A Chinese Coast Guard ship sails near a Philippine vessel (R) that was part of a convoy of civilian boats in the disputed South China Sea on December 10, 2023. A convoy of civilian boats planning to deliver provisions to Filipino fishermen and troops in the disputed South China Sea aborted the trip on December 10 after “constant shadowing” by Chinese vessels, the organiser said.
Ted Aljibe | Afp | Getty Images
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has vowed to step up the country’s defense of its maritime zones in the South China Sea after Filipino and Chinese vessels collided over the weekend.
“We remain undeterred,” Marcos said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“The aggression and provocations perpetrated by the China Coast Guard and their Chinese Maritime Militia against our vessels and personnel over the weekend have only further steeled our determination to defend and protect our nation’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea.”
This comes as the Philippines has stepped up its resistance this year against China’s aggressive claims and projection of power over almost the entire waterway that Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.
Other Southeast Asian countries like Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam also claim parts of the South China Sea. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled that China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis.
CNBC has reached out to China’s foreign ministry for comment.
On Sunday, the Philippines accused China of causing “severe damage” to one of its vessels and ramming into another.
China’s Coast Guard “directly targeted” Filipino vessels, “disabling the vessel and seriously endangering the lives of its crew,” according to a statement by the Philippines Maritime Task Force, shared by Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea.
The Filipino vessels were part of a convoy on a resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal, where Filipino soldiers live on a grounded warship in the submerged reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
A spokesperson for the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs said at a press conference on Monday in Manila that the Chinese ambassador has been summoned. The Philippines also lodged diplomatic protests with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Teresita Daza said.
A China Coast Guard spokesperson said Sunday the Philippines was “entirely” responsible for the “deliberate collision” and ignored China’s repeated dissuasion and warnings by “insisting” on sending four vessels to deliver supplies to the warship that Beijing said was illegally “sitting on the beach.”
The U.S. State Department threw its weight behind the Philippines, accusing Chinese ships of “reckless maneuvers, including forcing a collision.”
According to the U.S. State Department, a separate incident at the Scarborough Reef on Saturday used acoustic devices, incapacitating the Filipino crew members, and drove away Philippine fishing vessels.
“As reflected in an international tribunal’s legally binding decision issued in July 2016, the PRC has no lawful maritime claims to the waters around Second Thomas Shoal, and Filipinos are entitled to traditional fishing rights around Scarborough Reef,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
At least four people were killed and dozens of others injured in the blast at Mindanao State University.
The ISIL (ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Catholic mass service in the southern Philippines that killed at least four people and injured dozens more.
“The soldiers of the caliphate detonated an explosive device on a large gathering of Christians … in the city of Marawi,” ISIL said in a statement on Telegram.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr earlier condemned “the senseless and most heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists”.
Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told a press conference there were “strong indications of a foreign element”.
The United States State Department condemned the “horrific terrorist attack” and said it stood with Filipinos in rejecting violence.
Philippine security officials had suggested on Sunday the attack may have been retaliation for a military operation about 200km (125 miles) from Marawi City that killed 11 Islamist rebels.
On Monday, police said they were investigating at least two people of interest over the bombing.
“In order not to preempt the investigation, we will not divulge the names,” regional police chief Allan Nobleza told GMA News.
Mindanao State University said on Sunday it was “deeply saddened” over the “senseless and horrific act” and had suspended classes until further notice.
Mindanao, an island in the country’s far south, has for decades been racked by violence amid an insurgency by armed separatist groups.
After decades of fighting, Manila in 2014 signed a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest separatist group, but smaller groups have continued to carry out attacks across the island.
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president blamed “foreign terrorists” for a bomb blast that killed four people Sunday, wounded dozens of other Catholic worshippers in the south and sparked a security alarm, including in the capital, Manila, where state forces were put on alert.
The suspected bomb, which the police said was made from a mortar round, went off and hit students and teachers who attended a Mass in a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in southern Marawi city, Taha Mandangan, the security chief of the state-run campus, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Dozens of students and teachers dashed out of the gym and the wounded were taken to hospitals.
Regional military commander Maj. Gen. Gabriel Viray III said four people were killed by the explosion, including three women, and 50 others were brought to two hospitals for treatment.
Six of the wounded were fighting for their lives in a hospital, said Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. of the Islamic province of Lanao del Sur, which has Marawi as its capital.
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and most heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists upon the Mindanao State University,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement. “Extremists who wield violence against the innocent will always be regarded as enemies to our society.”
Marcos did not explain why he immediately blamed foreign militants for the high-profile bombing. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. later told a news conference without elaborating there was a strong indication of a “foreign element” in the bombing.
Military chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the bomb attack could be retaliation by Muslim militants for a series of battle setbacks.
“We are looking at possible angles,” Brawner said. “It could be a retaliatory attack,”
He cited the killing of 11 suspected Islamic militants in a military offensive backed by airstrikes and artillery fires on Friday near Datu Hoffer town in southern Maguindanao province.
Regional police director Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza said the slain militants belonged to Dawlah Islamiyah, an armed group that had aligned itself with the Islamic State group and still has a presence in Lanao del Sur province.
Mosque-studded Marawi city came under attack from foreign and local Islamic militants who had associated themselves with the Islamic State group in 2017. The five-month siege left more than 1,100 dead, mostly militants, before it was quelled by Philippine forces backed by airstrikes and surveillance planes deployed by the United States and Australia.
Army troops and police cordoned off the university shortly after the bombing and began an investigation, checking security cameras for any indication of who may have been responsible for the attack. Security checkpoints were set up around the city.
Police Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Peralta told reporters that military and police bomb experts found fragments of a 60mm mortar round in the scene of the attack.
Such explosives fashioned from mortar rounds had been used in past attacks by Islamic militants in the country’s south.
The deadly blast set off a security alarm beyond Marawi city as the Christmas season ushered in a period of travel, shopping sprees and traffic jams across the country. Police and other state forces were put under “heightened alert” in metropolitan Manila, security officials said.
The Philippine coast guard said it ordered all its personnel to intensify intelligence gathering, stricter inspections of passenger ferries and the deployment of bomb-sniffing dogs and sea marshals.
“Amid this barbaric act, best public service must prevail,” coast guard chief Admiral Ronnie Gavan said.
The southern Philippines is the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation and the scene of decades-old separatist rebellions.
The largest armed insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed a 2014 peace deal with the government, considerably easing decades of fighting. But a number of smaller armed groups rejected the peace pact and press on with bombings and other attacks while evading government offensives.
At least three people were killed and seven wounded in a bomb attack on a Catholic mass in the insurgency-plagued southern Philippines on Sunday, officials said.
The blast took place during a regular service at Mindanao State University’s gymnasium in Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city, regional police Chief Allan Nobleza said.
“We’re investigating if it’s an IED or grenade throwing,” Nobleza said, referring to an improvised explosive device.
Mindanao State University issued a statement condemning “the act of violence,” as it suspended classes and deployed more security personnel on the campus.
“We stand in solidarity with our Christian community and all those affected by this tragedy,” the university said in a statement.
Photos posted on the Lanao del Sur provincial government’s Facebook page showed Governor Mamintal Adiong visiting “wounded victims of the bombing” at a medical facility.
The incident came after the Philippines military launched an airstrike Friday that killed 11 Islamist militants from the Dawlah Islamiyah-Philippines organisation in Mindanao.
The military said Saturday the group had been planning to mount attacks in Maguindanao del Sur province.
Nobleza said police were investigating whether Sunday’s attack was linked to Friday’s airstrike.
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A POWERFUL 7.6 magnitude earthquake has hit the Philippines as Japan issued a tsunami alert, the US Geological Survey said.
The huge tremor struck the island of Mindanao on Saturday at a depth of 20 miles at about 10.37 pm local time.
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The Philippines were hit by a 7.6 earthquake
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People inspect a damage site from an earthquake in General Santos City, the Philippines on November 17, 2023Credit: Rex
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A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck the province of Sarangani, Philippines, last monthCredit: AFP
The quake took place about 13 miles northeast of Hinatuan and could reportedly be felt as far away as Davao City, some 121 miles away.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said based on the magnitude and location it expected tsunami waves to hit the southern Philippines and parts of Indonesia, Palau and Malaysia.
Tsunami waves could hit the Philippines by midnight local time (4pm GMT) and could carry on for hours, the Philippine Seismology Agency PHIVOLCS said.
Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology Seismology told AP his agency advised residents along the coast of southern Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces to evacuate immediately to higher grounds.
The USGS gave a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 while the Philippine agency in charge of earthquakes said it measured 6.9.
It comes as Japan also issued a tsunami warning for its Pacific coast.
The country anticipates a 3.2ft wave will hit the country as early as 1.30am local time, public broadcaster NHK announced.
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If negotiations succeed, the rebels will end their 50-year armed struggle and transform into a political movement.
The Philippine government will resume peace talks with the country’s communist rebels, in a bid to end decades of civil strife.
Authorities will re-engage with the New People’s Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), for the first time in six years, both parties and facilitator Norway announced on Tuesday.
“The parties agree to a principled and peaceful resolution of the armed conflict,” the two sides said in a joint statement, adding that the peace talks will address “deep-rooted socioeconomic and political grievances”.
If negotiations succeed, the rebels will end their armed struggle and transform into a political movement, according to Norway, which has mediated the island nation’s peace process for around 20 years.
Despite the progress, the government announced no immediate ceasefire and said operations against the armed group would continue.
However, military chief Romeo Brawner was hopeful an eventual peace deal would enable the armed forces to fully focus on “external or territorial defence”, rather than domestic conflict.
Fifty years of conflict
The Philippine government’s conflict with the NPA has raged for over 50 years, peaking in the 1980s, and killed more than 40,000 people.
Today, the NPA has only a few thousand fighters, compared to some 26,000 at its height, with many rebels surrendering in exchange for financial assistance and livelihood opportunities, according to the government.
However, NPA rebels continue to engage in deadly clashes in some parts of the Philippines, staging ambushes against those perceived as state collaborators.
Members of the New People’s Army in their jungle hideout in Lianga, southern Mindanao island, Philippines, on March 13, 2023 [Reuters]
Successive Philippine administrations have held talks with the communists aimed at ending the violence since 1986, negotiating with their Netherlands-based political arm, the NDF.
Formal talks were last held in 2017 when they were acrimoniously terminated by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte left office in mid-2022 and was replaced by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The announcement of renewed peace talks comes less than a week after Marcos Jr issued an order granting amnesty to several rebel groups, including former members of the communist movement.
Under the amnesty order, former CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) members would be absolved of crimes they committed “in pursuit of political beliefs”.
Leila de Lima is no longer in prison. And Rodrigo Duterte, the man she holds responsible for her incarceration, is no longer President. It feels like the end of an era for the Philippines—or perhaps the start of a new one.
“We’re tied now,” de Lima told TIME in Tagalog on Thursday from her home in Manila, in her first exclusive interview with international media since the 64-year-old was released last week after nearly seven years of detention at Camp Crame in Metro Manila.
A lot has changed since 2016, when both de Lima and Duterte were elected in national elections.
Duterte was a popular, no-holds-barred maverick who vowed to kill all drug users and peddlers in what would be the bloodiest campaign the country has seen. De Lima—who started her career as a lawyer before being appointed by Duterte’s predecessors as chair of the Human Rights Commission and then secretary of the Justice Department—was a freshman senator who quickly established herself as the leading voice against Duterte’s war on drugs.
They’d been at odds before, when de Lima as human rights commissioner probed then-Mayor Duterte’s alleged death squads in Davao City. But their discord took a highly publicized, national turn in August 2016, when Duterte vowed to “destroy” de Lima. “She thinks she’s the conscience of the country,” he said.
Philippine opposition Sen. Leila De Lima talks to the media after addressing students at St. Scholastica’s College during a forum on her crusade to investigate the killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown, in Manila, Oct. 6, 2016.Bullit Marquez—AP
De Lima, who was named to the 2017 TIME100 list of most influential people for speaking truth to power, knows she was being made into an example of what it meant to go against Duterte. “If something like that is done to somebody like that, a public figure,” she says, “anybody can be in the same boat.”
As years passed, and de Lima languished in detention, key witnesses recanted statements that had been used to persecute her—several saying they were pressured to falsify testimony. De Lima tried to run for senator again in 2022, this time from her cell, but failed. In the last two years, however, her charges have begun to be dropped. Now, only one remains, and after repeatedly applying, de Lima was finally granted bail on Nov. 13.
Duterte, meanwhile, has left politics to a relatively quieter existence. He’s been the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court for alleged “crimes against humanity” since 2021, though with hardly any progress to show.
But de Lima isn’t content to move on so quietly. In a wide-ranging conversation about her life in prison, her thoughts about the country she left behind and the one she’s reentering, and her future plans, the former senator is just as brazen and determined as she was seven years ago to hold Duterte and his accomplices to account. “They wanted to break me. So why should I now give them the pleasure or the satisfaction of seeing my spirit broken?”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In your first press conference since your release from prison, you said that you only had choice words for Rodrigo Duterte. In particular, you said, “God forgive him and God bless him.” You’ve also previously said that you can’t forgive him just yet. Now that the dust has sort of settled a bit, can you still not forgive him?
Not yet. That’s why I said, God forgive him. Because God is all-forgiving. He can forgive everyone. I leave it to God to forgive him at this point.
I’ve been praying for the grace to forgive him. At this point, I cannot, because he has really done so much to destroy my character, my reputation, my life. He has practically ruined my life. It’s immeasurable.
In legal parlance, it’s incapable of pecuniary estimation—the damage that was done to me in almost seven years of detention: the lost opportunities, the lost milestones in my life, in my family and personal life. Depriving me of the full opportunity to serve the full term of my mandate as a duly elected senator of the republic.
That’s not easy to forget, not easy to forgive. Maybe someday, yes, but not yet. So, God, just forgive him, but not me at this point.
Do you have any message today for the people of the Philippines?
I hope that they have learned lessons in doing social experiments with a leader like Duterte. That was a social experiment—the populism—and look at the costs that it has caused, that it has resulted to our society, the malaise that it has created, the destruction, the co-optation of institutions.
I hope lessons have been learned, so that that phase of our country’s history would not happen again. They should now be more discerning and be wary about quick-fix solutions to the country’s problems.
It’s been six years and eight months—to be exact—since you were first arrested. Besides the leadership change in the Philippines, what else do you feel has changed in the country?
It’s how social media has been abused. Because social media is supposed to benefit us. Social media has good objectives. But we’ve seen the abuses, how it’s been exploited for criminal ends, for a lot of disinformation. And a great part of my persecution was the massive disinformation, the demonization through social media, through fake news, through the trolls. That is the malaise of social media, and it must really be seen as a great threat to democracy.
Moments after the court granted your bail, you also told the public, “I want to thank the BBM [Bongbong Marcos] administration for respecting the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.” Do you feel that the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was involved in your release?
Well, directly? Definitely not. I’m sure of that. I would have known if there was any direct interference from Malacañang Palace. Maybe indirectly, in the sense that we’ve seen the respect for the independence of the judiciary. That’s why I couldn’t help thanking the Marcos administration for that. Because that is what the judiciary needed.
All the judiciary needed was to fulfill its mandate. And delivering justice is just to leave it alone, to respect its independence. The reason for its existence is its independence. So because of that, then we can say that that is the positive role this administration had in my release, but only indirectly.
Do you have any message today for Marcos Jr.?
He just has to be really consistent with his respect for the rule of law, for the independence of the judiciary. Because I do believe that he has shown it. He has upheld the independence of the judiciary insofar as my cases are concerned. And look at the results. It has yielded very positive results. He just has to do more also to further strengthen the independence of the judiciary and also to uphold the rule of law. Because people’s faith in the justice system will be greatly restored if he does that.
Hours after you were released from jail, you also said, and I quote, “There’s got to be a day of reckoning, although I’m not yet focused on that at this point. But there’s got to be a day of reckoning.” What do you mean by “a reckoning”? What do you think needs to happen and to whom?
A day of reckoning is for Duterte to be jailed for his sins—not only against me, but against the thousands of victims of his sham war on drugs.
Yes, he has wronged me tremendously. He has to face proper charges for that. But he also has to face the investigation by the International Criminal Court since nobody is investigating him here in Philippine jurisdiction. That is his primary accountability—with the ICC.
In fact, between that case and the possible cases that I can file against him for ordering or instigating my prosecution, my priority is the ICC investigation. I’ve been announcing that I’m willing to assist in any way I can. Particularly with my experience and my expertise, since I have been investigating him since way, way back. As far as feasible, if I can pursue both, then I would. But if it’s not possible, then pursuing my own cases against him can probably take a backseat, and I have to prioritize helping to build a case against Duterte so he can be held accountable and ultimately be jailed for his sins against the people.
You also said at the same time that “you’re not yet focused on that at this point.” What are your plans for the immediate and long-term future?
My immediate plans are to go back to private law practice and also to teaching law. I used to teach at the College of Law (at San Beda University). I missed that, so I wish to teach again. And then law practice, even if it’s just limited, because I have to earn a living now. It’s practically zero, my finances. I’m in dire financial need, since 2022 when I was no longer a member of the Senate. I’m not into any kind of business. My resources, my savings have practically been depleted. So I have to earn a living, and my way is to practice law once again. So those are my immediate plans.
Now, long-term—I don’t know. I’ve been asked many times whether I intend to go back to politics. It all depends on the circumstances. Right now, it’s far from my mind. I’m not sure if the environment would be right, would be ideal for me to enter politics. It’s not easy to enter politics these days, especially if you do not have resources or the kind of popularity that the majority of the voters would look for. So I’ll play it by ear, but right now, no plans.
Did you feel that you lost support because of your incarceration? Do you think that’s why you lost your 2022 senatorial bid?
Yes, I think that was a factor. Because, you know, people would think, “Oh, she’ll be constrained to fulfill her tasks, her duties, just like she was already constrained during her first term.” They would think that way, because I was able to fulfill my task as senator fully for only eight months, because I was jailed after that. I could only partly discharge my duties then. I could not personally attend sessions, I could not participate in deliberations, I could not vote. There were significant constraints or limitations on the fulfillment of my duties as a senator.
So people may have thought that it would just be a waste of their votes to consider me, because I will not be given the chance anyway to fulfill my mandate fully and effectively. Maybe they thought that there’s little chance of me being released, back then.
And also because of the massive demonization. I do believe that a lot of people believed those lies about me, that I was involved in the illegal drug trade. That was a factor, I think. Although, I noticed that gradually, that impression had toned down, and fewer people had that belief about my guilt in the charges against me.
You’ve previously told us here at TIME, in your early days in Camp Crame, that you’d prepared for detention psychologically. Would you say that you were adequately prepared for the indefinite detention you ended up facing?
I think yes. Because I survived it.
It’s always tough to be in jail. No one would say it’s easy to be in jail. But I survived it because I had the right mindset. I had the right attitude.
I think that I’m able to deal with all kinds of situations, including life in detention because of how my father reared me. You know my father always said, you have to be prepared both for the fortunes and misfortunes.
And also because of my deep faith in God and deep faith in our justice system. I knew that it is through the justice system that I would attain justice and vindication. I cannot falter in my faith in the justice system—even if it has loopholes or weaknesses, especially in terms of the delays, which are intolerable, but I’m able to survive that.
I’ve read that you didn’t eat food being served at the custodial center, and only relied on deliveries from family. Did you distrust the Philippine National Police? Did you think someone would want you dead?
That was the advice of my friends—for security reasons. You know, I’ve adopted this mantra, because I read a book with that title: Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg. I adopted that. Don’t trust. Don’t fear. Don’t beg.
Nobody ever mistreated or disrespected me there. I never noticed anyone who was hostile to me. They treated me with professionalism. But trust? I was very conscious of that, never ever to trust anyone there. Not a fellow detainee. Not a custodial officer. I could simply not trust anyone.
Now that you’re free, are you worried at all about your safety?
Yes. Knowing Duterte, his murderous–, his propensity for violence? He is not beyond that. And people have been advising me to take extra precautions.
Have you ever considered just stopping the fight, given the harrowing ordeal you’ve had to go through?
No, not at all. Never.
You see, why was I in jail? Because they’re trying to silence me. They’re trying to break my spirit. They wanted to silence me because of my advocacies, because I was pushing back. I was a threat to them because of my fierce opposition to the way they were waging the war on drugs. It’s totally, absolutely unacceptable to me—the extrajudicial killings. Especially that they were just targeting poor alleged drug personalities, pushers, users. Just the street drug pushers and never the big-time drug lords. So I pushed back. And they wanted me silenced. They wanted to break me. So why should I now give them the pleasure or the satisfaction of seeing my spirit broken?
It never crossed my mind to surrender. And I know that because I’m sure of my innocence, that one day I will be vindicated. One day, the truth will be out. People will know that I’m truly innocent.
While you were in jail, the opposition force in the country has dwindled in numbers in both Houses of Congress. Do you think your detention has had a chilling effect on the Philippine opposition?
Oh, definitely. I was made the poster girl for that. Because I was formerly chairperson of the Commission of Human Rights—this was an important institution—I was formerly the Secretary of Justice—again, a very important position—and I was elected a senator. And if something like that is done to somebody like that, a public figure, anybody can be in the same boat. Something like that can also be done to anybody else. So it created such a chilling effect.
Since the regime change, Duterte’s allies in the current government say that your bail approval and the quashing of two of the three cases against you are a testament to the Philippine judiciary’s insulation and independence. They’re saying that that is enough reason to stop any inquests into the previous government’s war on drugs—which the ICC is doing. Do you agree?
Yes and no. What happened to my cases is a positive development. It shows that the Philippine justice system can work effectively. But insofar as the ICC case is concerned, it has to be differentiated.
The difference is that no local investigation is being done about the atrocities committed under Duterte’s war on drugs. Duterte himself is not being investigated, his chief enforcer Bato dela Rosa, who is now a senator, is also not being investigated, and all other high level officials who may be involved or may be responsible for those extrajudicial killings. The only subjects of the ongoing investigations, as the Justice Department has claimed, are low-level perpetrators. That’s why the ICC has to intervene: because they see that the domestic systems of accountability, insofar as those killings are concerned, are not working.
Now, in my case, finally, and a few other cases, like, for example, the tax evasion cases against Maria Ressa, which have been dismissed also, that’s a positive development because the independence of the judiciary is being respected. If only there were also ongoing investigations of Duterte and other high level officials, then the ICC would not be minded to intervene. That’s the difference. There’s no real inconsistency there, no real conflict of arguments.
Duterte was recently subpoenaed to answer to charges of threatening a sitting congressperson. Do you believe that Duterte is still “above the law”?
He’s starting to be not above the law. He’s starting to lose his invincibility. And that’s good. He has lost his immunity from suit, his shield from that, and I hope it doesn’t stop there.
Duterte does not have a political post anymore, and you as well. You now are both civilians. How does that feel?
Tabla na kami. (We’re tied now.)
I have a fairer chance now of getting back at the injustice that he’s foisted upon me. Because again, he has lost his invincibility, his power. Although he still has this capacity to create trouble, but to a much lesser degree.
So mas may laban na ako (I have a better shot) so to speak sa kanya (at him).
But even when he was still in power, I’ve never shown him any fear. Because why should I fear him when I’m in the right?
If Duterte was standing before you, physically, right now, what would you say to him?
[laughs] It’s a very difficult question. Right now, in front of me?
Yes.
“Now, look at me. What do you see now? Have you succeeded? Is it all worth it?”
Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias, a media entrepreneur, radio DJ and music promoter who advocated for Filipino American artists and was instrumental in growing the MySpace Music platform, died Sunday evening, according to family members.
Cobarrubias died in her hometown of Walnut, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office, which has yet to determine a cause of death pending further tests. She was 43.
“She was passionate and dedicated to the Filipino American community worldwide, and would spend both her personal and professional life celebrating and uplifting it wherever she could,” her family said in a statement shared with The Times. “She played a pivotal role in collaborations between acclaimed international artists and rising Filipino talent, helping guide them into the music industry spotlight.”
Cobarrubias was born March 12, 1980, atHollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. While growing up in Walnut in the east San Gabriel Valley — a short drive from the music studios and venues of central L.A. — she developed a love for music. In elementary school, she played her favorite songs for classmates, calling herself “the lunchtime DJ,” she recalled during a TEDx talk in 2017.
Later, she buzzed between record stores and hip-hop clubs, finding new artists and their music and playing them for friends at parties. She was devoted to the music channels that dominated TV in the 1990s and 2000s, including VH1 and MTV. Her dream was to become a video jockey, hosting the shows she’d religiously watch and traveling the world to promote new music and interview her favorite artists.
But her family had other plans. Feeling the pressure as a child of immigrants from the Philippines, Cobarrubias enrolled in 1999 at UC Irvine with plans to study political science and become a lawyer.
Still, she held onto her dream job.
Without telling her family, Cobarrubias drove to Hollywood for a video jockey audition while still a freshman in college. She stood in line for three hours before ultimately landing a spot as a finalist.
“And at the last casting agent’s office, she looked at me and she said, ‘You’re too short. What are you gonna do, hold the microphone over your head? You’ll never be on television; you should try radio,’” Cobarrubias recalled of the agent’s suggestion that she instead be a radio DJ.
Crushed, she hopped back in her car and while sitting in traffic on the 10 Freeway pondered the agent’s words.
“I thought, OK, I’m just gonna go back to UCI, study political science, be a lawyer my mom from the Philippines will be proud to tell her brothers and sisters about. Coming from a third-world country, you want a lawyer, not a DJ in your family,” she said.
But eventually, Cobarrubias took the agent’s advice to heart. She started working at KSAK-FM 90.1, a station based out of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Soon after, she transferred to the community college from UCI and started a hip-hop show, Third Floor Radio. There, she interviewed acts who influenced her, such as A Tribe Called Quest and Talib Kweli.
As her show’s popularity grew, she started promoting it and other artists on the then-new social media site MySpace.
After graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in communications, she caught the attention of MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, whom she met through a colleague, Cobarrubias said in a blog post. DeWolfe and Anderson wanted to grow the site as an online music platform, filling a void left by file-sharing site Napster, which had dissolved several years earlier.
Cobarrubias eventually became a marketing head and led artist relations, growing the MySpace Music platform and making it easier for artists to share music and connect with fans on the site — a novel idea at the time. The music feature became a staple on the site as users delighted in customizing their profiles, which included compiling playlists of their favorite music. Major artists such as as Sean Kingston, Adele and Calvin Harris owed the launch of their careers to MySpace.
“The people that really launched MySpace were the … artists,” Cobarrubias told iHeart Media podcast “Main Accounts: The Story of MySpace” earlier this year. “You start with the artists; they bring their fan bases. You start with the DJs; they bring their fan bases. The way we created was for creators.”
While promoting the work of high-profile artists such as Drake and Justin Timberlake, Cobarrubias also promoted up-and-coming Filipino American artists during her work with Philippines-based media giant ABS-CBN and through her marketing brand, 1587. According to her family, the company’s name stems from the year a Spanish galleon with Filipino crewmembers arrived in Morro Bay — widely accepted by historians as the first Filipinos, and Asians, to set foot on what is now the continental U.S.
Cobarrubias’ projects stretched beyond Los Angeles and music. She helped build basketball courts with the Clippers and the Manny Pacquiao Foundation throughout the Philippines, including in her family’s ancestral home, Olongapo.
“I love our 1587 family so much because not only do we push each other in the entertainment and music industry — but we constantly remind each other how we have to always give back and move in mission and purpose,” she wrote in a social media post. “We worked hard to be blessed with these opportunities by the universe and God that sometimes it feels like a dream.”
Cobarrubias also sponsored Filipino American heritage nights at Clippers, Dodgers and Kings games. Her company promoted Filipino American acts at the events, including rappers P-Lo and Guapdad 4000, Power 106 radio DJ E-Man, Real 92.3 DJ Nico Blitz, as well as Saweetie and EZ Mil, both of whom threw first pitches at Dodger games in the last two seasons.
Oakland rapper P-Lo and L.A.-based indie artist Yeek were among those who expressed condolences Tuesday as news of Cobarrubias’ death spread online. Both shared an old photo of them posing with Cobarrubias and other Filipino artists.
“RIP Tita Ros,” P-Lo said in his Instagram story.
“Thank you for always believing in me. You were such an impactful & influential person in our community,” said Yeek.
Filipino American YouTube singer AJ Rafael shared a musical tribute to Cobarrubias, “to bring comfort through music, something she loved so dearly.” He added: “You truly cared for me as a person and not just an artist.”
Notable Filipino American figures outside the music industry also mourned Cobarrubias’ death. Author and professor Anthony Christian Ocampo wrote in a tweet that he was “in complete disbelief,” calling Cobarrubias “an iconic figure in the Filipino American community.”
Jason Lustina, who is behind the popular Instagram account SoCalFilipinos, said Cobarrubias was among the first supporters of his platform. “The community is mourning your loss but you have left your mark and will always be remembered,” he wrote.
Alba Legacy, a clothing brand founded by Cobarrubias’ cousin, celebrity fashion designer Jhoanna Alba, said in a statement on Instagram, “Ros made an immense impact in our community and worldwide. She loved intensely while enduring unfair suffering. Her presence in our family is irreplaceable, and her absence is unimaginable.”
Black Eyed Peas member apl.de.ap praised Cobarrubias as a humble advocate throughout his career. On Wednesday, he was struggling to find photos of her.
“And that’s because Ros was always there — around — but almost never in front of the camera,” he said in a statement shared on his Instagram account.
Apl.de.ap, who was born Allan Pineda Lindo Jr., credited his well-documented love for Honda Civics to Cobarrubias, who would drive him and bandmate will.i.am, when they were both still young up-and-comers, around L.A. in her own Civic.
He credited her with boosting his group’s career during her time at MySpace.
“I never gave her the flowers she deserved for putting us on MySpace when it was at its peak and helped propel us,” he said. “[Black Eyed Peas] is made up of more than the guys you see onstage, and it’s people like Roslynn who made this all possible.”
In 2016, he took Cobarrubias and other Filipino American entertainment figures, including comedian Jo Koy, on a trip to the Philippines to get in touch with their culture.
“It did something for her that I had always hoped,” apl.de.ap said, “and from that trip on she spent a considerable amount of her time giving back and wielding her power to help our community grow.”
Cobarrubias is survived by her mother, Maria Evelyn Alba; three sisters, Rheeza Alba Cobarrubias McMillan, Rachelle Alba Cobarrubias and Chrystal Alba Fujimoto; and several nieces and nephews, whom her family described as “the loves of her life.”
Times Assistant Editor Ada Tseng contributed to this report.
A powerful 6.8 magnitude undersea earthquake rocked the Philippines on Friday, Nov. 17, officials said. The quake occurred in the southern Mindanao region at 4:14 p.m. local time. Although initially logged as having a magnitude of 7.2, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) later downgraded the earthquake to 6.8, local news reported. There is currently no tsunami warning in effect.
When news of the earthquake first broke on Friday, it was logged that no injuries or casualties had been noted, yet reports of both have since emerged. At present, the official death toll remains unknown. The Office of Civil Defense told TIME in an email on Saturday that “information on the number of casualties is all subject to validation.”
Meanwhile, local police told TIME that three people have died in General Santos City in South Cotabato.
Corporal Christopher Laraño, of General Santos City Police Station 4, told TIME in a phone call at around 1 a.m. Saturday local time that his police station now “had two victims of the earthquake.” He said a married couple—believed to be an 18-year-old female and a 26-year-old male—died when a wall fell on them.
Speaking from Police Station 6, Corporal Peter Paul Malangan told TIME that one person had been found dead in a mall in General Santos City at around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, local time. Others were injured, Malangan said, but he could not provide an exact number during the phone call.
CNN Philippines reported that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRMMC) had logged a total of seven deaths so far, but emphasized that the working group is still verifying reports of casualties spanning three municipalities. They are currently investigating three reported deaths in General Santos City, two in Glan, Sarangani, one in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental, and another in Malapatan, Sarangani.
TIME has reached out to the relevant government authorities in an effort to verify these reports.
Amid the fallout from the 6.8 magnitude earthquake, Glan police were reportedly dispatched to check on a landslide in a nearby village on Saturday. Sarangani’s governor, Rogelio “Ruel” Pacquiao, shared an update on the government’s Facebook page around midnight Friday. He said that local agencies were conducting ongoing assessment of the damage. “But we have not received any report of major damage to buildings and infrastructure, he said. “Landslide going to [the] Glan area has been cleared and the road is now passable. Power supply and telecommunications are stabilized.” He urged the public to “stay vigilant” and “take precautionary measures.”
On Saturday, the government of General Santos City, via its official Facebook page, shared an update from the city’s mayor, Lorelie Geronimo-Pacquiao, about disruption to the schooling system. “Classes are suspended in both public and private institutions from elementary to tertiary level until further notice.”
Earthquakes are common in the Philippines. The country lies on the “Ring of Fire,” a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean, prone to seismic activity.
Further footage showed the quake causing signs and antennas on the top of a 17-story building to shake. The building’s employees were safely evacuated, local media shared. The earthquake is also reported to have cracked and shut down the Old Buayan Bridge, which joins General Santos and Sarangani.
According to a local reporter, the airport in General Santos City sustained minor damage, including hairline cracks along columns in the building. They reported that no injuries had been logged among passengers or employees.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Philippine Red Cross shared via Facebook that it was “providing first aid and medical attention to students who collapsed.”
The Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense said in an email to TIME on Friday that the earthquake had resulted in power outages in General Santos, Lebak and Sultan Kudarat, in addition to damaged houses in Sarangani and an affected school. The office said it had sent emergency alerts and warnings to six areas. By 6:30 p.m. local time, power had been restored in some parts of General Santos City and the Province of Sarangani, the local government posted on its Facebook page.
Volcanic eruptions often overlap, and many of the new eruptions are tracked by the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program. The report is updated every Wednesday night. The most recent update names 19 eruptions occurring globally, although the number is only for erupting volcanos that meet certain criteria. The list spans the globe and includes ongoing eruptions in Japan, Russia and the Philippines, as well as several other locations.
Social media users have been sharing videos from some of the eruptions, including two new eruptions in Japan and Russia. Many of the videos show ash issuing out of the volcanos, and some show lava as well.
“In Kamchatka, Russia continues active eruption of the highest active volcano in Eurasia – Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4850 m),” one user posted on X (formerly Twitter), with a video showing the volcano expelling lava and ash.
🌋 In Kamchatka, Russia continues active eruption of the highest active volcano in Eurasia – Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4850 m)
The height of the column of ash was 14 kilometers above sea level.
The Russian volcano began erupting in mid-June, according to the Global Volcanism Program’s report. Images collected by a NASA satellite earlier this month revealed that the volcano’s ash plume reached 40,000 feet above sea level and extended 1,000 miles to the east and southeast. Officials closed schools in nearby towns after the eruption began.
Lava flows from Sicily’s Mount Etna volcano on December 6, 2015. The active volcano erupted again over the weekend. Getty
In Italy, Sicily’s Mount Etna recently began spewing lava as it erupted. Mount Etna wasn’t listed on the report last Wednesday, but the program’s director, Ben Andrews, told Newsweek that the new list published Wednesday night will include the volcano’s eruption.
“The Sicilian volcano Mount Etna has sent huge jets of lava into the night sky after erupting overnight,” Sky News posted on X Monday. “Scientists say the volcanic discharge has reached 4,500m (14,763ft) above sea level.”
A clip from a livestream video of Mount Mayon in the Philippines also was shared on Monday and shows ash and smoke pouring from the volcano.
“Whoahhh!! Mayon about an hour ago,” a user wrote.
Mayon began erupting in late April.
Social media users also shared clips of an underwater volcano erupting in Iwo Jima, Japan. When underwater volcanoes, also known as seamounts, erupt, lava sometimes breaks the surface of the water and creates a new island.
“New island appears after the eruption of an underwater volcano in Japan,” a translation of the post reads.
The number of eruptions has some people concerned, but Andrews said nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
“The number of volcanoes erupting right now is normal,” he said. “There are currently 46 ongoing eruptions, and over the past 30 years there have generally been about 40 to 50 eruptions happening at any given time. Since 1991, there have been between 56 and 88 eruptions each year. Sixty-seven eruptions have happened thus far this year, and there were 85 in 2022.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
East Java, Indonesia – Umar Patek was released from prison last December after serving just over half of a 20-year jail sentence for the Bali holiday island bombings in 2002, which killed 202 people. He was also convicted for a series of bomb attacks on Christian churches on Christmas Eve, 2000, that left 18 dead.
Patek’s early prison release for good behaviour in 2022 was sharply criticised by Australian officials and the relatives of the hundreds of victims of the Bali bombing.
Al Jazeera recently interviewed Patek at his home in East Java where he spoke about his role in Bali and revealed that the horrific bomb attack two decades ago was an act of revenge for the violence inflicted on Palestinian people by Israeli forces.
Umar Patek at his home in East Java, Indonesia, on October 14, 2023 [Al Jazeera]
Al Jazeera: How did you become involved with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the armed group behind the Bali Bombings?
Umar Patek: In 1991, I was working in Malaysia and met Mukhlas [a senior JI figure who was sentenced to death and executed in 2008 for masterminding the Bali bombings] in Johor Bahru at the Lukman Hakim Islamic Boarding School.
I worked on a plantation in Malaysia, and would go to religious classes in the evening at the school. Then Mukhlas asked me to work at the school, so I moved in. After three months at the school, he offered me the chance to go to Pakistan. I wanted to study and he said I could study religion there.
I first went to Peshawar and then to Sadda, a tribal area in Pakistan which is close to the border with Afghanistan, where there was a military academy that trained people to be mujahideen [Islamic fighters]. From there I moved to a military academy in Torkham in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I was in the same class as [Bali bomber] Ali Imron. In total, I was away for five years from 1991 to 1995.
We learned everything at the military academy to train us to be mujahideen, such as how to use weapons, map reading and bomb making. We practised blowing up bombs in areas where there were no people, like in caves or on hillsides, so that there would not be any fatalities.
We also wanted to make sure that no goats were accidentally killed because lots of people tend goats in Afghanistan.
When I finished my military training in 1995, I went to the Philippines to join the Moro Islamic Liberation Front because I supported their cause as a Muslim.
From 1995 to 2000, I lived at Camp Abubakar in the Bangsamoro region in the Philippines, but the camp was captured by the Philippine Army in July 2000 and I was told to leave because I looked like I came from the Middle East.
My family is originally from Yemen, although I am the fourth generation of my family to be born in Indonesia. My face didn’t look like the people in Moro.
In December 2000, I went back to Indonesia and stayed with Dulmatin [a JI member and one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia who was nicknamed “the Genius” because of his expertise in electronics for bombs]. Dulmatin asked me to go to Jakarta for work. He had a job selling cars and he said I could also look for work there, which is how I became involved in the Christmas Eve church bombings.
Indonesian police officers provide security outside Jakarta’s main cathedral during morning mass on Christmas Day, December 25, 2000, following a spate of deadly Christmas Eve bomb attacks against Christian churches [File: Reuters]
AJ: You admitted to mixing the chemicals for the bombs used in the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Christmas Eve church bombings in 2000. But you also said you didn’t know what the bombs would be used for. Where did you think the bombs would be planted?
Patek: I did not mix the bombs for the church bombings, I only knew about the bombs at the time of delivery. It was Eid al-Fitr [the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan] and Dulmatin said, “Let’s go home to Pemalang for the holiday and drop off some things along the way.”
We kept stopping at churches, although I did not get out of the car. Every time we stopped at a church, I grew more suspicious that we were dropping off bombs because the packages were packed in laptop bags.
I was sentenced for the bombings even though I did not make the bombs or get out of the car because I was there and I didn’t do anything to stop it. Dulmatin then asked me to go on a trip to Bali in October 2002. We went into a house which was already full of bomb making equipment.
A general view of the scene of a bomb blast at Kuta, on the Indonesian island of Bali, in this October 17, 2002 photo, taken five days after explosions in a popular night spot killed 202 people [File: Reuters]
I met with [JI members] Imam Samudra, Mukhlas, Idris and Dr Azahari. Imam Samudra said that they wanted revenge for the occupation of Palestine and the attack on Jenin [by Israeli forces in 2002 which killed more than 50 Palestinians as well as 23 Israeli soldiers], so they wanted to bomb Westerners in nightclubs in Bali. He ushered me into one of the rooms in the house where all the ingredients to make the bombs had been prepared.
I told them, if we wanted to get revenge for the atrocities committed against Muslims in Palestine, we should go to Palestine and not kill Westerners in Indonesia. I asked them, “What is the relationship between these people who will be victims and your motive of revenge for Muslims in Palestine?”
I told them that if they wanted to kill Westerners in large numbers using a one-tonne bomb, it would not just kill the people in front of it. It would explode everywhere. I told them that it would kill lots of other people who were not their target.
A Palestinian woman gestures on top of her house in the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, following what became known as the Battle of Jenin in April 2002 [File: Reuters]
I said that a bomb would also likely cause Muslim casualties. I asked them, “Who will take responsibility in the next world [paradise] if there are Muslim victims because of this bomb?”
Imam Samudra said that, on the day of judgement, everyone would be judged individually for their actions based on their intentions.
I felt that there was no way I could refuse. Imam Samudra had locked the front door of the house so that no one could leave.
So I did it, and made the last 50kg [110lbs] of the bomb.
AJ: More than 200 people died in Bali as a result of the bomb you helped to make. How do you feel about killing so many people?
Patek: I felt guilty when I mixed the materials for the bomb and I felt I was sinning. I felt I was breaking Indonesian law but, more than that, I felt it was a sin against God.
A Balinese mother and son mourn in front of the Bali Bombing Memorial during commemorative services in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia in 2004 [File: Bea Beawiharta/CP/Reuters]
AJ: Do you consider yourself to be a mass murderer?
Patek: Yes. I feel that I am a murderer and a sinner.
I have apologised to the victims of the Bali bombing several times and met with the families of the victims of the bombing, too. I told them I was sorry. Everyone who has met with me in person has forgiven me. When I meet victims, I say, “I am Umar Patek and I was involved in the Bali bombing,” then I explain why I was there, and apologise.
Some people don’t want to meet me and don’t want to forgive me, like people from Australia. That is their right, but my responsibility as a Muslim, and someone who has done wrong, is to apologise. I don’t know if I will be forgiven, only God knows that.
I did not say sorry to get out of prison early, but everything is always wrong in other people’s eyes. If I say sorry, people say I am pretending and it is a strategic choice. If I didn’t apologise, people would say I was arrogant.
AJ: Did you agree with the 20-year prison sentence that you were given?
Patek: I accepted it at the time. There is nothing fair in this life on Earth, justice will only come in the hereafter.
Umar Patek sits in the courtroom during his trial in Jakarta in February 2012 [File: Enny Nuraheni/Reuters]
AJ: Your release from prison was highly controversial, particularly in Australia, as you only served 11 years of your 20-year sentence. Should you have been freed?
Patek: I fulfilled all the criteria according to Indonesian law to qualify for release in 2022. I had also been very opposed to the idea of the Bali bombing from the beginning. The witnesses at my trial all said the same, which is why I was sentenced to 20 years in prison [only]. The central people in the Bali bombing were sentenced to death or died in other ways like Dulmatin, who was shot by the police.
From left to right: Convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, as seen in Nusakambangan prison in October 2008. The three were executed on November 9, 2008, for their role in the bombings [File: Reuters]
I last saw him in June 2009, when I came home from the Philippines to Jakarta. He asked me to go to a JI military academy in Aceh, but I said I didn’t want to. I had had enough. I told him I was just transiting in Indonesia to get my passport and visa to go to Afghanistan. I wanted to live there for the rest of my life and I asked him to come with me, but he refused.
He [Dulmatin] was shot in Pemulang in Tangerang [a city on the outskirts of Jakarta]. I wondered if he had repented for his sins before he died. I never heard him say he felt remorse or sadness about the victims of the Bali bombing and about people who were not the target of the bombing. He never said anything about that and never asked for forgiveness.
So I was sad for him.
The four sons of accused Bali bombing mastermind Dulmatin, alias Joko Pitono, mourn during his funeral in Petarukan village in Indonesia’s central Java province in 2010 [File: Reuters]
AJ: Is the killing of civilians ever justified?
Patek: When I was in the Philippines with the [Moro front], I lived with [the chairman] Salamat Hashim and he would often preach to us. He strongly forbade mujahideen from attacking civilians, not just Muslims but also Christians. He said that that was not allowed, and that only members of the army, or civilians who were fighting with the army, and who were also carrying weapons, were allowed to be attacked.
He once said to me, “Why do you want to wage jihad in Indonesia, who do you want to fight there? The president is Muslim, the government is Muslim, the People’s Representative Council is mainly Muslim, lots of police are Muslim, the army is full of Muslims. It is haram [forbidden] to attack them because attacking Muslims is not allowed.”
He felt that it was not right to attack people in Indonesia, and I said that at the time of the Bali bombing, but no one wanted to listen to me.
AJ: What are your thoughts on the Israel-Gaza war?
Patek: In the opening section of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, it says that “all colonialism must be abolished in this world”.
Occupation anywhere, not just in Palestine, is not allowed.
It is Hamas’s right to take back their land. The news that they are killing babies and children is a hoax perpetrated by the Western media. Indonesia used to be occupied by the Dutch colonialists. Would you call Indonesian heroes, who fought for their independence, terrorists? The Dutch would call them terrorists, but they were just taking back their land.
A man holds a poster during a rally in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 5, 2023 [Dita Alangkara/AP Photo]
AJ: Are you deradicalised now?
Patek: What is radicalised? If a Christian wants to follow their religion according to the teachings of the Bible, would we call them radicalised?
I feel that the media has a false image of me as someone who is frightening and cruel. They always paint me as someone who is dangerous.
People often ask me why I don’t want to be a terrorist any more and why I am so cooperative. I also say that it is from my family. They are the ones who melted my heart and set me back to the right path.
I am the oldest of three brothers. All my family members are moderate Muslims, none of them have ever followed the same ideology I used to follow, and they have often confronted me about it over the years.
If my family had said they did not want to have anything more to do with me because of my old ideology, perhaps I would still be radical in my thinking, but fortunately they embraced me and that allowed me to change.
AJ: How do you feel about non-Muslims?
Patek: When I was a child growing up, all my neighbours were Chinese Christians. I always used to play with them. Since I was young, I have always been around non-Muslims.
I don’t hate Christians. My wife’s extended family are Christians and, when we got married, we had no problems and took photos together on our wedding day.
When I married my wife, I invited all of her family to the wedding at Camp Abubakar. In the beginning, they didn’t want to come because they were worried we would cut their heads off. I told them that the mujahideen did not harm civilians, and that we only attacked the police and the army. I said that I guaranteed their safety.
In the Moro tradition, when someone got married, mujahideen would shoot their weapons in the air to celebrate. But because my wife’s Christian family was there, I told my fellow mujahideen, “Don’t do the traditional celebration because we have Christians coming and it will scare them.
China and the Philippines on Sunday accused each other of causing collisions in a disputed area of the South China Sea, the latest in a string of maritime confrontations between the two countries that have heightened regional tensions.
In a statement, Philippine authorities said a Chinese Coast Guard ship carried out “dangerous blocking maneuvers” that caused it to collide with a Philippine vessel carrying supplies to troops stationed in Ayungin Shoal, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, in the Spratly Islands chain.
China’s move was “provocative, irresponsible and illegal” and “imperiled the safety of the crew” of the Philippine boats, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said.
In a second incident Sunday, the Philippine task force said a Chinese maritime militia vessel collided with a Philippine coast guard ship, which was on the same mission to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre. Manila grounded the navy transport ship on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 and has manned it with Filipino marines to enforce its claims to the area.
In a statement Sunday, the Chinese Coast Guard accused the Philippines of violating international marine law and threatening the navigation safety of Chinese ships.
It accused the first Philippine ship of trespassing into the waters of what it calls the Nansha islands and Renai Reef, prompting the Chinese Coast Guard ship to intercept “in accordance with the law,” and resulting in a “minor collision.”
In the second incident, the Chinese Coast Guard said the Philippine Coast Guard vessel “purposely provoked trouble and reversed course,” causing a collision with a Chinese fishing boat.
Beijing claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, as well as most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles away from China’s mainland.
In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
Beijing has ignored the ruling.
No injuries were reported in either collision Sunday, which marks the latest in a series of recent flashpoints between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waterway.
In September, the Philippine Coast Guard released video of a Filipino diver cutting a Chinese-installed floating barrier in a disputed area of the waterway that had prevented Filipino boats from entering.
It came just days after after the Philippine Coast Guard accused China’s maritime militia of turning vast patches of coral near the Palawan island chain into a bleached and broken wasteland.
China’s foreign ministry dismissed those allegations as “false and groundless.”
China is behaving like a schoolyard bully toward smaller countries, the Philippine defense secretary told CNN Friday during an exclusive interview in which he warned his nation, and the wider world, had to stand up to Beijing’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea.
“I cannot think of any clearer case of bullying than this,” said Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr. “It’s not the question of stealing your lunch money, but it’s really a question of stealing your lunch bag, your chair and even enrollment in school.”
While tensions between China and the Philippines over the highly-contested and strategic waterway have festered for years, confrontations have spiked this summer, renewing regional fears that a mistake or miscalculation at sea could trigger a wider conflict, including with the United States.
The region is widely seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflagration and the recent confrontations have raised concerns among Western observers of potentially developing into an international incident if China, a global power, decides to act more forcefully against the Philippines, a US treaty ally.
Teodoro characterized the Philippines’ refusal to back down in the waters within its 200 nautical-mile exclusive economic zone as a fight for the very existence of the Philippines.
“We’re fighting for our fisherfolk, we’re fighting for our resources. We’re fighting for our integrity as an archipelagic state… Our existence as the Republic of the Philippines is vital to this fight,” Teodoro said in a sit down interview at the Department of National Defense in Manila. “It’s not for us, it’s for the future generations too.”
Video purportedly shows Chinese ship firing water cannon at Filipino vessel in disputed waters
“And if we don’t stop, China is going to creep and creep into what is within our sovereign jurisdiction, our sovereign rights and within our territory,” he said, adding that Beijing wont stop until it controls “the whole South China Sea.”
Beijing says it is safeguarding its sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea and warned the Philippines this week “not to make provocations or seek troubles.” It accused Philippine fishing and coast guard vessels of illegal entry into the area.
China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, and most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China. Along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.
Over the past two decades China has occupied a number of reefs and atolls across the South China Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports, which the Philippines says challenges its sovereignty and fishing rights as well as endangering marine biodiversity in the resource-rich waterway.
In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
But Beijing has ignored the decision and continues to expand its presence in the waterway.
Video released of diver cutting China’s floating sea barrier
In his first sit-down TV interview with an international news outlet since he took the position in June, Teodoro was keen to stress whatever happens in the South China Sea impacts the globe.
Crucially, the waterway is vital to international trade with trillions of dollars in global shipping passing through it each year. It’s also home to vast fertile fishing grounds upon which many lives and livelihoods depend, and beneath the waves lie huge reserves of natural gas and oil that competing claimants are vying for.
With nations already suffering from inflation brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine, there are concerns that any slow-down in travel and transporting of goods in the South China Sea would result in significant impact to the global economy.
“It will choke one of the most vital supply chain waterways in the whole world, it will choke international trade, and it will subject the world economy, particularly in supply chains to their whim,” Teodoro said, adding that if this were to happen, “the whole world will react.”
The defense secretary warned that smaller nations, including regional partners, rely on international law for their survival.
“Though they need China, they need Russia, they see that they too may become a victim of bullying. If they (China) close off the South China Sea, perhaps the next target may be the Straits of Malacca and then the Indian Ocean,” Teodoro said.
Why it matters who owns the seas (April 2021)
Only a few years ago the Philippines was treading a much more cautious path with its huge neighbor China.
But since taking office last year, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr has taken a stronger stance over the South China Sea than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos has also strengthened US relations that had frayed under Duterte, with the two allies touting increased cooperation and joint patrols in the South China Sea in the future.
In April, the Philippines identified the locations of four new military bases the US will gain access to, as part of an expanded defense agreement analysts say is aimed at combating China.
Washington has condemned Beijing’s recent actions in the contested sea and threatened to intervene under its mutual defense treaty obligations if Philippine vessels came under armed attack there.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Lindsey Ford reiterated Washington’s commitment to the mutual defense treaty in testimony before a US House subcommittee on Tuesday.
She said the treaty covers not only the Philippine armed forces, but also its coast guard and civilian vessels and aircraft.
“We have said repeatedly and continue to say that we stand by those commitments absolutely,” Ford said.
Defense secretary Teodoro has concerns about a possible escalation “because of the dangerous and reckless maneuvering of Chinese vessels” but he was clear that any incident – accidental or otherwise – the blame would lie with China “squarely on their shoulders.”
And he called global powers to help pressure Beijing over its moves in the South China Sea.
“Peace and stability in that one place in the world will generate some relief and comfort to everyone,” he said.
As part of the Marcos administration’s commitment to boost the Philippines defense and monitoring capabilities in the South China Sea, Teodoro said further “air and naval assets” have been ordered.
“There will be more patrol craft coming in, more rotary aircraft and we are studying the possibility to acquiring multi-role fighters,” he said, adding that would “make a difference in our air defense capabilities.”
Preferring cooler heads to prevail, Teodoro said that diplomacy would provide a way forward providing Chinese leader Xi Jinping complies with international law.
“Filipinos I believe are always willing to talk, just as long that talk does not mean whispers in a back room, or shouting at each other, meaning to say there must be substantial talks, open, transparent and on a rules-based basis,” he said, while also adding that talks cannot be used as a delaying tactic by Beijing.
The Philippines, he said, has “no choice” but to stand up to China because otherwise “we lose our identity and integrity as a nation.”
But conflict, he added, was not the answer or desired outcome.
“Standing up doesn’t mean really going to war with China, heavens no. We don’t want that. But we have to stand our ground when our ground is intruded into.”
In the early morning of the last day of August, Parisians experienced for the first time a practice normally confined to tropical regions — authorities fumigating the city against the tiger mosquito. The event was a tangible confirmation of what public health stats already showed: Dengue, the deadly mosquito-borne disease, had well and truly arrived in Europe.
In 2022, Europe saw more cases of locally acquired dengue than in the whole of the previous decade. The rise marks both a public health threat and a corresponding market opportunity for dengue vaccines and treatments; news that should spur the pharma industry to boost investment into the neglected disease.
On the face of it, this shift would appear to benefit not only countries like France but also nations like Bangladesh and the Philippines that have long battled dengue.
But that assumption could be fatally flawed, experts told POLITICO.
People working in the field say the rise of dengue in the West could, in fact, make it harder to get lifesaving drugs to those who need them most, because pharma companies develop tools that are less effective in countries where the dengue burden is the highest or because wealthy nations end up hoarding these medicines and vaccines.
“It might look like a good thing — and it is a good thing — that we’re getting more products developed, but does it then create a two-tier system where high-income populations get access to it and then we still have the access gap for low- and middle- income countries?” asked Lindsay Keir, director of the science and policy advisory team at think tank Policy Cures Research.
Killer invading mosquitoes
Climate change and migration mean the mosquitoes that transmit dengue, as well as other diseases such as chikungunya and Zika, are setting up shop in Europe. The most recent annual data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows that, in 2022, Europe saw 71 cases of locally acquired dengue: 65 in France and six in Spain.
While dengue usually results in mild or no symptoms, it can also lead to high fever, severe headache and vomiting. Severe dengue can cause bleeding from the gums, abdominal pain and, in some cases, death.
So far, the mosquito has mostly been confined to Southern Europe but it’s a worry across the Continent. In Belgium, the national public health research institute Sciensano has even launched an app where members of the public can submit photos of any Asian tiger mosquitos they spot.
The diseases spread by these mosquitoes have traditionally fallen under the umbrella of neglected tropical diseases, a group of infections that affect mainly low-income countries and struggle to attract research and development investment. But this is changing.
Policy Cures Research, which publishes an annual report on R&D investment into neglected diseases, removed dengue vaccines from their assessment in 2013. Dengue was no longer seen as an area where there was market failure, due to the emergence of a market that the private sector could tap into.
The organization is still tracking dengue drugs and biologics and their 2022 analysis showed a 33 percent increase in funding for research into non-vaccine products compared to the previous year, with industry investment reaching a record high of $28 million.
Climate change and migration mean the mosquitoes that transmit dengue, as well as other diseases such as chikungunya and Zika, are setting up shop in Europe | Lukas Schulze/Getty Images
Sibilia Quilici, executive director of the vaccine maker lobby group Vaccines Europe, said the most recent pipeline review of members found that roughly 10 percent were targeting neglected diseases. There is more R&D happening in this area, said Quilici.
Across the major drugmakers, J&J is working on a dengue antiviral treatment and MSD has a dengue vaccine in their pipeline, while Sanofi has a second yellow fever jab in development. Two dengue vaccines are already approved in the EU — one from Sanofi and another from Takeda. Moderna recently told POLITICO that it is looking closely at a dengue vaccine candidate and it already has a Zika candidate in the works.
For the few, not the many
But just because there might soon be larger markets for Big Pharma doesn’t mean the products will be suitable for the populations that have been waiting years for these tools.
Rachael Crockett, senior policy advocacy manager at the non-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), said increased pharma investment in a particular disease won’t necessarily lead to products developed that are globally relevant. “Industry will — and governments are also more likely to — focus on prevention,” she said.
That means tools such as vaccines will be prioritized; but in countries where dengue is endemic, the rainy season completely overburdens their health systems and what they desperately need are treatments, said Crockett.
She also said a massive increase in investment without a structure to ensure access to resulting products means “we have absolutely no guarantee that there isn’t going to be hoarding, [that] there isn’t going to be high prices.” Case in point: The U.S. national stockpile of Ebola vaccines, which exists despite there never having been an Ebola outbreak in the country.
But just because there might soon be larger markets for Big Pharma doesn’t mean the products will be suitable for the populations that have been waiting years for these tools | Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images
Underlying many of these fears are the mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw countries with less cash and political heft at the back of the queue when it came to vaccines.
Lisa Goerlitz, head of German charity Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW)’s Brussels office, warned if drug development picks up because of a growing market in high-income countries, then accessibility, affordability and other criteria that make it suitable for low resource settings might not be prioritized.
Vaccines Europe’s Quilici sought to allay these concerns, pointing to the pharma industry’s Berlin Declaration, a proposal to reserve an allocation of real-time production of vaccines in a health crisis. Quilici said this was a “really strong commitment …which comes right from the lessons learnt from COVID-19 and which could definitely overcome the challenges we had during the pandemic, if it is taken seriously.”
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Lisa Goerlitz.
A floating barrier installed by China to prevent Filipino boats from fishing in a disputed area of the South China Sea has been removed, Philippine authorities said Monday, the latest flashpoint between Manila and Beijing over their competing maritime claims.
Video released by the Philippine Coast Guard on Monday showed a Filipino diver cut what it said earlier was a 300-meter (984-feet) long string of buoys near Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground 130 miles (200 kilometers) west of the Philippine island of Luzon.
The footage showed the diver with a simple mask and snorkel slipping below the waves to use a small knife to cut through rope after reaching the barrier on a rickety fishing boat with a small crew.
The video is a vivid illustration of a fraught power struggle that has been playing out for years in the South China Sea as Manila tries to push back against increasingly assertive claims to the disputed strategic waterway by Beijing.
Philippine authorities claimed Sunday that three Chinese Coast Guard boats and a Chinese maritime militia service boat had installed the barrier following the arrival of a Philippine government vessel in the area.
“The barrier posed a hazard to navigation, a clear violation of international law,” the Philippine Coast Guard said in a statement Monday, adding that it also infringed on Philippine sovereignty.
Beijing on Monday defended its actions saying it has “indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its adjacent waters,” using the Chinese name for the disputed shoal, and accusing the Filipino vessel of “intruding” without permission.
“The Chinese Coast Guard took the necessary measures in accordance with the law to stop and drive away the other vessel and the operation in question was conducted with professional restraint,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a regular press briefing.
Beijing claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, as well as most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles away from China’s mainland.
Over the past two decades China has occupied a number of reefs and atolls across the South China Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports, which have not only challenged the Philippines’ sovereignty and fishing rights but have also endangered marine biodiversity in the highly contested resource-rich waterway.
In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
Beijing has ignored the ruling.
Western marine security experts, along with officials from the Philippines and the United States, have increasingly accused Beijing of using ostensibly civilian fishing vessels as a maritime militia that acts as an unofficial – and officially deniable – force that China uses to push its territorial claims both in the South China Sea and beyond.
The situation comes days after the Philippine Coast Guard accused China’s maritime militia of turning vast patches of coral near the Palawan island chain into a bleached and broken wasteland.
China’s foreign ministry dismissed those allegations as “false and groundless.”
Over the weekend, a fan Twitter account shared data showing the singer’s holiday smash “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has already started its climb up the streaming charts.
Two years ago, Carey revealed that she prefers to start her Christmas celebrations after U.S. Thanksgiving in November each year, adding, “but there’s no regulating festiveness!”
Originally released in 1994, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has become a perennial favourite over the years, becoming one of the few holiday songs since 1990 to become a standard.
The song first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2000 and continued to make frequent appearances on the chart in the 2010s.
In 2019, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 for the first time, and has achieved the feat each year since.
Rescue efforts are under way after what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a ‘tragic’ incident.
A rescue operation is under way after a United States military aircraft crashed off the northern coast of Australia with 20 Marines on board, in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a “tragic” incident.
Several people were rescued, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), after the Osprey V-22 came down near Melville Island about 60km (37 miles) from Darwin on Sunday.
One person was in critical condition, two were stable and there were no reports of fatalities, it reported.
Australia’s defence ministry said the accident happened during the annual Predator Run exercises involving the militaries of Australia, the United States, East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Albanese, speaking at a previously scheduled press conference, declined to provide details about the crash or rescue efforts.
“Our focus as a government and as a department of defence is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time,” he said.
Australian personnel were not involved, Albanese said.
The US and Australia, a key ally in the Pacific, have been stepping up military cooperation in recent years in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
Four Australian soldiers were killed last month when their helicopter crashed into the sea off the coast of Queensland.
The aircraft had been taking part in Talisman Sabre, a joint military exercise involving a total of 13 countries, including the US, Australia, Japan, France and Germany, and more than 30,000 personnel.
Ospreys are tilt-rotor aircraft that combine the features of both helicopters and turboprop planes, according to the US Air Force.
It has two swivelling engines positioned on fixed wingtips that allow it to land and take off vertically, but also move at faster speeds than a conventional helicopter.
The Osprey aircraft’s safety record has repeatedly come into question after a series of fatal incidents.
In March of that year, four Marines were killed when an Osprey crashed near a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle during a NATO exercise.
In 2017, three Marines were killed when an Osprey crashed after clipping the back of a transport ship while trying to land at sea off Australia’s north coast.
Metro Manila, Philippines – On July 6, National Fried Chicken Day in the United States, Vincent Cruz and a crowd of supporters marched into a Jollibee’s branch in Journal Square, New Jersey.
Cruz and 50-odd employees and supporters wanted to get the attention of management and customers alike on the busiest day of the year for the Philippine fast food chain.
Cruz is among nine Filipino former employees at the Journal Square branch who claim they were terminated by Jollibee management in February after petitioning for better wages and working conditions.
Standing in front of the cashier, the 19-year-old former fry cook held up a megaphone and yelled the demands of the new “Justice 4 Jollibee Workers” campaign, including reinstatement, back pay, an apology from Jollibee and a hike in the base pay from $14 to $17 an hour.
“For all fellow workers who have experienced or are currently experiencing similar struggles, we want you to be brave and take action,” Cruz, who migrated to the US in 2021, told Al Jazeera.
For Cruz, whose family back in the Philippines consider Jollibee a beloved brand, his alleged treatment by the company was “extra heart-breaking”.
Vincent Cruz and eight former employers say they were let go from Jollibee after demanding better pay and conditions [File: Patrick Nevada/Al Jazeera]
Jollibee, which specialises in fried chicken and other fast food, is one of the most iconic Philippine brands.
The chain operates more than 6,500 branches worldwide, about half of which are located outside the Philippines.
In the first quarter of 2023, Jollibee Food Corporation (JFC) posted revenue of about $1bn – which was up 28.5 percent from the previous quarter – 20.2 percent of which came from North America.
JFC has announced plans to add 500 more stores in the US, which has by far the largest overseas population of Filipinos, in the next five to seven years.
In 2021, Esquire magazine ranked Jollibee as the 13th-biggest fast-food chain in the world and the only non-American company in the top 15.
But the Journal Square workers say that Jollibee is not just exporting its popular Filipino fast food but a record of unfair labour practices as well.
Since they launched their campaign, workers from more than a dozen other branches in the US and even the Philippines have reached out to them with negative experiences.
Jollibee’s Journal Square management has argued that the layoffs were necessary due to financial difficulties, a claim Cruz and the other workers say makes little sense when considering the branch hired 13 new employees two weeks after their firing.
Cruz and the other workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and are waiting on the outcome of its investigation into whether the company violated their right to organise to improve their working conditions.
“Hopefully, the NLRB will be sympathetic. To us it’s a very slam-dunk case – it’s obvious that Jollibee violated labour rights,” Jackie Mariano, a lawyer with the advocacy group Mission to End Modern Slavery, told Al Jazeera.
Jollibee is one of the biggest fast-food brands in the world, with more than 6,500 branches worldwide [File: Aaron Favila/AP]
In a statement to Al Jazeera, Jollibee North America said the layoffs had been a purely financial decision related to the conditions at that branch.
“The action was due to financial circumstances specific to this store and not related to other claims being circulated online,” a spokesperson said. “With its location near a commuter hub, the Journal Square branch has not recovered from customer behaviour changes after the pandemic, including people working from home instead of offices.”
On July 14, Facebook took down the “Justice 4 Jollibee Workers” campaign page, citing the use of the Jollibee logo as a “violation of community standards”.
Mariano said Jollibee is notorious for a practice in the fast food industry known as misclassification, where workers are retained as part-time staff indefinitely despite usually working close to full-time shifts. The practice allows an employer to avoid granting staff benefits such as paid leave and full-time wages.
Cruz said that his managers often extended his break hours to keep his working hours just below the eight-hour threshold even as he worked extra shifts, and burdened him with extra responsibilities, such as lifting heavy items in the stockroom, without additional pay.
“At 14 dollars an hour, you can barely survive living so close to such a Metropolitan area where everything is super expensive,” Cruz said.
In February, Jollibee-owned Smashburger was ordered to pay damages to 241 employees after being found to have violated New York City’s paid and sick leave laws.
“It’s Jollibee’s motive to maintain high profits by cutting labour costs,” Mariano said.
“That’s where they got all that capital, from unpaid benefits. It also relies on the labour export programme of the Philippines with 4 million Filipinos in the US comprising the company’s market base.”
Conditions at home
Allegations of poor labour practices at Jollibee stretch all the way back to the Philippines, where the company was founded in 1978.
Janine, who spent a year working at two Jollibee branches in Antipolo City in 2021, said she was denied overtime pay for shifts stretching from 3pm to 1am and would be forced to buy leftover food at the end of the day.
“I once had to take out three orders of spaghetti!” Janine, who asked to use a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera, adding that she earned 375 Philippine pesos ($6.65) a day, minus a 50 pesos fee ($0.89) for a recruiting agency.
As in the US, Jollibee in the Philippines has been accused of depriving employees of benefits and job security by keeping them as contract workers indefinitely.
In 2018, the Philippines’s Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said JFC topped the list of companies with the most contractual employees.
When DOLE ordered the company to regularise nearly 7,000 of its workforce, JFC submitted an appeal before laying off 400 workers.
JFC did not respond to a request for comment. But it has maintained in past statements that it complies with all labour standards and only deals with “reputable” contractors, insisting that the onus for regularising workers lies with the recruitment agencies.
In the same year, JFC chairman Tony Tan Caktiong told reporters that contractualisation was a thing of the past and had been supplemented by the outsourcing of employee roles.
The ‘Justice 4 Jollibee Workers’ campaign is calling for better working conditions at Jollibee restaurants in the US and elsewhere [File: Patrick Nevada/Al Jazeera]
Jerome Adonis, the secretary general of the trade union Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), said becoming a regular employee with a contractor and with the primary company are two very different things.
“How can you bargain for your full rights, wages and benefits with an agency which merely depends on the temporary contract between them and Jollibee for example?” Adonis told Al Jazeera, adding that workers do not enjoy an employee-employer relationship with Jollibee even if they are stationed at the company’s branches.
“That’s how it circumvents the law,” Adonis said.
KMU estimates that about 29,000 of JFC’s more than 36,000 employees are contractual, an increase since the DOLE’s 2018 directive.
Denise, who worked as a branch manager at JFC for 12 years, said that Jollibee usually handpicks a few workers who will be regularised directly with the company.
“It’s performance-based. You need to apply and then we evaluate,” Denise, who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera.
Adonis, the trade union leader, said such a standard is “unfair and arbitrary”.
“They’re making workers compete for their own rights. They should be direct hires while their fundamental rights to unionise should be respected,” he said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo makes a speech during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Minister’s Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 14, 2023.
Murat Gok | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
A new regional cross-border payment system recently implemented by Southeast Asian nations could deepen financial integration among participants, bringing the ASEAN bloc closer to its goal of economic cohesion.
The program, which allows residents to pay for goods and services in local currencies using a QR code, is now active in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. The Philippines is expected to join soon.
That’s according to each country’s respective central bank.
The move comes after the five Southeast Asian countries signed an official agreement late last year. At the recent ASEAN summit in May, leaders also reiterated their commitment to the project, pledging to work on a road map to expand regional payment links to all ten ASEAN members.
The scheme is aimed at supporting and facilitating cross-border trade settlements, investment, remittance and other economic activities with the goal of implementing an inclusive financial ecosystem around Southeast Asia.
Analysts say retail industries will particularly benefit amid an expected rise in consumer spending, which could in turn strengthen tourism.
Regional connectivity is considered crucial to reduce the region’s reliance on external currencies like the U.S. dollar for cross-border transactions, particularly among businesses. The greenback’s strength in recent years has resulted in weaker ASEAN currencies, which hurts those economies since the majority of the bloc’s members are net energy and food importers.
“The system will forgo the U.S. dollar or the Chinese renminbi as intermediary,” said Nico Han, a Southeast Asia analyst at Diplomat Risk Intelligence, the consulting and analysis division of current affairs magazine The Diplomat.
A unified cross-border digital payment system will “foster a sense of regionalism and ASEAN-centrality in managing international affairs,” he added. “This move becomes even more crucial in light of escalating tensions among major global powers.”
How it works
By connecting QR code payment systems, funds can be sent from one digital wallet to another.
These digital wallets effectively act as bank accounts but they can also be linked to accounts with formal financial institutions.
For instance, Malaysian tourists in Singapore can make a payment with Malaysian ringgit funds in their Malaysian digital wallet when making a transaction. Or, a Malaysian worker in Singapore can send Singapore dollar funds in a Singaporean digital wallet to a recipient’s wallet in Malaysia.
Fees and exchange rates will be determined by mutual agreement between the central banks themselves.
For now, a region-wide system like this doesn’t exist in other parts of the world but down the road, the Bank of International Settlements, based in Switzerland, hopes to connect retail payment systems across the world using QR codes and mobile phone numbers.
“The ASEAN central banks’ effort is innovative and novel,” said Satoru Yamadera, advisor at the Asian Development Bank’s Economic Research and Development Impact Department.
“In other regions like Europe, retail payment connection via credit and debit cards is more popular while China is well-known for advanced QR code payment, but they are not connected like the ASEAN QR codes,” he continued.
Economic benefits
QR payments don’t impose fees on cardholders and merchants. They also boast of better conversion rates than those set by private payment processors like Visa or American Express.
Micro enterprises as well as small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs will emerge as winners from regional payment connectivity, experts say. According to the Asian Development Bank, such companies account for over 90% of businesses in Southeast Asia.
“SMBs can avoid the expenses associated with maintaining a physical point-of-sale system or paying interchange fees to card companies,” explained Han from Diplomat Risk Intelligence.
Marginalized individuals from low-income backgrounds also stand to benefit. As the payment system works via digital wallets and doesn’t require a traditional bank account, it can be used by the unbanked population.
“The system has the potential to improve financial literacy and wellbeing for the underbanked population,” Han noted.
ASEAN’s new system will also enable merchants and consumers to build a robust payment history, and provide valuable data for credit scoring, said Nicholas Lee, lead Asia tech analyst at Global Counsel, a public policy advisory firm.
“That’s particularly advantageous for unbanked and underbanked segments of the population, who traditionally lack access to such credit assessment data.”
Moreover, “increased non-cash transactions would allow policymakers to capture transaction data and trade flow more effectively, assuming these data are accessible,” said Lee.
“This, in turn, could lead to better economic forecasting and policymaking.”
Currency pressure ahead
While strengthening payment connectivity within the region has the potential to reduce payment friction and accelerate digital transition, it could inadvertently put pressure on certain currencies, particularly the Singapore dollar.
“The potential scenario of the [Singapore dollar] emerging as a de facto reserve currency within the region poses a challenge that ASEAN states will need to confront,” said Lee.
“With the [Singapore dollar’s] strength and stability, both international and regional businesses may opt to hold more of their working capital in [Singapore dollars], relying on the new payment network for efficient currency conversion,” he explained.
If that happens, it could weaken the purchasing power of other currencies in the region and result in higher imported inflation if central banks don’t intervene.
In such a scenario, authorities may feel the need to impose capital restrictions in order to protect their respective currencies, which could undermine the very purpose of establishing a regional payment network.
Regulations pose another challenge.
Central banks will have to address security and fraud issues, plus undertake the task of educating the public to embrace the new payment system, said Han.
“These factors can collectively contribute to a time-consuming process,” he warned.
This kind of coordinated action will require strong political will from regional leaders and it remains to be seen if ASEAN members can come together to successfully implement such an ambitious venture.
A powerful typhoon brought widespread flooding and landslides to the Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least five people, authorities in the country said.
Typhoon Doksuri, known as Egay in the Philippines, has caused flooding across five regions and more than a dozen rain-induced landslides, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
One victim was killed in the central region of Calabarzon and four died in the mountainous Cordillera region, another two people were injured elsewhere in the country, the agency said.
The storm made landfall at 3:10 a.m. local time (3:10 p.m. ET) near remote northern Fuga Island, said Pagasa, the Philippine weather bureau.
Though it has weakened from super typhoon strength, Doksuri arrived with winds of about 220 kilometers per hour (140 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center – equivalent to a category 4 Atlantic hurricane.
Pagasa warned that violent and life-threatening conditions were expected in some areas of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island, as torrential rains rains swept the country.
The typhoon unleashed up to 16 inches (0.4 meters) of rain, with the potential to reach 20 inches (0.5 meters) from its 680-kilometer (420-mile) rainband, Pasgasa said.
Authorities also warned of tidal surges up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).
Local governments on Tuesday began evacuating some people living in the storm’s path in anticipation of winds reaching 200 kph (124 mph).
The governor of Cagayan province, which suspended schools and closed offices, said more than 12,000 people were evacuated from coastal and mountain towns by Tuesday evening.
“It’s a powerful typhoon and we want to take as many preemptive measures as possible,” Gov. Cagayan Manuel Mamba told CNN.
Officials also canceled at least a dozen domestic flights from Wednesday through Friday.
The typhoon is expected to weaken as it heads northwest – though Taiwan and China are bracing for potentially heavy rainfall and strong winds.
The typhoon prompted Taiwan to cancel some of its annual military drills Tuesday as it faced the prospect of what could be the strongest storm to hit the self-governing island in four years.
The typhoon’s outer bands are beginning to impact eastern Taiwan, according to the island’s Central Weather Bureau. It is expected to continue to weaken to the equivalent of a category 1 Atlantic hurricane as it tracks northwest, potentially making a second landfall in the next two days on China’s southern coastline.
China’s National Meteorological Center raised its typhoon emergency warning to the highest level on Wednesday as Doksuri is projected to land by Friday along the southeast coast where Fujian and Guangdong provinces meet.
Chinese authorities have told fishing boats to return to port immediately and warned farmers to take preventive measures to avoid flooding of crops.
