Open Season!

[Jack Peterson]

Just now, mogo51 said:

 

To an addictive golfer, his clubs ARE his drugs!

 

 Yeah! and all addictions have a cost, I hear Round fees can be High and Club membership exclusive! 

 

BTW Morning All

[Jack Peterson]

A Press release for Today;

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2016/June/06/topstory1.htm

[Benington]

A murky business. I think we can discount independent citizen vigilante groups here! What we do have is the police claiming it's competing drug organisations, aiming to have a monopoly or perhaps a duopoly in an area when the dust settles.Or, if there is really police involvement, they wouldn't want to do themselves out of a job. So either way the trade will continue, maybe with a rise in prices. Definitely a need for brave journalists... but who can blame them for not taking on investigative work on this in the present climate? 

[Dave Hounddriver]

54 minutes ago, Benington said:

I think we can discount independent citizen vigilante groups here! What we do have is the police claiming it's competing drug organisations, aiming to have a monopoly or perhaps a duopoly in an area when the dust settles.Or, if there is really police involvement, they wouldn't want to do themselves out of a job

There are enough drug dealers in Philippines that those of us who have lived here for a few years are bound to have met some.  The few I have met have been quite outspoken about their activities and about their police connections.  I don't suppose any of the drug dealers in Philippines function without support from one or more members of the police force.

Is that police involvement?  Or just people from the same barangay who have known each other since childhood and one of them goes off to be a cop and continues to look out for his buddy?

As to the drug dealers I have met, I give them a wide berth once they let it drop that they are into that activity.

[robert k]

9 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Totally Understand but was just pointing out that there is already a System for catching Villains  etc and this Shoot to kill willy nilly thing could get out of hand 

I haven't been looking for them lately but in the US I used to see the FBI's most wanted list in any post office I went to. It's a good start.

[robert k]

3 hours ago, Benington said:

A murky business. I think we can discount independent citizen vigilante groups here! What we do have is the police claiming it's competing drug organisations, aiming to have a monopoly or perhaps a duopoly in an area when the dust settles.Or, if there is really police involvement, they wouldn't want to do themselves out of a job. So either way the trade will continue, maybe with a rise in prices. Definitely a need for brave journalists... but who can blame them for not taking on investigative work on this in the present climate? 

Unfortunately, they didn't appear to be taking "work" on to the point of actually publishing evidence before, so I don't see them as a loss. I think reporters abuse their protection against slander charges.

[Methersgate]

Here's a sensible thought from Duterte's new head of the PNP:
 

 

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte had announced that he will appoint Dela Rosa as chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) after he takes his oath on June 30.

 

Dela Rosa said that he prefers providing non-lethal weapons, including truncheons, to barangay tanods

 

"Prone to abuse... Magiging private army ng mga kapitan iyan," Dela Rosa told radio dzBB in an interview when asked for reaction to the proposed arming of barangay tanods to help in the campaign against criminality.

 http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/568758/news/nation/incoming-pnp-chief-armed-barangay-tanods-dangerous

But this is in contradiction to what President Duterte has said:

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/566493/news/nation/duterte-to-unleash-armed-civilians-in-barangay-based-war-vs-drug-dealers

Presumptive president Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will field armed civilian auxilliaries in the country's barangays to go after drug pushers if he's not satisfied with the efforts of existing law enforcement agencies.

"I will recruit people. SCAA (special civilian active auxilliaries). Parang CHDF (civilian home defense force) sa pulis," Duterte said in a news conference as he outlined his plan to crack down on illegal drugs in the country.

Duterte said armed civilians would have to have minimum gun-handling and law enforcement training because they would be given guns to go after drug suspects.

"Only those who completed ROTC at may neuro (satisfactory neurological examinations) because pahawakan ko ng baril," Duterte said.

"Those already ex-soldiers, or have retired... yun yan sila  who has had at least the barest minimum of gun handling and law enformcement," he added.

Duterte said the armed civilians would be under the supervision of the barangay captain but "administratively, they have to report to the precinct commander or station commander." He indicated that drug lords and pushers have guns and those going after them should be armed as well.

 

[robert k]

9 hours ago, Larry45 said:

I'm not sure why you keep making this point, because every expat here already knows this.  The concern here is not born out of naivete, as you suggest, but rather experience and seeing firsthand what Filipinos are capable of.  Anyone who thinks this new breed of vigilates will administer their brand of justice with responsibility, professionalism, impartiality, and non-prejudice probably needs to get out more themselves and actually spend some time around Filipinos (that they aren't sponsoring.) 

As to why the concerned expats are not leaving, it's much more complicated than that.  Most of us have obligations, commitments, investments and other attachments which keep us here at least in the short-term.  To suggest that we all can just throw everything in a suitcase and exit is really just as impractical and simple-minded as a Filipino telling us "If you don't like it, you can get out!"  Truth be told, most of us care more about this country that the Filipinos do, and would love to see positive changes.  MORE vigilante groups is probably not the answer.

And bonus points for comparing home security and self-defense with death squads. That's comical.  

You know Larry, when I used to visit with the people at Piappi beach in Dumaguete when Duterte was running for election my friends were elated. There is a bad drug problem there and they were always telling me of police raids and shootings, thefts. One family had a huge chicken that had been stolen 4 times by drug users who tried to sell it. They always recovered it because they went looking for it and everyone else knew who it belonged to. My friends want their neighborhood, some would call it slum, cleaned up. They wanted Duterte, I will stand with them.

As for having obligations, nobody else's obligations are my problem. Before I made my first trip to the Philippines, I knew I wasn't going to buy property and I'm not even going to enter into a long contract for cable because I know that things have a way of going off the rails in the Philippines even before the new president got elected. Nobody forced you to get in so deep, or if they did, go rail at them. I'm not responsible for other people's choices in life, only my own. If you have problems? Did I cause them?

It's not like I don't have any sympathy, but it's not sympathy because Duterte got elected. It's more like sympathy that people either forgot where they are, or never realized where they were to begin with. There is a reason for the lack of investment in the Philippines, why would it be any different for you?

A good example might be the Ford assembly plant that didn't open. It was all ready to go. Ford imported two dozen F-150 trucks to be used at the plant but never on road. Customs demanded the tax as if they were actually going to be on road. Ford dropped the project and left.

I am not unfamiliar with the hurt of walking away from what one has gathered. I've had to do it before. I didn't blame anyone else for it.

[robert k]

I myself have had to walk away from an untenable situation, lost vehicles and home. I never suggest to other people what I have not done or am not willing to do myself. In this case, I have done it. I didn't rail at anyone else about it. It was my problem and I dealt with it. I lost about $100,000. There are hard choices in life sometimes.

Unrelated to the choice above and just an example of another hard choice. I owned something so valuable that it was determined that I should not be allowed to keep it. Legal means were used to force me into a partnership in which I could give up 85% of the profit or I would have to take on 57,500,000 php of debt. Of course not all they did was legal so I'm incurring legal expenses also. I also just received a cash call for an additional $5,568 and another for $44,453. So I am about to be $1,300,000 in debt while bleeding lawsuit money due to no fault of my own. I didn't cause the problem but evidently fixing it has fallen to me. I am doing so. Sometimes people have to make the hard decisions. tell me you are looking at a loss of more than $1.25 million USD, maybe you will get my attention.

[Benington]

On Bandila last night incoming PNP Chief de la Rosa said his marching orders are to give subordinants up to 3 months to deliver, whatever that means, on the illegal drugs and heinous crimes campaign. Originally the president elect said 3-6 months. Quick results needed while they work on ambitious reforms of  a number of government agencies, public services, not forgetting the move to federalism?