‘ Threat to democracy’

> Manila ‘concerned’ about US intel report on Duterte

MANILA: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte ( pix) is not an autocrat and is taking seriously a report by the US intelligence community that names the firebrand leader among the threats to democracy in Southeast Asia, his spokesman said yesterday.

The report, produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, places Duterte alongside Cambodia’s Hun Sen, the Rohingya crisis and Thailand’s militarybacked constitution as impediments to democracy.

“We view this declaration from no less than the intelligence department of the US with some concern,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told DZMM radio.

Democracy and human rights in many Southeast Asian nations will remain fragile in 2018 because of autocratic tendencies, rampant corruption and cronyism, the US intelligence community said in its Worldwide Threat Assessment report on Feb 13.

“Duterte has suggested he could suspend the constitution, declare a ‘revolutionary government’, and impose nationwide martial law,” it said. Roque dismissed that assessment. “For one, Duterte is no autocrat or has autocratic tendencies. He adheres to the rule of law and remains loyal to the constitution,” Roque said in a statement.

There is no revolutionary government or nationwide martial law, which US intelligence officials say Duterte might impose, he added.

Duterte has publicly made such threats on several occasions, however.

Meanwhile, rights and media groups said yesterday Duterte’s move to ban a critical news website from covering the presidential palace is a threat to press freedom.

Rappler, set up in 2012, is among a clutch of Philippine news organisations that have sparred with Duterte over their critical coverage of his drug war which the government says has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 suspects.

On Tuesday, guards barred Rappler’s palace reporter from entering the grounds of the presidential office.

She was later allowed to attend a news conference by Duterte’s spokesman but prohibited from covering the president’s speech.

Duterte’s spokesman said the president had decided to bar Rappler journalists from covering his events due to a “lack of trust”.

US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said the move “threatens media freedoms”.

“It could portend a broader assault on journalists and news organisations, whose critical watchdog role has magnified the government’s poor human rights record.”

The move came as the site also faced state-enforced closure, after the government’s corporate regulator last month alleged that Rappler violated a constitutional ban on foreign ownership of local media. – Agencies