Month: May 2017

The case for CASER

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If the between the armed forces of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and those of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) officially and finally ends as a result of the peace talks between these adversaries, Rodrigo Roa Duterte will secure a place in history as the most effective president the Philippines has ever had since the restoration of independence in 1946. It will mean that the most extensive reforms of Philippine society shall have been implemented, the end of the longest-running civil war in Asia being contingent on the elimination of its causes.

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Reinventing Mocha Uson

Mocha Uson
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How does the appointment of blogger and die-hard Duterte partisan Margaux “Mocha” Uson as an assistant secretary in the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) mesh with President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration last March 10, during the launch of government channel PTV4’s Cordillera hub, that he would open the government media system to Muslim groups and to the members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) so they can air their grievances and explain their views to a larger audience? Or is this latest presidential appointment an implicit repudiation of what at the time looked like an enlightened media policy in the making?

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Trump’s Duterte card

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The White House has confirmed that President Donald Trump has invited President Rodrigo Duterte to visit the United States. The invitation has provoked criticism from human rights groups, among them Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has been unrelenting in its condemnation of the toll in lives of Mr. Duterte’s “war” on drugs. It is widely presumed that Mr. Trump supports the Duterte approach, which could be the basis for a meeting of the minds of the two unconventional heads of state.

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