The architect of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs has almost certainly won a senate seat in the nation’s midterm elections, prompting concerns among victims’ groups.
Former national police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is among Duterte’s allies who were on track to take nine of 12 open seats in the upper house, with 95 percent of ballots counted.
The senate has previously been a bulwark against some of Duterte’s most controversial proposals.
“[Dela Rosa] now has his own influence and clout, independent of the president,” said Kristina Conti, a lawyer for the victims’ group Rise Up for Life and for Rights, which filed criminal and civil cases against police in relation to Duterte’s drug war. “He might use his political clout to whitewash investigations into the human rights violations of the police.”
Before the elections, families who lost loved ones in the drug war agreed not to vote for Dela Rosa.
“Now that he’s going to be a senator, two mothers who filed cases against police told me they’re afraid for their security,” said Rubilyn Litao, a church worker helping those affected pursue cases against the police.
More than 18,000 positions were at stake in the vote, primarily local posts, but also half the senate and nearly 300 seats in the lower House of Representatives.
Duterte’s deadly crackdown has drawn international censure, but is central to the populist appeal that has buoyed his remarkable standing among Filipinos since taking the presidency in 2016. Administration loyalist candidates for the senate were heading for a resounding win after Monday’s vote.
Another of Duterte’s hand-picked candidates on course for a senate seat is Imee Marcos, daughter of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.
She is poised to beat scions of political families who fought her father’s dictatorship, including Philippine Senator Paolo “Bam” Benigno Aquino IV. He is the nephew and namesake of Benigno Aquino Jr, whose assassination in 1983 invigorated opposition to the Marcos regime.
No candidate from the opposition senatorial ticket made it into the top 12 in the current tally. A number of the candidates have conceded defeat.
Historically, the nation’s 24 senators — who serve six-year terms — have had a reputation for being more independent-minded than the lower house.
“My fear is there will be no genuine opposition,” said Samira Gutoc, from Marawi City, an opposition candidate who has criticized the imposition of martial law in Mindanao region.
Gutoc has conceded defeat, but vowed to continue her opposition to Duterte and push for the rehabilitation of Marawi, which was devastated by a five-month battle between government forces and Islamic State-affiliated militants in 2017.
“This election just gave Duterte carte blanche to push his brand of governance to its logical conclusion: complete transformation of the nation’s political system,” analyst Richard Heydarian said.
Philippine Senator Francis Pangilinan, the president of the opposition Liberal party, said: “We need to strengthen our ranks as well as our resolve to face the coming challenges.”
As part of his drug crackdown that has killed more than 5,000 people, Duterte has pledged to bring back the death penalty and lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12.
Additional reporting by AFP
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia