman Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali said Sunday a committee report would be presented to the 55-member panel Monday for approval after four hearings, where 22 witnesses, mostly drug lords, had testified, along with nine resource persons from various institutions, for a total of 47 hours.

In an interview over radio dzBB Sunday, Umali said the panel would not recommend the filing of charges against De Lima but would recommend that authorities pursue the drug probe and determine the culpability of public officials involved in the proliferation of the illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as Justice secretary.

De Lima was accused of being behind the proliferation of illegal drugs at the maximum security compound of the national penitentiary by giving protection to the operations of select drug lords and other inmates.

“The panel has no case. It has a weak case versus Senator De Lima,” panel member Ifugao Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat told the Manila Standard.

“Because all the evidence they can come out with in the hearing all came from hurried testimonies of criminals without a cause except self preservation,” Baguilat said.

“The panel should not have allowed itself to be used as a forum for a shame and vilification campaign against the lady senator,” said panel member Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who described the House probe as “vaudeville.”

On Monday, Umali said the panel would approve its report that he will sponsor and defend it in the plenary for the approval of 293-member House of Representatives before Congress goes on recess this week.

“We’re almost ready to submit our report to the committee tomorrow [Monday] for deliberation and approval. [We hope] within the week, before we close and go on a break, we would have gotten the approval also of the plenary,” Umali told dzBB.

Umali said the panel found that drug syndicates thrived inside the national penitentiary during de Lima’s stint as secretary of the Department of Justice. In fact, some drug lords testified that they had sold drugs to raise campaign funds for De Lima’s senatorial campaign.

“You have heard everything on national television. The public saw what happened and heard the witnesses. So I believe the public already knew what our findings are,” said Umali, who was careful not to disclose details of the findings before the panel members had signed the committee report.

Umali said he agreed with House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who said his committee should not recommend the prosecution of any individual because it was focused on drafting laws or amendments.

Alvarez had initiated the congressional inquiry through a House resolution.

“I agree with the Speaker that since this probe is in aid of legislation, that we focus more on the legislation. After all, a case has already been filed against De Lima and other officials,” said Umali, referring to the drug trafficking charges filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption against De Lima and seven other people.

“It will be unfair that we make recommendations on the filing of charges since we have not gone deeper into the culpability of each official or who was responsible for the drug trade at the maximum security compound in the national penitentiary,” Umali said.

With clear involvement of former NBP officials in the drug trade, Umali said his panel would also recommend to Congress the reimposition of the death penalty as being advocated by Duterte.

“The revelations in this committee hearings made it more imperative for us to, at this point, reimpose death penalty. Why? Because the four pillars of the criminal justice system are failing the people,” Umali said.

“If the criminal is serving a life sentence, what more do they have to fear?” he said in Filipino. “So you have to raise the level of fear… among these convicted felons.”

Umali said the panel would also recommend wiretapping by amending Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law and the suspension of RA 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Law against inmates and those who may have been involved in the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.

He also said his committee will also recommend amending the Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013 after the law which was designed to enable government to upgrade prison facilities, professionalize the bureau and increase the salary and benefits of its personnel did not work.

Umali vowed to reopen the probe should the alleged lover and former driver-bodyguard of De Lima, Ronnie Dayan, appear after his panel cited him in contempt and ordered his arrest.

Dayan is still in hiding.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said De Lima would get due process despite the testimony from convicted felons linking her to the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

“I am not using my office or abusing my power to persecute her,” Aguirre said in an interview.

The fact-finding investigation into De Lima’s alleged involvement and the conduct of a preliminary investigation into drug charges against her were all procedural matters required of his office, Aguirre said.

Aguirre said De Lima, his predecessor, should be very aware of such powers that she herself applied during her tenure as head of the department during the previous administration.

The DoJ chief said senator is only experiencing now what she had done to other politicians during her stint in the DoJ.

quote:

MANILA - House committee on justice chairman Reynaldo Umali on Monday denied saying that a recently concluded congressional probe found no evidence to link Senator Leila de Lima to an alleged narcotics syndicate in the New Bilibid Prison.

"I did not utter those words. I did not give any statement to any media on that particular point," Umali said

The Manila Standard on Sunday quoted Umali as saying that the investigation he led had failed to establish De Lima's liability for the proliferation of drugs inside the national penitentiary when she was still Justice secretary.
Umali dismissed the report as "a spin of some members of the media or their way of sowing intrigue on the House of Representatives."

But he also stressed that recommending the filing of charges against De Lima is not the goal of their investigation.

"That is not our job. Prosecution is an executive function, not a congressional function. Investigation and enforcement are executive functions, not legislative functions... Our role is to legislate and that is what we will focus on our committee report, he said.

Despite this, Umali was also quick to note: "That is not to say that we will not have our own findings of what facts have been established in this committee."

During the four hearings of what Umali dubbed as the "most expeditious, swiftest, productive congressional inquiry", 22 witnesses and 10 resource persons/agencies testified that De Lima and several other ranking officials allegedly condoned the prison's drug trade in exchange for millions of pesos in grease money.

Congressmen on Monday held an executive session to deliberate on the draft report of their findings.

Under House rules, the contents of the draft cannot be made public until it is approved by the committee and scheduled for a plenary session, Umali said.

De Lima has refused to participate in the congressional inquiry, which she earlier dismissed as a "sham" orchestrated by President Duterte as retaliation for her criticism of the administration's brutal war on drugs.

Drug trafficking raps were lodged last week against De Lima and seven others in connection with the Bilibid controversy.

quote:

The Office of the Ombudsman is not likely to initiate its own investigation on Senator Leila De Lima in light of a lack of firm leads, as well as the pending probe by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Asked by reporters about the possibility of a motu proprio investigation, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said: “It’s not going to happen because lahat pa lang ito allegations pa lang eh (everything is just an allegation so far).”

“Wala pa namang lead (There is no lead) that will prompt us to initiate an investigation,” Morales added.

She also cited the DOJ’s pending probe on the two criminal complaints filed separately by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption last Tuesday and former National Bureau of Investigation deputy directors Ruel Lasala and Reynaldo Esmeralda last Thursday.

The said complaints accused De Lima and other officials who served under her tenure as Justice Secretary of conspiracy over their alleged participation in the illegal drug trade. The DOJ convened an investigating panel composed of five prosecutors to look into the complaints.

Morales noted that the results of the DOJ’s investigation will be forwarded to her office, which has jurisdiction over high-ranking government officials.

“DOJ should be given the opportunity to conduct a fact-finding investigation,” she said. “When the case comes to us, and if I believe the fact-finding investigation is exhaustive enough to merit our preliminary investigation if there is a crime committed, then we’ll go through it.”

On the other hand, Morales said that the case filed by Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, police chief of Albuera, Leyte, has yet to be forwarded by the Office of the Ombudsman’s Visayas office.

quote:

“[Based on my plans, it will get bloody, so don't push for me anymore, it'll be bloody.]” Duterte said during the celebration of the 17th founding anniversary of Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) at Camp Aguinaldo on Friday, July 3 [2015].

The long-time Davao City mayor said he has no compassion for criminals, reiterating his firm stand to restore the death penalty in the Philippines.

VACC was pleased to hear that Duterte echoed their stand on death penalty.

“[If you're a drug addict or a pusher, I will hang you. If you are part of the authorities, I will even use a steel wire on you.]” Duterte said.

VACC invited Duterte to speak at its anniversary for the second consecutive year. The group supports his advocacy against criminality, which improved its rank as the 5th safest city in the world according to Numbeo.com, a crowd-sourcing rating site which previously ranked the city 9th earlier this year.

“If he has done good in Davao, why don’t we have a similar approach here in the Philippines?” said Dante Jimenez, founder and chairman of the VACC.

quote:

Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) founding chairman and president Dante Jimenez said Duterte is "the only person who could bring drastic changes" in the country and break the status quo.
The VACC official insisted that no other politician can equal the reforms the mayor pushed in his turf which is now considered as the sixth safest city in the world.
Jimenez appealed to fellow Duterte supporters to join the demonstration at Rizal Park, Manila on September 26 to trump Duterte’s plans to retire from public life next year.

quote:

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – An intelligence report from the Philippines' top intelligence gathering agency turned out to be based on a fake news website.

This was revealed by Senator Richard Gordon in a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on Monday, October 17, as he criticized the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA).

Gordon said that the NICA, which is under the Office of the President, gave the Senate panel a "faulty" intelligence report in the previous hearing.

The NICA earlier submitted a report saying there is a Chinese missile silo or launch facility under the mountains of Zambales, near the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

It turned out, however, that the information came from a "satirical and entertainment" website, according to Gordon.

"When we got this, it had a cover document that says confidential. This was submitted to us by the NICA… When we researched the website, this is what it contains, this specific article which was submitted to us, it's partly for satirical and entertainment purposes,” Gordon said.

The website the senator was referring to is called "A New Philippines." Last July 25, it posted a fake news story entitled "Breaking Story: Hidden Chinese Military Base With Alleged Missile Silos Found in Zambales," with a photo of the supposed military base.

The article was by "Intel Guru."

At the bottom, the article had this note: "This specific article is partly for satirical and entertainment purposes and the events should not be construed as pure facts although the mentioned tangible objects exist."

Gordon questioned the poor intelligence skills of the NICA, considering it has P700 million in funds. He then threatened to bring up the issue before the plenary during budget deliberations.

"If that is the state of intelligence in the country, we really are in trouble," the senator said.

The committee is set to summon NICA Director General Rodolfo Arsaga Jr to explain why he should not be cited in contempt.

"The Senate blue ribbon committee is not gonna get fooled. That's why we're gonna bring him back here and ask him why he should not be cited in contempt," Gordon said.

For Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, the NICA chief deserves to lose his job over the fiasco.

"He should be fired," Sotto said.