"Philippine journalist gunned down" Associated Press September 06, 2013
MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine newspaper editor who recently wrote about illegal gambling has been killed, the second journalist slain in the country in a week, police said Thursday.
Vergel Bico was shot twice in the head Wednesday as he was driving his motorcycle in Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental province, said local police chief D’Artagnan Katalbas. The gunman fled on a motorcycle, which was driven by another man.
Katalbas said a motive was not known but investigators were ‘‘not discounting’’ that the killing was related to Bico’s work as a journalist.
Last week, radio commentator Fernando Solijon was fatally shot by a motorcycle-riding assailant in southern Iligan City.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Solijon had criticized local politicians on his program and linked a village chief to illegal drugs.
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"US military task force in Philippines is being phased out; Elite unit set up to combat rebels after 9/11 attacks" by Floyd Whaley | New York Times June 27, 2014
MANILA, Philippines — An elite US antiterrorist military unit that has been operating in the southern Philippines for more than a decade is being phased out, according to a US government official.
The Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, which was formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was established to help the Philippines fight Al Qaeda-linked rebel groups in the country. The unit was one of dozens of similar outposts worldwide that attempted to fight potential terror groups at their source, before they could strike the United States.
I'm sorry, but the shock value is no longer working with this charade.
The US government official, who asked not be named because he was not authorized to discuss the issue, said US Special Forces would continue to assist the Philippine military on a periodic basis. He said the elite unit had been successful in its mission.
“Our partnership with the Philippine security forces has been successful in drastically reducing the capabilities of domestic and transnational terrorist groups in the Philippines — to the point where they have largely devolved into disorganized groups resorting to criminal undertakings to sustain their activities,” the official said.
The phasing out of the antiterrorist unit comes two months after the Philippines and the United States signed a military cooperation agreement that would allow the construction of military facilities in the Philippines that could be used by the United States. The new deal would allow United States ships and aircraft, as well as military personnel, to be stationed in the Philippines — although officials have stressed that permanent US bases would not be established.
The agreement marks a change in focus of US military involvement in the Philippines. The Special Forces deployment in the southern Philippines was focused on the internal threat of extremist rebel groups. The new arrangement is focused on external threats, particularly in light of increased tensions between the Philippines and China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
That's at the back of the net.
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Related: US Troops Return to Philippines
"Filipinos to get mobile disaster alerts" Associated Press June 28, 2014
MANILA — The Philippines has passed a law that requires cellphone companies to send warnings to millions of people in the path of deadly typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes in an effort to reduce the number of fatalities that occur almost every year.
The measure was in response to one of the deadliest typhoons ever to make landfall — Typhoon Haiyan, which killed over 6,300 people in the central Philippines last year.
The Free Mobile Disaster Act, signed last week by President Benigno Aquino III but announced Friday, directs cellphone operators to send alerts about calamities whenever required by national disaster agencies.
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Also see: Hopeless in the Philippines
None in my Globe, either.
