Crime & Public Safety

2 More Paquibato Residents Killed as Bandits Continue Rampage

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — Two more residents in Paquibato were killed last week, the latest in the spate of killings in the hinterland district allegedly perpetrated by a bandit group that has ties to the military.

The victims, who came from different areas in Malabog, a village in Paquibato, had been stabbed; one of them, a 25-year-old man identified only as Luciano, was slashed in the neck. The other victim, Reynaldo Ca?ete, 35, also lost his carabao to the killers.

Generoso Baon, an official of Malabog, told the GMA-7 news program Testigo that the bandits had been running amok after Mayor Rodrigo Duterte announced a bounty for their capture.

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Special Report: A Life in Pain

(davaotoday.com photo by Carlos H. Conde)

A 26-year-old mother endured six long years of abuse, neglect and fear. Like other survivors of domestic violence, she went through the cycle of pain and confusion. It took the wisdom of a boy to finally set her free.

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Exploitative Ambivalence: How Davao City Profits from Prostitution

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — The first thing she noticed when he became her boyfriend was he did not like the way she dressed. Tall and slender, she was fond of wearing tight-fitting clothes, which he said was calling the men’s attention to her. This was often the cause of their early quarrels.

At that time, when he used to slap her, she thought it was her fault. She started wearing loose T-shirts. “It made me look like a hanger because I was very thin,” Sarah (not her real name) recalled.

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Rody’s War

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The Rise and Rise of Rodrigo Duterte

In Full Control

Why the Media Love ?Digong?

Teenagers Perish in Davao?s Killing Fields

DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) ? Mayor Rodrigo Duterte likes to regale his guests with the story of how, one time, using a piece of firewood, he crushed the hands of a man accused of stealing hand-held radios. The problem with the story, as the mayor himself would tell his visitors, is that he had actually punished the wrong man.

Duterte laughed out loud when he narrated this story one evening last week, during dinner with friends and journalists. He used the story to drive home the point that he hates thieves and criminals with passion.

The irony was apparently lost on him. To his critics, however, this story illustrates perfectly what is so wrong with Duterte?s obsession with ridding the city of criminals using what has been described by the mayor?s critics as criminal methods. Because he sidesteps due process, they say, he is bound to make mistakes sooner or later.

Indeed, according to the Coalition Against Summary Executions (CASE), an alliance of human rights and child advocates in the city, 12 of the 469 murdered by death squads or hired killers here from 1998 until 2005 had been cases of mistaken identity.

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Read more about the article The rise and rise of Rodrigo Duterte
NOT WITHIN THE COMMUNITIES. Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte explains to the media on Thursday why the military troops should not stay within the civilian population. Farmers and residents from Paquibato district have been calling for a military pullout. (davaotoday.com photo by Jayboy Urbina)

The rise and rise of Rodrigo Duterte

He is unorthodox as he is popular. He gained fame (or notoriety) as a no-nonsense mayor in his fight against criminality. A good source of sound bite, he is his own effective propaganda machine. He is both loved and loathed.

Continue ReadingThe rise and rise of Rodrigo Duterte

In Full Control


Using his unmatched political savvy, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has kept the City Council under his thumb.

By Germelina Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? A few months ago, war erupted at the City Council. It was between a large group of people identified with Mayor Rodrigo Duterte against a smaller group of people identified with Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte was not pitting these people against each other. It was just that these feuding groups were dying to please him.

But far from undermining Duterte’s influence on the City Council, the feud only tightened his hold on it. This display of power over the legislative branch has once again highlighted the reality that, in this city, Duterte is in full control.

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