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The mayor of Ozamiz in the province of Misamis Occidental, Philippines has been killed in a drug raid:
A mayor who had been accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of involvement in drug trafficking was killed along with his wife and 10 other people in coordinated police raids early Sunday, the authorities said.
Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of the city of Ozamiz in the southern Philippines, died in a firefight at his home after his security personnel shot at drug enforcement officers, who had come to arrest him and three members of his family, according to the Philippine National Police.
His wife, Susan Parojinog, and five other people were also killed, and a second raid at another house owned by the family left five more people dead, the police said. Mr. Parojinog's daughter, Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez, the deputy mayor of Ozamiz, was among "scores" of people arrested, according to Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for Mr. Duterte.
The police said they confiscated high-powered rifles, bundles of cash and an unspecified amount of methamphetamines at Mr. Parojinog's home. A police official, Chief Superintendent Timoteo Pacleb, said one officer had been wounded in the firefight but that his life was not in danger.
Also at the The Washington Post, SunStar, BBC, and CNN Philippines.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @08:17PM (14 children)
Disclaimer: I do not live in the Philippines, I do not know the whole scope of drug problems there, and sometimes there is enough institutional corruption and problems that drastic action is necessary.
What in the world is going on there? At best it looks like a series of systemic murders is going on there like one would expect of an African Warlord, and at worst it looks like the beginnings of a civil war (with one elected official being murdered by another elected official).
Is there anybody with actual knowledge or experience in the Philippines who can provide more context of what is going on there? Is it really as bad as American media is portraying? Is it "true, but not what it sounds like?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Monday July 31 2017, @08:58PM (9 children)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @09:36PM (8 children)
I see no reason for Duterte to be vilified by western MSM. I would think they would play up the anti-drug aspect and try to spin his insanity as "not so bad". I can't see any reason for western media to paint him as a bad guy.
Takeaway: he is batshit crazy and taking the worst path possible to solving the drug and corruption problem. Make drugs legal and most of the corruption goes away at the same time. Duterte is just punting the problem down the road, and likely he will make things much MUCH worse as drug lords develop their own private armies and the country devolves into civil war. Fucking stupid, fascist assholes trying to control the lives of other people ALWAYS leads to more serious problems.
Fuck fascist controlling assholes. Let people live their own lives, and as soon as their actions infringe upon someone else then we can consider punitive actions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @10:33PM (2 children)
See Yellow Journalism [wikipedia.org]. Plus there is the old adage of, "If it bleeds, it leads." Plus there is always a market for, "Those wacky foreigners. The world is going to hell in a hand basket. (Aren't you lucky to live here, where it's safe?)"
The media doesn't need a reason to vilify a foreigner, and an old motto I personally live by is, "if it sounds unbelievable, you probably shouldn't believe it." Sometimes the outlandish is legitimately outlandish, but more often than not it is something very reasonable which is being mis-reported. This includes things like EU-regulation saying bananas need to be straight, the "unreasonableness" of the infamous McDonalds Hot Coffee lawsuit, and numerous other "one simple tricks" reports.
So to go back to my original question... is there anybody here who actually has personal experience or knows a person they trust (note: Washington Post, and Fox News are not people) with actual personal knowledge of the situation in the Philippines? What is the ground truth of what is really going on over there? Is it really as bad as western media is portraying, and what do the regular people think about it?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 01 2017, @12:35AM (1 child)
I have no current knowledge, but I served with a number of Filipinos.
The first thing you have to understand is, the Philippines isn't exactly a "country" like the US or most of the rest of the western world nations. Instead, it is a chain of islands, with each of the islands belonging to one or another tribes. One of the "Filipinos" that I served with was a small giant, a Moro tribesman. His grand daddy was a head hunter, who saw most other Filipinos as food for the table. Tagalog hunted pigs for food, and Moro hunted Tagalog for food.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_the_Philippines [wikipedia.org] That page should help you to understand how diverse the Philippines are. Additionally, that page should make you suspect that you will never understand the Philippines until you understand tribalism. http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Tribalism [wikia.com]
Keeping that in mind, recent news of DAESH/ISIS in the Phillipines shouldn't surprise anyone at all. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-influence-spreading-philippines-despite-government-claims-1537843 [ibtimes.co.uk]
History is important when trying to understand what is happening in the Philippines. There are no simple answers to anything in the region. Tribalism rules.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @03:47PM
That's why many of them like a Big Chieftain like Duterte to lead them and stomp on people they don't like. They don't care about new-fangled concepts like whether it's actually legal or not by the written laws. The old concepts of "bad people deserve to die" apply.
Simple as that. Applies to many other peoples with primitive cultures. Like certain sections of the USA too ;).
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday July 31 2017, @10:50PM (2 children)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday August 01 2017, @12:16AM (1 child)
I think the key is if he has popular support. And he was elected in a free election asfaik. So he might actually succeed.
(Score: 2) by quacking duck on Tuesday August 01 2017, @03:07PM
According to the the wiki on the 2016 Philippine election [wikipedia.org], Duterte won with only got 39% of the popular vote, which is not unusual in a democracy with more than 2 major political parties. Canada's current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, likewise won with only 39%-ish of the popular vote for his party.
All this to say that although Duterte won the popular vote, it is nowhere near an actual majority of voters who supported him.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Unixnut on Monday July 31 2017, @10:55PM (1 child)
Well, I remember when he did an about turn from being a staunch US Ally to a Chinese/Russian ally. Shortly after that the MSM stories about this "drug war" started appearing. Now whether the events had just started happening, or whether the MSM just started reporting them, I don't know.
What I do know i that in addition to Duterte fighting drug dealers, ISIS is also having a ball over there (http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/28/asia/isis-threat-southeast-asia/index.html) , so basically what you have is a three way civil war in everything but name.
Imagine Mexico's drug war between the government and cartels, as well as corrupt police/officials, and then add ISIS into the mix to spice it up, and you have the Philippines. Not sure what the best course of action is, but I guess the government finally lost patience, declared martial law, and went in guns blazing.
Now we all get to watch the fireworks.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mykl on Tuesday August 01 2017, @01:22AM
FWIW, the Australian media started reporting on Duterte's "War on Drugs", from the first day he stepped into office. In particular, the fact that he said he would answer for anyone who killed a drug dealer [smh.com.au] (about halfway down the linked article), and that they wouldn't be prosecuted. Note that he also made his promise to kill these mayors a year ago.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 31 2017, @09:16PM
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday July 31 2017, @11:06PM
The whole drive of Duterte can be summarized with: "if you're destroying my country, I will destroy you first". The focus is on drugs because it's really a major problem. But he has also told the same thing for instance to mining companies that are destroying the environment, or in general to corrupt government officials who as a result are now reluctant to take bribes. I'm not living there, but I've heard that it's becoming more difficult to grease the system, so his policy seems to be working.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @02:19AM (1 child)
SO now the philippines will be puniished. severely.
just like every other country that has wised up to his manipulation of countries and currencies.
they get made into 'the bad guys it's ok to attack'.
That's what this is all about. duarte isn't a globalist player.
So duarte must be destroyed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @03:09PM
*Duterte.
Come on dude, it's right there in the summary.