QCPD Director PCSupt Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar leads the simultaneous Oplan Tokhang operations at Batasan Police station (PS-6), Quezon City, January 29, 2018. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

While the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) saw improvement in the police’s anti-illegal drug operations, the Philippine National Police (PNP) could not promise that no one will be killed in its controversial anti-illegal narcotics campaign.

“We are happy about that comment. Hopefully, the prevailing situation in that regard would remain,” PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. John Bulalacao said in a press briefing on Monday.

“But just the same, we could not assure you na talagang mawawala na yung (that we would completely eradicate) incidents of deaths during police operations,” he added.

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In a television interview, CHR spokesperson Jackie de Guia said that there was an improvement in the implementation of the police’s crackdown against illegal drugs.

De Guia, however, said that it would too early to comment on the development.

“But tinitingnan nating mabuti kung paano napapatupad ‘yung Oplan Tokhang. Of course, that’s just one component of the campaign against drugs. Marami pa ring operasyon na nangyayari araw-araw. Pare-parehong sinusuri natin ‘yan,” De Guia said in an interview with GMA-7’s Unang Balita.

(But we are still monitoring how they implement Oplan Tokhang. Of course, that’s just one component of the campaign against drugs. There are a lot of operations happening everyday, we are also monitoring those.)

PNP deputy spokesperson Supt. Vilmilee Madrid said on Friday that 53 drug suspects have been killed since the police rejoined the drug campaign in December last year.

READ: 53 killed since December as PNP rejoins anti-drug war

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/967491/53-killed-since-december-as-pnp-rejoins-anti-drug-war

Madrid said the casualties “most probably” fought back against authorities during operations.

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Bulalacao echoed Madrid’s explanation, noting that the suspects usually have “unstable minds.”

“Because as we always say, the subjects of police operations have normally unstable minds. Because of their paranoia, they put up fight against police officers that result in encounter and most of the time, unexpected deaths of individuals,” Bulalacao said.

The PNP was removed from Duterte’s bloody crackdown against illegal drugs in October last year amid public outrage over the deaths of teens Kian Loyd delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz, and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman in the hands of policemen.

It was returned in December to assist the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which had limited manpower and resources to conduct anti-drug operations.

PNP Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa assured the public of a “bloodless” Oplan Tokhang.

Tokhang, a mix of Visayan words “katok” that means to knock and “hangyo” or plead, involves policemen doing house-to-house visits of suspected drug criminals and asking them to surrender.

It is now being implemented from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. by four-man teams of “Tokhangers,” or a group of policemen who are authorized and trained to conduct the campaign.

Tokhang operations, under the PNP’s new guidelines, should be joined by a representative from the barangay council, human rights group, or religious sector. Operatives are also not allowed to enter a suspect’s house. /cbb

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By Hannah L. Torregoza

Voting 19-0, the Senate approved on third and final reading yesterday the bill that seeks to completely ban all forms of hazing or initiation rites as a prerequisite for admission into a fraternity, sorority, or any organization.

There were no negative votes and no abstention on Senate Bill No. 1662, the measure that sought amendments to Republic Act No. 8049 to strengthen the law on hazing and regulate other forms of initiation rites of fraternities.

It was Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson who sponsored the bill with Senators Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri and Sherwin Gatchalian as co-sponsors.

Lacson, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said the proposed legislation covers community or other associations, including those in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), and other similar uniformed service learning institutions.

It was Lacson’s panel that launched an investigation into University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) freshman law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III who supposedly died after undergoing initiation rites with the Aegis Juris fraternity.

“Hazing needs to stop now. Awareness must be raised as to the fact that there is no unity, no brotherhood, no strength, no honor, and no respect in hazing. It is merely violence and abuse,” Lacson stressed.

The senator said the measure defines hazing “as any physical or psychological suffering, harm or injury inflicted on a recruit, member, neophyte or applicant for admission or continuing membership into the fraternity, sorority or organization.”

Lacson said the bill expanded the coverage of hazing to include paddling, whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of food, liquor, beverage, drug and other substance as well as any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which would likely adverse the physical and psychological health of the recruit, member, neophyte or applicant.

He explained that under the existing law, hazing is allowed as an initiation rite and can be performed provided if there is a written notice addressed to the school seven days prior to the event. Also based on the current law, the notice should give details as to the duration of the initiation rite, the names of those undergoing the initiation rites and an undertaking that no physical violence would be employed.

But once passed into law, Lacson said the proposed legislation would now require fraternities, sororities, and organizations to submit and post a written application to the proper school authorities of their initiation rite detailing the activity not later than seven days prior of the scheduled date.

The school’s representatives would also be required to monitor, record and report that no hazing had been conducted in the initiation rite.

“The bill also requires the appointment and identification of advisers, who will be presumed to have knowledge and consent to the commission on any unlawful act in the violation of the Anti-Hazing Law,” Lacson said.

Under the bill, heavy penalties would be imposed to persons who had direct knowledge of any hazing acts but did not report it to authorities; and those found guilty of concealing or hampering or obstructing lawful investigation.

The bill also seeks to include in a person’s scholastic record, personal or employment record any judgment of the final conviction of a person convicted of the crime of hazing.

Under the measure, officers and members of a fraternity, sorority or organization who participated in the hazing would suffer the penalty of reclusion temporal and a fine of P1 million, while members of the fraternity, sorority or organization who participated in the hazing under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs would be fined P2 million and would be meted the penalty of reclusion perpetua.

Lacson said the same penalty will apply to non-resident or alumni members of the fraternity, sorority or organization who actually participated in the hazing. The penalty of reclusion perpetua, would likewise be imposed, together with a fine of P3 million, for individuals who actually participated in hazing that resulted in death, rape, sodomy or mutilation.

The university or school would also be held liable and be fined P1 million if officials would fail to prevent hazing from occurring during initiation rites.

Tags: fraternity, initiation rites, Philippine Military Academy, Philippine National Police, Senate passes Anti-Hazing Bill, Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, the Senate

In accordance with a recent study by the scientists from the University of Leeds, a network of digital workers is designing political disinformation campaigns, creating fake news and ventilating the flames of public heartburn in the Philippines.

The research put forth the motivations and strategies of a well organized and funded hierarchy of political operators, who manage day jobs as advertising and public relations executives, computer programmers and political-administrative staff.

The investigation, Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines, is based on a year-long research project.

This led by Dr. Jason Cabañes from the School of Media and Communications and Dr. Jonathan Corpus Ong from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the project comprised of detailed interviews with disinformation architects and online observation of the fake accounts they accessed.

Dr. Ong said, “We were initially curious about the kind of people who become ‘paid trolls’ and how they manage to live with that stigma.”

“Meeting the people behind fake Facebook accounts, we learned that there is actually a professionalized hierarchy with an ad and PR strategists at the top.”

Dr. Cabañes, a lecturer in International Communication, stated, “We also met the anonymous digital influencers and fake account operators in the middle and lower rungs of the hierarchy. We got to know how financial insecurity and career aspirations drove many of them to get into disinformation work.”

It further decodes how strategists founded campaign objectives based on input from their political clients, then delegate political marketing responsibility to a team of digital influencers and fake account operators.

These operators infiltrate online communities, artificially trend hashtags to arrest mainstream media attention and propagandize disinformation to silence enemies and seed revisionist history narratives.

While the Philippine public’s moral panic about fake news is often directed at high-profile digital influencers and celebrities who are seen to incite political divisiveness and harass journalists, Dr. Ong and Dr. Cabañes argue the architects of disinformation are hiding in plain sight – wearing respectable faces as leaders in their industry while sidestepping accountability.

Dr. Ong added, “Our aim is not to name and shame individual workers, but to expose the system that has professionalized the organizational workflow and salary incentive schemes of ‘paid trolls’ and fake news authors.”

Researchers give reasons to this mischief are as election funding legislation and gaps in self-regulation of the advertising and PR industries allow digital campaigns to remain unchecked, and for PR and ad executives to take on ethically dubious freelance work without fear of being held accountable.

Dr. Cabañes said: “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to disinformation. Countries need to understand the hierarchies and financial incentives that reward these ‘paid trolls’.

“Simply blocking accounts or blacklisting fake news sites – while often well-meaning– do not treat the underlying causes of the problem.”

The report proposes policy-driven solutions to industry, government and civil stakeholders and calls for new collective interventions to the systematic production of disinformation.

These recommendations include self-regulation measures in the digital influencer industry and legal reforms for election finance transparency.

Drawing attention to the country’s highly skilled, highly organised online freelance labour force, described as “a stockpile of digital weapons”, the research challenges global actors to look beyond the West and consider how fake news production in countries such as the Philippines, currently the outsourcing capital of the world and previously the focus of attention for “digital sweatshops”, might have far-reaching implications for digital disinformation in democratic countries such as the UK and US, and vice versa.

The report is unveiled at current week’s Democracy and Disinformation Conference at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines.

President Rodrigo Duterte speaks at the launching of the Malasakit Programs for Visayas by unveiling the Malasakit Center dedication plate at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. (Photo from an RTVM video)

CEBU CITY – Speaking before local chief executives from Visayas and Mindanao, President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday reiterated his goal to get rid of corruption and illegal drugs that ruin the country.

“I took my oath to preserve the Republic of the Philippines and to protect the people. You heard my promise. Let’s all be candid here. We’re all government workers. I called you because I need your toil. I’m not pleading for it. It’s your duty for the country,” he said.

About 200 local officials, including governors and mayors, attended the event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City on Wednesday evening.

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Shortly before he left, President Duterte assured them he will not seek any term extension.

“This is my commitment to you. If you can pass that (constitutional) amendment by 2020, and will call for an election, I will not accept the transition period for me to remain as president. To remove all doubts, I will step down. There’s no problem with that,” he said.

President Duterte said he told officials of the military to make sure he will make good of his promise.

“If I don’t, shoot me. It’s your job to preserve the Constitution,” he said.

The country’s top executive reminded local officials to stop corruption and to stay away from illegal drugs otherwise he will go after them.

“I’m not threatening. I just want to remind you,” he said.

President Duterte said several trial judges, prosecutors, and policemen are involved in corruption—a practice that must end.

“I am not the kind of dictator that some wanted to portray. If I don’t dictate and allow everybody to implement the law in their sweet time, no one is moving. Cars are smuggled. There can never be a respite,” he said.

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“I was thinking if I made the right decision to run as president. But since I am here, I will stop corruption. I will do it, and then stop illegal drugs. I will work on peace and order, and talk to enemies of the state and have an agreement so that we can pass through this planet peacefully,” he added,

President Duterte said the war on drugs will continue to save the country from further deterioration.

He said 40 percent of the total barangays in the country are contaminated with illegal drugs, while 9,000 barangay captains are reportedly into illegal drugs.

“We’re deteriorating because of illegal drugs. It’s getting to be very uncomfortable. We can make this nation, not really that great, but at least a comfortable country for all. The problem is illegal drugs,” he said.

President Duterte took a swipe at agencies that criticize his policies, particularly leaders of the Catholic Church.

“Magtayo na lang tayo ng Iglesia ni Duterte. Walang bawal. Limang asawa? Sige. (Let us just create an Iglesia ni Duterte. There [will] be no prohibitions. If you want five wives? Fine),” he said.

President Duterte called on the police to continue going after those involved in the illegal drugs trade as he promised them his full support.

“I take full responsibility of the drug campaign results whether intended or not. It is my sole, singular responsibility and I will answer alone. Because I ordered it, I will take full responsibility,” he said.

“I am building a country, and I will kill anyone who destroys it. I am already old. I already have enough of accolades and applause. I don’t need them. My dreams have happened,” he added.

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The cancellation of the contract to acquire Canadian Bell-412 helicopters will delay the military’s modernization program, says Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana

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