Delivered with menace, no one does it quite like Rodrigo Duterte, elected President Of The Philippines a year ago. Since he came to power, around 7000 people have been killed. Human Rights Groups are aghast that the majority of filipinos seem to like his iron fist. My guest is one of the president s most fierce critics, senator antonio trillanes. Is duterte taking the phillipines and the region in a new direction . Antonio trillanes, in manila, welcome to hardtalk. Hello, stephen. Thank you very much for inviting me. We speak at a difficult time for your country. In mindanao in the south of the philippines, you have a National Emergency with a town that for weeks has faced a siege because it has been, in essence, taken over byjihadist gunmen. The president says this is a National Emergency and it is time for the country to unify. Do you agree . I agree that what is happening in marawi is a National Crisis and something that we should deal with decisively. But i feel that the armed forces, historically, have faced more difficult challenges before and they can overcome this challenge once again and i have no doubt that the Armed Forces Of The Philippines will subdue the maute group. Yes. A couple of days ago, the Finance Minister made a clear point of associating, as you put it, the maute group, associating them with drug crime. He said there is no doubt that much of the money they make and the way they operate comes from their involvement in organised drug trafficking. Do you agree with that . That is probably the case but the question is, for the past year that they unleashed this deadly war on drugs, how come they did not touch these suspected drug lords who are supporting maute . The Finance Minister again in an important speech just the other day said it is time for the country to support a president who wants to see a philippines where obedience to the law is not optional. He has imposed martial law in the area around marawi and there is talk he may extend the area under martial law. You have called this a National Crisis. I wonder if you support him at this time of crisis . We support the claim that what is happening in marawi is a National Crisis in terms of the reach of the maute, they can wreck havoc in the country in terms of activities that may be deadly to the filipino public. In addressing this threat of terrorism, martial law is not the cure. Because it will affect the way of life of the filipino and at the same time it will affect negatively the economy of our country. My prescription was to enhance the capability of Intelligence Community in our Law Enforcement agencies so that we can accurately pinpoint the Terrorist Cells without affecting the way of life of the public. Isnt the truth that the filipino public elected Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency because they wanted a tough guy who could impose order on the philippines . If one looks back at the situation where he took over, that Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency stated last year that 92 of districts in manila, for example, were affected by drugs. The overwhelming drug of choice being crystal meth. Your country was in a parlous state and drugs crime was at the centre of it and that is why Rodrigo Duterte was voted in to deal with it. 98 of the districts in manila but in the entire country, only 27 of the districts are influenced by the use of drugs. For national statistics, we only have 1. 8 of the population that has used illegal drugs. Most of it marijuana, compared to the global average of 5 of the population. In effect, in fact our drug problem is not as bad as it seems. We agree that it should be addressed but it is not the primary or only problem in our country. Are you a democrat . Yes. I am from the nationalist party. I meant in terms of commitment to democracy. It seems to me fairly clear that duterte was straightforward with the public. His platform was quite clear. I will give you one quote from his campaign. He said forget the laws on human rights. If i make it to the president ial palace, i will do what i did as mayor. You do nothings, drug pushers and hold up men had better get out because i will kill you. I will dump you into manila bay and i will fatten the fish with your bodies. That was his platform and he won a clear victory. During the campaign the publicjust thought that that was just rhetoric to make the Campaign Speech more dramatic. We have a set of laws. It does not mean that he said that during campaign and he was voted into office, it does not give him licence to kill our own people. He should still be made accountable for his actions outside the law. Do you think is war on drugs is working . Definitely not. As i mentioned, only the poor people and suspected users and pushers are being killed. The Running Total would be over 9000 already. He has yet to touch the big time drug lords who are already mentioned in the list of Law Enforcement agencies. It is not easy to judge but looking at comments made by people in manila to news agencies, they say things like the streets safer now. In the philippines we needed a ruler with an iron fist. These are quotes from the general public. That seems to be the general mood, that ratings for Rodrigo Duterte remain high with a 75 approval rating. I wonder whether your comments, which are constantly negative, are out of tune with ordinary filipino opinion . The numbers that you mention are the latest numbers way back in march. But if you look at where those numbers were when he assumed office, it went as high as 92 . In less than one year it dropped by 17 percentage points. Believe me, senator. If a western politician had a 75 approval rating, they would regard that as the best day of their life. The bulk of the filipino public are not really aware of what is happening on the ground. They encounter the Propaganda Machine of the Duterte Administration. It is effective and the bulk of the filipino public are living day to day and they do not really get to know the magnitude of the damage that Rodrigo Duterte has done. That it is why historically in the philippines, the Popularity Ratings go down as the information is spread to the public. I believe the numbers will continue to drop as they know more and more about the real situation. Talking about the real situation, you personally seemed very committed to trying to bring legal action against president duterte for his past actions, particularly going back to his long term as mayor of davao in mindanao. Are you still offering your help to arturo lascanas, who worked in the so called death squads that were operated in davao during the time of the now president s running of the city . There is some confusion about whether you personally have intervened to safeguard mr lascanas. What is the situation . I assisted mr lascanas when he appeared in the senate. We provided security for him while he was there, while he was testifying. But when the state filed cases against him and now he is technically a fugitive, i personally do not know his whereabouts. But here is the thing. We already have a witness that will testify. You made great play of his testimony and we should remember it was very dramatic. Back in april he testified that he heard mr duterte say. And he was talking of drugs criminal suspects. Throw them in the ocean or the quarry. Make it clean. Make sure there are no traces of the body. There is one particular story where mr lascanas claimed Rodrigo Duterte had signed off on the murder of the pregnant wife and four year old child of one particular drug crime suspect. Do you really believe this testimony and do you believe that adds up to something that should lead to legal action against mr duterte, now that he is president . Most definitely. I believe his testimony and even the state believes him enough that they used the testimony in the senate to file cases against him. Perhaps it is in the witnesss interests now to blame duterte now for actions he himself took. The man is a self confessed murderer many times over. It seems odd to me that you as an experienced politician would put so much faith in a self acknowledged mass murderer. The testimony that pinned down Lascanas Down was about the murder of a journalist in the philippians. Mr lascanas has no interest whatsoever in the journalist, even in his testimony he was just part of the planners. He was not even the trigger man in that murder. And the whole country saw that testimony and it is not only my ownjudgement that we believe mr lascanas, a great number of people believe him as well. This is notjust about the law, it is also about politics. Rodrigo duterte has said many Different Things at many different times and one could compare him in that way, in which he is difficult to pin down, to, you know, other prominent politicians of our time who use twitter to send different messages at different times. The point about mr duterte is that in may 2015, for example, he said am i the death squad . Its true. That is true. He has put his own record in front of the filipino public, even to the point of discussing his associations with death squads and the filipino public decided this was the man to clean up the country. In political terms it seems to me you are bashing your head against a brick wall. Im not about to give up on this, even on the filipinos. It will take some time, because the propaganda of the Duterte Administration is getting in the way of the flow of information, the flow of truth to the public. It will take some time but his numbers continue to go down and i am quite confident that towards the end of the year his numbers will be way below 50. I asked you earlier if you were a democrat, and you feel you are. Lets look at your track record. You twice tried to mount coups against an elected filipino president , in that case it was arroyo, back in 2003, you had an abortive coup attempt which had, well, lets face it, lasted only a day. And, even more pathetically, you made another attempt to get her out in 2007 and you ended up in prison for the best part of seven years. Are you thinking that a coup is a legitimate response again to the philippines current political situation . Definitely not. I believe we have enough remedies for a problem like duterte. Let me go back to that premise, Gloria Maca Pagal Arroyo assumed power back in 2001 through a coup. They tried to cover it up with some semblance of constitutionality but we know for a fact that she assumed power, she assumed office via a coup. Now, in dutertes case, we have, as i mentioned, legal remedies within the constitution and even part of the international laws, like the icc, that we can resort to to resolve or rectify this anomaly that is duterte. Ok, so you say no coup on this occasion, well use the law, you have been involved in the filing of an infringement complaint, that was rejected by Thejustice Committee at the house of representatives, so it appears to be going nowhere, and you have been involved in the courts, you had the International Criminal court in the hague examine whether mr duterte has committed crimes against humanity. There is absolutely no indication i can see that the icc is prepared to pick up the case, so i dont know where your faith in the law, national and international, is taking you. I am quite confident that the icc would take up the case because it falls right at the centre of the essence of the icc and probably in a few months we will see some developments. Now, as far as the impeachment is concerned, next year we can also again file an impeachment case against mr duterte if we still have a democracy by then. I believe duterte at some point will install a revolutionary government via martial law, because thats the only way. Thats the only kind of governance that he knows. As you mentioned, he ruled like a tyrant, like a whimsical king, so thats the world that he lives in. Thats why he cant deal with active members of the opposition. He cannot deal with the objective media, both local and foreign media. Do you feel safe, mr trillanes, saying these things, given what you say about mr dutertes style and character . Well, there are things that one must do as a public servant, and this is not the first time that i went up against a sitting president , a sitting Vice President and a very powerful Senate President , so i believe i am just being consistent regardless of the dangers that i could probably face. Well, yeah, you spent seven years in prison. Are you thinking you might spend a few more years in prison before long . Probably. Duterte has been trying to fabricate cases against me but so far nothing has worked. You are talking to me from manila, and there is no doubt that in some ways duterte represents a movement in the philippines to change the way politics works. He has talked about imperial manila. He says the country has never been governed by people who really have the best interests of the poor and the disadvantaged at heart and, in particular, he says the country has never been governed before by someone from mindanao, who is not obsessed with looking after the elite and the oligarchs based in manila. He has a point, doesnt he . He is committed to a radical Poverty Elimination Programme which will raise the poorest filipinos, particularly in the neglected areas in the south of the country, and that appeals to many people. That is the Campaign Rhetoric but one year from his election into office, up to this point, he has yet to actually come up with an Economic Programme for the poor. And, infact, he has been killing them. So he can never say that he feels for them and that he wants them to succeed. And even duterte himself admits that he doesnt know anything about the economy, and his economic managers have come up with this ambitious Economic Programme that is hinged on a Tax Reform Programme that is basically inflationary and therefore anti poor. So, more or less, we know the situation here in the philippines, that the tide is changing. And i feel it. Even though i am very vocal against duterte, i dont even fear for my safety as far as the ordinary filipinos are concerned. A lot of them are starting to agree with what we have been saying. Ok, but, look, the country is growing at pretty much 7 a year, which in the west would be regarded as a wonderful achievement. The World Bank Says it expects that growth curve to continue at least through 2019. Mr dutertes done deals with chinese investors which suggests 15 billion worth of Chinese Investment is coming into your country. He has been crowing about the way in which, by realigning the philippines in terms of its diplomacy and outreach, it is now great friends with china, with russia and still has, of course, the Security Relationship with the united states. In a way, duterte ism appears to be working for the philippines. Well, on paper, as i mentioned, it may appear so. But let me just talk about the much hyped 15 billion or 2a billion deal with china. It is basically official development assistance. It is a loan that is again hinged on the passage of the tax reform plan, the Tax Reform Bill that the economic managers of duterte are pushing. We in the senate do not have any plan of passing it because it is, again, inflationary and anti poor. So we cannot afford to give additional burden to the public and the public appreciates that. Yeah, what you didnt address was my point about the economic success. You have a 7 growth rate which is going to continue. Just as a final point, i put it to you that for all of yourfears of what Duterte Means for the philippines, right now, viewed by many ordinary filipinos, this guy is doing a decentjob. Well, that will change. As i mentioned, once more information will reach the ordinary filipinos, they will change that impression about duterte. I have seen it before. It may take a little while but it does happen. Now, regarding the 7 gdp, well, it is happening despite duterte. It is fuelled mostly by the remittances from Overseas Filipino workers. That has been the case all these years, at least the last decade. So he cannot solely take credit for anything at this point in time. And, in fact, he promised to restore Law And Order but the philippines is now more chaotic today than when he first entered into office. That is a fact. 0k, we have to end there. But i thank you very much, antonio trillanes, forjoining me from manila. Thank you. Hello, there. We saw the peak of the hit wave on wednesday afternoon, with temperatures across Southern Britain Soaring into the low to mid 30s celsius. It was 35 degrees recorded at heathrow, which was the warmest day of the year, so far, but also the Warmestjune Day since 1976. Wales also saw its hottest day with 31 degrees recorded in cardiff. Further north, though, it is a little bit cooler, and we see a thundery breakdown developing, particularly across Northern England and West Scotland as we head into wednesday evening. That he will continue to retreat back into the near continent as cooler and fresher conditions push in off the atlantic, with a fair old breeze. This introduction of cooler air into the heat will spark off further thunderstorms through the overnight period. Mainly in the northern half of the uk, tending to ease towards thursday morning. Well have a lot of mist and murk developing across western coastal areas. It will be a touch fresher, here, but still a warm and muggy start first thing on thursday. It means will be a warm and humid start in the south east, but we will likely see a line of showers and thunderstorms move through the midlands and in towards the south east during the morning period, and then clearing away. And then another ripple of showers and thunderstorms pushing in towards Northern England and Eastern England in the afternoon. So quite a messy picture. There will be some sunshine in the north and west much cooler and fresher here. Cooler and fresher in the south east, 25 or 26 degrees. Mid 20s instead of mid 30s. You will notice that difference. Late on thursday, things will turn more unsettled across scotland and northern ireland, thats because this vigorous area of low pressure arrives. This sets the scene for things becoming more unsettled from friday onwards, with cooler and fresher air pushing in off the atlantic. So well have some sunshine in the south east and east on friday. Further north, a band of rain moving through, and some of it will be quite heavy. The scotland and northern ireland, a breezy and windy day as that low pressure sweeps through. It will feel cooler and fresher, as well, with temperatures in the mid to upper teens celsius, here. We could make 25 degrees in the south east. Into saturday, a breezy day, as you can see with these wind arrows. A few showers will develop, mainly across the north and west. Top temperatures 20 23 celsius in the south east, so still feeling cool and fresher. Sunday, winds will come down from the north westerly direction, so it will be a touch cooler still across scotland. Further south east, we could make 21 or 22 degrees. So the main message is its turning cool over the next few days. Certainly over the weekend, it will feel cooler. It will be breezy with a mixture of sunshine and showers. Im Sharanjit Leyl in singapore. The headlines iraqs military says Islamic State has blown up mosuls historic grand al nuri mosque. 0ne us general describes it as a crime against all the people of iraq. Americas Secretary Of State insists china has a responsibility to try to force north korea to scrap its nuclear weapons. Im Babita Sharma in london. Also in the programme this is the scene live in iowa where President Trump is looking to kickstart his agenda after victory for the republicans. And the hug that wasnt. Senator marco rubio misses the mark when he tries to embrace ivanka trump
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