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So the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) got trolled on their first day of operations

Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte has asked his father, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, to reconsider the appointment of Joel Maglungsod as undersecretary at the Department of Labor and Employment.

"I even texted Bong Go to ask President Rody to reconsider the appointment of Joma (Joel Maglungsod) as undersecretary of Labor," he said.

The younger Duterte claimed that the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), wherein Maglungsod serves as vice chair for Mindanao, played a role in the closure of a Japanese company in Davao City.

Nakashin Davao International Inc. exports frozen fruits to Japan, Europe and other countries.

The President-elect's son said the Japanese company closed due to operation losses incurred after the workers barricaded the entrance to the company.

He said the KMU demanded the reinstatement of 75 workers who were allegedly retrenched illegally.

"Nakausap natin yung may-ari. wala tayong magawa, nag-shutdown talaga sila, nalugi sila dahil sa pag-barricade ng gate nila. There were steps taken, with Atty. Carpio, na kausapin yung may-ari, tapos yun nagmamatigas ang KMU, tapos si Joma (Joel Maglungsod)," the younger Duterte said. (“I’ve spoken to the owner, we can’t do anything, they really shut down, they suffered losses because of the barricades on their gates. There were steps taken, with Atty. Carpio, to talk to the owner, then KMU were stubborn then Joma [Joel Manglungsod]”)

The company has reportedly lost P140 million since the protests of KMU and agency workers started on May 26 this year.

The vice mayor said the owner even cried and wanted to go back to Japan after the company's closure.

He added it may affect the business sector in Mindanao, considering that the managing director, Keisuke Nakao, is the president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce.

Heated exchanges in social media arising from political developments continue to turn nasty and further divide Filipinos.

Zena Bernardo Bernardo, one of the leaders of an online community group opposing President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncement on the impending burial of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani, has been the target of a death threat on Facebook.

The person who posted the threat has been identified as Juvic Gultiano Pedotin–whom Bernardo claimed is a police officer, as his Instagram account photograph apparently shows.

Bernardo noted that Pedotin posted the following comment at 12:56 a.m. June 18 to her updates on the Marcos burial issue: “Bangkay ni Zena Bernardo Bernardo… Bibitayin pa!” (“Zena Bernardo’s corpse, to be hanged”)

Bernardo has replied with defiance: “Fair warning to all diehard Marcos and Duterte operators and supporters… We have endured your bashing, foul words and violent threats. You continue to poison the core values of society. Let me warn you that we do not stand helpless. If you can crack down on us, we can crack down on you.”

(UPDATED) President-elect Rodrigo Duterte was set to meet members of his Cabinet on Tuesday at the Department of Public Works and Highway's compound in Barangay Panacan, Davao City.

The following names were on a list of attendees for the meeting and sources of ABS-CBN News:

Executive Secretary - Salvador Medialdea Presidential Spokesperson - Salvador Panelo Agrarian Reform - Rafael Mariano Agriculture - Emmanuel Piñol Budget and Management - Benjamin Diokno

Education - Leonor Briones Energy - Alfonso Cusi Finance- Carlos Dominguez Foreign Affairs - Perfecto Yasay Jr. National Bureau of Investigation - Dante Gierran

Interior and Local Government (Secretary) - Mike Sueno Interior and Local Gov't (Undersecretary) - Catalino Cuy Justice - Vitaliano Aguirre II Labor and Employment - Silvestre Bello III National Defense - Delfin Lorenzana

National Economic and Development Authority - Ernesto Pernia National Security Adviser - Hermogenes Esperon Jr. Public Works and Highways - Mark Villar Science and Technology - Fortunato Dela Peña Social Welfare and Development - Judy Taguiwalo

Transportation and Communication- Arthur Tugade Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process - Jesus Dureza Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief - Ronald Dela Rosa Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief - Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya Cabinet Secretary - Leoncio Evasco Jr.

Solicitor General - Jose Calida Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) - Andrea Domingo Presidential Assistant for the Visayas - Mike Diño Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) - Martin Delgra Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) - Isidro Lapena

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) - Ricardo Jalad Bureau of Immigration (BI) - Jaime Morente Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) - Cesar Dulay Land Transportation Office (LTO) - Edgar Galvante National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) - Alex Monteagudo

Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he has not decided yet on a cabinet position for incoming vice president Leni Robredo.

Duterte and Robredo, who come from opposing parties, are set to be proclaimed winners of the May 9 elections this week.

“Why should I talk to her? I have not considered anything for her because I’m more worried where I would place the friends na nagkautang ako ng loob,” Duterte said.

“I should not be looking beyond my borders yet,” he added.

Liberal Party candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Ma. Lenor “Leni” Robredo won the vice presidential race after the congress made an official count in the House of Representatives which showed her leading with 14,418,817, or just 263,473 votes apart from her closest rival Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who got 14,155,344.

Robredo beat the only son and namesake of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, during a marathon official canvass in Congress last week.

Robredo, who has given free legal assistance to the poor, has expressed preference to work in the Duterte government's anti-poverty campaign.

In an interview with reporters Sunday, Duterte rejected criticism he was putting a premium on friendship over qualifications in choosing cabinet secretaries."

Ang mga kilala ko, mga brod ko at yung mga kababata ko dito na mahusay," he said.

MANILA, Philippines – The family of murdered peace consultant Josefina V. Bajade has appealed on the government for the swift arrest of her killers.

The immediate kin of the 65-year-old Bajade, a provincial government employee for almost 40 years and former provincial welfare office chief of the province of Agusan del Sur, particularly asked the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to conduct a massive manhunt against the perpetrators.

“Our helpless mother was murdered and we don’t know why they (assailants) do this to her,” Bajade’s son Dexter Jr. said in vernacular.

He said her helpless mother forced by heavily armed men to ride a single motorcycle for unknown reason and then shot her to death.

The whole officialdom of the province of Agusan del Sur was also shocked and saddened by the killing of Bajade, consultant on peace process of Gov. Adolph Edward G. Plaza in Agusan del Sur.

Bajade played a key role in the peace process in Agusan del Sur and was responsible for over +50 NPA rebel returnee’s, Cane said.

Base on police report, Bajade and her son Dexter were on board a metallic brown Toyota Innova, a government vehicle, on their way to Barangay San Isidro, Monkayo town, in Compostela Valley (ComVal) to meet an alleged New People’s Army (NPA) amazon identified only as certain “Vilma”, a former barangay health worker in Loreto town, Agusan del Sur), who decided to surrender at about 4 p.m. last May 15.

While on their way to the meeting place, they were flagged down at the municipal border of Monkayo and Montevista of the province by four men and a woman armed with AK 47 rifles and M203.

The armed group ordered them to alight from their vehicle.

Bajade was later forced to board a motorcycle while his son Dexter and their driver, Tyron T. Ananoria, were tied up and left behind in the place.

After almost 45 minutes, Dexter managed to untie his arm and followed her mother by walking for almost 45 minutes.

Philippine police shot dead eight drug suspects this week, authorities said Friday, following repeated calls by president-elect Rodrigo Duterte for security forces to kill criminals.

Gunmen on motorcycles also murdered three petty criminals in Duterte's hometown of Davao, police said, deepening fears of mass extra-judicial killings once the controversial politician begins his six-year term on June 30.

Police insisted the eight drug suspects were killed lawfully, with the officers only firing back after being shot at in three separate raids. One occurred in Manila, another near the capital and the third in a small town in the northern Philippines.

"There is no new policy to kill drug suspects. We have our rules of engagement and respect their human rights," said Superintendent Teresita Escamillan, police spokeswoman for the Manila district where two of the suspects were killed.

When asked for comment, national police spokesman Wilben Mayor said all officers "appeared" to follow operational procedures on the use of force, based on the reports sent to headquarters in Manila.

Such deaths are not unusual in a nation where the police force has a track record of extra-judicial killings, and show the danger of the situation getting much worse under Duterte, according to rights group Amnesty International.

"We fear an erosion of the rule of law. Once that happens, the Philippines will become a Wild West and become totally ungovernable," Wilnor Papa, campaign coordinator for Amnesty's Philippine office, told AFP.

Papa said there were other worrying signals of an imminent breakdown in the rule of law, citing the recent offer by the incoming mayor of the major city of Cebu of bounties to police officers who killed criminal suspects.

Extra-judicial killings by soldiers, police, insurgents and vigilante groups were already among the Philippines' most significant human rights problems, the US State Department said in its annual global human rights report last year.

"Concerns about impunity of national and local government officials, security force members, and powerful business and commercial figures persisted," the report said.

- Shoot-to-kill -

Duterte won this month's elections in a landslide largely on an incendiary law-and-order platform headlined by a vow to wipe out crime within six months.

He pledged to give security forces shoot-to-kill orders, and vowed that tens of thousands of criminals would die.

Duterte also variously denied and acknowledged links to vigilante squads in Davao, a major city in the southern Philippines that he has ruled for most of the past two decades.

Rights group say the death squads have killed more than 1,000 people, including children and petty criminals, and that no-one has been brought to justice for those deaths.

Three suspected petty criminals were killed in a single attack on Wednesday in Davao, according to the city's police spokeswoman, Senior Inspector Milgrace Driz.

Up to five gunmen on motorcycles attacked the men on a street near a school, Driz said.

"Police records show these men were pickpockets and burgled cars," Driz said, adding the deaths could have been due to gang warfare.

When asked if the so-called Davao Death Squads could have been responsible, she described them as a "myth".

"They don't exist, it is only you journalists who say they exist," she said.

Commenting on the latest Davao killings this week, Duterte told a news conference on Thursday there would be no need to investigate if the suspects were involved in drugs, and that public security outweigh human rights concerns.

"What was their crime? If they had a different crime, we will investigate. Drugs, I am sorry.... I will not allow the (suspects) to go to jail for that," he said.

"Are we here to protect public interest, public health, public safety? Or are we here to protect human rights?"

Liberal Party candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Ma. Lenor “Leni” Robredo is the country’s vice president.

This was the result of the official count in the House of Representatives which showed her leading with 14,418,817, or just 263,473 votes apart from her closest rival Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who got 14,155,344.

Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers finished tabulating the total number of 166 certificates of canvass around 7:18 p.m. on Friday.

Robredo was declared the winner after the canvassing, which incidentally was the 58th birthday of her late husband Jesse Robredo.

READ: Robredo camp confident Leni will be proclaimed VP after canvassing

Jesse, the former interior secretary, died in a plane crash in 2012 due to engine failure. The sympathy for her husband buoyed the widow Leni to win the congressional district of Camarines Sur in the 2013 midterm elections, toppling the Villafuerte political clan.

Although Congresswoman Robredo initially wanted to run for senator in the May 9 national polls, she was convinced to be the running mate of Manuel “Mar” Roxas when the administration’s first choice Grace Poe opted to run for president.

Robredo started off the lowest in the voters’ preference polls until she got in a statistical tie with frontrunner Marcos before the elections.

Robredo won the vice presidency buoyed by her votes from her bailiwicks in Bicol, which stood out against the “Solid North” votes for Marcos.

Marcos had decried massive cheating and automated fraud that shaved his votes in favor of Robredo after a supposed change in command script in the transparency server that received the unofficial count. But the change was dismissed as a cosmetic change intended to correct the spelling of a candidate’s name.

Marcos trailed with 14,155,344 votes.

Presumptive president-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday revealed that he received a call from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday afternoon.

Duterte said they talked for nine minutes about some issues including adherence to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said he told Trudeau, "I'm following it."

The two leaders also talked about the Canadian hostage who was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf. Duterte said he apologized for the incident.

"Please accept my apology for the incident that happened. We will try our very best and see to it that it will never happen again. And rest assured that the time comes we will be able to apprehend the criminals and exect justice," the Davao strongman said in a press conference in Davao City.

"I said that we are partners. May we remain partners for all time,” he added. When pressed for more details, in jest he said, “Hindi ko tinanong 'yung state of health niya.” ("I did not ask for his state of health")

Trudeau was the second world leader, that Duterte disclosed, who called him to congratulate him and to discuss some issues.

he has this problem of thinking he’s an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good deity unfortunately when he’s not. reminds me of the antagonist from x-men: the apocalypse. 

PS. I’m an atheist too and I think PDiggy is an asshole to say things like that. Just because you cannot agree with a religion does not mean you have the free license to dismiss them and call them hypocrites because you don’t believe in them - especially if you’re a well known hypocrite yourself.