MANILA, Philippines: The Philippine president has put the corruption-plagued Bureau of Customs temporarily under military control amid a scandal after two huge shipments of illegal drugs reportedly slipped past through the port of Manila.
President Rodrigo Duterte made the announcement late Sunday in an expletives-laden speech in southern Davao city before an audience that included visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. At one point, Duterte made a rude gesture and uttered a profanity.
Duterte cited “a state of lawlessless” that he declared following a deadly 2016 bombing to justify putting the military in control of the customs bureau. He said says the agency’s officials will be put on a “floating status” and required to conduct their work in a gymnasium in the presidential palace complex.
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Duterte puts corruption-plagued agency in military control
Duterte puts corruption-plagued agency in military control
- Duterte cited “a state of lawlessless” that he declared following a deadly 2016 bombing to justify putting the military in control of the customs bureau
Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries
- Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo warned on Friday that freedom of expression is “rapidly shrinking” in Western countries, and urged the right to conscientious objection for people who refuse military service or for doctors who refuse to perform abortions or euthanasia.
“It is painful to see how, especially in the West, the space for genuine freedom of expression is rapidly shrinking,” the pope said in an address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.
“A new Orwellian-style language is developing which, in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that are fueling it,” said Leo, the first US pope.
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