Philippines marks Marcos’ 50th martial law anniversary, with son at UN to charm world

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrives to speak at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at U.N. headquarters. (AFP)
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Updated 21 September 2022
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Philippines marks Marcos’ 50th martial law anniversary, with son at UN to charm world

  • Some experts say dictator’s legacy will have ‘no impact’ on new president
  • Filipino activists vow ‘never again,’ seek justice for victims

MANILA: The Philippines commemorated on Wednesday the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the namesake son of the late dictator, gathered with other world leaders at the UN in New York.

The elder Marcos had ruled the Southeast Asian country with an iron fist for two decades, more than half of it under martial law that was declared on Sept. 21, 1972. He was ousted in a 1986 popular revolt known as People Power, after an era marred by widespread corruption and human rights abuses.

Marcos Jr., 64, who won the presidential election with a landslide victory and took office in June, is setting the tone of the Philippines’ foreign policy under his leadership as part of his first visit to the US, the country where the Marcos family fled in the aftermath of the popular uprising 36 years ago.

“The future beckons and we can embark upon that journey as single nations or as a world in harmony. I say let the challenges of one people be the challenges for all nations. And in that way the success of one will be a success for us all,” Marcos Jr. said during his inaugural speech at the UN General Assembly.

“If we stand together, we can only succeed. Let us dream, let us work for those successes for all our nations, united!”

Activists are chanting “never again” to commemorate the martial law anniversary across the Philippines, the imposition of which Marcos had defended only last week, saying his father made the declaration not to stay in power but because “the government had to defend itself.”

The new president stepped onto the international stage this week in what analysts said is an attempt to distance himself from his late father, as well as his predecessor, President Rodrigo Duterte, who has also been accused of human rights abuses.

Victor Andres Manhit, president of Manila-based Stratbase ADR Institute, said the trip will help Marcos’ administration, as he needs support from the international community for “real investments that will create jobs” and “generate sustained economic growth.”

“So very important to project how a Marcos Jr. administration is totally different from a Marcos Sr. administration. And really one that is more open,” Manhit told Arab News. “One that has plans for the Philippines in the next six years, one that will value basic democratic values which is very important to the West.”

His father’s brutal legacy will bear “no impact” for the president at the UN, Manhit said, though a more pressing issue for Marcos Jr. is how to deal with the “economic consequences of six years of Duterte,” who left the country the highest debt in its history, of 12.79 trillion Philippine pesos ($221.1 billion).

“He needs this international event to project that the Philippines would be very much, is very much, open for investment that can lead to growth, that can lead to job creation,” Manhit said.

When compared to Duterte, Marcos might be seen as a “big improvement (in) the eyes of the world leaders,” he added.

Marcos’ trip will likely serve as a signal for both the international community and Filipinos that he “will not follow (in) the footsteps” of Duterte, according to Renato De Castro, foreign policy analyst and professor of international studies at De La Salle University.

The Marcos administration will project themselves as “more active, more cosmopolitan, more sophisticated when it comes to foreign policy,” which will be in contrast to “the crass, vulgar approach of the previous administration.”

De Castro also said the martial law legacy will not become an issue with other world leaders because he had won the election.

“So what’s the problem? He’s now the president,” De Castro told Arab News, adding that this similarly applied within the Philippines.

“Who can remember martial law?” he said. “Many Filipinos have forgotten all about it. They voted for him. Although I did not vote for him because I could still remember what the family did ... So what can we do? Power makes a difference.”

Many Filipinos doubt there will be justice for the victims of martial law under Marcos Jr., Carlos Conde, senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch told Arab News.

“He has not even acknowledged, let alone apologized, for the human rights violations under his father. The Marcoses have likewise launched a massive disinformation campaign to revise their sordid history. So we cannot blame people for not feeling optimistic about accountability under Marcos,” Conde said.

The international community, he added, “needs to uphold its own human rights standards by not ignoring the human rights realities on the ground in the Philippines,” including by ensuring that accountability mechanisms within the UN system work.

On Wednesday, some survivors of the elder Marcos’ brutal regime vowed to remain steadfast in their pursuit of justice.

“Fifty years after military rule swept through the country, our fists remain clenched and raised, our voices cry out for justice, our hearts burst with grief and anger recalling the atrocities committed against the people under the guise of ‘keeping the peace,’” the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law said in a statement.

“Never again, never forget!” it stated.


India seizes 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in biggest drug bust

Updated 5 sec ago
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India seizes 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in biggest drug bust

  • Myanmar-flagged boat was seized when it entered Indian waters in the Andaman Sea
  • 70 percent of illegal drugs are nowadays smuggled into India via sea routes, expert says

NEW DELHI: India’s coast guard has seized a Myanmar vessel carrying 5,500 kg of methamphetamine in the Andaman Sea, marking its biggest haul of illegal drugs.

The Myanmar-flagged fishing boat Soe Wai Yan Htoo was spotted by an Indian Coast Guard reconnaissance air patrol in the Andaman Sea on Monday, as it was “operating in a suspicious manner,” the Indian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Officers boarded the boat for investigation when it entered Indian territorial waters.

“The six crew onboard the boat were identified as Myanmarese nationals,” the ministry said. “During rummaging, the boarding party found approx. 5,500 kgs of prohibited drug methamphetamine.”

The vessel and its crew have been taken for further investigation to an Indian naval base in Sri Vijaya Puram, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

“The seizure is the largest-ever drug haul by the Indian Coast Guard in maritime history, highlighting the growing threat of transnational maritime narcotics,” the ICG said.

The trafficking of illicit drugs from Myanmar through the Andaman Sea has been on the rise as drug cartels try to evade land controls, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The UNODC identifies Myanmar’s Shan state as “the epicenter” of methamphetamine production in the region.

Shan state is part of the Golden Triangle — a mountainous area in the northern part of the Mekong River basin, where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. The region has long been associated with illegal drug production and was a major source of opium in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years, it has seen a shift toward the production of synthetic drugs.

“Myanmar’s political instability adds to this challenge since many insurgent groups operate between the border regions,” said Dr. Sreeparna Banerjee, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

She estimated that some 70 percent of illegal drugs smuggled into India currently enter the country through the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, with Monday’s haul raising concerns over the scale of criminal networks operating at sea.

“While this seizure highlights the success of coordinated operations by the ICG and other agencies, it also raises concerns about the gaps traffickers exploit. The use of unregistered vessels and vast stretches of unmonitored waters make the Andaman Sea a challenging zone for law enforcement,” Banerjee told Arab News.

“The size of the haul also indicates the potential involvement of transnational organized crime syndicates, further complicating efforts to dismantle these networks.”


Indonesia’s Supreme Court reverses acquittal of former official in slavery case

Updated 26 November 2024
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Indonesia’s Supreme Court reverses acquittal of former official in slavery case

  • A police investigation found 665 people had been held in cells on his property since 2010

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Supreme Court jailed a former government official accused of human trafficking for four years, reversing a lower court decision to acquit him after people were found in cages in his palm oil plantation.
Condemned internationally and at home, the senior official in the provincial government in North Sumatra, Terbit Rencana Perangin-angin, had been accused of human trafficking, torture, forced labor, and slavery.
Prosecutors launched an appeal after a lower court acquitted him of the charges in July.
Indonesia’s Supreme Court said he would serve four years in jail, without specifying reasons, in a ruling dated Nov. 15 and seen on the court’s website on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court and prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters has sought comment from Terbit’s lawyer.
The macabre case came to light in 2022, when a police corruption investigation into Terbit found people detained in cages on his property, drawing condemnation from rights groups.
A police investigation found 665 people had been held in cells on his property since 2010, court documents showed.
Terbit, who was jailed for nine years for corruption in 2022, had previously claimed the detained individuals were participating in a drug rehabilitation program.
Prosecutors said they had been tortured and forced to work on his plantation. Six had died in captivity, Indonesia’s rights body found.


Four Pakistan security forces killed as ex-PM Khan supporters flood capital

Updated 26 November 2024
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Four Pakistan security forces killed as ex-PM Khan supporters flood capital

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani protesters demanding the release of ex-prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday killed four members of the nation’s security forces, the government said, as the crowds defied police and closed in on the capital’s center.
More than ten thousand protesters armed with sticks and slingshots took on police in central Islamabad on Tuesday afternoon, AFP journalists saw, less than three kilometers (two miles) from the government enclave they aim to occupy.
Khan was barred from standing in February elections that were marred by allegations of rigging, sidelined by dozens of legal cases that he claims were confected to prevent his comeback.
But his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has defied a government crackdown with regular rallies. Tuesday’s is the largest in the capital since Khan was jailed in August 2023.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said “miscreants” involved in the march had killed four members of the paramilitary Rangers force on a city highway leading toward the government sector.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the men had been “run over by a vehicle.”
“These disruptive elements do not seek revolution but bloodshed,” he said in a statement. “This is not a peaceful protest, it is extremism.”
The government said Monday that one police officer had also been killed and nine more were critically wounded by demonstrators who set out toward Islamabad on Sunday.


The capital has been locked down since late Saturday, with mobile Internet sporadically cut and more than 20,000 police flooding the streets, many armed with riot shields and batons.
The government has accused protesters of attempting to derail a state visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived for a three-day visit on Monday.
Last week, the Islamabad city administration announced a two-month ban on public gatherings.
But PTI convoys traveled from their power base in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the most populous province of Punjab, hauling aside roadblocks of stacked shipping containers.
“We are deeply frustrated with the government, they do not know how to function,” 56-year-old protester Kalat Khan told AFP on Monday. “The treatment we are receiving is unjust and cruel.”
The government cited “security concerns” for the mobile Internet outages, while Islamabad’s schools and universities were also ordered shut on Monday and Tuesday.
“Those who will come here will be arrested,” Interior Minister Naqvi told reporters late Monday at D-Chowk, the public square outside Islamabad’s government buildings that PTI aims to occupy.
PTI’s chief demand is the release of Khan, the 72-year-old charismatic former cricket star who served as premier from 2018 to 2022 and is the lodestar of their party.
They are also protesting alleged tampering in the February polls and a recent government-backed constitutional amendment giving it more power over the courts, where Khan is tangled in dozens of cases.


Sharif’s government has come under increasing criticism for deploying heavy-handed measures to quash PTI’s protests.
“It speaks of a siege mentality on the part of the government and establishment — a state in which they see themselves in constant danger and fearful all the time of being overwhelmed by opponents,” read one opinion piece in the English-language Dawn newspaper published Monday.
“This urges them to take strong-arm measures, not occasionally but incessantly.”
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said “blocking access to the capital, with motorway and highway closures across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has effectively penalized ordinary citizens.”
The US State Department appealed for protesters to refrain from violence, while also urging authorities to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to ensure respect for Pakistan’s laws and constitution as they work to maintain law and order.”
Khan was ousted by a no-confidence vote after falling out with the kingmaking military establishment, which analysts say engineers the rise and fall of Pakistan’s politicians.
But as opposition leader, he led an unprecedented campaign of defiance, with PTI street protests boiling over into unrest that the government cited as the reason for its crackdown.
PTI won more seats than any other party in this year’s election but a coalition of parties considered more pliable to military influence shut them out of power.


Russia’s Medvedev warns West over discussing nuclear weapons for Ukraine

Updated 26 November 2024
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Russia’s Medvedev warns West over discussing nuclear weapons for Ukraine

MOSCOW: Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.
The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested that US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons, though there were fears such a step would have serious implications.
“American politicians and journalists are seriously discussing the consequences of the transfer of nuclear weapons to Kyiv,” Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, said on Telegram.
Medvedev said that even the threat of such a transfer of nuclear weapons could be considered as preparation for a nuclear war against Russia.
“The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to the fait accompli of an attack on our country,” under Russia’s newly updated nuclear doctrine, he said.


China sends naval, air forces to shadow US plane over Taiwan Strait

Updated 26 November 2024
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China sends naval, air forces to shadow US plane over Taiwan Strait

  • The US Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft had flown through the strait

BEIJING: China’s military said on Tuesday it deployed naval and air forces to monitor and warn a US Navy patrol aircraft that flew through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, denouncing the United States for trying to “mislead” the international community.
Around once a month, US military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China — missions that always anger Beijing.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the strait is an international waterway.
The US Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft had flown through the strait “in international airspace,” adding that the flight demonstrated the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,” it said in a statement.
China’s military criticized the flight as “public hype,” adding that it monitored the US aircraft throughout its transit and “effectively” responded to the situation.
“The relevant remarks by the US distort legal principles, confuse public opinion and mislead international perceptions,” the military’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement.
“We urge the US side to stop distorting and hyping up and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.”
In April, China’s military said it sent fighter jets to monitor and warn a US Navy Poseidon in the Taiwan Strait, a mission that took place just hours after a call between the Chinese and US defense chiefs. (Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Additional reporting and writing by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)