🇵🇭 Church blast kills at least four in throwback to Marawi's darkest days

Hello friends!

I had an Air Asia-induced mental breakdown last week which put a hole in my newsletter schedule, but I’ve made it now! Am back in Canberra for the next month or so and in true ‘townie’ spirit, this dispatch is coming to you from the Oporto in the Canberra Centre food court.

I know the town is overrepresented in the list, so if you’re keen to get a coffee and chat all things nerd I would love to. 

Today, we’ve got a quick check-in with the Philippines beginning with the awful bombing of a church service in Marawi City on Sunday. We’ve also got a small update on the ICC investigation and peace talks with the New People’s Army, which is driving a wedge between the president and VP office. 

Tomorrow we’ll catch up with the Mekong states, bar Myanmar. 

See you then!

Erin 

Four were killed Sunday after a blast during Mass in a gym at Mindanao State University in southern Marawi City, Taha Mandangan. Not much has been released about those killed but the Associated Press reports it includes three women. Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. said six of the 50 or so injured are in serious condition. 

It was “perpetrated by foreign terrorists,” President Bongbong Marcos told media yesterday, without pointing to where exactly they’ve come from. Islamic State took credit for the blast on its Telegram channels and there is speculation that it could be a retaliatory attack after skirmishes between the Dawlah Islamiya-Maute group and security forces. These clashes include an enormous one last week in which the leader of the group is believed to have been among the 11 killed. 

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the National Police are continuing investigations and said they’re ‘validating’ claims IS was behind the attack, PhilStar reports. Two suspects have been identified, but the AFP/PNP are keeping that information very close to their chests. 

Marawi is, of course, the site of the horrific 2017 siege in which the city was held captive by these groups, with Abu Sayyaf and Maute Group leading the charge. Beyond being a terrible tragedy for the Church parish it does provoke some very sad memories for the city. Classes at the university have resumed, while security has been heightened across the province. 

More to come here and we’ll be following along! 

Elsewhere, former president Rodrigo Duterte failed to appear at the preliminary hearing of charges he’s facing filed by ACT Teachers Representative France Castro, Rappler reports. He was due to face a preliminary hearing yesterday over allegations he made death threats against the congresswoman but his legal team said he’d yet to receive the paperwork. The whole shebang has been put on hold until Dec. 15, but it sure seems like he’s going to be resistant the whole way down. Castro’s team is more optimistic: “We’re not saying this is a delaying tactic, since what the lawyers said, we assume good faith there,” lawyer Rico Domingo told the Inquirer. 

Is the International Criminal Court investigation into the Duterte-era war on drugs back on track? During his tenure, the ex-prez made it clear in his unique terms that the Court has no jurisdiction over the country and to mind its own danged business. That’s a view candidate-Marcos supported but now that the power of Duterte has worn off dramatically, things are looking a little different. 

Last month, Marcos measured his words pointing to conversations within the House rather than a Malacañang-motivated change of heart: “It’s really a sense of the House resolution and the sense, they are just expressing or manifesting the sense of the House that perhaps it’s time to allow or to cooperate with the ICC investigations,” he said, as reported by the Inquirer.

Fantastic news say human rights activists and victim advocates. It’s not too hard to do either, a joint statement between the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and Rise Up said. He just has to give a thumbs-up and we can get to work. 

“Being an exclusive exercise of the president’s powers as chief architect of foreign policy, it would arguably not require Senate concurrence. The Philippines is already obliged to cooperate under its residual obligations as a former member of the ICC. The declaration could be made to formalize its commitment to the court’s processes, following previous examples of Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Palestine, Ukraine and Egypt,” the groups said in a statement, as per Rappler. 

It’s a long and divisive road but, as TIME notes, an investigation could help clear up the conflicting death tolls. According to law enforcement, ‘just’ around 6,000 people were killed in operations throughout the Duterte presidency, but human rights groups say the real figure could be as high as 30,000. 

Better time than ever to read Patricia Evangelista’s stunning Some People Need Killing. 

And then there’s resumed talks between the government and the New People’s Army in Norway! Throwback or what? Talks were suspended during the Duterte government — he has his own whole damned thing going with the communist insurgency that probably needs its own book — but are back now focusing on the “deep-rooted socioeconomic and political grievances,” according to a joint statement and reported by Al Jazeera.

“If this conflict will finally end, your Armed Forces of the Philippines will be able to shift our focus to external or territorial defence,” military chief General Romeo Brawner said, adding that the talks were “very good news for us.” Still, until there’s a final and definitive agreement operations will continue, he added via VOA.  

Vice President Sara Duterte is less enthused. “Mr. President, the government’s statement with the NDFP [National Democratic Front of the Philippines in which NPA is a major flank] in Oslo was an agreement with the devil,” she said, adding that amnesty is not the way to get to peace. “Mr. President, we can negotiate for peace and reconciliation and pursue meaningful development efforts in the Philippines without capitulating to the enemies,” she said yesterday, as per Inquirer. 

Beyond the horrendous shock story in Marawi City, all roads at the moment lead back to the split between the Marcos and Duterte uniteam. At this stage, Marcos very much has the upper hand. Like, he’s president duh, but he also seems markedly less belligerent than Sara Duterte and, weirdly, less dependent on his papa’s name than she is on hers. I want to sit down and read a lot more about this, but plan to be back with something soon because this is fascinating!