The philippine president outlines his plan for the future and wants the Death Penalty reintroduce for drug dealing while many filipinos support his policies his critics demand his resignation has rodrigo detective delivered on his promises this is inside story. And welcome to the program for the battle. Is a divisive president for many filipinos his phrase by his supporters full combat in crime and corruption but his opponents say the crackdown comes at a high price with thousands killed in an internationally condemned campaign against Illegal Drugs deterrent is promising more of the same as he delivered his annual state of the nation speech he urged congress to reinstate the Death Penalty for drugs offenders and he defended his handling of territorial disputes with the chinese in the South China Sea as he spoke to take his opponents burned an effigy of him outside parliament and his resignation i mean alan duggan has more from manila. Right at the top of president a good start to speech today was a reiteration that is why the socalled war on drugs will being human to the end of his term he also even appeals for congress for the passage and imposition of the Death Penalty for Illegal Drugs and blunders to charity also admits that his government remains corruption driven and threatens to prosecute erring Public Officials he says to the hilt theres really nothing different from the speech of the day to today compared to his last state of the nation speeches except today he started his speech over an hour later than scheduled the arrived late in Congress Today but outside the halls of congress where the ends of thousands of filipinos are taking to the streets in protest they suggested that instead of talking president for the good of their dishes listen in sad b. C. He has smale in almost every promise during his campaign and the proceeds of the beach relationship china basically accept that the government is not in control of whats happening in the South China Sea the nice they see is a perceived capitulation to a liger power they also say that the socalled lagarde drugs which just left according to activists more than 20000. 00 people dead is the proof they say that the president is unfair to govern and they want him to resign now state of the nation speeches the philippine president some are mental highlight achievements me by the government over the past year the protesters here tell us that this is nothing a little bit earlier cover up the rape Human Rights Violations committed against the filipino people over the past few years this is just dog for inside story rule now here are some of the main issues that paternity has followed to resolve the president ordered a crackdown on Illegal Drugs such as crystal meth 3 years ago since then the government says police have killed around 6000. 00 dealers and users. As rice school of say the 2 total is 27000. 00 the un has called for an International Investigation detective is a 1st slepian president from mindanao in the south which has a launch Muslim Population is find a peace deal on muslim autonomy the island remains under martial law to test a sense troops of the city of mirali 2 years ago to root out fighters lanes to eisele and the philippines and china have long disputed territory in the South China Sea opponents criticize a tatty for allowing chinese taunus to fish in philippine waters. On lets bring in our panel now for todays inside story in manila we have richard hadari n. Who is a Research Fellow at the National Chain tce university and author of the book the rise of detecting a populist revolt in singapore we have graham on webb who is a Research Fellow at the s. Rajaratnam school of International Studies and also in Manila Congress condi who is the philippines researcher at Human Rights Watch welcome to you all thank you very much for being on inside story lets start by looking at the big picture richard hadari and as detectives said in his speech his disapproval rating is only 3 percent the majority of filipinos satisfied with him how have things improved for filipinos and the detectives will these past 3 years. That we can have a debate over to specifics what our objective has been successful in achieving his promises but the fact that the matter is that a forest the perception of the majority of phillip in his concern is now the most popular filipino president in history and in the last midterm elections the opposition was almost completely wiped off and now we currently are super majority in both houses of the congress so this is a very confident president and we saw how you started this speech may have seychelle it saying that there are very few who. Are opposing him and there are people there in dollars of congress that you should not be among those few 3 Percent People who are opposing me now its fact of the matter is that the president also us few years left in office is now in his legacy juris and by perhaps 3rd quarter of 2021 is going to be already a lame duck president as everyone focuses their attention today the successor so yes very dominant one had the perception of the people is that hes doing the right job but is saying that he doesnt have all the time in the world he has to push for as much or far as he can any state of the nation address he was very clear he admitted that when it comes to the war in drugs when it comes to law and order and more than anything when it comes to corruption theres a lot to be done but these argument is that she is the ultimate solution even if he may have not yet solve those problems people need someone like him a decisive leader like him in order to move forward and the fact the matter is that the economy still doing well he has been faced insulation from 6. 7 percent to 2. 7 percent in less than a year he pushed for the banks some more in law school shifts mindanao towards creating its own muslim majority autonomous region and as far as foreign nations is concerned to live in relations firm that most of the countries is going well ok perhaps look at the line issues in more detail in just a few minutes richard let me ask congress condi in manila for his use did you hear anything new in this speech qantas and whats your mock on president. 33 years into his role. As most of his so and say of the nation are a significant means a lot of courage. And so in that sense we didnt i didnt hear anything you know i mean about only you i heard today was when he claimed tomorrow you see to me that i think cindy was largely driven by Illegal Drugs which was something that was. Quite different from the government. Version of time which is done is what i see you know precipitated event but overall the boss 3 years as far as were concerned. Has been. A strong fit for human rights in the philippines and is something done. That mark the legacy of president detected now of course were not saying that all the oh you know all of us we use less been not being bought in terms of a policy there have been some what would proponents would say you know good indicators of good news are shipped into fights for years and the hope that in the next 3 years i would continue to happen and the dominant theme the dominant issue that has marked the boss 30 years and i think will also mark the next the useless be. The abstract Human Rights Violations of the philippines related to the problem ok graham on the web in singapore your thought is so that theres been a lot of concern over human rights and human rights situation in the philippines how has her draco to tete a fed in your opinion and his on his most notable promises well ira are logical code the comments are all my to come back shits on this panel perhaps what i could share is perspectives as i said i said in singapore not in the philippines nevertheless as a member of the association of opposition nations i would say that this is really a very odd situation to go serving whats going on in the philippines and sort of the best of times in the words of times looking at greater map the political play in the philippines as mentioned by Michael Patrick its really divided nation and polarized a very strong men politics you know in a true champion style but it seemed time i would say that the Business Community in the region is very happy with the Economic Performance of the country this is the best of times of the philippines economy well you know out of the peace or is one of the top currency performers rising at 3 percent this year the basic stock index a bull run last week and a 1000 points a key level i mean this is. A dish jump between whats going on because i mean he and terms of politics and i would see that many early does the region like to have what president to charity is having right at this consolidate that follow up reaches you know it with the ability to be also the unity at this point i lets now focus on some of the key issues of the tetanus presidency and his signature issue his Campaign Issue of course has been the war on drugs as we mentioned president has a congress to bring back the Death Penalty in the war on drugs says they can is the legal problem but it says its going up in your us an immodest securely. Because we need to sustain. Any of that any initiatives and respect bellew dickless going restore reinstate the Death Penalty. When he knows crimes related to not assume. All right richard hey dion in manila the president has pushed for the rein statement of the Death Penalty since he was campaigning back in 2016 do you think hell succeed this time around what he has at least on paper a supermajority in both houses of the congress and if you look at the leadership of both the lower house you know his former Vice President ial mate speaker of the house. And also the Senate Senate president both of them seem to embrace this kind of a liberal to use about how the philippines should more forward in dealing with law and order issue is not now the problem of course is that the philippines had Death Penalty in the past and yet theres no evidence to suggest that that Death Penalty in any waste made the situation of crime or drugs any better in the philippines and i think this is the problem the president you know hes good in terms of impressing people with his decisive leadership or at this project and decisive leadership but a lot of his claims are not necessarily backed up by science and Public Policy that is imperioli based and affected him as an event in his war on drugs we have a shift from problem because until today it not many big fishes or major Drug Syndicate leaders have been caught while at the same time there are thousands of unexplained death including a 100 deaths of children right callous condi surprisingly we didnt hear any reaction from the president during his speech today to the u. N. Human Rights Council resolution which calls for an International Investigation into the an awful killing thing to the war on drugs in the philippines why do you think that is. You know its kind of a sad surprise that you didnt mention the u. N. Human rights officers edition i mean you know you can look at it any other way you but i think the government has been put on notice by the human u. N. Human Rights Council and. You know you can you can read it as you know hes afraid or to use ott very concerned about this action but at the human rights yet it is human rights talks but also at the same time i think this push for the Death Penalty if you ate the president there he and his Government Order from a western democracies particularly you who are very very worried about the restoration of it is something this is very very important issue to them and im pretty sure theyre looking at it very closely and this will. Definitely work against him up particularly. In the days ahead being random you know i started off as a dietitian for human rights looks into a human rights abuses and its grandma web your thoughts about this International Investigation thats been requested by the u. N. Human Rights Council into the war on drugs in the philippines how damaging would it be for president to tattle well it remains to be see how damaging is going to be i bet some skepticism because you know it was zooming out at the regional level are we i would add the comment that i think were seeing an overall in the nation of the region in terms of the dismal human rights track record were seeing across of musicians so is the. Bunnys government is able to get away with that use human rights atrocities going on in the rockies the crisis with the concerns weve seen over the current time ministration or their human rights transgressions in the last few years i think president exerted will also likely get away with a fair bit i think overall this is regional. But going on where several Southeast Asian nations are simply looking the other way right we have an ostensibly Rights Commission here sitting in this region which is also looking the other were not saying very much so i do think a bit skeptical these are countries going at it when they can see do you think these countries can ever win the war on drugs including the philippines if they keep treating it as a criminal problem well i i dont think so because the at the root the roots of the matter are not being taken to task as i compared it was just talking about earlier we had a great depth to see the dismantlement of organized crime. Spoken by a lot of these criminal infrastructures if the very same problems are seeing the way which the government has been trying to tackle you know you know its our war on drugs or likewise in malaysia so i think whats been going on so far it is highly ineffective lets now take a look at the issue of security in the southern philippines and the fight against on 12 step president or to go to teddy in his speech promised that peace will soon return to muslim majority areas in the southern philippines 2nd if it is my hope that debunks some moderate transition will fast be stablished man of Regional Government the prosecutor and the bely who are muslim brothers and sisters and all indigenous communities in the bum some moral regions. Richard a diary in the city of murali was of course devastated in a siege with on travellers 2 years ago the attack prompted detected to declare martial law across the entire island of mindanao has the city the security situation improved at all in the region and in the southern philippines well actually less in morocco we earlier this month and i got to visit the city and talk to Community Leaders and commanders underground my sense is that in terms of security the situation has in tools dramatically you dont have this kind of sense of a specter of isis takeover return anytime soon although there are still remnants of the multigroup and isis elements there i think the security situation has improved and you can see only a few checkpoints security checkpoints across the city and we did not demand a lot of security detail when we were traveling across but are we and also in boutique which is the multi stronghold but the problem though is twofold one of the things i hear a lot from the local Civil Society organizations leaders is that up until today there has not been a proper investigation in order to understand how on earth the bunch of rock isis affiliated elements get to lay a 5 months old siege on the entire city which led to the complete destruction of ground 0 which is the hard line of murder that we see the how did it why did it take so long for the government the why did the negotiations fail ended early on and the 2nd one is this concern that when it comes to rehab military action of morale we theres not much consultation with the groups on the ground with grassroots groups and the blueprint that has been provided is full of White Elephants right but little consideration for internally displaced people look so there is more a long term threat of return of radicalism as disgruntlement begins to seep in nonetheless majority of people in america been telling me we still trust in president there that he is one of us and at least he pushed a button some more a law which could finally give us the kind of autonomy still present at the house support in malawi despite everything on the ground connoisseur what do you think it will take for the detective administration to be successful in maradi. He would have to start on this is going to have to work very very closely. Because we get is there obviously i mean there are a lot of issues that are seen as a result of the morality i mean the. Sort of media and. Rehabilitation is one of the people that are not. In there get the decision therefore its there not much the government has not much to show for in terms of that so theres a lot of reaching out to the government needs to do to the leaders and specially the ones you know the community are doing are listening to are getting more and still have been displaced they dont want given to get so there are a lot of you know keep in mind also being unfair because i read my column in. The march on the right and there have been sporadic reports of conflict every now and then some might hope this is racial and there. Has not but i dont think that that is the accurate picture because of the things that were hearing from the ground. Graham as kahless pointed out earlier interestingly in his speech today president to take tried to connect the problem of terrorism in the southern philippines with the problem of drugs is that the case can you make that connection. No economy the correction or the agree with the analysis has been given so far you know there is a bit of an excellent a connection and its actually a surprise because there wasnt a narrative of the of the arguments made in the aftermath or during the period of the siege so i think there are clearly theres a political agenda in trying to bolster the cause in the war against drugs more and he and the measures in order to achieve success in the war you know from our president a very despondent and there is clearly more basis for thats the ok now lets take a look at the issue of Foreign Policy and rodrigo to ted he has been criticized for failing to confront china and its activities in the disputed South China Sea but the president in his speech defended his approach rather than go there and have it in front based on not necessarily a degree sheep or 2 but theyre not in school of order could lead to something and. So it we just became friends. But have we can talk about this all right richard detected has said he cant do anything about what is called chinas bullying in the South China Sea in the disputed areas saying that if doing so could trigger an all out war why the seemingly soft stance you think when it comes to the philippines territorial dispute with china. Well in fairness the president dessert i think in his state of the nation address he was much more calley rantings languish for long he has been saying that resisting china will ultimately lead to a suicide the war therefore implying that the way forward is some sort of a police stance which is of course something that is completely baseless because a lot of countries across the region ive been resisting china including the philippines under the Previous Administration and yet there was no war so here in the state of the nation address the changes tony said that were not talking about the war on war per se but at the skirmishes and even that im not willing to risk so suddenly i present to terry to becoming a peacemaker in the pragmatist here you know about a thing that maybe maybe maybe sign a policy very problematic was these announcement the other week that hes going to just allow the chinese fish or fish or folks and fishing boats to just entered the philippines exclusive Economic Zone that he has a verbal agreement with president xi jinping in order to low that now that potentially violates the philippines constitution and of course its an invitation for pilotage by much bigger ships from china right and if it happens is already struggling with Food Security and dropping fish in cash but in the state of the nation address it intelligently pointed out the philippines own arbitration award and the United Nations convention love the sea which actually provides some new meat the droom 40 source sharing even we didnt have the libyans its mr Economic Zone particularly the water surrounding the contest at scarborough or strolled so in fairness to me a state of the nation address was much more sober much more calibrate that as opposed to other very controversial statements on this issue graham a long way of can he resolve the dispute in the South China Sea in a peaceful way. Well certainly i mean i concur with richards analysis you know i mean hes walking a very delicate line here in not in not pushing back anything about also not you know giving up the ground politically and he hes being a pragmatist and a realist at the same time when it comes to dealing with china and the economic and political oppositions of the country i mean singapore one of i can see so get a very high price in standing the ground terms of space on the back and 2016 when it seemed that we want a cost of having the p. C. Ruling in favor of the peeves so i think the president or the charity is more sensitive to chinese power and is unwilling to take those lists i caught us in manila i have the last word on the Foreign Policy issue and the disputes in the soft china sea do you think. Is doing enough to resolve this dispute it. Well to many filipinos it may be doing it now but increasingly is hes being viewed as too pliant to china and this will have some good effect and you can down the line in terms of his popularity the question really now is better how long and how hard will you push this so this line and whether if you would be a much more liberated in response to china but as far as public temperament goes in the service indicated that a lot of filipinos are not at all. In favor of what this do we need china so you know if youre a succeeding where there are obvious and dirty will try to take their sentiment into account the sea moves forward but doesnt the. Us there here showing too much of the china you know hes very very overly friendly. I would say our posture toward china its not me you love filipinos hun thank you very much gentlemen for a very interesting discussion it was very good to talk to you about the situation in the philippines as president. Continues his role there and a delivered his 4th a state of the nation address richard a diary in congress conde graham on web thank you very much for being on inside story and thank you as well for watching you can always watch his program again any time by visiting our website at aljazeera dot com for further discussion go to our Facebook Page at facebook dot com for sash a. J. Inside so he can of course also join the conversation on twitter handle is that a. J. In sight so easy for me for me back to boeing the whole team thank you for watching i thank. You. For 23 years mohsin has collected objects he finds along the coast. Enough to fill his museum enough to break a Guinness World record. With a story for every object hes become an environmental activist an inspired artist and a voice for the plight of countless markets. Such as aljazeera. One of the really special things about working for aljazeera is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else working for us as you know its very challenging the body but the good because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are we the people we live to tell the real stories are just mended is to deliver indepth enemies and we dont feel inferior to the audience across the globe. Aljazeera where every year. It could be the biggest land grab in history. As powerful nations lay claim to territories under the oceans 21. 00 geologists are secretly plotting new borders. As the struggle for resources intensifies some of the worlds most powerful scientists speak out. Oceans manakin on a. M samis a down and down how they look at the headlines here now just 0. Boris johnson is elected as the leader of the 3. Boris johnson has just been named as the next leader of britains Ruling Conservative Party the former foreign secretary an ex mayor of london is expected to take over as Prime Minister on wednesday after tourism may formally steps down johnson beat the current foreign secretary jeremy hunt for the top job is what he told conservative Party Members after he was
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.