THE PHILIPPINES’ FORUM FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS SINCE 1981
August 7-20, 2016 Vol. XXXIV No. 22
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President Rodrigo Duterte at the wake of slain Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit member Panggong Pumanod during his visit to Camp Morgia in Doña Andrea, Asuncion, Davao del Norte. Pumanod was killed in an ambush by communist rebels from the New People's Army at Barangay Gupitan, Kapalong, Davao del Norte. Photo by RENE LUMAWAG/PPD
The war on drugs: An eastwest divide W
Challenges bared at Cebu tourism forum By RICHARD RAMOS
By TIMOTHY JAY IBAY
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argely due to powerful photojournalism, some of the biggest international media outlets have taken notice of President Rodrigo Duterte’s blood-soaked war on drugs. But the alarming nature of the killings goes far beyond the photos that Duterte called a “dramatic” portrayal of the country’s drug crackdown, with 524 deaths (from June 30 to Aug. 4, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Kill List) attributed to “The Punisher’s” narco war. And there appears to be no end in sight, as emphasized by the President during his first State of the Nation Address. “We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier and the last pusher have surrendered or been put behind bars or below the ground, if they so wish,” Duterte said.
Asian war More than a decade ago, Thailand waged a similar war on drugs led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which lead to the deaths of 2,800 people, according to an independent inquiry chaired by a former attorney general. And in a recent Reuters report, the country, after more than a decade, appears to have admitted defeat, with Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya saying he was looking at possible changes to the country’s draconian drug laws, which would reduce jail time for possession or dealing of crystal meth. “The world has lost the war on drugs, not only Thailand,” Paiboon was quoted in the report. “We have clear numbers that drug use has increased over the past three years. Another indicator is there are more prisoners.
As noted by the report, Thailand has a prison population of 321,347—around 70 percent of which are doing time for drug offenses. Harsh drug penalties are the norm in the Southeast Asian region. Just a little over a year ago, Indonesia executed by firing squad eight heroin smugglers for trafficking. Western shift In the western world, more and more countries are re-examining their stance on drugs, increasingly treating drug addiction as a medical condition, as opposed to a criminal one. In Canada, the federal health agency is reportedly intending to open up legal access to heroin as a treatment for opioid page 2
hile the Philippines continues to experience rising annual tourism arrivals for the past few decades, there remains a lot to be done in order to maximize the country’s international standing as a worthy tourism magnet, and be at par with that of its Asean neighbors. This was the central subject of Andrew Harrison’s address during the Cebu Business Month 2016 Tourism Forum. Harrison is the president of GMR-Megawide, the company that won the 25-year concession to rehabilitate and mage terminal operations at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA). According to Harrison, there is no “onesize-fits-all” or “generic” campaign anymore as tourism authorities have to study specialized marketing campaigns for each intended country in order to better respond to their specific needs and demands as a global customer. Areas of improvement In China for example (the
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