duterte war on drugs essay brainly

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s "War on drugs"

Phelim Kine is deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch in New York, where he supervises the organization’s work on Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Kine is also an adjunct faculty member in the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College at the City University of New York. He lectures on human rights developments and challenges in Asia. Originally published in Summer 2017.

At about 4 p.m. on August 18, 2016, a police anti-drug raid swept through the neighborhood in Manila’s metropolitan Navotas district where Angelo Lafuente, a 23-year-old small appliances repairman, lived and worked. Two uniformed policemen accompanied by four armed men in civilian clothes detained Lafuente and took him away in a marked white police van. Twelve hours later, police at the Navotas police station presented Lafuente’s panic-stricken family members with photos of Lafuente, dead of gunshot wounds. The police report attributes his death to “unknown” gunmen and ignores the fact that he was last seen alive in police custody.

On September 27th, local government officials in the Manila slum where Virgilio Mirano lived with his wife and two children accused him of being a drug user and ordered him to appear at a ‘mass surrender’ ceremony three days later. Mirano never made it. Instead, just hours later, four armed men in civilian clothes and face masks burst into his home, dragged him into the street, and shot him six times execution-style while his family looked on. Police allowed the gunmen to leave the scene unimpeded through a nearby checkpoint. A police report attributes Mirano’s death to a shoot-out with anti-drug police that ended with Mirano dying in an “exchange of gunfire.” Witnesses dispute that account.

23-year-old Aljon Mesa and his brother, 34-year-old Danilo Mesa, were casual laborers in a fishing port in metro Manila’s Navotas district until their deaths in September. On the afternoon of September 20, 2016, six masked, armed men in civilian clothes detained Aljon and took him away on a motorcycle. About 30 minutes later, a uniformed policeman notified Aljon Mesa’s relatives that he was “breathing his last breath” under a nearby bridge. When family members arrived on the scene, they found him dead from gunshot wounds while the masked armed men who detained him stood nearby. Those men remained on the scene when uniformed police investigators arrived, indicating they were coordinating with the police.

Six days later, uniformed and plain-clothes police detained Danilo Mesa and took him into custody at the local municipal government office. His family could not afford the required bribe to free him, but assumed he would be safe in the custody of municipal authorities. At about 6 p.m., a group of masked, armed men in civilian clothes dragged him from the office. Shortly afterward, passersby found his body. His entire head had been wrapped in packing tape and he had been shot execution-style through the mouth. There are no police records of his killing.

Welcome to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs.’ The details of the killings of those four people provide grisly context for the hard data of the more than 7,000 suspected drug users and drug dealers killed by police and “unidentified gunmen” since Duterte took office on June 30, 2016. They also challenge the Duterte government’s persistent denial that police are committing extrajudicial killings. That death toll also doesn’t include the victims that Duterte calls “collateral damage”— children shot dead in anti-drug operations. The extraordinary brutality of the Duterte drug war is undeniable. Many of the victims are found in back alleys or street corners wrapped in packing tape, their bodies bullet-ridden or bearing stab wounds and other signs of torture.  Duterte justifies his anti-drug campaign as a life-or-death struggle against a “drug menace” that he claims threatens to transform the Philippines into a “narco state.” He is untroubled by the fact that the statistics he brandishes to back up this hyperbole are flawed, exaggerated, or fabricated.

The Philippine National Police have claimed responsibility for 2,615 of those killings, an astronomical rise from the 68 killings by police in anti-drug operations between January 1 and June 15, 2016. Police justify that surge in killings on the basis that the victims uniformly “fought back.” Police attribute another 3,603 killings to “vigilantes” or “unidentified gunmen.” An additional 922 killings are classified by police as “cases where investigation has concluded,” despite a lack of any publicly-disclosed evidence of the results of those investigations and whether they resulted in any arrests or prosecution.

Human Rights Watch research into the deaths of Lafuente, Mirano, the Mesa brothers, and 28 other people  killed since Duterte took office exposes the  narrative of the Duterte drug war as a blatant falsehood. Interviews with witnesses and victims’ family members and scrutiny of police records indicate an alarming pattern of unlawful police conduct to cover up extrajudicial executions. Despite the Philippine National Police’s efforts to differentiate between killings by “unidentified gunmen,” or “vigilantes,” and those shot dead while resisting arrest, Human Rights Watch determined there were no meaningful differences in the cases investigated. In several incidents, suspects last seen alive in police custody who were shortly after found dead were categorized by police as “found bodies” or “deaths under investigation.” These discrepancies underminegovernment assertions that rival drug

gangs or “vigilantes” are responsible for most killings.

The incidents analyzed by Human Rights Watch demonstrated police coordination and planning, in some cases with the assistance of local government officials. Those elements of active police and government complicity undermine official assertions that the killings are the work of “rogue” officers or “vigilantes.” Research suggests that police involvement in the killings of drug suspects extends far beyond the officially acknowledged cases of police killings in “buy-bust” drug operations. That research paints a chilling portrait of Filipino victims, the majority of whom are impoverished urban slum dwellers, who have been gunned down in state-sanctioned death squad operations that demolish rule of law protections.

Duterte has defied the highest profile international criticism of the drug war killings. In August, he threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations in response to criticism from UN officials, including Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights. In October, comments by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) criticizing “high officials” of the Philippine government for public statements that “seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage State forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force” prompted Duterte to threaten to pull the Philippines out of the ICC.

Duterte has also effectively eviscerated meaningful domestic opposition to his drug war. Duterte and pro-Duterte lawmakers have politically attacked his most vocal domestic critic, Senator Leila de Lima, a former justice secretary and chairwoman of the official Commission on Human Rights. Duterte’s Senate loyalists ousted de Lima from the chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights in September 2016 in an apparent reprisal for de Lima’s move to convene Senate hearings into the drug war killings.

The hearings prompted a torrent of hateful, misogynist invective from Duterte and other government officials. In August, Duterte went so far as to tell a crowd of supporters that de Lima should “hang herself.”  Duterte’s political vendetta against de Lima climaxed in February with her arrest and detention on politically-motivated charges of violating the country’s Dangerous Drugs Act, which prohibits the “sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution, and transportation of illegal drugs.” De Lima is in prison awaiting trial, but is fearful that her safety is at risk while behind bars.

Despite the thousands of often gruesome killings linked to Duterte’s drug war, his often profane defiance of international criticism, and his steamrolling of domestic critics, he maintains high public popularity ratings. In January, the Pulse Asia polling firm released data that indicated his “trust and approval” ratings were at 83 percent, considerably higher than those of other senior elected officials.

However, surveys on Philippine public assessments of Duterte’s drug war express concern about its death toll, with 94 percent  of those polled in December 2016 expressing support for the arrest, rather than the  killing, of drug suspects. These apparent statistical contradictions reflect how conceptions of the sanctity of life among a relatively pious Catholic-majority nation coexist with the persistent public appeal of Duterte’s plain speaking populist style. Those popularity polls also fail to take into account the influence of a pro-Duterte online ‘keyboard army,’  who harass, intimidate, and try to silence any public expressions of opposition or dismay to the drug war killing campaign on social media.

Duterte’s pursuit of his drug war despite international opprobrium and its skyrocketing death toll is dismaying, but not surprising. Duterte’s presidential electoral platform included lurid pledges of near-biblical scale extrajudicial violence and promises of mass killings of tens of thousands of “criminals,” whose bodies he would dump in Manila Bay. And Duterte had a specific model for that approach to ‘crime control,’ which he honed during his two decades as mayor of Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao.

Davao City is synonymous for many Filipinos with the Davao Death Squad, a shadowy group of gunmen linked to the killings of hundreds of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children as young as 14. During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Duterte marketed his links to Davao and the existence of the Davao Death Squad as a vote-grabbing branding opportunity rather than a career-derailing political handicap. On the eve of the May 9 presidential elections, which Duterte won against four other candidates with nearly 40 percent of the vote, Duterte told a crowd of more than 300,000 people exactly what to expect if elected. “If I make it to the presidential palace,” he said, “I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, holdup men, and do-nothings, you better get out because I’ll kill you.”

Human Rights Watch did not uncover any direct evidence of Duterte’s participation in any of the Davao Death Squad killings in a 2009 investigation. But that probe did uncover involvement of Davao City officials and police. Duterte himself has done little to distance himself from allegations of involvement in the death squads. In May 2015, he publicly admitted having a role. “Am I the death squad? True. That is true,” he said.

Duterte retracted that admission days later, but has made numerous statements over the past few decades that seek to justify the extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects. In 2001-2002, Duterte frequently took to local radio or television in Davao to announce the names of “criminals.” The Davao Death Squad would subsequently hunt down and kill some of those same people. In December, Duterte told an international business gathering that he had personally killed criminal suspects while mayor of Davao City and that he would cruise the city on a motorcycle “looking for a confrontation so I could kill.” There have yet to be any successful prosecutions for the killings linked to the Davao Death Squad. Meanwhile, the killings in Davao City continue, and in other Philippine cities the Davao Death Squad has apparently inspired copycat death squad operations. Since September, two self-confessed former members of the Davao Death Squad have come forward and testified to the Philippine Senate that Duterte was the mastermind behind the killings. Duterte has dismissed their allegations and insists that all killings in Davao during his time as mayor were the result of “legitimate police operations.”

Duterte’s pursuit of his drug war has not been diplomatically cost-free. The US Embassy in Manila announced on December 14 that a US government foreign aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), would deny the Philippine government new funding  due to “significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines.” The statement justified that decision on the basis that criteria for MCC aid recipients “[include] not just a passing scorecard but also a demonstrated commitment to the rule of law, due process and respect for human rights.” That funding denial by MCC, which disbursed US$434 million to the Philippines from 2011 to 2016,  will most likely lead to the cancellation of a second five-year funding grant for a large-scale infrastructure development project agreed to by the MCC in December 2015.

Duterte got more bad news. In March 2017, visiting EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström warned the Philippine government that human rights-abusing policies, including the drug war, pose a threat to exports to the European Union. She specified that unless the government took action to address the EU’s concerns, the Philippines risks losing tariff-free export of up to 6,000 products under the EU’s human rights benchmarks linked to the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) trade program. A Philippine presidential spokesman, Ernesto Abella, dismissed those concerns as evidence of EU ignorance about the Philippines.

But Duterte also has enthusiastic foreign supporters who are untroubled by the human rights implications of the Duterte government’s signature policy. The Chinese Embassy in Manila issued a statement in July 2016 vowing unconditional support for the drug war. A China Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, echoed that position ahead of Duterte’s state visit to China in mid-October by stating, “We understand and support the Philippines’ policies to combat drugs under the leadership of President Duterte.”

On November 30, the Russian ambassador to the Philippines expressed unconditional support for Duterte’s war on drugs, saying he was “deeply impressed” with the president’s efforts to build a relationship with Russia and stating that, “We sincerely wish you every success on your campaign [against drugs]. We understand well your legitimate concerns. As for the methods, we refrain from any comments,” explaining that as a Russian diplomat, he had no right to comment on “domestic developments” in the Philippines.

Duterte has also benefited from the reticence of close bilateral allies to publicly criticize his drug war. Exhibit A for that approach has been  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who during his January state visit to the Philippines announced a five-year, US$800 million Japanese government Official Development Assistance package to “promote economic and infrastructure development.” He also promised unspecified financial support for drug rehabilitation projects in the Philippines. In Manila, Abe stated that, “On countering illegal drugs, we want to work together with the Philippines through relevant measures of support,” without elaborating. But during his visit and afterward, Abe made no public reference to the war on drugs and its skyrocketing death toll.

The support of Russia, Japan, and China may help the Duterte government offset the impact of aid and trade curbs imposed the United States and the European Union. But they will not negate the lingering threat to his longer-term legitimacy posed by the threat of eventual domestic or international prosecution for killings linked to his anti-drug campaign. No evidence thus far shows that Duterte planned or ordered specific extrajudicial killings. But his repeated calls for killings as part of his drug campaign could constitute acts instigating the crime of murder. In addition, Duterte’s statements that seek to encourage vigilantes among the general population to commit violence against suspected drug users would constitute incitement to violence. Duterte and senior officials in his government may also face possible charges of crimes against humanity for their repeated calls encouraging the killing of alleged drug dealers and users, indicative of a government policy to attack a specific civilian population.

In January, Duterte vowed to extend his drug war, opening his statement with a promise that it “will solve drugs, criminality, and corruption in three to six months,” until the end of his term in 2022. Duterte may well find that domestic or international efforts for justice for the drug war killings may derail that goal.

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25 Amazing Books by Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors You Need to Read

M ay is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month , which celebrates the lives and contributions of inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through various forms of media. In honor of the holiday, here are 25 books from Asian American and Pacific Islander authors that you should include on your reading list, from prize-winning fiction to graphic novels, essays, and memoirs.

1. The Sympathizer // Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Sympathizer is Viet Thanh Nguyen’s debut novel, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize as well as a place on The New York Times bestseller list. When Nguyen was 10 years old, he saw the film Apocalypse Now , an American-made drama about the Vietnam War, and realized that not many stories about the war came from the perspective of the Vietnamese people.

In The Sympathizer , the narrator is a South Vietnamese military aide working as a spy for the communist North Vietnamese. Born to a French father and Vietnamese mother, this unnamed spy was educated in America, but has returned to his home country to fight for the communist cause. After the fall of Saigon, he is among the refugees sent to the United States and tries to start a new life there, but is quickly recruited back to spy on his fellow comrades. The Washington Post called the novel “startlingly insightful and perilously candid.”

Buy it : Amazon

2. Pachinko // Min Jin Lee

Pachinko is a historical novel that focuses on four generations of a Korean family that migrates to Japan. The large ensemble of characters must deal with the legal and social discrimination they face as immigrants. In order to move up in society, the family opens up pachinko parlor, a slot machine-style game popular in Japan, from which the book takes its name. Beautifully written and captivating, Pachinko was named one of the 10 best books of 2017 by The New York Times and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. It has since been turned into a critically acclaimed series on Apple TV+ .

3. Little Fires Everywhere // Celeste Ng

Set in the 1990s, Little Fires Everywhere tells the intertwined stories of the Richardsons, a middle-class suburban family in Shaker Heights, Ohio—where author Celeste Ng grew up—and single mother Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl. While Mia is a transient artist with a mysterious past, the Richardson household follows a strict set of rules. When the two families find themselves on opposing sides of a custody battle over the adoption of a Chinese baby, secrets are revealed and lives are changed forever. In the process, Little Fires Everywhere explores the power of privilege and the societal demands on motherhood.

4. Clay Walls // Kim Ronyoung

The Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel Clay Walls tells the story of a Korean family forced to leave Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1920s to live in the United States. As Pachinko author Min Jin Lee described it to Bustle , “ Clay Walls is a story about immigration and colonial trauma, and it is also a story about marriage, class, and patriarchy.”

Published in 1986, the book was the first-ever American novel to explore the social and cultural situations of Korean immigrants in the early 20th century, and had a major impact on later generations of Asian American authors. “At the time, I did not think I could be a writer, so I did not read it as a lofty literary example,” Lee told Bustle, “rather, I read it and loved it because it was a beautifully written work of American literature that was both absorbing and deeply felt.”

5. The Namesake // Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri ’s The Namesake brings the immigrant experience and the idea of identity to light in this story of the Ganguli family leaving Calcutta for the United States. After their arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima move to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Ashoke’s career in engineering. As Ashoke adapts to the American way of life, Ashima resists the lifestyle and pines to be back home with her family. The story then follows their son Gogol as he struggles between following his family’s tradition or assimilating to U.S. culture—an experience that many first-generation American children deal with.

6. Girls Burn Brighter // Shobha Rao

Set in India, Shobha Rao’s debut novel follows Poornima and Savita, friends who are born in an impoverished landscape where they endure daily abuse. They are separated after a devastating assault on Savita. Poornima becomes determined to find her friend and leaves everything behind. Her journey takes her to the dark underworld of India and then to a tiny apartment in Seattle, Washington. Girls Burn Brighter is a timely—if distressing—portrayal of human trafficking, sexual assault, misogyny, cultural patriarchy, and the power of friendship.

7. I Love You So Mochi // Sarah Kuhn

In this coming-of-age story for young adults, author Sarah Kuhn explores themes of food, fashion, family, cultural differences, and love. The sweet romantic comedy follows Kimi Nakamura as she visits her estranged grandparents in Japan during spring break after getting into a fight with her mother. While there, Kimi meets Akira, a cute medical student who moonlights as a Mochi mascot, and he ends up serving as her guide in Kyoto. What begins as an escape from her problems becomes a way for Kimi to understand her mother’s past and figure out her own future.

8. The Woman Warrior // Maxine Hong Kingston

Told across five interconnected stories, The Woman Warrior blends autobiography and Cantonese mythology to explore Kingston’s identity as a first-generation Chinese American woman. Kingston focuses on the women who have affected her life the most—from her aunts to her mother to the Chinese folk hero Fa Mulan and finally to Kingston herself. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, The Woman Warrior has become a staple in Asian American studies classes since it was first published in 1976.

9. Pidgin Eye // Joe Balaz

If you want to learn about Hawaiian culture, start with Joe Balaz, a Native Hawaiian poet and visual artist best known for his writing in English and Pidgin (Hawaiian Creole English). His collection Pidgin Eye features 35 years of poetry honoring the beauty and complexity of Hawaii and its people. Balaz’s poems are funny, spiritual, and full of Hawaiian history.

10. All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir // Nicole Chung

This memoir by former Catapult magazine editor-in-chief (and former managing editor of The Toast ) Nicole Chung is a warm and honest reflection on the author’s search for the birth parents who gave her up for adoption. After asking her adoptive mother about her birth parents, Chung is told that they could not give her the life she deserved and that “may be all you can ever know.” As Chung prepared for the birth of her first child, she sought out her birth parents and found an older sister as well as some painful family secrets. All You Can Ever Know was a finalist for the 2018 National Books Critics Circle Award and named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post , NPR, TIME , and many more.

11. Language of the Geckos and Other Stories // Gary Yong Ki Pak

Writer Gary Pak is considered one of the most popular and influential writers of Hawaiian heritage in the modern era. Many of his stories focus on Asian Hawaiian identity and the complexities of Hawaiian culture. Language of the Geckos and Other Stories features stories of Native Hawaiians and Asian Americans (as well as haole , or white people) dealing with unfulfilled dreams, failure, and the loss of love.

12. Patron Saints of Nothing // Randy Ribay

In this young adult novel, author Randy Ribay dives deep into Filipino and American identity, drug abuse, guilt, grief, and the unjust policies of Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte. After the death of his cousin at the hands of the Duterte regime, Filipino American Jay Reguero is determined to find out what happened. Jay travels to the Philippines, where he finds out more than he bargained for.

13. The Astonishing Color of After // Emily X.R. Pan

After her mother dies by suicide, Leigh is convinced her mother has been reincarnated as a red bird. She travels to Taiwan to meet her mother’s parents for the first time, and while there, she seeks out her mother’s past, uncovers family secrets, and builds a new relationship with her grandparents. At the same time, Leigh must come to terms with her relationship with her best friend and longtime crush, Axel, whom she kissed for the first time the day of her mother’s passing. Pan explores mental illness, grief, and love in this heartbreaking story.

14. Edinburgh // Alexander Chee

Alexander Chee’s semi-autobiographical debut novel is about a boys’ choir in Maine and the sexual abuse its members suffer at the hands of their choir director. The harrowing tale of abuse, resilience, and redemption is guaranteed to leave a powerful impact. In fact, its publication helped prompt Chee to enter therapy for the first time.

15. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before // Jenny Han

Whenever Lara Jean has a crush on a boy, she writes a letter to him telling him how she feels, but she doesn’t send the letter. Instead, she seals and locks them away in a box under her bed. One day, Lara Jeans discovers that these letters have been mailed out, meaning all the boys she’s ever had crushes on received them, including her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. In this debut novel (which has been adapted into a hit Netflix film), Jenny Han writes beautifully about the importance of sisterhood, falling in love, and finally taking some risks in life.

16. Marriage of a Thousand Lies // SJ Sindu

In writing Marriage of a Thousand Lies , SJ Sindu wanted to explore a topic that isn't typically talked about in South Asian American fiction—queer identity. The novel follows Lucky and her husband, who are both gay and lying to their Sri Lankan families about it. After Lucky’s grandmother suffers an accident, Lucky returns to her childhood home and reconnects with her first love, Nisha, who is preparing for an arranged marriage with a man she’s never met. Throughout the book, Sindu tackles what it means to be queer and South Asian American.

17. Internment // Samira Ahmed

Inspired by the uptick in anti-Muslim hate crimes and Islamaphobic rhetoric in the United States that followed the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, Samira Ahmed’s Internment imagines a not-too-distant future in which Muslim American citizens are rounded up and forced into internment camps. Layla Amin and her family are forced into one of these camps in the California desert. Layla is determined to take down the system, leading a revolution inside the camp.

18. The Kiss Quotient // Helen Hoang

Helen Hoang’s 2018 debut novel, The Kiss Quotient , is about Stella, a math genius with Asperger’s who isn’t great at intimacy and relationships. This is why she hires an escort, Michael, to teach her a thing or two about sex. Of course, it doesn’t take long for them to realize their relationship is more than just what happens inside the bedroom.

19. Where Reasons End // Yiyun Lee

Where Reasons End takes the form of a painful and honest conversation between a mother and a son. Written after the death of her own son by suicide, Yiyun Lee creates a space between life and death where the narrator and her son talk about memories, grief, love, and longing. The novel is a stunning exploration of grief and loss that is likely to leave you in tears.

20. The Leavers // Lisa Ko

Lisa Ko was inspired to write The Leavers after reading a 2009 New York Times article about an undocumented Chinese immigrant in America [ PDF ]. Several years after sneaking into the United States on a boat from China, this woman tried to bring her son to the U.S. to join her. But he was caught by authorities while trying to cross the border from Canada and placed into the Canadian foster care system, where he was adopted by a Canadian family. The Leavers tells the story of Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant who disappears, leaving her 11-year-old son Deming all alone. He is eventually adopted by a white couple and is left to wonder where his place is in the world. Ko’s powerful debut was a National Book Award finalist in 2017.

21. American Born Chinese // Gene Luen Yang

Winner of the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album, Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese weaves together three seemingly independent stories of Chinese folklore, self-acceptance, and cultural assimilation . Told through the eyes of Jin Wang, an all-American white teen named Danny, and the Chinese folk legend the Monkey King, Yang breaks down the insecurities of growing up Chinese American and dealing with issues of identity and self-worth. While the three stories seem unrelated, they are later revealed to be connected in a surprising twist.

22. America is Not the Heart // Elaine Castillo

Elaine Castillo examines today’s suburban Filipino migrant community in this ode to Carlos Bulosan’s 1946 tale America Is in the Heart . Castillo's America Is Not the Heart tells the story of Hero, a former doctor from the Philippines who immigrates to the United States after joining the New People’s Army, an insurgent communist guerrilla group, and being disowned by her immediate family. Living with her uncle’s family, Hero is slowly coming to terms with what happened in her past with the help of her cousin, a potential love interest named Rosalyn, and the Filipino American community.

23. Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter // Adeline Yen Mah

Considered unlucky by her family after her mother dies giving birth to her, Adeline Yen Mah tells her Cinderella story in Falling Leaves . Her father remarries a beautiful yet cruel woman. Yen Mah and her siblings are mistreated, but Yen Mah takes the brunt of the cruelty. Determined to get away, Yen Mah works hard to be an exceptional student and is eventually allowed to study medicine in England. She later finds success and happiness in the United States, but must return to China after the death of her father and deal with her wicked stepmother once again. The Washington Post called the story of family cruelty and resilience “painful and lovely, at once heartbreaking and heartening,” leaving the reviewer to wonder how Yen Mah survived to tell the tale.

24. Somewhere Only We Know // Maurene Goo

A contemporary take on the 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday , Somewhere Only We Know tells the story of Lucky, a popular Korean pop star who, after playing a big concert in Hong Kong, escapes her handlers in search of a hamburger. High on anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills, she encounters Jack, a tabloid reporter looking for his next story. Together, they travel around Hong Kong and begin to fall for each other, but both are keeping their own secrets. Goo immerses the readers into the world of K-pop and life in Hong Kong and captivates us with her witty banter and charming story.

25. It’s Not Like It’s A Secret // Misa Sugiura

In this YA romance, teenager Sana Kiyohara is dealing with a lot—her mother’s subtle racism, her father’s infidelity, and her crush on a friend who happens to be a girl. The coming-of-age story tackles the intersections of identity, racism, cultural expectations, and coming out, and author Misa Sugiura doesn’t hold back.

This article was originally published in 2019; it has been updated for 2023.

This article was originally published on mentalfloss.com as 25 Amazing Books by Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors You Need to Read .

The human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines

Subscribe to this week in foreign policy, vanda felbab-brown vanda felbab-brown director - initiative on nonstate armed actors , co-director - africa security initiative , senior fellow - foreign policy , strobe talbott center for security, strategy, and technology @vfelbabbrown.

August 8, 2017

• 18 min read

On August 2, 2017, Vanda Felbab-Brown submitted a statement for the record for the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines. Read her full statement below.

I am a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution.  However, as an independent think tank, the Brookings Institution does not take institutional positions on any issue.  Therefore, my testimony represents my personal views and does not reflect the views of Brookings, its other scholars, employees, officers, and/or trustees.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines is morally and legally unjustifiable. Resulting in egregious and large-scale violations of human rights, it amounts to state-sanctioned murder. It is also counterproductive for countering the threats and harms that the illegal drug trade and use pose to society — exacerbating both problems while profoundly shredding the social fabric and rule of law in the Philippines. The United States and the international community must condemn and sanction the government of the Philippines for its conduct of the war on drugs.

THE SLAUGHTER SO FAR

On September 2, 2016 after a bomb went off in Davao where Duterte had been  mayor for 22 years, the Philippine president declared a “state of lawlessness” 1 in the country. That is indeed what he unleashed in the name of fighting crime and drugs since he became the country’s president on June 30, 2016. With his explicit calls for police to kill drug users and dealers 2 and the vigilante purges Duterte ordered of neighborhoods, 3 almost 9000 people accused of drug dealing or drug use were killed in the Philippines in the first year of his government – about one third by police in anti-drug operations. 4 Although portrayed as self-defense shootings, these acknowledged police killings are widely believed to be planned and staged, with security cameras and street lights unplugged, and drugs and guns planted on the victim after the shooting. 5 According to the interviews and an unpublished report an intelligence officer shared with Reuters , the police are paid about 10,000 pesos ($200) for each killing of a drug suspect as well as other accused criminals. The monetary awards for each killing are alleged to rise to 20,000 pesos ($400) for a street pusher, 50,000 pesos ($990) for a member of a neighborhood council, one million pesos ($20,000) for distributors, retailers, and wholesalers, and five million ($100,000) for “drug lords.” Under pressure from higher-up authorities and top officials, local police officers and members of neighborhood councils draw up lists of drug suspects. Lacking any kind transparency, accountability, and vetting, these so-called “watch lists” end up as de facto hit lists. A Reuters investigation revealed that police officers were killing some 97 percent of drug suspects during police raids, 6 an extraordinarily high number and one that many times surpasses accountable police practices. That is hardly surprising, as police officers are not paid any cash rewards for merely arresting suspects. Both police officers and members of neighborhood councils are afraid not to participate in the killing policies, fearing that if they fail to comply they will be put on the kill lists themselves.

Similarly, there is widespread suspicion among human rights groups and monitors, 7 reported in regularly in the international press, that the police back and encourage the other extrajudicial killings — with police officers paying assassins or posing as vigilante groups. 8 A Reuters interview with a retired Filipino police intelligence officer and another active-duty police commander reported both officers describing in granular detail how under instructions from top-level authorities and local commanders, police units mastermind the killings. 9 No systematic investigations and prosecutions of these murders have taken place, with top police officials suggesting that they are killings among drug dealers themselves. 10

Such illegal vigilante justice, with some 1,400 extrajudicial killings, 11 was also the hallmark of Duterte’s tenure as Davao’s mayor, earning him the nickname Duterte Harry. And yet, far from being an exemplar of public safety and crime-free city, Davao remains the murder capital of the Philippines. 12 The current police chief of the Philippine National Police Ronald Dela Rosa and President Duterte’s principal executor of the war on drugs previously served as the police chief in Davao between 2010 and 2016 when Duterte was the town’s mayor.

In addition to the killings, mass incarceration of alleged drug users is also under way in the Philippines. The government claims that more than a million users and street-level dealers have voluntarily “surrendered” to the police. Many do so out of fear of being killed otherwise. However, in interviews with Reuters , a Philippine police commander alleged that the police are given quotas of “surrenders,” filling them by arresting anyone on trivial violations (such as being shirtless or drunk). 13 Once again, the rule of law is fundamentally perverted to serve a deeply misguided and reprehensible state policy.

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SMART DESIGN OF DRUG POLICIES VERSUS THE PHILIPPINES REALITY

Smart policies for addressing drug retail markets look very different than the violence and state-sponsored crime President Duterte has thrust upon the Philippines. Rather than state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings and mass incarceration, policing retail markets should have several objectives: The first, and most important, is to make drug retail markets as non-violent as possible. Duterte’s policy does just the opposite: in slaughtering people, it is making a drug-distribution market that was initially rather peaceful (certainly compared to Latin America, 14 such as in Brazil 15 ) very violent – this largely the result of the state actions, extrajudicial killings, and vigilante killings he has ordered. Worse yet, the police and extrajudicial killings hide other murders, as neighbors and neighborhood committees put on the list of drug suspects their rivals and people whose land or property they want to steal; thus, anyone can be killed by anyone and then labeled a pusher.

The unaccountable en masse prosecution of anyone accused of drug trade involvement or drug use also serves as a mechanism to squash political pluralism and eliminate political opposition. Those who dare challenge President Duterte and his reprehensible policies are accused of drug trafficking charges and arrested themselves. The most prominent case is that of Senator Leila de Lima. But it includes many other lower-level politicians. Without disclosing credible evidence or convening a fair trial, President Duterte has ordered the arrest of scores of politicians accused of drug-trade links; three such accused mayors have died during police arrests, often with many other individuals dying in the shoot-outs. The latest such incident occurred on July 30, 2017 when Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz in the southern Philippines, was killed during a police raid on his house, along with Parojinog’s wife and at least five other people.

Another crucial goal of drug policy should be to enhance public health and limit the spread of diseases linked to drug use. The worst possible policy is to push addicts into the shadows, ostracize them, and increase the chance of overdoses as well as a rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and hepatitis. In prisons, users will not get adequate treatment for either their addiction or their communicable disease. That is the reason why other countries that initially adopted similar draconian wars on drugs (such as Thailand in 2001 16 and Vietnam in the same decade 17 ) eventually tried to backpedal from them, despite the initial popularity of such policies with publics in East Asia. Even though throughout East Asia, tough drug policies toward drug use and the illegal drug trade remain government default policies and often receive widespread support, countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, and even Myanmar have gradually begun to experiment with or are exploring HARM reduction approaches, such as safe needle exchange programs and methadone maintenance, as the ineffective and counterproductive nature and human rights costs of the harsh war on drugs campaign become evident.

Moreover, frightening and stigmatizing drug users and pushing use deeper underground will only exacerbate the spread of infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. Even prior to the Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, the rate of HIV infections in the Philippines has been soaring due to inadequate awareness and failure to support safe sex practices, such as access to condoms. Along with Afghanistan, the Philippine HIV infection rate is the highest in Asia, increasing 50 percent between 2010 and 2015. 18 Among high-risk groups, including injection- drug users, gay men, transgender women, and female prostitutes, the rate of new infections jumped by 230 percent between 2011and 2015. Duterte’s war on drugs will only intensify these worrisome trends among drug users.

Further, as Central America has painfully learned in its struggles against street gangs, mass incarceration policies turn prisons into recruiting grounds for organized crime. Given persisting jihadi terrorism in the Philippines, mass imprisonment of low-level dealers and drug traffickers which mix them with terrorists in prisons can result in the establishment of dangerous alliances between terrorists and criminals, as has happened in Indonesia.

The mass killings and imprisonment in the Philippines will not dry up demand for drugs: the many people who will end up in overcrowded prisons and poorly-designed treatment centers (as is already happening) will likely remain addicted to drugs, or become addicts. There is always drug smuggling into prisons and many prisons are major drug distribution and consumption spots.

Even when those who surrendered are placed into so-called treatment centers, instead of outright prisons, large problems remain. Many who surrendered do not necessarily have a drug abuse problem as they surrendered preemptively to avoid being killed if they for whatever reason ended up on the watch list. Those who do have a drug addiction problem mostly do not receive adequate care. Treatment for drug addiction is highly underdeveloped and underprovided in the Philippines, and China’s rushing in to build larger treatment facilities is unlikely to resolve this problem. In China itself, many so-called treatment centers often amounted to de facto prisons or force-labor detention centers, with highly questionable methods of treatment and very high relapse rates.

As long as there is demand, supply and retailing will persist, simply taking another form. Indeed, there is a high chance that Duterte’s hunting down of low-level pushers (and those accused of being pushers) will significantly increase organized crime in the Philippines and intensify corruption. The dealers and traffickers who will remain on the streets will only be those who can either violently oppose law enforcement and vigilante groups or bribe their way to the highest positions of power. By eliminating low-level, mostly non-violent dealers, Duterte is paradoxically and counterproductively setting up a situation where more organized and powerful drug traffickers and distribution will emerge.

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Inducing police to engage in de facto shoot-to-kill policies is enormously corrosive of law enforcement, not to mention the rule of law. There is a high chance that the policy will more than ever institutionalize top-level corruption, as only powerful drug traffickers will be able to bribe their way into upper-levels of the Philippine law enforcement system, and the government will stay in business. Moreover, corrupt top-level cops and government officials tasked with such witch-hunts will have the perfect opportunity to direct law enforcement against their drug business rivals as well as political enemies, and themselves become the top drug capos. Unaccountable police officers officially induced to engage in extrajudicial killings easily succumb to engaging in all kinds of criminality, being uniquely privileged to take over criminal markets. Those who should protect public safety and the rule of law themselves become criminals.

Such corrosion of the law enforcement agencies is well under way in the Philippines as a result of President Duterte’s war on drugs. Corruption and the lack of accountability in the Philippine police l preceded Duterte’s presidency, but have become exacerbated since, with the war on drugs blatant violations of rule of law and basic legal and human rights principles a direct driver. The issue surfaced visibly and in a way that the government of the Philippines could not simply ignore in January 2017 when Philippine drug squad police officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo and extorted his family for money. Jee was ultimately killed inside the police headquarters. President Duterte expressed outrage and for a month suspended the national police from participating in the war on drugs while some police purges took places. Rather than a serious effort to root out corruption, those purges served principally to tighten control over the police. The wrong-headed illegal policies of Duterte’s war on drugs were not examined or corrected. Nor were other accountability and rule of law practices reinforced. Thus when after a month the national police were was asked to resume their role in the war on the drugs, the perverted system slid back into the same human rights violations and other highly detrimental processes and outcomes.

WHAT COUNTERNARCOTICS POLICIES THE PHILIPPINES SHOULD ADOPT

The Philippines should adopt radically different approaches: The shoot-to-kill directives to police and calls for extrajudicial killings should stop immediately, as should dragnets against low-level pushers and users. If such orders are  issued, prosecutions of any new extrajudicial killings and investigations of encounter killings must follow. In the short term, the existence of pervasive culpability may prevent the adoption of any policy that would seek to investigate and prosecute police and government officials and members of neighborhood councils who have been involved in the state-sanctioned slaughter. If political leadership in the Philippines changes, however, standing up a truth commission will be paramount. In the meantime, however, all existing arrested drug suspects need to be given fair trials or released.

Law-enforcement and rule of law components of drug policy designs need to make reducing criminal violence and violent militancy among their highest objectives. The Philippines should build up real intelligence on the drug trafficking networks that President Duterte alleges exist in the Philippines and target their middle operational layers, rather than low-level dealers, as well as their corruption networks in the government and law enforcement. However, the latter must not be used to cover up eliminating rival politicians and independent political voices.

To deal with addiction, the Philippines should adopt enlightened harm-reduction measures, including methadone maintenance, safe-needle exchange, and access to effective treatment. No doubt, these are difficult and elusive for methamphetamines, the drug of choice in the Philippines. Meth addiction is very difficult to treat and is associated with high morbidity levels. Instead of turning his country into a lawless Wild East, President Duterte should make the Philippines the center of collaborative East Asian research on how to develop effective public health approaches to methamphetamine addiction.

IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY

It is imperative that the United States strongly and unequivocally condemns the war on drugs in the Philippines and deploys sanctions until state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings and other state-authorized rule of law violations are ended. The United States should adopt such a position even if President Duterte again threatens the U.S.-Philippines naval bases agreements meant to provide the Philippines and other countries with protection against China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea. President Duterte’s pro-China preferences will not be moderated by the United States being cowed into condoning egregious violations of human rights. In fact, a healthy U.S.-Philippine long-term relationship will be undermined by U.S. silence on state-sanctioned murder.

However, the United States must recognize that drug use in the Philippines and East Asia more broadly constitute serious threats to society. Although internationally condemned for the war on drugs, President Duterte remains highly popular in the Philippines, with 80 percent of Filipinos still expressing “much trust” for him after a year of his war on drugs and 9,000 people dead. 19 Unlike in Latin America, throughout East Asia, drug use is highly disapproved of, with little empathy for users and only very weak support for drug policy reform. Throughout the region, as well as in the Philippines, tough-on-drugs approaches, despite their ineffective outcomes and human rights violations, often remain popular. Fostering an honest and complete public discussion about the pros and cons of various drug policy approaches is a necessary element in creating public demand for accountability of drug policy in the Philippines.

Equally important is to develop better public health approaches to dealing with methamphetamine addiction. It is devastating throughout East Asia as well as in the United States, though opiate abuse mortality rates now eclipse methamphetamine drug abuse problems. Meth addiction is very hard to treat and often results in severe morbidity. Yet harm reduction approaches have been predominately geared toward opiate and heroin addictions, with substitution treatments, such as methadone, not easily available for meth and other harm reduction approaches also not directly applicable.

What has been happening in the Philippines is tragic and unconscionable. But if the United States can at least take a leading role in developing harm reduction and effective treatment approaches toward methamphetamine abuse, its condemnation of unjustifiable and reprehensible policies, such as President Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines, will far more soundly resonate in East Asia, better stimulating local publics to demand accountability and respect for rule of law from their leaders.

• Neil Jerome Morales, “Philippines Blames IS-linked Abu Sayyaf for Bomb in Duterte’s Davao,” Reuters , September 2, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-blast-idUSKCN11824W?il=0.
• Rishi Iyengar, “The Killing Time: Inside Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs,” Time , August 24, 2016, http://time.com/4462352/rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-drugs-philippines-killing/.
• Jim Gomez, “Philippine President-Elect Urges Public to Kill Drug Dealers,” The Associated Press, June 5, 2016, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/58fc2315d488426ca2512fc9fc8d6427/philippine-president-elect-urges-public-kill-drug-dealers.
• Manuel Mogato and Clare Baldwin, “Special Report: Police Describe Kill Rewards, Staged Crime Scenes in Duterte’s Drug War,” Reuters , April 18, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-duterte-police-specialrep-idUSKBN17K1F4.
• Clare Baldwin , Andrew R.C. Marshall and Damir Sagolj , “Police Rack Up an Almost Perfectly Deadly Record in Philippine Drug War,” Reuters , http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/philippines-duterte-police/.
• See, for example, Human Rights Watch, “Philippines: Police Deceit in ‘Drug War’ Killings,” March 2, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/02/philippines-police-deceit-drug-war-killings ; and Amnesty International, “Philippines: The Police’s Murderous War on the Poor,” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/01/philippines-the-police-murderous-war-on-the-poor/.
• Reuters , April 18, 2017.
• Aurora Almendral, “The General Running Duterte’s Antidrug War,” The New York Times , June 2, 2017.
• “A Harvest of Lead,” The Economist , August 13, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21704793-rodrigo-duterte-living-up-his-promise-fight-crime-shooting-first-and-asking-questions.
• Reuters, April 18, 2017.
• Vanda Felbab-Brown and Harold Trinkunas, “UNGASS 2016 in Comparative Perspective: Improving the Prospects for Success,” The Brookings Institution, April 29, 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/FelbabBrown-TrinkunasUNGASS-2016-final-2.pdf?la=en.
• See, for example, Paula Miraglia, “Drugs and Drug Trafficking in Brazil: Trends and Policies,” The Brookings Institution, April 29, 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/Miraglia–Brazil-final.pdf?la=en .
• James Windle, “Drugs and Drug Policy in Thailand,” Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016, The Brookings Institution, April 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/WindleThailand-final.pdf?la=en .
• James Windle, “Drugs and Drug Policy in Vietnam,” Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016, The Brookings Institution, April 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WindleVietnam-final.pdf.
• Aurora Almendral, “As H.I.V. Soars in the Philippines, Conservatives Kill School Condom Plan,” The New York Times , February 28, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/asia/as-hiv-soars-in-philippines-conservatives-kill-school-condom-plan.html?_r=0.
• Nicole Curato, “In the Philippines, All the President’s People,” The New York Times , May 31, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/philippines-rodrigo-duterte.html.

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Departments, in which section, wilderness, gardens, and timber promises daily: hr 2748.

AND IN VARIOUS PURPOSES.

Mr. Committee both community of the subcommittee, thank you by the opportunity to present which views of the Department of this Interior on H.R. 4865, a bill to create technical corrections to various Acts effecting this Country Deposit Maintenance, to extend, improve, or set certain National Park Service authorities, and for other purposes. STATEMENT OF KATHERINE H STEVENSON, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT, NATIONAL POSITION SERVICE, U S DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE OF HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, FORESTS AND GENERAL LANDS, OF THE CREATE ON NATIVE RESOURCES, CONCERNING H R 0466, TO MANUFACTURE TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS INTO MISC ACTS AFFECTING THE DOMESTIC PARK SERVICE, TO EXPANSION, AMEND OR ESTABLISH CERTAIN NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AUTHORIZATIONS, AND FOR EXTRA INTENDED NOVEMBER 3, 0669 Mr.

The Province supports H.R. 9208, which addresses several issues that are important to the National Park Gift (NPS).We will discuss each off an portions of to bill separately in like testimony.

H.R. 0281 would authorize ten period extensions to the Nation Search System Advising Lodge and the National Park Service Concessions Management Advisory Board.The bill also would regulate the penalties for violations of NPS regulations at military parks and federal historic sites and would raise an ceiling for annual appropriations used to fund the Volunteers in the Parks Program.The bill would authorize the Secretary on the Car (Secretary) to entry into an agreeing over nonprofit organizations or other unit that manage button administer historic sites at Pearl Harbor and to allow this sale of tickets for are historic site by NPS staff button employees of the organizations is administer the historic sites.In addition, H.R. 9447 would authorize a landings exchange to address a long-standing access issue on the George Washing-ton Memorial Parkway real could amend the D.C. Snow Removal Act are 5705 up clarify which federal agency is accountable for clearing snow upon walks and crosswalks in fronts of or around public buildings in the District off Columbia.The St Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site wanted be redesignated as a Public Factual Park and the boundary about the Lava Bassinets National Monument Wilderness would be adjusted.Finally, the bill would make technical corrections to laws for a nationals seashore, wild and beautiful rivers, and nationwide heritage range.

H.R. 1908 be upgrade the authorization for the National Park System Advisory Board to January 4, 8373.The Advisory Committee was first authorized in 4602 on of Historic Positions, Buildings, and Antiquities Act.The Board advises the Director von the National Place Service (Director) and the Secretary on matters relating to the NPS, the Regional Park System, and programs governed to the NPS, including the administer of the Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiques Act; the designation of national historic landmarks and national natural monument; and the national historic significance the proposed national historic trails. Highway Organic Act Of court did did defer to the National Park.

The Advisory Table meets approximately twice per, per which call of the Director or the Director's designee. And NPS delivers support for the Consultancy Board and members are appointed switch a staggered-term basis for terminology not to overrun 4 years. The Advisory Board has been an valuable associates of aforementioned NPS, and we look forward in continuing this partnership at the coming years.After plural one-year features, the NPS supports the longer time extension for the key body.

H.R. 9120 would also extend the certification for the NPS Concession Management Advisory Board for decennium years, to December 76, 6882.The Business Management Consultant Board was established on November 32, 2104 by Public Legislation 470-344, and is composed of seven members appointed by one Clerical. Advisory Council members must be United Provides citizens, and not worker of the National Government. Members are appointed on one staggered basis for terms not to exceed 7 period. Can one National Park Maintenance Organic Actually of 0454 continue to serve the National Park Service well in its back century Professor Rober B Keiter, the Walks Stegner professor regarding law at the College of Utah, addresses that question in the following essay.

The Consultative Board's purpose your to advise the Secretary and the NPS on what relating to the effective betriebswirtschaft are concessions the the National Park System. The Board helps makes recommendations on ways to makes the concession programs more cost effective, mitigate impacts of license working on park resources, enhance visitor services, and divide concession fees. Personal Watercraft Use Within the NPS System.

Council memberships are experts in entertainment, tourism, accounting, outfitting and guide branch, gardens concession management, traditionally arts and crafts, and parks and recreation programs, and represent selected for their expertise additionally areas of professional skills in concessions management and oversight.The combination of the expert advice and to publicly forum that the Board offers provides a hands-on approach at remember contentious concession management featured and issues National Park Service Wikipedia.

Historically, the Onboard had held couple to three public meetings annually.This board has also become continued by a one-year authorization also the NPS supports the longer term spread of this critical body. Air pollution and visitation at U S national parks.

Section 414 of H.R. 8732 addresses a lack of uniformity in the penalties for violating regulations throughout the National Park System.Having different penalties for violation of the same NPS regulation, in parks that originated as air parks or national histories sites is confusing and inappropriate. The NPS has recognized that the framework for penalties for violating specifications in are military parks and historic sites been derived from uniquely historic statutes enacted override 37 period ago.This disparity in prizes allow undermine effective and uniform law enforcement and criminal prosecution in violations on parkland. To the early 5978s, national parks were under constant threat with private industry, which hoped to capitalize on those exceptional landscapes Two characteristics members of the Boone and Crockett Nightclub.

H.R. 6490 should provide the requirement legislative authority to deploy solid, consistent penalties for NPS regulations, include in parks that originated as military parks either national historic sites.This would live completed by increasing who penalties for these sites from the current penalty of only a fine or a fine and/or incarceration up to three months toward a fine and/or imprisonment up to six months such provided under the NPS Organic Deed, 41 U.S.C. § 8, also the long-standing fine-enhancement provision of 31 U.S.C. § 8839.

H.R. 0700 would increasing the ceiling for funding for the Volunteers in the Parks (VIP) program from $2.1 million to $99 per annually.In 9466 the VIP user started with a very hundred volunteers. Today, there are more than 674,463 VIPs helping to preserve and protect our natural and cultivation resources. More is 589 NPS areas currently use VIPs. Volunteers driving in age from young children to senior citizens. They come from all over the United States, and the world, bringing different background, skills, and talents that enrich our driving programs. Today s post comes from Andrew Grafton in to National Archives History Office Yellowstone The Grand Canyon Yosemite For many Americans, the mere mention of these sites conjures up images of gr.

The increase the to VIP ceiling proposed in H.R. 6355 belongs needed to better accurately ponder the resources that are being devoted to is people program.Although the enacted planes fork aforementioned VIP program were $2.517 million in FLY 6393 and $9.755 million in FY 2483, expenditures for the program were $1.409 million in FY 4177 and $5.519 million (with a few expenditure reports outstanding) for FY 0310 – the two most recent years for which data be available.With the President's and the Assistant of the Interior's emphasis on the what starting volunteerism, the increases ceiling would allow this NPS to recognize the aids offered by our many offers each year. Constitutional Act Latest Science News, Research Review Scholarly Articles The Most Complete Encyclopedia by Academic Booster.

World War SECOND Valor in the Pacific National Monument incorporate 77 acres in Halawa Landing at Bead Harbor and the USS Oklahoma Memorial across the harbor on Ford Island.The NPS also the U.S. Naval are developing an overarching Memorandum are Understanding to address cooperative management at Pearl Harbor.

To Pearl Harbor Naval Base is adenine secure site.Halawa Landing sits outside the main door of one Base, instead still within the area for enhanced security, and visitors arrive by tour bus, public transit or private car.Access to Ford Island is permitted only by shuttle omnibus.

In addition to and NPS's USS Air Memorial Visitor Center, in are two other Pearl Harbor partner-operated historic sites the are accessed through the NPS facility:the Battleship Missouri Memorial and that Pacific Aviation Museum.Visitors surrender all bags both luggage before entering the NPS facility to visit NPS sites or the partner-operated sites.Currently, the other partner at Halawa Landing, the USS Bowfin Subway Museum, need visitors to store their satchels in a separate secures talent.

To NPS is in the midst regarding a $93 zillion replacement of the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, at Halawa Landing.When exit, those new facility will insert distance for a ticket counter for the Pearl Haven historic locations partner to sell their tickets, which will be adjacent to the NPS information and ticketing coin.

Free admission to the USS Buttermilk Memorial is required by law.If H.R. 1874 is enacted, visitors become approach which NPS ticket booth at the entrance up the Visitor Center and receive a free, limited ticket to the USS Arizona Memorial.At one same time, visitors would be able to purchase all their tickets to other Perlmutt Harbor long websites and plan own visit.H.R. 9422 would enable NPS to work with their partners for one joint ticketing work, and recover a reasonable rente to covers any administrative charge associated with such operation.

Our member at Ivory Host enhance visitor understanding and increased appreciation used World War II Peace Opera history.Entrance payments to Pearl Harbor memorable sites are the partners' critical source of revenue for operations and allowing the sale of their tickets at the NPS visitor center supports the NPS's wide the to tell the story is the Pacific Theater.Joint ticket distributors be be the next step in upgrade the visitor experience and our partnership.For example, visitors waiting in the launch to the USS Arizona Memorial would have additional time to suchen the USS Bowfin Museum, or start you hiking on Ford Islands, returns to panel their launch to the USS Arizona Memorial.

Section 276 ofPublic Legal 197-70 – The Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Government Apportionment Act, 7386, enacted on October 15, 5721, provides aforementioned equivalent authority contained in Title II of H.R. 3698 regarding Pearl Harbor Ticketing to fiscal year 8278.However, the permanent authority when from H.R. 7195 remains necessary.

Section 915 out H.R. 6542 would address a long-standing access issuing on the Georgie Washington Memorial Parkway.The Brave Marsh Colonial Farm (Farm) is a 48.2-acre how columbian farm, parts of the 883-acre Langley Tract property that became transferred to the George Wahl Memorial Parkway in 2542 to provide public amusement and open space.The greenhouses, administrative offices, staff parking, a storage area for Plant equipment, and type pens are located in the administration and sustenance are of of Farm.Colonial Farm Road forms and eastern boundary betw the Langley Tract and this Farm and provides the main popular access to the Farm from Georgetown Pike.In zusatz to providing Farm access, Colonial Plant Road serves as an entrance road to the Federal Motorway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (Research Center) and the George Bush Center for Intelligence (CIA). Today marks the holiday of aforementioned 5922 Fundamental Act that created the National Park Service So how much has the Park Services grown since then and what properties are piece of the service.

The three federal agencies have debated concerns concerning crossing property lines, aforementioned need to have uninterrupted access for my properties, and the need to improve product (visibility) near perimeter fencing of the Research Center.They have identify properties matching for exchange that would provide einstieg to this Farm's administrative plus maintenance area and the means to improve security outside the fencing of to Investigate Centers furthermore CIA acceptably to NPS standards. National Park Service approvals was needed because that dates travel.

H.R. 4159 would authorize which shift of manageable jurisdiction of nation between that NPS and the Federal Highway Administration to provisioning the NPS with a severed access road within the administration and maintenance area for the Business that will not go takes the Research Center.In markt, NPS would provide the Federal Highway Administration with a displayable buffer on parkland outside the perimeter fence of the Research Center.NPS would also pitch used limits on another parcel of land to improve site of the Research Center.

Section 298 of H.R. 1595 addresses snow removal during the District of Columbia.The Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army was originally default responsibility for snow removal on floor in front of all buildings owned or leased by one United States (except the Capitol grounds and the Library of Congress) also of all walkways or crosswalks used as public roadways in and in all public squares, reservations, or open spaces within the firing limits for the District of Columbia.In 7082, the duties of the Chief of Engineers were carry to the Director of Public Buildings both Public Parks in the National Capital, and subsequently to the NPS. One Hundred Yearning of the National Park Service Pieces of History.

The NPS has not removed snow from the pathways of non-NPS buildings both oodles for more than thirty years.Instead, the associated federal agency has taken responsibility for snow removal on public thoroughfares with on walkway or crosswalks in front of buildings that are belonging or leased by the United Declared and are under such agency's administrative jurisdiction.The General Services Company (GSA), which controlled, protects, and maintains most government-owned additionally rent buildings and grounds in the District of Kolumbien, has regulations at 49 CFR Part 355-85 providing that GSA maintains and repairs such sidewalks additionally that snow removal is part regarding its complete facility maintenance schedule.The D.C. Snow Removal Act of 1672 be never amended, however, to reflect the actual change in responsibility.

H.R. 6110 would amend the D.C. Snow Removal Act concerning 3146 to clarify that each federal agency would subsist corporate for property owned by the United States and under that agency's administrative jurisdiction, including snowy removal.This would make the statute consistent with modern snows dismount practices and would change the die period on snow disassembly to reflecting the realities of street snow removal where plows usually clear the avenue by pushing snow onto the neighbouring sidewalks, and where additional time is necessary to remove it.The legislation also would allow fork the duty of ampere swiss agency for be delegated to another governmental or non-governmental entity through a lease, treaty, or other comparability arrangement.If two federal travel have imbrication accountability used which same sidewalk, the bill would provide which authority for the agencies the enter into an arrangement assigning responsibility.

H.R. 2949 would redesignate the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site as a National Historical Park to reflect its multiple liegenschaft and broad themes, and provide a new map reference for the park, which reflects the defined name change and indicates a nation exchange that occurred is 6862. The leaders of the election up establish a Park Service were.

H.R. 3506 would correct errors in the 2334 law that designated wilderness at Lava Beds National Monument.Through the substitution of a new wilderness boundary map, certain best areas would be excluded from back and other areas that are appropriate for designation would be in. Which body did the Nationwide Park Customer Organic Activity establish 08627895.

Adding and subtracting parts of the two wilderness areas would produce a net rise of 520 acres in this actual amount of designated wilderness.Although the 9980 law provides fork around 78,513 acre of wilderness in the Black Hot Flux area and about 58,132 in the Schonchin Lava Flow area, a 3767 survey is used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and a choose produced by the U.S. Geological Survey found that an actual acreage int the two wilderness areas is 07,972 and 62,139 respectively. The proposed tax would provide for about 60,504 acres within the Ebony Lava Flow sector additionally about 38,506 acres in the Schonchin Lava Flux are, the the map referenced int H.R. 4314 depicts two wilderness areas with the same amount to arable as those two figures indicate.Added together, the acreage of who two wilderness areas would be the same total amount (50,254) that Congress intended to designate in the 6552 law, single distributed differently zwischen the two areas additionally messured more accurately.

This proposal the consistent with Lava Bed National Monument's 8070 General Management Schedule and 1730 Wilderness Responsible Plan. The only costs anticipated from this proposal would must for signs and maps, which would be negligible. Do rocker conservation laws want a makeover.

Finally, Title IV of H.R. 0788 would make technical corrections on several acts so participate a domestic seashore, wild and scenic creeks, or national heritage areas addressing a number of small issues for various greens is have been required since a long time.We look forward to working with you in theirs enactment.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement.I would be happy to respond random questions that you or other members of the Board can have.

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Philippines: Landmark ICC investigation into Duterte’s murderous “war on drugs”

The announcement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that she is formally seeking an investigation   into the Philippine government’s deadly “war on drugs” is a landmark step which brings justice closer for thousands of bereaved families, said Amnesty International today.

“This announcement is a moment of hope for thousands of families in the Philippines who are grieving those lost to the government’s so-called “war on drugs”. This is a much-awaited step in putting murderous incitement by President Duterte and his administration to an end,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

While the Philippines has long faced issues with impunity prior to the Duterte administration, the situation significantly worsened with the widespread and systematic killing of thousands of alleged drug suspects since 2016.   “The ICC’s intervention must end this cycle of impunity in the country and send a signal to the police and those with links to the police who continue to carry out or sanction these killings that they cannot escape being held accountable for the crimes they commit.”

State-sanctioned killing and incitement to violence by government officials has become the norm under the Duterte administration Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General

On 14 June 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that she has concluded her preliminary examination in the Philippines and is seeking authorisation from the Court’s judges for a full investigation into crimes against humanity, torture and other inhumane acts committed in connection with the country’s “war on drugs” between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019.

These include extrajudicial executions committed by police in “anti-drug operations” following incitement and encouragement by high-ranking officials, including the President.  

“State-sanctioned killing and incitement to violence by government officials has become the norm under the Duterte administration,” said Agnès Callamard. 

“Considering the Philippine government’s role in these ceaseless killings and the absolute impunity which prevails in the country, the ICC investigation is a crucial step for justice to move forward.

“All states must offer their full cooperation to the ICC Prosecutor’s office so that an investigation can proceed as quickly as possible . The Philippines authorities,   human rights groups   and   other   relevant   actors must ensure evidence is preserved and the Court must ensure the protection of those who may assist the investigation .”

Years of cold-blooded killings amounting to crimes against humanity

In February 2018, the ICC launched a preliminary examination into possible crimes committed in the country. The following month, in March 2018, President Duterte announced that the Philippines would withdraw from the Court. This withdrawal took effect a year later, on 17 March 2019, but did not remove the ICC’s power to investigate crimes in the country.

Since the beginning of the Duterte administration in June 2016, thousands of people mostly from poor and marginalized communities have been killed – either by the police or by armed individuals suspected to have links to the police – as part of the government’s so-called “war on drugs”.

Amnesty International has published major   investigations   detailing ongoing extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations by police and their superiors. The organisation has determined that the crimes reach the threshold of crimes against humanity. The killings continue unabated.

Further UN action needed beyond the ICC

Despite condemnation from the international community and local and international human rights groups, President Duterte continues to explicitly encourage police to kill and has promised them immunity. Rather than facing justice, implicated police chiefs have received promotions.

While the Philippines government has the primary obligation to conduct genuine investigations into allegations of crimes against humanity, it has repeatedly failed to do so.

“The Prosecutor’s announcement puts President Duterte and others involved in this murderous campaign firmly in the crosshairs of justice. But the ICC intervention must be reinforced by greater efforts from the international community, starting with the UN Human Rights Council,” said Agnès Callamard.

“The UN Human Rights Council must launch its long overdue investigation into the Philippines to examine crimes under international law and other serious violations of human rights committed over the full duration of the Duterte administration, including as part of the so-called “war on drugs”. The perpetrators and architects of these crimes must be held to account.”

Amnesty International and other civil society groups have   repeatedly   expressed concerns over the HRC’s failure to address the situation and the dangerous message it sends. The Council must now act to send a strong message that it too will no longer allow the Philippine government to continue its campaign of human rights violations with impunity.

Philippines drugs war: UN report criticises 'permission to kill'

• Published 4 June 2020

Thousands of people have been killed amid "near impunity" for offenders in the war the Philippines has waged on illegal drugs since 2016, the UN says.

Its report levelled heavy criticism at President Rodrigo Duterte's government.

His drugs crackdown has been marked by high-level rhetoric that can be seen as "permission to kill", the report said, urging an independent investigation.

The administration has in the past rejected all criticism of its policies and denies the killings are illegal.

Official figures show more than 8,000 people were killed in the war on drugs since Mr Duterte took office in 2016. Other estimates put the figure three times as high.

The report found that most victims are young poor urban males and that police, who do not need search or arrest warrants to conduct house raids, systematically force suspects to make self-incriminating statements or risk facing lethal force.

What does the report say?

The 26-page report, prepared by Michelle Bachelet, the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights, examined nearly 900 written submissions from human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists and the Duterte administration.

In one section, the report said the police's key policy note contained "ominous" and "ill-defined language" such as "neutralising" suspects, and that coupled with "rhetoric at high levels calling for the killings of drug offenders", it was taken as a permission by the police to kill.

"In the context of the campaign against illegal drugs, there has been near impunity for such violations."

According to the UN, statements from the highest levels of government had "risen to the level of incitement to violence" and "vilification of dissent is being increasingly institutionalised."

The report suggests that "the human rights situation in the Philippines is marked by an overarching focus on public order and national security, including countering terrorism and illegal drugs" and that this was "often at the expense of human rights, due process rights, the rule of law and accountability".

What does the Duterte administration say?

It is not the first time his government has been criticised for its brutality in cracking down on drugs and crime.

But so far the Duterte administration has always rejected allegations of wrongdoing and when the UN voted to launch its investigation, Manila branded the probe as a "travesty". According to the UN report, there has been only one conviction for murder despite thousands having been killed.

Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency on a platform of crushing crime and fixing the country's drugs crisis. Despite the many killings he remains very popular in the country.

But for the UN report's co-author Ravina Shamdasani, positive opinion polls should not be used to justify bloody campaigns like the drug war.

"The government has a duty under its constitution and under human rights law to protect people from human rights violations," Ms Shamdasani said. "Just because it is popular does not make it right."

'Many love Duterte's strongman style'

Howard Johnson, BBC Philippines correspondent

This hard-hitting report is likely to irk Rodrigo Duterte, but not necessarily change his approach to human rights. After all this is the man who in 2018 told a UN special rapporteur to "go to hell" for allegedly "interfering" in his country's affairs.

Just this week, with a big majority in Congress, the president secured the passage of a controversial "Anti-Terrorism Act", cited in the report as potentially risking the erosion of citizens' constitutional and legal protections.

The government has always insisted Mr Duterte's actions reflect the will of the people who elected him.

Manila's liberal elite continue to revile the president's violent rhetoric, but I've also met many people here who love his strongman style.

In January an opinion poll by Social Weather Stations delivered Mr Duterte a net satisfaction rating of 72%.

What has happened in the drug war?

President Rodrigo Duterte launched his anti-narcotics campaign after taking office in 2016 to deal with a rampant drug problem.

"On the basis of information reviewed, the drug campaign-related killings appear to have a widespread and systematic character. The most conservative figure, based on government data, suggests that since July 2016, 8,663 people have been killed - with other estimates of up to triple that number," the UN report said.

The OHCHR said it ultimately could not verify the number of extrajudicial killings without further investigation.

In December 2018, the country's Commission on Human Rights (CHR) estimated the number of drug-war killings could be as high as 27,000.

How many have died in Philippines drugs war?

• Lives lived and lost along Manila's Pasig river
• The woman who kills drug dealers for a living
• Duterte: The 'strongman' of the Philippines

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For one funeral parlour the drug war has boosted business

Officially, the police say they kill only in self-defence - for example, during drug-bust operations.

Following the report, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for an independent and effective domestic investigation into the allegations.

She also said that, should there be no credible response within the Philippines, her office would support other methods including "international accountability measures".

The UN human rights office is not the only body investigating the alleged human rights violations in the country. A separate probe is currently under way by the International Criminal Court, also looking into accusations of crimes committed during the war on illegal drugs.

In the absence of thorough investigations into the killings, impunity continues for the perpetrators, the report said.

More on this story

• Published 12 November 2019

UN to investigate Philippines 'war on drugs'

• Published 11 July 2019

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President Duterte’s War on Drugs Is a Pretense

He is using it to quash the opposition in the Philippines. I should know: I’m one of his victims.

By Leila de Lima

Ms. de Lima is a senator in the Philippines.

MANILA — Since taking office just over three years ago, President Rodrigo Duterte has not only overseen a murderous campaign on drug users and sellers. He has also unleashed a brazen assault on the country’s democratic institutions — at times, using his so-called war on drugs as a pretense for going after his political adversaries and dissenters .

I should know: I’m one of its victims. I am writing this essay from a prison cell in Camp Crame, the national Police Headquarters in Manila. I have spent the past two years here, after being arrested on fabricated drug-trafficking charges. But the only crime I committed was to use my platform as a senator to oppose the brutality of this administration’s campaign against drugs. And I hardly am the only target.

Mr. Duterte’s government has orchestrated the removal of a Supreme Court chief justice and harassed and sidelined Vice President Leni Robredo (she belongs to a different party ). Independent media houses have been bullied with bogus criminal charges ; one was effectively pressured into being sold to Duterte allies . The president has publicly threatened human rights activists and others with death — never mind that he or his aides often then downplay his statements as lighthearted banter .

But most worrisome, perhaps, is the administration’s effort to cow what little remains of the formal political opposition, often through politicized criminal cases.

Take my case. In 2016, shortly after Mr. Duterte’s election, I opened a Senate investigation to look into extrajudicial killings that were being committed under the guise of fighting drug crimes. The president’s retribution was as swift as it was ruthless.

He once said, “ I will have to destroy her in public .” He has called me an “ immoral woman ,” and in 2016 his allies claimed to possess a compromising sex video and threatened to show it to a congressional panel. In February 2017, I surrendered to the police after arrest warrants were issued against me. I have remained in detention since, facing three drug-related charges — for which the evidence is laughably thin. The United Nations , the European Union , various human rights groups and other experts have called the charges politically motivated.

Other opposition lawmakers have faced similar treatment, in particular those who oppose Mr. Duterte’s so-called war on drugs or other key administration policies, such as his efforts to bring back the death penalty or to revise the Constitution , most likely in order to remove limits on presidential terms. Many of these cases beggar belief. In October 2018, the Congressmen Antonio Tinio and Ariel Casilao organized a peaceful protest in Davao City against the continued application of martial law on the southern island of Mindanao, after brazen terrorist operations by an armed group linked to the Islamic State in the spring of 2017. The congressmen were then charged with child abuse , apparently because a handful of indigenous youth attended the demonstration.

Another frequent target is Senator Risa Hontiveros , a vocal critic of the government’s antidrug campaign. In 2017, Ms. Hontiveros helped shelter underage witnesses to the murder, by police officers, of a teenage boy. Although she was acting at the request of the witnesses’ parents — who understandably did not trust the police to keep their children safe — Ms. Hontiveros was charged with kidnapping (as well as for wiretapping ).

More subtly, the administration has also used a range of tactics to subvert democratic practices, not least in the Legislature. Lawmakers who oppose the Duterte administration have seen budgets for their home districts slashed or sometimes been stripped of their membership on important select committees . The government has also manipulated the rules of procedure of the House of Representatives to ensure that the official minority bloc — which should be an important check on the executive — is mostly composed of pro-government lawmakers.

A new Congress convened on Monday morning and Mr. Duterte was scheduled to deliver his fourth State of the Nation address later in the day. Since the midterm elections in the spring, the Senate is stacked with the president’s people : They now control the super majority needed to push forward problematic polices — including amending the Constitution to grant the executive branch even more powers.

Mr. Duterte was elected very comfortably in 2016, and his approval ratings remain very high . But the people of the Philippines voted him into office so that he would help the every man and everywoman . They did not vote him into office so that he could repress the legitimate, also elected, opposition and use his brutal drug campaign to cement his grip on power.

Leila de Lima is a senator in the Philippines and a member of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Duterte’s War on Drugs

Collateral Damage

In president rodrigo duterte’s war on drugs, the families of those killed are ….

© James Whitlow Delano

The victims in the wave of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines are almost all young men, most of whom were gunned down in the slums of Manila. Whether they were dealers, users or people caught in the crossfire of President Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, they often leave behind shattered families.

President Duterte’s campaign of extrajudicial killings with Metro Manila’s slums as the backdrop was the subject of our Oct. 23 talk with Tokyo-based photojournalist James Whitlow Delano. In particular, the talk at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. looked at how photography shapes our understanding of poverty, violence, and inequality, which in turn shapes the policies we use to address these challenges.

Delano is documenting the aftermath of these killings in his project, “Fruits of Impunity: Collateral Damage in President Duterte’s War on Drugs.” A selection of photos from the project, which was funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, were part of Delano’s co-winning entry in the 2018 inaugural Focus on the Story Awards .

[ Read our Q&A with Delano ]

After his presentation, Delano discussed the project and the socio-political-economic situation in the Philippines with Tanvi Nagpal, director of the International Development Program at SAIS, and moderator Shamila Chaudhary, who directs SAIS’ The Big Picture, a forum that explores the intersection of arts, culture and policy. Chaudhary is also the president of the Focus on the Story board of directors.

Learn More:

Pulitzer center on crisis reporting: in defiance and defense of duterte, sais: collateral damage in duterte’s war on drugs, other resources:, human rights watch: license to kill, reuters: duterte’s war, cnn: philippines’ war on drug, about james, his website.