THE PHILIPPINES’ FORUM FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS SINCE 1981
July 10-23, 2016 Vol. XXXIV No. 20
OUT SOON!
www.expatphilippines.ph
Newspaper
Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa troops the line during the assumption of command ceremony at Camp Crame. Dela Rosa recently turned over three police generals linked to illegal drugs to the National Police Commission for formal investigation. Photo by Kiwi Bulaclac / PPD courtesy of the Presidential Communications Operations Office
War on drugs shifts to another gear
By TIMOTHY JAY IBAY and VIA BAROMA
Hundreds surrender, spate of killings continue as Duterte takes office
T
he war on drugs by President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration was set in motion soon after the former Davao City mayor became the presumptive president, with the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management reporting that 54 drug-related suspects were killed from May 10 to June 20. But following Duterte’s inauguration last June 30, the war on drugs shifted to another gear with at least 12 suspected drug traffickers and users killed and over 700 drug users surrendering in the cities of Taguig, Pasay and San Juan, according to a Philippine Star report. As astronomical as those numbers appeared to be, they would pale in comparison to what was reported over the next couple of days that followed as 18 more suspected drug
pushers were killed, while 952 confessed drug users and traffickers reportedly surrendered across the country during the weekend covering July 2 to 3. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer's "Kill List," during the first week of the Duterte administration from the noon of June 30 to the noon of July 7, the death toll from the war on drugs and crime reached 72 - an average of over 10 killings a day. Killing season Duterte has not shied away from encouraging vigilantism to aid his campaign against illegal drugs, one that had him promising to rid the country of its ills in “three to six months,” amidst cries from the Commission on Human Rights.
“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” the President told a crowd in Tondo, Manila just hours after his inauguration. To say that the public has expressed concern about the sudden surge of drug-related killings is an understatement. There are those that point out that murder could be easily placed under the guise of the war on drugs, while PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa admitted that some recent killings may have been carried out by police officers involved in the drug trade, eliminating people that could blow their covers. According to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, Presidential Spokesperpage 3 son Ernesto Abella said that the
Silicon Valley hotshot comments on local startup landscape By RICHARD RAMOS
W
hile most startup companies regard funding as one of their main obstacles, a lot more needs to be done in order to provide an ideal business climate for startups to flourish and encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship (and not employment) for the youth. Worse is the fact that wealthy individuals and companies shy away from investing in startups due to the lack of research and development initiatives that will gauge the viability and feasibility of such startups. To combat such problems, a field expert recommended that a group of scientists, professors, and engineers be trained to teach entrepreneurship to the startups in order to set the foundation and basis of understanding the market. Diosdado Banatao, chair of PhilDev Foundation, declared that “We have page 3 experts who can deliver. Our