Arrested Philippine Mayor Killed in Prison Shootout

On Saturday, a mayor imprisoned for drug-related charges at a jail in the central Philippines was killed along with another inmate in a shootout, police said.

Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera town in Leyte surrendered to the national police chief in August. This was after President Rodrigo Duterte’s request for him and his son, Kerwin, to stop their participation in the drug trade.

The mayor was detained again on October 5 after he was allowed to go home ealier. He is the second local government official on Duterte’s supposed “narco-list” slain during police operations.

The shootout happened after Espinosa and inmate Raul Yap shot at a team from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). Police said the team was on an assignment to serve a search warrant against the convicts.

“As a matter of procedure, this incident will undergo investigation to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident,” said Superintendent Elmer Beltejar, Eastern Visayas Regional Police Chief.

Police said they retrieved a .38 Super pistol and a .45 caliber pistol from the cells of Espinosa and Yap. A small sachet holding suspected methamphetamine and assorted drug accouterments were also unearthed inside Espinosa’s cell, police said.

The presidential palace called Espinosa’s death as “unfortunate”. Further, it said that an investigation was underway.

Espinosa had publicly denied any role in the drug trade. However, he said his son was selling “shabu” (methamphetamine), which he secures from a jailed Chinese drug trader.

Last month, Abu Dhabi police arrested Kerwin. Purportedly he was among the largest illegal drug operators in the Eastern Visayas region, according to Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa.

Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom, in October, was killed alongside nine of his guards in a shootout, according to police. Dimaukom was a powerful mayor in the Duterte’s problematic home province of Mindanao,.

War on Drugs taking Effect

Police operations as well as suspected vigilantes have killed more than 2,300 people. This is in connection with the anti-illegal drugs campaign since Duterte took office on June 30.

On Friday, Duterte said his campaign against drugs had curtailed the supply to “very low” levels. He also thanked China for supporting his crackdown, but cursed constantly at ally the United States for condemning it.

 

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Status Quo at Contested Scarborough Shoal has not changed — China

The situation at the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea “has not changed and will not change”, China said on Monday. This after the Philippines said Chinese ships that barred the area for four years had stopped bullying its fishermen.

On Sunday, Philippine security officials said China had reduced its naval presence at the shoal. The change occurred after President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Beijing. Duterte’s state visit was intended at mending ties and wooing investment.

The conditions behind China’s seeming softening of its position are unclear, though the disputed territory is important for the expansive balance of power in the South China Sea.

Hua Chunying, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, was questioned about Philippine fishermen entering the area unhindered. She said China at all times had “normal administration” over the Scarborough Shoal.

“The relevant situation has not changed and will not change,” she told a regular briefing.

Hua said Duterte’s trip to Beijing demonstrated a general improvement in relations.

Since appropriating the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, China had prevented fishermen from fishing in the area.

Philippine fishermen said that Chinese boats had left them alone as they returned from the area during the weekend with loads of fish.

It infuriated the Chinese when the previous Philippine government filed a case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013. This was after China started blocking its fishermen from the prime fishing spot.

The tribunal ruled in July in favor of the Philippines, which China declines to accept. The court declared that no one country had sovereign rights over the shoal. Further, as a customary fishing ground, Philippine, Chinese and Vietnamese were entitled to access it.

Duterte thaws the ice

After Duterte took office four months ago, a frigid Philippine-China relationship improved considerably. The Philippine president began praising China as he denounced long-standing ally the United States in a reversal of his predecessor’s foreign policy.

Hermogenes Esperon, Duterte’s national security adviser, confirmed there had been no arrangement between the two countries about the Scarborough Shoal.

The dispute had not been settled and the Philippines would reaffirm its rights when bilateral talks resume, he said. Though he acknowledged that “the climate has changed”.

“They have coastguard ships there, there are no more navy ships and our fishermen are no longer accosted, they are not driven away,” Esperon said.

“In short, they are more friendly now.”

 

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Duterte Says God Got Him To Stop Swearing

God spoke to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on a flight from Japan on Thursday. The president said he has promised to stop swearing after God warned him that the plane would crash if he kept using foul language.

The former mayor is known for profanity that has included flare-ups targeted at U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Francis. He said he heard a voice and recognized it was God, telling him to clean up his act.

Duterte appeared at a news conference on Thursday upon arrival in his home city of Davao. He said he was looking at the skies while he was on the flight home. Everybody was asleep but a voice said that, “you know, if you don’t stop epithets, I will bring this plane down now”.

“And I said, ‘who is this?’ So, of course, it’s God. OK.

“So, I promise God … not to express slang, cuss words and everything.”

Duterte appeared as an aggressive, insensitive, alternative candidate in a May election which he won by a big margin. He owed much of his success to his unsophisticated style and promises to attack problems vital to ordinary people, like crime and drugs.

Once he took office, he was advised to act more presidential. However, it was an advice not heeded for long. Duterte continued his eruptions of profanity with passion when he began hearing foreign criticism of his deadly war on drugs.

 

He has called U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch”. He also used the same words in disparaging the pope.

He called U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a “devil”, he told Obama to “go to hell”, and said “fuck you” twice to the European Union, while raising his middle finger.

Duterte also used the same language in Tokyo on Tuesday when talking about his annoyance with foreign criticism of his drug war.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that Duterte is certainly entitled to his opinions about his own relationship with a supreme being.” However, he declined to say whether Duterte’s promise might make it easier to deal with him.

Duterte’s foreign affairs adviser Alan Peter Cayetano said that the president was tired and seemed preoccupied during the flight back from Japan.

Cayetano told reporters on Friday that Duterte felt it was a message from God.

He said that he always felt that Duterte is a deeply spiritual person. He’s not religious, but he believes in God, he added.

The Philippines is largely Roman Catholic.

 

 

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