The plea for clemency aired by former overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso upon returning to the Philippines more than a year ago remains unanswered, even as she renewed her appeal in a handwritten open letter early this week. “Unfortunately, no word yet on clemency. No word from Malacañang at all,” Josalee Deinla, one of...
Category: Crime
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Alleged photo thief accuses actress, 2 beauty queens of acts of violence against him
That ubiquitous symbol of prosperity, the red envelope known as “ang pao” which is used for monetary gifts, has caused torment and misery to a driver, by his account. The driver, tagged as “alias Totoy,” has lodged a complaint of illegal detention and torture at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against actress Rhian Ramos...
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Ex-police intelligence officer is convicted in Duterte-era drug war killing
Nearly a decade after the deed, a police intelligence officer in then President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has been convicted of homicide for the death of a drug suspect in Baguio City in July 2016. It is only the fifth known conviction related to Duterte’s “war on drugs” that has resulted in the extrajudicial killing (EJK)...
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Despite RA 10353, families of desaparecidos endure deep loss and longing
The activist James Jazmines was biking home in Tabaco City, Albay, on the night of Aug. 23, 2024, when he disappeared in the darkness. He had just come from the birthday celebration of his friend and fellow activist, Felix Salaveria Jr., at a downtown restaurant. Salaveria, who had reported Jazmines’ disappearance to the human rights...
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Campaign launched to find justice for all victims, whether during martial rule or the war on drugs
The former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and the student Kian delos Santos were felled by bullets 34 years apart this month in starkly different circumstances, but many agree that they—along with the victims of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial rule and of Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”—met their end in a climate of impunity. Seeing...
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Inside the once-bustling Pogo hub in Bamban, everything is covered in dust
BAMBAN, Tarlac—The once-bustling Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in this second-class town 100 kilometers from Manila is now eerily quiet. The 10-hectare Baofu compound just behind the municipal hall is a haunting reminder of a criminal enterprise that thrived under the watch of then Mayor Alice Guo, also known as Guo Hua...
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Transitional justice: Moving forward from Rodrigo Duterte is a ‘national responsibility’
With Rodrigo Duterte detained in The Hague for nearly five months, the public may now take the question seriously: What next? Even as we await the arrest of other persons involved in Duterte’s “war on drugs,” surely there is a task that ordinary Filipinos can take on, for the “war” was not waged by only...
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Is the case of the missing ‘sabungeros’ nearing solution? Their kin and advocates hope for justice
Carmen Malaca’s son, Edgar, disappeared without a trace along with 33 other cockfight gamers (sabungeros) between April 2021 and January 2022. Like the other families still grieving, she is hopeful that recent developments will finally lead to justice for their loved ones. Speaking to CoverStory in Filipino, the mother described her son as “such a...
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Mary Jane Veloso is still languishing in jail. ‘What are you waiting for, Mr. President?’
More than a decade after being saved from a firing squad in Indonesia, former overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso remains in prison, this time in her own country. The mother of two has been held at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City since Dec. 18, and her plea for executive clemency...
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Imee Marcos grills her brother’s officials on Duterte arrest while they hold their ground
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla defended on Thursday the government’s action to surrender former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and acknowledged that it was the first such incident in the country’s history. “It’s a case of first impression. This has never happened in our history,” Remulla said of the decision of...