MANILA – Women’s rights groups on Thursday applauded Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s vow to deliver free contraceptives to six million women in a bid to salvage the government’s floundering family planning programme.

Governments and the dominant Catholic church have waged a bruising struggle over the issue for years. The church has long opposed efforts to make birth-control more available.

Foreign and local authorities have long cited the need for improved birth control in the Philippines which has one of Asia’s highest birth rates as well as high maternal mortality rates.

The country has a population just over 100 million with about 25 per cent living in poverty.

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2016-06-20 15:34:56

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Anti-crime blitz sweeps Philippines as Duterte comes into power

Source: AFP, Reuters

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Duterte ordered government agencies on Wednesday to “intensify and accelerate the implementation of critical actions” to address the “unmet” family planning needs of up to six million Filipina women.

Aida Santos, president of the European Union-funded women’s rights monitor WeDpro Philippines said it was a timely boost to a reproductive health law that in 2014 gave millions of poor Filipinos access to free contraceptives for the first time.

“There is such a huge need for it right now to address serious problems such as teenage pregnancy,” Santos told AFP.

Despite the law, millions of Filipino women still cannot obtain contraceptives.

This is partly due to the family planning programme running on a shoestring 500 million-peso ($10 million) budget, according to the health department’s Commission on Population.

“The important part there is that all government agencies will start inputting funds for the programme in their 2018 and 2019 budgets,” the commission’s executive director Juan Antonio Perez told AFP.

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2016-12-17 13:23:16

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President Duterte meets the Filipino community in Singapore

Source:

The Straits Times

Reuters

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The government’s annual family planning budget could now increase four-fold to the ideal level of two billion pesos, Perez said.

But he warned contraceptive drugs, all of them imported, were under threat due to pending Supreme Court cases involving the reproductive health law.

In 2015 the court indefinitely banned government health workers from injecting progesterone subdermal implants, one of the country’s most popular contraceptives, while judges studied a petition to outlaw their use.

The government was also banned from renewing the licenses of 47 other contraceptive drugs in use in the country, pending the resolution of the subdermal implants case.

Friends and colleagues of the Philippine president discuss what drives him

MANILA — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte capitalised on his tough guy image to vault himself into the presidency in June 2016. So far, his sky-high 80 per cent approval rating has remained unscathed by his frequent outbursts or a hard-line approach to drug crime.

It is estimated that more than 6,200 people have been killed over the last six months in connection with Duterte’s high-profile drug war. Many of those suspected of involvement in the narcotics trade have been killed by vigilante groups. The United Nations and others have blasted the crackdown as an extrajudicial killing spree.

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2016-06-20 15:34:56

Photo Gallery

Anti-crime blitz sweeps Philippines as Duterte comes into power

Source: AFP, Reuters

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But people who know Duterte from his days in the city of Davao, in the southern Philippines, are quick to defend him, saying his actions stem from a profound sense of justice that does not allow him to overlook the deeds of influence peddlers and criminals.

Businessman Samuel Uy, who has known the 71-year-old president since high school and provided crucial financial backing for his campaign, recalled that Duterte had developed a reputation as hard-nosed some 30 years ago.

Around 1980, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law under the pretext of wiping out communist rebels. A crackdown on anti-government activists by the military and police followed. The New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, had killed a number of police officers and soldiers at the time. Criminal prosecutors feared chasing eye to both abuses committed by the military and police, and killings by NPA for fear of revenge.

Read the full story here

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2016-06-30 13:32:25

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Duterte sworn in as Philippines’ 16th president

Source: AFP, Reuters

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MANILA – The Philippines is deferring plans to repair and upgrade features it occupies in the disputed South China Sea, the country’s military chiefs said on Thursday, to avoid provoking China while the two traditional foes seek to bury the hatchet.

The Philippines would continue to observe a moratorium on construction in the Spratly islands that it adopted while an international tribunal handled an arbitration case it lodged against Beijing in 2013.

Even though a ruling handed down in July last year went in favour of the Philippines, its military top brass felt the timing was not right to start upgrades.

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Spratly Islands: The archipelago in a disputed sea

Source: AFP, Reuters

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The decision to defer upgrades was to avoid “any aggressive action in the West Philippine Sea,” Military chief General Eduardo Ano told a news conference at an army base, using the name by which the Philippines refers to the South China Sea.

He said the move aimed to preserve a new era of friendlier relations with China under President Rodrigo Duterte, who decided to engage Beijing, rather than confront it in the wake of a arbitral award it bitterly opposed.

Duterte says he is in no hurry to discuss that ruling and will do so only when China is ready.

The Philippines has been occupying nine features in the Spratlys, including a submerged reef on which a rusting transport ship ran aground in the late 1990s.

The Philippines has by far the weakest defence structures in the disputed area and most facilities are dilapidated. Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and China also occupy areas of the contested archipelago.

China has reclaimed seven reefs, building man-made islands with anti-aircraft and anti-missile batteries. Satellite imagery shows development has continued lately, despite the arbitral ruling declaring that illegal.

Vietnam, which occupies the largest number of features in the South China Sea, has also enhanced its facilities. “I don’t know if we can now lift the moratorium,” Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana told reporters. “We’re on status quo for now.” Lorenzana said the government had allocated 800 million pesos ($16.15 million) to upgrade an eroded runway on an airfield on Thitu Island, but that work would not happen soon.

NEW DELHI – A paramilitary soldier from one of India’s elite security units shot dead four of his senior officers on Thursday in an apparent row over leave, police said.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) soldier fired indiscriminately at the officers at the barracks in Aurangabad district in eastern India’s Bihar state before trying to flee.

“Three died on the spot while one injured officer succumbed to his injuries at a hospital,” Satya Prakash, Aurangabad police chief, told AFP.

“He shot 32 rounds before he was overpowered by his colleagues and is suspected to be suffering from some mental illness.” Prakash said the dispute appeared to be over leave.

All the victims were unarmed and were off-duty when the incident took place at a thermal power plant where they were stationed.

The CISF guards the country’s most vital civil and government installations including airports, atomic plants and government buildings.

India’s security forces have historically had a high incidence of suicides and killings linked to long hours, poor working conditions and inadequate time off.

In 2014, a soldier killed five colleagues before shooting himself in Indian-administered Kashmir after a superior denied him leave.

DENPASAR, Indonesia – Hundreds of tourists stranded on the resort island of Bali following the suspension of Tigerair Australia flights this week were given the green light to fly out Thursday after Indonesian officials grounded the carrier for violating regulations.

Officials granted Tigerair Australia permission to depart from Bali to Australia, the company said in a statement, adding that the airline would only be able to do so until January 16.

Hundreds of Tigerair Australia passengers have been forced to remain on Bali following a decision by authorities Wednesday to ground flights with the carrier after the airline allegedly broke Indonesian regulations.

The budget carrier said six of its services between Australia and the Indonesian island were axed on Thursday and Friday a day after the disruption began with the cancellation of several flights.

About 700 passengers were affected by the cancellations Thursday, and a similar number were affected Wednesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Tigerair said the chaos was caused by the Indonesian government’s decision to “impose new administrative requirements for the operation of its flights between Bali and Australia”.

However the Indonesian transport ministry said it made the move after administrative violations by the airline.

It said Tigerair should not have been selling tickets within Indonesia for its chartered flights. Only Virgin Australia, Tigerair Australia’s parent company, was authorised to sell the tickets, it said.

“All foreign airlines must comply with our regulations,” ministry spokesman Agoes Soebagio said in a statement, adding all Tigerair Australia flights would be cancelled until requirements had been fulfilled.

Tigerair said Virgin Australia was sending two flights to Bali to bring affected customers back.

Bali, a pocket of ancient Hindu culture in Muslim-majority Indonesia, attracts millions of foreign tourists every year to its palm-fringed beaches and is a particular favourite with visitors from neighbouring Australia.

However travel disruptions are common. Bali airport was forced to close several times last year due to floating clouds of ash from nearby erupting volcanoes.