The Philippines: Forget everything you thought you knew about human rights

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Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Mozi posted:

When Duterte was elected, my feeling was that it was only after some time had passed that one could see whether or not a democracy would really be OK with such blatantly illegal, immoral, and crude conduct, or whether his administration would collapse on itself. (Obviously, Duterte wasn't the only elected official I had in mind here.)

Well, it's been a year since his election:

I have to admit, this wasn't exactly what I was hoping to read by this point.

I mean, the quoted section is the bougie fucks that go to university. People rich and/or smart enough to get into Uni, but not rich and/or smart enough to go get educated outside the Philippines.

Here's another section that's relevant:

quote:

But there's a new problem, she says: "We're not scared of the addicts. We're scared of the police and how they're harassing us, just barging into our houses and violating our rights."

Cindy's got a 27-year-old brother who recently got out of jail. He stopped at home just long enough to see his mother, she says, then left for the provinces.

"He was scared he'd be a target," she says � that he'd be killed. "He said he wouldn't come back as long as Duterte was president."

Down a nearby alley, I go to visit Sylvia Garcia, whose son Aristotle was killed in an encounter with police back in September. I ask her how it's going.

"It's hard," she says. "I've not yet moved on."

She says she's noticed that a lot of young men have moved on � or, more precisely, fled � in the past few months. Like Cindy, she says the neighborhood is quieter these days � and people are afraid of the police.

It's probably nothing new that the upper classes are fine with everything since the blood spatter doesn't reach them while the lower classes suffer, but they don't exactly have to means to exact any sort of political revolution by themselves. At least not without immense bloodshed.

More fuckery from the article:

quote:

The emotional cost of losing a loved one isn't the only struggle families face. There's the financial cost, too, says De La Salle University's Diokno, who also chairs the Philippines' Free Legal Assistance Group.

"They have to pay as much as 15,000 to 25,000 pesos to recover the bodies of their relatives," Diokno says, about $300 to $500 � a huge sum for poor families who still have to arrange a funeral as well.

So many have come up with a workaround.

"Some relatives, some families, don't wait for the scene-of-the-crime operatives to claim the body," Diokno says. "As soon as the police or the vigilantes, or whoever is responsible, commit the extrajudicial killings, before the authorities can come, [the families] get the body and bury it so they don't have to pay."

Diokno says those killings don't get recorded. He believes many others go unrecorded these days, too. His legal assistance group receives reports from communities of people just disappearing. And nobody, he says, knows where the bodies are.

He doesn't believe the commonly accepted estimate of 7,000 dead since the war on drugs began last year, and thinks the number may be between 10,000 and 12,000.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2017 16:33

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 00:06

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

TROIKA CURES GREEK posted:

Look at how quickly people here on the right wing are decried as subhuman or worse, it's just what people do to be quite honest. On every side of the political spectrum.

Do people who consider others to be subhuman deserve to be treated the same way?

# ¿ Aug 5, 2017 04:22

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

the black husserl posted:

From an outsider observer POV, it seems like ya'll live in a dystopian hellscape.

Seriously. Duterte sounds more like Palpatine or Sauron than your standard evil despot. I can understand disappearing a a journalist, but at this point your police forces are just openly slaughtering poor children like animals. What's the point? What goal does killing the poor accomplish besides more "blood for the blood god?"

It's a method to show control, essentially. Every so often, the populace needs to be reminded that the person in charge is 100% in charge.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2017 18:46

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Scaramouche posted:

"tough on crime"

I'd post more about some of the characteristics of the Filipino electorate i observed from when I lived there (Gloria years) but going over it in my mind it feels really paternalistic and condescending.

As much as Filipinos value education as a virtue, they're not the brightest electorate from my understanding and experience. For most people in the Philippines, there are several dozen more pressing problems in their lives and politics sorta falls by the wayside. Being politically informed even moreso. As a result, only the young who are in school and those wealthy enough to not have many things to worry about can really understand what's going on in politics and those with wealth can actually influence it regularly. To add to that, nepotism is a very powerful force since the people in positions to exercise it generally have enough leverage to ensure that there's no criticism of it. It's like taking the American system of politics and governance and then dialing up the income inequality and then taken to its logical conclusion.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2017 22:27

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Pilsner posted:

While it might look grim, reading Twitter and news stories doesn't always give you the real picture of what it is just being a normal person minding their business in a country. I know several filipinos who just go about their lives as if nothing happened since Duterte; I haven't heard them complain about a single thing. I'm betting it's precisely the same in the USA since Trump came to power; it's 99.9% news media mud-slinging bullshit that has no impact on peoples' everyday lives, unless they read said stupid media stories and let them anger them. The people most annoyed are people who for some reason can't help following the worthless news.

The people most annoyed in the US are the people who may unexpectedly have their citizenship revoked or have their family or friends suddenly arrested by ICE or even just be denied the ability to afford treatment for their healthcare. You know, people following worthless news.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2017 01:00

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Grouchio posted:

What would take out Duterte at this point?

An assassination. Another PPR maybe. His term limit

# ¿ Apr 8, 2018 21:40

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

AARO posted:

33+ dead in election violence.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/14/18/election-death-toll-hits-33-pnp

What is the violence stemming from or how? Is this just general people beating the poo poo out of each other for no reason or what?

# ¿ May 15, 2018 04:07

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

One issue is that there's definitely a likely large amount of talking out of both sides of one's mouth with regards to China since there's a lot of money from the Chinese that goes into Filipino politicians' pockets and to spite them would be to spite their own personal bottom lines. As of right now, China's more preoccupied with the US and NK, but I'd imagine that, unless this is just big words with no action behind it, there might be consequences for this.

Edit: Forgot that this is De Lima pushing this, so this is probably partially an attack on the Dutere administration and its political supporters and their gains from appealing to Chinese businesses

# ¿ Jun 4, 2018 22:10

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Grouchio posted:

It's been really quiet these past few months, or have I missed something?

Doesn't Duterte have cancer now?

everyone moved into the CSPAM Philippines thread

# ¿ Mar 24, 2019 08:39

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

My aunt has been exposed to some of that revisionism i think. At least in the vilification of Ninoy Aquino

# ¿ Nov 15, 2021 19:06

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 00:06

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Well another twist in the election: Duterte's Daughter and Bongbong have announced that they're running together

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/duterte-daughter-joins-marcos-running-mate-philippines-presidential-election-2021-11-16/

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 00:00

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