Maniolas

President Rodrigo Duterte said he missed the socials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leader’s Forum due to jet lag. He said he couldn’t keep his eyes open and needed to rest. INQUIRER FILE LIMA, Peru — “Jet lag” did President Duterte in during his first appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit here, forcing him to skip both the gala dinner and traditional family photo of the world leaders. The President said he was still feeling “lightheaded” as the scheduled activities happened to coincide with his sleeping times back home. READ: Duterte ‘falls ill,’ skips Apec gala dinner for world leaders “I sleep at 3:45 [a.m.]. That’s the time here. I really couldn’t keep my eyes open. And even [though] I was listening to others, my eyes start to close on their own,” Mr. Duterte told reporters covering the Apec in this South American country. “I said it’s not good to be present with the greats of the convention with my eyes closed. So I said I better go home. But I also couldn’t sleep though I was sleepy. Jet lag, simply,” he said. Mr. Duterte sent Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay to stand in for him in the two events. “I was not able to attend the socials because I wanted the Secretary of Foreign Affairs…I wanted to promote his acting career,” he joked. But the President said the events he did attend were eye-opening and fruitful. “I said it’s not good to be present with the greats of the Read More …

President Duterte is set to declare the triangular lagoon inside Scarborough Shoal as a marine sanctuary where Filipino and Chinese fishermen would not be allowed to fish or gather marine produce. Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Chinese President Xi Jinping had committed to work with Duterte to create and promote a favorable environment in the disputed territory. INQUIRER FILE LIMA, Peru — President Duterte will issue an executive order unilaterally declaring the triangle-shaped lagoon inside the disputed Scarborough Shoal a marine sanctuary, where neither Filipino nor Chinese fishermen would be allowed to fish. Mr. Duterte told Chinese President Xi Jinping of his intentions during their bilateral discussion on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit here, according to National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who was present at the meeting. READ: Esperon: A ‘win-win’ for PH, China on Panatag “The President has decided to declare that as a sanctuary. That is a unilateral action from government,” he said, referring to the lagoon “as big as Quezon City” and known to be a spawning area for fish. Scarborough Shoal is a traditional fishing ground locally known as Panatag. It has been under the control of Chinese authorities since 2012, though China has recently allowed Filipinos to fish again in the area as a result of warming ties with the Philippines. Esperon said Mr. Duterte “clearly talked about maritime arrangements” with Xi, including the prospect of cooperation between their coast guards. “The implication and the effect of this is that Read More …

President Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO LIMA, Peru — President Duterte skipped the gala dinner for leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) here on Saturday evening (Sunday morning in Manila) as he was not feeling well, Philippine officials said. Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told reporters Mr. Duterte was ill and opted to have Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay attend on his behalf the dinner hosted by Peru President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. READ: Duterte talks to Putin about distrust with US, hypocrisy of the West Practically all the world leaders, with the exception of those who had sent representatives due to troubles at home, like South Korea and Thailand, were in attendance at the dinner, including Presidents Barack Obama of the United States, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Xi Jinping of China. Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau of Canada and Shinzo Abe of Japan were also present. The Apec leaders toasted each other with champagne and watched cultural presentations. The traditional dinner is typically seen as an opportunity for Apec leaders to hold informal talks with each other in the absence of time for formal bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the main Apec summit. Andanar said Kuczynski had been told beforehand that Mr. Duterte would not be able to make it to the dinner. The two leaders had a prolonged conversation earlier in the day during the official welcome ceremony for the arriving heads of state just before the formal opening of the annual trade gathering of Pacific Rim economies. In the Read More …

FILE PHOTO The Philippines and the United States launch war games on Tuesday against the unusual threat of American forces being ejected from the Southeast Asian nation as its firebrand leader pivots to China. President Rodrigo Duterte has launched a sustained verbal assault on the United States, the Philippines’ former colonial ruler and mutual defense partner, since he took office on June 30 in response to criticism of his deadly war on crime. READ: 2016 PH-US war games will be the last – Duterte | Military defies Duterte on war games Duterte has in recent days warned the war games will be the last of his six-year term, and threatened to scrap a defense pact implemented by his predecessor that was meant to see more US troops in the Philippines to counter Chinese expansion in the South China Sea. “Better think twice now because I will be asking you to leave the Philippines altogether,” Duterte said on Sunday as he launched a tirade against the Americans full of typical invective. “The Americans, I don’t like them… they are reprimanding me in public. So I say: ‘Screw you, fuck you’,” he said, while signaling again that he wanted to forge closer alliances with China and Russia. Last week Duterte, 71, also claimed the CIA was plotting to assassinate him. This came after foreign media claimed that Duterte branded Barack Obama a “son of a whore” in response to being told the US President planned to raise human rights concerns over his drug war. Duterte Read More …

Perfecto Yasay, Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, addresses the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York on September 24, 2016. AFP UNITED NATIONS, United States — The Philippines’ foreign secretary on Saturday pushed back against criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, telling the United Nations not to interfere. “We urge everyone to allow us to deal with out domestic challenges in order to achieve our national goals, without undue interference,” Perfecto Yasay told the UN General Assembly. There has been growing international alarm over the rising death toll from Duterte’s crackdown on crime, with human rights groups saying that security forces are engaging in extrajudicial killings. READ: Duterte hits ‘stupid’ UN criticism of PH anti-drug campaign |  Duterte won elections in a landslide in May after vowing to eradicate the illegal drug trade in six months, and promising that 100,000 criminals would be killed in the process. Since he took office on June 30 about 3,000 people have been killed, about a third of them suspects shot dead by police and the rest murdered by unidentified attackers, according to police statistics. “We have not and we will never empower our law enforcement agents to shoot-to-kill individuals suspected of drug crimes,” the foreign secretary told the General Assembly. “Extrajudicial killings have no place in our society, and in our criminal justice system.” READ: DFA: UN, EU envoys should follow PH protocols in drug slays probe The top diplomat told the General Assembly that Read More …