DAVAO CITY – President Duterte has warned smokers he will soon issue an executive order banning smoking inside establishments throughout country.

In a press briefing Sunday before he left for Brunei, Duterte said building administrators installing cubicles just to accommodate smokers would not be considered complying with the law. The President emphasised that smokers would have to go out of a building to smoke.

“If you want to smoke, find a place outside,” Mr. Duterte said.

The President left for state visits in Brunei and China.

Duterte sworn in as Philippines’ 16th president

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AFP, Reuters

“I’m worried about establishments building structures inside just to accommodate smokers,” he said. “That ain’t the way; it must be out,” he added.

He said the smoking ban in the entire country would follow the Davao City experience, where smoking has been disallowed in enclosed establishments, and smokers would go to an open-air designated smoking area to indulge in their habit.

Duterte, a mayor of Davao City for 22 years before he was elected President, said that aside from the smoking ban, he has been considering banning firecrackers in the entire country.

Firecracker ban will be decided by the Cabinet — Duterte Firecracker ban will be decided by the Cabinet — Duterte Duterte said he would sign the EO banning smoking inside buildings nationwide after his trip to Brunei and China, but would still have to study with his Cabinet the economic impact of the proposed ban on firecrackers.

“(On the proposed) firecracker ban, I’m still studying the full economic (impact of the ban), baka may mawalan ng negosyo, lahat na (in case some businesses might close shop, and all), so, I will need the Cabinet to decide,” Duterte said.

“It will be a Cabinet decision,” he added.

Smoking and firecrackers, and at certain hours of the night, liquor had been banned in Davao City for over 14 years.

THE HAGUE – President Duterte’s war on drugs, which has left more than 3,700 suspects dead, drew the attention of The Hague-based court that tries people accused of crimes against humanity

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday said her office would begin to closely follow developments in the Philippines, raising concern over alleged extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs.

More than 3,700 people have been killed by the police and suspected vigilantes since Duterte launched the campaign upon taking office on June 30.

“I am deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements from high officials of the . . . Philippines seem to condone such killings,” ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement issued in The Hague.

Duterte, who won election in May on a promise to wipe out drugs and crime in six months, has been going around the country encouraging soldiers and the police to shoot to kill drug suspects who would resist arrest.

He has been offering bounties to the police who could kill drug lords and promising them protection from prosecution.

The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and international human rights groups have all raised concerns over the killings.

But the acid-tongued Duterte has rejected the allegations and called the campaign an internal affair of the Philippines.

He has called US President Barack Obama a “son of a b****” and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a “fool” over their criticism.

Bensouda issued a warning: “Let me be clear: Any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence, including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the court.”

She added: “My office, in accordance with its mandate under the Rome Statute, will be closely following developments in the Philippines in the weeks to come and record any instance of incitement or resort to violence with a view to assessing whether a preliminary examination into the situation of the Philippines needs to be opened.”

Duterte sworn in as Philippines’ 16th president

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AFP, Reuters

Willing to be Investigated

Malacañang said Duterte was open to investigation by the ICC.

In a statement, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the killings were not “state sanctioned” as “many of those who died were killed during legitimate police operations, which are currently undergoing investigation as directed by the President.”

Andanar said the Senate committee on justice and human rights had conducted an inquiry into the killings and its chair, Senator Richard Gordon, had found the allegations baseless. “(Gordon) has been quoted as saying that ‘there is no proof that the killings were state-sponsored,'” Andanar said.

Systematic Attack

“In any case, the President has articulated that he is willing to submit himself (to) an investigation (by) anybody,” he said.

The Philippines joined the ICC in November 2011. Bensouda said extrajudicial killings could be prosecuted if they were “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.”

Last month, Duterte challenged the United Nations and international human rights experts to come to Manila, both to investigate the killings and to face him in a public debate.

UN probe

On Wednesday, Malacañang formally issued an invitation to UN special rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard to investigate the killings.

The government had initially rebuffed Callamard when she announced plans to take up Mr. Duterte’s challenge.

Callamard has since told Agence France-Presse she would discuss with Manila the date and scope of a fact-finding mission, state guarantees for her freedom of movement and inquiry, and assurances about the safety of mission members and their interview subjects.

Nothing illegal

Duterte has insisted that he and his police forces have done nothing illegal, and that law enforcers have been forced to shoot and kill after suspects put up a fight. On Thursday night, Duterte again defended his scorched-earth policy on drugs in a speech to businessmen in Pasay City, saying “it is not a crime to threaten criminals with death.”

He said he had written to Obama, Ban, US Secretary of State John Kerry, the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Commission and the European Union to explain that it was not a crime to threaten criminals.

Not brighter than he

He said “they cannot be brighter” than he, and that he could outsmart them if they came to the Philippines to investigate the killings. “I will toy with you in public. I will ask five questions that will humiliate you and 10 questions where you will agree with me,” Duterte said.

Just about to start

Speaking in Batanes on Friday, Duterte denied the government was involved in the killings.

“Who did we kill? We in the government? No one yet. We are just about to start. We are not yet involved in the 3,000,” he said.

Duterte said there was no proof that he ordered the killings, insisting that it was not a crime to threaten criminals with death. “There is nothing wrong in threatening criminals with death. By that statement alone: ‘You criminals, I will kill you. Do not fool around.’ It is a perfect statement,” he said.

Describing his critics as “fools,” Duterte vowed his war on narcotics would continue until there were no more illegal drugs in the Philippines.

“I will not stop, be sure of it. You can cast it in whatever stone. I will not stop until the last pusher, until the last drug lord is taken away,” he said.

Anti-crime blitz sweeps Philippines as Duterte comes into power

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AFP, Reuters

Bangkok – A 96-year-old former general has become temporary regent after Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, in a surprise move, delayed his own proclamation as king following the death of his beloved father.

So who is the regent, Prem Tinsulanonda?

That may raise eyebrows outside Thailand but Prem is astonishingly spry, frequently attending royal engagements, delivering speeches and moving around without help.

His installation as temporary head of the revered and influential monarchy further cements his status as one of the shrewdest and most powerful players in the Machiavellian game of Thai politics.

Born in the southern province of Songkhla in 1920, he stormed up the army ranks during the Cold War and was promoted above his seniors to army chief in 1978.

Two years later, he assumed power in what was widely viewed as a silent coup endorsed by the king and queen.

His 1980-1988 spell as premier was a rare period of political and economic stability, contrasting with the tumultuous years of coups and counter-coups preceding it.

Prem later led the Privy Council of late King Bhumibol Adulyadej – who died last Thursday after a 70-year reign – making him the monarch’s closest adviser and gatekeeper.

Because the law says so.

Past dynastic changes often sparked periods of intense instability as competing princes battled for the throne.

The 1924 succession law, and Thailand’s constitution, attempted to end that by mandating that until the next king is proclaimed, the Privy Council’s head automatically becomes acting regent until a solution is found.

Senior junta official Wissanu Krea-ngam assured Thais over the weekend that Prem’s elevation to regent was temporary and followed Vajiralongkorn’s request to be given time to mourn his father and prepare for the trappings of kingship before being formally proclaimed.

Bhumibol was the only king most Thais had known and he was revered as a moral anchor in a country riven by political and class divides.

So his death inevitably causes grief and anxiety among millions of subjects. A delay in proclaiming his designated successor doesn’t help.

The elite acknowledged these concerns on Saturday, when military junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha said the crown prince told him Thailand’s people should not “be confused or worry about the country’s administration or the succession”.

The prince has indicated his desired to be proclaimed king at the “appropriate” time after mourning, but it remains unclear how long that will take.

Prayut has said the proclamation will occur after religious and funeral rites are completed, but he gave no timeframe.

The crown prince, who spends much of his time outside the kingdom, has yet to attain his father’s widespread popularity.

Both as prime minister in the 1980s and later as head of the Privy Council, Prem cemented the military’s self-designated role as protector of the monarchy through his remarkable relationship with Bhumibol.

“He was able to make the military into a mechanism for the monarchy but keep the military as a powerful institution in Thai politics,” Paul Chambers, an expert on Thailand’s military, told AFP.

Since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has seen 12 successful military coups.

Prem has instigated or had a hand in five of them, said Chambers.

The most recent came in 2014, toppling the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of telecoms billionaire and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was himself ousted in a 2006 coup.

They are believed to be bitter foes.

Thaksin was loved by Thailand’s rural and urban poor, especially in the long-neglected north and northeast, and won resounding election victories.

But he was loathed by Bangkok’s military and aristocratic elite who saw him as a corrupt populist threatening their power base.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai politics expert at Kyoto University in Japan, said Thaksin became “the number one threat” to the royalist elite and that “Prem helped remove him” in 2006.

For the next eight years Thailand was battered by political strife — including deadly violence — pitting Shinawatra family supporters against the military-royal elite until the 2014 coup brought Prayut to power.

The generals say they acted to restore stability, but critics say the coup was partly a move to ensure the military held control during the royal succession.

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Photo Gallery

Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, soon to be King

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The Nation/ANN

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