Duterte vows to stop all online gambling

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Thursday he would halt all online gambling in his country. Duterte made the comment while announcing a 2017 budget that focused heavily on populist measures. He gave no timeframe for such a ban or details on its scope.

The firebrand former mayor has been a worry for the country’s booming online gambling industry and in August scrapped one firm’s 13-year monopoly of gambling in licensed online cafes.

The Philippine gambling industry is one of Asia’s most freewheeling, attracting many online foreign companies over the last decade to set up servers aimed at overseas punters, and has lured investments of billions of dollars in casino resorts. RIGHTS BODY PROBE The Philippines independent human rights watchdog said on Thursday it will investigate President Rodrigo Duterte’s admission he killed three criminals years ago, after the United Nation’s rights chief called for a murder probe.

Duterte, who is waging an antidrugs war that has left thousands dead, said last week that he helped police kill three suspected kidnappers early in the first of his several terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

UN Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said on Tuesday that Duterte’s killings, by his own admission, “clearly constitute murder” and Philippine judicial authorities must launch an investigation. Commission on Human Rights Chief Jose Gascon said he has formed a team of investigators to look into the matter, even as Duterte’s spokesman Ernesto Abella dismissed the UN call as mere “opinion”.

“Law enforcement agencies... must investigate as a matter of course any information that suggests that a crime may have been committed with the view to ensuring that perpetrators are ultimately held accountable should the evidence warrant it,” Gascon said in a statement.

The commission is an independent government body that prosecutes law enforcers or other officials who commit torture, extrajudicial killings or violate Filipinos’ constitutional rights.

The commission had investigated then Davao mayor Duterte over allegations he ran death squads that killed more than a thousand petty criminals there.

Duterte has variously denied or confirmed the allegations. The commission did not file any criminal charges after completing its inquiry.

Gascon said his agency has “reconstituted a team to further investigate (Davao death squads) to look into the new revelations and public admissions that may shed light on our previous findings.”

Duterte easily won presidential elections in May largely on a promise to eradicate illegal drugs in society by launching an unprecedented campaign in which tens of thousands of people would be killed.

Duterte insists violated any law suspects.

On Wednesday Abella said Duterte’s admission about the killing of three people referred to “legitimate police action” but did not address the fact the then mayor was not a police officer.

Duterte has said he routinely carried a gun during his early years as mayor of Davao to protect himself from crime. He has not said if the weapon used in the ambush was licensed. police have not in killing drug