Thousands of protesters gathered Saturday in the Philippines capital of Manila to mark the anniversary of the People Power revolution that unseated dictator Ferdinand Marcos 31 years ago.

Protesters marched through the streets to the People Power democracy shrine in Manila, which marks the spot where millions of Filipinos gathered in 1986 in a mostly peaceful uprising to remove Marcos from power.

The uprising served as a model for later peaceful revolts throughout the world and brought an end to a 20-year rule marked by corruption, scandals and human rights abuses.

The event is celebrated annually in the Philippines, though this year the government commemoration ceremony was relatively modest. President Rodrigo Duterte did not attend the event. He instead chose to spend the weekend at his southern home in Davao.

Duterte, last year, allowed Marcos’s body to be buried in a heroes’ cemetery, which led to massive outcry among Filipinos who opposed the dictator.

Supporters of Duterte held their own rally in Manila on Saturday, praying for the success of Duterte’s war against drugs, which has led to the reported killing of at least 2,555 suspected drug dealers since he took office last year. Another 4,000 people have been killed during the crackdown under unexplained circumstances.
…

Like other Afghan immigrants, Faisal Razmal thought he was leaving violence behind for a new life in the United States, considered the land of opportunity.

After all, he survived an IED (improvised explosive device) blast in Kabul during five years as an interpreter for U.S. forces. Threats to his life were worth it, in his opinion, because fighting the “enemies” was the best way to serve his country – and because his dream was to move to the U.S. with a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).

After his visa was approved, Razmal recalls how excited he was to arrive in Austin with his family and see the gleaming skyscrapers and busy highways of the Texas capital.

“It looked very beautiful,” he said.

What followed, he said, was a steady descent into a nightmare. While in California, where he took a job, he was shot in the left eye with a flare gun during an altercation with a 16-year-old youth. He has not been able to work due to the physical and psychological impact. Jaded by his experiences, he appears ready to give up on building a new life.

Things started well.  “I was thinking, ‘This is United States. No one can hurt you, this is a country where law rules; there is good government, good security; people are educated; there is the FBI and CIA.’  I trusted America,” Razmal said.

SIV program

Several throusand Afghan interpreters and their family members have immigrated to the U.S. under the SIV program, since it was established in 2008, because their work for U.S. forces put them in danger.

“I don’t believe that Afghans who come through the SIV get the necessary support to resettle,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Granillo, who worked with Razmal in Kabul.

“My sincere belief is that our translators provided an invaluable service to our mission and should be treated as veterans,” Granillo said. “I wish they could receive the same VA (veterans’) benefits and educational benefits that the service members they worked hand in hand with receive.”

Granillo still strongly believes that the U.S. really is the land of opportunity, but says the new wave of immigrants must bear hardships to pave the way for future generations.

Certainly, not all suffer as badly as Razmal has. Some overcome the culture shock, the challenges of getting a job or an education and even the homesickness that accompanies being in a strange new land. Some thrive.

The U.S. and refugee-support organizations try to prepare new immigrants for what they will face. There is initial financial support and counseling aimed at getting America’s new residents settled and helping those who run into trouble as they try to adjust. Sometimes, however, the toughest lesson is that freedom also brings the freedom to fail, even if a person does nothing wrong or just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or underestimates a threat very different than those he or she left behind.

A State Department letter that is sent to those about to move to the U.S. outlines a bare-bones support package that they will receive.

“The resettlement agency to which you are assigned receives $1,875 per person in U.S. Government funds, of which a minimum of $925 must be spent directly on your behalf,” the letter reads. “These funds will be used to pay for your rent and/or basic necessities.”

Hard work

Word of higher payouts, however, spread. Razmal says he arrived with just $50 in his pocket after hearing from other interpreters already living in the U.S. that he would get $3,000 in “welcome money” – $1,000 for each of his family members – along with a few months’ rent and food stamps for a while.

Instead, he found himself in a rough neighborhood, where drunks played loud music in front of the apartment that the caseworker for the International Rescue Committee found for his family, along with a mattress, a sofa and some other basic household goods.

“Seeing such a situation scared my wife,” Razmal said. “It was a very, very, very poor place.”

The rent was only paid for a month, so he struggled to find work, finally landing a minimum-wage job in a taco restaurant.

“I was working in everything: cleaning the restaurant, washing the glasses, washing dishes, cooking food, making tacos, every work from A to Z,” said Razmal.

After two months, he added a second job as a security guard, then a third delivering pizzas to help pay the bills. It was hard work, but he said he accepted it as a newcomer to the U.S., and he slowly became financially stable.

Then he got a call from his brother-in-law, an Afghan-American living in Washington state, who said he was returning to Afghanistan to work for the U.S. Army and wanted Razmal to move into his home to help take care of his wife.

“He told me that I was the only person in the U.S. who he could trust, because I am the brother of his wife,” Razmal said. He agreed and got a job as a security guard.

“For the first couple weeks, they welcomed us. But after that, my sister began to find fault, arguing with my wife and so on” until tensions boiled over, Razmal said. “My sister wanted to call the police, and I decided to leave her home at 2 a.m. because it was impossible for me to continue living with her.”

Sacramento move

Ramzal then moved to Sacramento, California, where he took a job with the same company. He said he was happy – for two months. Then, in August of 2015, Razmal met in his apartment complex’s parking lot with some former colleagues, trying to help two Afghan friends find jobs in the neighborhood.

“There was another Afghan fellow who said he can find them a job. So, I introduced them to each other,” Razmal said.

A group of youths approached, and the 16-year-old suspect demanded $1, then their cellphones. Both Razmal and his friends rejected his demands.

Later, one of his friends left, then called within minutes to say the same kids had stopped him, but he didn’t understand what they wanted.

“I rushed to them, and this young man was screaming at my Afghan fellow. I asked the young boy, `Why you are screaming and what do you want?’”

The youth, identified as Renardo Dejour Williams, pulled a flare gun from his pocket.

“I began laughing and told him, ‘You want to scare me with this baby gun?’” Razmal said. “And he pulled the trigger and shot me in the face. I felt as if my face was on fire. I did not even think that such a baby gun is so powerful.”

Razmal lost the vision in his eye, then his job. Financial issues followed. His psychotherapist, Homeyra Ghaffari Sorooshian, said he has been diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, has lost hope and wants to give up.

The California Victim Compensation Program supported him for a year, but that assistance ran out last September. The program asked Razmal to bring a letter from his doctor saying how long he will be unable to work.

“It is very disappointing. When it comes to mental state, no doctor can guarantee how long it takes for a person to recover. There are so many elements involved,” Sorooshian said.

Razmal managed to get a letter from another doctor to cover a six-month period, but his payments were cut from $1,600 per month to $900. “It is not enough to support a family,” Razmal said.

A trial for the alleged assailant has been postponed several times, but for Ramzal, the real pain is his loss of independence.

“I want to work and feel ashamed to ask for help,” he said.
…

Pakistan disclosed Saturday that it is engaged in negotiations with Afghanistan on developing a joint “mechanism” to address mutual cross-border terrorism concerns, and both sides could formalize a deal next week.

Sartaj Aziz, the prime minister’s adviser on foreign policy, told reporters in Islamabad that he will hold further talks on the subject when he meets with Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani on the sidelines of a regional summit opening in Islamabad on Sunday.

He said that Rabbani has confirmed his participation in the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization, or ECO, along with other senior Afghan officials.

Aziz went on to say that both sides see terrorism as a “common enemy” and have agreed that there is a need for cooperation.

“For this purpose, we are holding discussions on developing a mechanism at various levels such as ground level, higher military level, intelligence level, political level, foreign office level. We [Pakistan] have already sent them our proposals and if they [Afghanistan] agree to it, I am hopeful it [the agreement] will be formalized during the [ECO] summit,” the adviser said.

Mutual accusations

Bilateral relations have plunged to new lows in recent months with Islamabad and Kabul accusing each other of harboring anti-state militant groups and sponsoring terrorist attacks on their respective soils.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,600 kilometer, largely porous border.

Tensions worsened this month when Pakistani leaders blamed militants sheltering on the Afghan side for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks across the country that killed scores of people.

The military also handed over a list of 76 militant leaders to the Afghan government following the bloodshed and demanded swift action against them and their extradition to Pakistan.

Kabul rejected the charges and instead provided Islamabad with its own list of 85 militant leaders as well as 32 terrorist training centers that the Afghan government alleged are based in Pakistan and plotting violence against Afghanistan.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry, while responding to a Pakistani list of suspected fugitive terrorists, has said that it was ready to look into it and expected Islamabad to also go after militants wanted by Kabul.

Pakistan has also sealed all its border crossings with Afghanistan since the wave of terrorist attacks hit the country two weeks ago. Foreign policy adviser Aziz, while speaking on Saturday, expressed hope the border would be reopened soon.
…

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is making his first visit to Australia Saturday, in a sign that tensions early this year have eased and relations between the two Asia-Pacific neighbors are stable.

Australia’s relationship with its heavily populated northern neighbor is often turbulent. It soured when Australia supported East Timorese independence from Indonesia in 2002. 

More recently in 2015, diplomatic tension rose when Jakarta executed two members of an Australian drug trafficking gang despite pleas for mercy from Canberra. In January, Indonesia briefly suspended bilateral military ties after a dispute at an Australian Special Forces base in Perth. 

Optimism for trade progress

Those anxieties have soothed, and there is optimism that Widodo’s visit will see meaningful progress on a free trade agreement.

Aaron Connelly, an analyst at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, says ties between the two countries are in good shape.

“The remarkable thing here is that despite that background of irritation that we see on occasion, relations between the two are actually pretty good,” Connelly said. “Ministers on both sides have good relationships with their counterparts, and you also have Australian feelings towards Indonesia at a high.

“In our Lowy Institute poll last year we asked Australians to rank countries on a thermometer from zero to 100, and Indonesia ranked at 56 degrees, which is the highest result we have ever seen in 11 years of polling,” he added.

South China Sea also on agenda

Widodo and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are also expected to discuss the dangers posed by radicalized fighters returning home from the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Tensions over the South China Sea are an additional topic on the agenda, along with the possibility of joint navy patrols in the area.

While significant, the Indonesian leader’s visit to Sydney will be brief. He arrives Saturday and flies home after lunch Sunday.

He was forced to cancel an earlier state trip to Australia last November because of violent disturbances in Jakarta. 
…

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had until three weeks ago driven the trade in crystal methamphetamine underground, according to residents and drug users in some of the slum areas of the nation’s capital city.

As thousands of users and dealers were shot dead by police and vigilantes in the first seven months after Duterte came to power last June, open dealing in the drug, known here by its street name shabu, largely stopped. Instead, deals were done on the quiet between people who knew each other, maybe with a text message first.

But since Duterte ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to stand down from the drugs war last month, after declaring the force “rotten to the core,” the drugs trade has come back out of the shadows, more than half a dozen drug users and dealers in some of Manila’s toughest areas said in interviews. Many spoke on condition that only their first names be used in this story.

‘How much are you going to buy?’

Beside one of the less-used railroad tracks in Manila, a grassy area scattered with human excrement only a few miles from the gleaming high-rises of the Makati business district, shabu was easily available last week, costing just a few pesos (cents) per hit. 

Residents said that when they traveled on the illegal trolleys that ferry people for a few pesos along the track when there are no trains in sight, a fellow passenger will often offer them a sachet of the drug.

Eusebio, 52, who pushes a wood and bamboo trolley on the track for a living, said dealers sometimes walk alongside calling out: “How much are you going to buy?”

“Now that the operations have been suspended, drugs have become rampant again,” he said. “Those who were hiding have resurfaced.”

Another trolley-pusher, Boyser, 59, told two Reuters journalists: “If you weren’t reporters, they would offer you drugs.”

‘Users are still users’

In a dark cinderblock room that serves as a drug den in another part of Manila, there were similar stories from users. 

“We have more freedom now,” Jason, a 39-year-old bartender told a visiting reporter as he inhaled shabu smoke. “All the users are still users, except those who have been killed,” he said, adding that he has used shabu for almost two decades.

More than 8,000 people have been killed since Duterte was sworn in almost eight months ago, about 2,500 of whom were killed in official police anti-narcotics operations. Human rights groups believe many of the others were extra-judicial executions committed as part of the war on drugs, and in cooperation with the police, a claim the Duterte administration has vehemently denied.

The president’s office did not respond to a list of emailed questions about the drug war and whether dealers were now openly back on the streets.

Duterte has repeatedly said he will hunt down drug lords and other “high value” targets and there have been a handful of large-scale seizures and raids on shabu laboratories.

But most of those killed in the war on drugs have been small-time dealers and users in some of the country’s poorest neighborhoods.

The PNP stopped publishing an official tally of drug war killings from police operations on January 31 when Duterte ordered the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to take over the campaign.

Fewer killings

According to reporters and photographers from Reuters and Philippine news organizations working the night shift, “vigilante-style” killings of drug suspects have continued, but at a much slower pace. Police data shows 398 people were killed nationwide in the first 20 days of February.

Details of the killings were not provided and it was unclear how many were drug-related.

Some anti-narcotics experts say they would not be surprised if it turns out that the drug war has been ineffective. They say that ruthless operations against drugs, like Duterte’s, have failed elsewhere in the world.

When an aggressive anti-drugs campaign begins, supplies may be tight for a while, street prices may spike, but ultimately drug usage does not drop, say those who have studied the results.

“We don’t know of any examples from around the world where very hard-line approaches have worked effectively,” said Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “They can temporarily disrupt street business, but they don’t disrupt demand.”

Lost momentum

Some police officers told Reuters that they had received reports of increased street-level drug activity since they were ordered to stand down.

Manila Police Commander Olivia Sagaysay, who oversees four precincts in the city, said the war on drugs had lost momentum and morale among her officers had suffered since they were ordered to stand down. 

“It’s depressing,” she said. “But who are we not to follow the higher-ups?”

She said she expected the trade to increase but maybe not return to its previous levels because “networks were disrupted” and “pushers were killed.”

In a written response to questions from Reuters about the impact of Duterte’s campaign on the street-level shabu trade, the PDEA said that “based on reports gathered, the supply of illegal drugs in some areas are still considerably abundant.”

The PDEA attributed low street prices for shabu — prices overall have risen only minimally since the war on drugs began and in some areas have fallen — to a “lack of customers” or drug traffickers trying to get rid of their supply “in order to avoid arrest.” It said drugs were being hoarded and that it was difficult for users to transact directly with traffickers. The PDEA did not provide evidence for any of its assessments.

PNP spokesman Dionardo Carlos said drugs would return to the streets because it was “a billion peso business” and “money talks.”

In his view, though, the drug war had not failed. 

“We hit the target and now it goes back to PDEA. As far as the PNP is concerned we did our part in the past seven months. I hope PDEA will be able to do their part,” he said.

The PDEA has just about 1,800 people compared with the national police force of 160,000. Of the existing PDEA personnel, only about half are field operatives.

PDEA spokesman Derrick Carreon said his agency will add staff and that the president would soon be issuing an executive order to set up an anti-illegal drugs inter-agency council and task force that would also draw from the military, the National Bureau of Investigation and the PNP. The task force will be charged with pursuing the war on drugs.

“There is a temporary vacuum of warm bodies but it won’t be long,” Carreon said, adding that those involved in the drug trade would be wrong to think they were safe.

“If that’s their perception, it won’t last long,” he said. “They will find out in the hardest way that they are terribly wrong.”

‘Go after cookers’

Still, Jason, the bartender who is a shabu user, said Duterte’s campaign was not successful because he targeted the wrong people.

If authorities had gone after the “cookers,” the people manufacturing the drugs, instead of users and small dealers, people like him would be unable to buy and would move on. As it is, Jason said, shabu is always in plentiful supply, adding he was addicted and the drug eliminated any fear he may have had of being shot by police or vigilantes.

As he spoke, Jason poured white crystals into a long strip of aluminum foil folded into a trough, tilted it slightly and held a flame below. Almost immediately, it produced a thick white smoke, which he sucked up through a narrow aluminum foil straw.

He then began speaking again, more animatedly. “I buy drugs every day!” he said. 
…

Democratic senators are protesting the Trump Organization’s acceptance of a valuable trademark from the Chinese government without asking Congress first if doing so is constitutional.

A group of 13 senators warned President Donald Trump in a letter Thursday that they intended to hold him accountable to his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Additional Democrats signed a letter Friday to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that complained about Trump getting special treatment from China.

“A president must not have two masters,” said Thursday’s letter, led by Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal. “If you continue to refuse to request and receive congressional approval before accepting favors from foreign governments, we will be unable to serve our constitutional role. Such a situation is unacceptable.”

The letters came in response to China’s February 14 registration of a trademark for construction services to Trump. He secured the mark only after fighting for 10 grinding years in China’s courts to win back rights from a man named Dong Wei. A bureaucratic about-face after Trump declared his candidacy has raised questions about whether his political rise is benefiting his family business. These concerns are particularly sharp in China, where the courts and bureaucracy reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party.

Emoluments clause

Critics say the trademark award violates the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars public servants from accepting anything of value from foreign states unless approved by Congress. While the actual value of Trump’s China trademarks is unclear, Trump himself has said he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending them. Trump has significant intellectual property interests abroad, including 49 pending and 77 registered trademarks in China alone. Most come up for renewal during his term.

Alan Garten, chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment. He has previously said that Trump’s trademark activity in China predates his election. Garten has also noted that Trump turned management of his company over to his children and a team of executives in order to remove himself from his business and its trademark portfolio.

Last week, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California called the China trademark registration “a clear conflict of interest and deeply troubling.” Feinstein is a signatory to both of this week’s letters, too.

“At a time when the United States has pressing economic, diplomatic and security concerns at play in our relationship with the People’s Republic of China, the possibility that the government of China is seeking to win President Trump’s favor by granting him special treatment for his businesses is disturbing,” said the letter to Tillerson, also signed by Senators Ben Cardin of Maryland and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
…

The apparent assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother reflects “instability” and “uncertainty” in the North Korean leadership, former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

“It really confirms our worst suspicions about the regime in North Korea,” Panetta told VOA on Thursday, when asked what conclusions he would draw if Pyongyang was confirmed as being responsible.

“He clearly is somebody who will not hesitate to kill anyone who either displeases him or if he suspects that individual of having opinions that are not in line with the leader,” said the former Pentagon chief, referring to a series of purges the North Korean leader has carried out.

Kim Jong Nam, 45, died February 13 after allegedly being poisoned by two women at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Malaysian police said Friday that the poison used to kill Kim was the VX nerve agent, which is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which North Korea never signed.

In an email sent Friday, a U.S. State Department official told VOA the U.S. is “always willing to help partners with law enforcement cooperation in the context of our efforts to combat transnational crime and support the rule of law.”

While the investigation is still underway, police have arrested the women and one North Korean national. They are seeking seven other North Koreans, including one diplomat in the Malaysian capital, for questioning.

South Korea believes Kim Jong Un ordered the killing of his half brother. North Korea has denied responsibility, accusing South Korea and Malaysia of plotting to have it blamed for the death.

Sign of instability

Kim Jong Un has executed or deposed of senior officials and close aides, including his uncle, in what has often been described as a “reign of terror.”

According to Panetta, Kim Jong Nam’s death is another reminder that the North Korean leader is “unpredictable and vicious.”

“If this is ultimately proven true, I think it only confirms the intelligence we have on the leader of North Korea,” said Panetta, who also served as the head of CIA.

Once deemed the legitimate heir to North Korea’s ruling regime, Kim Jong Nam was known to be favored by China.

Christine Wormuth, former undersecretary for policy at the U.S. Defense Department, said Kim’s death could be seen as a snub to Beijing.

“One could read [it] as a sign that Kim Jong Un is basically showing the Chinese that he can reach all the way to Malaysia and take out the potential successor that China might have preferred,” Wormuth told VOA.

China’s reaction

Several days after Kim’s assassination, China announced it would suspend imports of North Korean coal for the rest of 2017. The North’s coal exports account for about one-third of the country’s total export income, generating an estimated $1 billion a year for the regime, according to U.S. officials. In an apparent protest against China’s ban, North Korea’s state media on Thursday harshly criticized China without mentioning its name. It accused China of “dancing to the tune” of the United States.

Panetta said he thought Chinese leaders had long been concerned about Kim Jong Un’s behavior and that the incident in Malaysia would further isolate his country.

“So for that reason, I think it’s very important for us to continue to work with China,” the former intelligence chief said.

Jon Wolfsthal, senior director at the National Security Council for arms control and nonproliferation in the Obama administration, told VOA this week that the Chinese move against the North could be a “sign that China is less comfortable than it used to be with North Korean behavior,” which creates room for the U.S. to put more pressure on the North.

The news of the killing came amid heightened tensions over the North’s recent missile test, which took place a day before Kim died.

Reinstatement of sanctions

Some U.S. lawmakers are calling for returning North Korea to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Washington removed Pyongyang from the list in October 2008 as part of a nuclear deal in which the communist state agreed to disable a plutonium plant and allow some inspections.

“Removing North Korea from the state sponsor of terrorism list was a mistake,” Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement released to VOA by his office. “That’s why I am working on legislation that calls for North Korea to be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism.”

U.S. Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican from Colorado, is also calling for the reinstatement of the North to the list. “The murder of Kim Jong Un’s half brother is yet another reminder of North Korea’s brutality,” he said.

VOA’s Cho Eunjung contributed to this report.
…