Philippines VP Duterte must go on trial due to severity of charges, prosecutors say
MANILA, June 27 (Reuters) - Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte must be tried, and ultimately convicted, over serious charges, including an alleged threat to have the president killed, prosecutors argued in a submission to a Senate impeachment court on Friday.
Duterte is facing removal from her post and a lifetime ban from office if convicted. She has denied wrongdoing and maintains her impeachment is politically motivated and the result of an acrimonious falling out between her and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Lower house prosecutors said the weight of the evidence against Duterte justifies a full-blown trial, rejecting her defence that the allegations against her in an impeachment complaint were unsubstantiated.
"The severity of the charges leaves no room for technical evasion. A trial is not only warranted but necessary to reinforce justice, uphold democratic principles, and affirm that no individual, regardless of rank of influence, stands above the law," they said in their response to Duterte's defence.
"It is obvious from a simple reading of (Duterte's response), which relies on misleading claims and baseless procedural objections, that the only legal strategy of the defence is to have the case dismissed and avoid trial," the prosecutors said.
Duterte, who was impeached by the lower house in February, has described the impeachment complaint as unconstitutional and "nothing more than a scrap of paper."
Included in the complaint were allegations she misused public funds while vice president and education secretary and had plotted to assassinate Marcos, the first lady and the house speaker based on remarks during a November press conference about hiring an assassin.
Duterte's impeachment is widely seen in the Philippines as part of a broader power struggle ahead of the 2028 election, which Marcos cannot contest due to a single-term limit for presidents and will likely seek to groom a successor to protect his legacy. Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment.
Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, is expected to run for the presidency in 2028 if she survives the impeachment and would be a strong contender.
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Telegraph
44 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Leaked phone call could bring down Thai government
When Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's Prime Minister, picked up her phone on June 15, she probably had no idea that the call she was about to take would send her government into a tailspin. The call was with Hun Sen, Cambodia's de facto leader, to discuss reopening the disputed Thai-Cambodian border after a clash in late May left a Cambodian soldier dead. Ms Paetongtarn spent the conversation kowtowing before the veteran politician and criticised a Thai army commander – a red line not to cross in a country where the military has significant power and prestige. She had no idea that the 17-minute phone call, during which she referred to Hun Sen as 'uncle', would be leaked and leave her government hanging onto power by a thread. With the crisis on the border still unresolved, Ms Paetongtarn could now face a vote of no confidence as well as a case at the Constitutional Court, as many accuse her of betraying her country. To add insult to injury, Hun Sen, who remains the de facto leader of Cambodia despite relinquishing the premiership to his son in 2023, announced on social media that he was the one who recorded the conversation and shared it with 80 individuals across the government, which is how it was released. During the call, Ms Paetongtarn can be heard saying that one of her army commanders 'is on the opposing side'. She also pleaded with the Cambodian strongman not to be 'upset or angry' by comments the commander had made where he threatened Cambodia to a 'duel' over the border land. 'He just wanted to look tough and ended up saying things that are not helpful to either country,' Ms Paetongtarn was heard saying. Tensions between the two nations are at a record high. They are locked in an ongoing dispute that resulted in Thailand's army closing its border with Cambodia this week. Relations escalated in May after troops exchanged fire at a contested part of the border, during which a Cambodian soldier was killed. On Thursday, Ms Paetongtarn and Hun Sen made separate visits to the border areas, with the latter saying that more Cambodian troops and weapons have been mobilised to the area. He said that soldiers 'are constantly prepared to defend the territory in case of any invasion by the Thai army'. Amid mounting fears of further escalation, the feeling among Thai politicians and the public is that Ms Paetongtarn has betrayed them, and even committed treason with her damning leaked phone call. The Thai premier – who has only been in office for 10 months – is now fighting for her political life amid calls for her to resign. 'The last straw' Along with criticisms over Ms Paetongtarn's comments about the military, many in Thailand also took issue with her demeanour towards Hun Sen, which many saw as overly meek and friendly. At one point in the call she was heard saying: 'If there's anything you want, just let me know. I'll take care of it.' 'The leaked call was a bad look. Paetongtarn calling Hun Sen 'uncle' and referring to a Thai general as an 'opponent' made it seem like she was too soft or careless, especially on a sensitive issue like a border clash,' Saipaan, a 32-year-old marketing officer from Bangkok, told The Telegraph. Hundreds of protesters have been gathering outside of the government in the last week saying that the phone call was a 'failure of leadership' and demanding that Ms Paetongtarn step down. The leader of Thailand's opposition also called on Ms Paetongtarn to dissolve parliament, claiming that the leak was 'the last straw'. 'She was compromised by her conversation with Hun Sen whereby she is perceived to have given concessions to him at the expense of Thai sovereignty,' said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University. Ms Paetongtarn has apologised and criticised Hun Sen, saying that all he cares about is 'his popularity'. After the recording was made public, the pro-military Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) announced that it would be withdrawing its 69 members of parliament from its coalition with Ms Paetongtarn's centre-left Pheu Thai Party, leaving her government with barely enough seats to remain in power. In its statement, the BJT called on Ms Paetongtarn to 'take responsibility for causing Thailand to lose its honour, dignity of the nation, the people and military'. As a pro-military party, the BJT's ties with Pheu Thai party – and the Shinawatra family specifically – were already tenuous. Ms Paetongtarn's father, Thaksin Shinawatra, and aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra, both previously served as prime ministers and were both ousted in consecutive military coups in 2006 and 2014, respectively. In the lead-up to the leaked phone call, the Pheu Thai party had also been pressuring the BJT to give up control of the Ministry of the Interior, one of the most prized portfolios during election seasons. 'BJT was haggling with Pheu Thai and it looked like they might have to concede on key portfolios,' said Mr Thitinan. 'When the leaked recording scandal came up, it gave the BJT just the right pretext to pull out.' Pushing out the prime minister The BJT have now said that they plan to submit a vote of no confidence against Ms Paetongtarn when parliament reopens on July 3. However, party discipline in Thailand means that most members of parliament tend to vote along party lines. 'Based on where things currently stand the government has enough MPs to survive, so there would have to be a significant number of defectors to the opposition [for Paetongtarn to lose],' said Ken Lohatepanont, a Thai politics expert and PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. More worrying for Ms Paetongtarn, experts say, are the cases that have been petitioned by Thailand's Constitutional Court, which allege that she committed treason. The court will convene on July 1 and decide whether to dismiss the cases, accept them and allow Ms Paetongtarn to continue serving as prime minister or accept the cases and suspend her from her duties. The court has removed four prime ministers in 16 years, including Ms Paetongtarn's predecessor, Srettha Thavisin, who served for less than a year. If Ms Paetongtarn is ousted, parliament would have to select a new prime minister. However, Thailand's political system requires that her replacement come from the pool of candidates submitted during the country's last election in 2023, which is very limited. The only remaining candidate from the Pheu Thai party is Chaikasem Nitisiri, who is reportedly in poor health and has a history of supporting amendments to Thailand's controversial lese-majeste laws, which criminalise any defamatory or threatening comments about the monarchy. 'While it is unlikely Paetongtarn will be able to remain in power for more than a few months given the mounting political pressure, her strongest asset at the moment is the absence of any viable alternative,' said Napon Jatusripitak, a political scientist specialising in Thailand at the ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institute in Singapore. Benefit to Cambodia Beyond a major shake-up in Thai politics, another question that has left analysts scratching their heads is why Hun Sen made the decision to leak the phone call in the first place – Thailand and Cambodia are strategic partners and Ms Paetongtarn and her family are believed to be well-liked by the former Cambodian prime minister. 'I'm still slightly puzzled by exactly what Hun Sen thought he would get from this,' said Sebastian Strangio, an expert on Cambodia and the author of Hun Sen's Cambodia. To make matters more confusing, Hun Sen made a number of veiled threats towards Ms Paetongtarn's father and their family yesterday while visiting the border. While Hun Sen had previously referred to Mr Thaksin as a 'God brother', his tone on Saturday was very different. He said: 'Now that I've been betrayed, I feel I must reveal what the Thaksin family did to betray their nation. This is a warning.' A week after releasing the tape, Hun Sen had also said that Thailand 'will have a new prime minister within the next three months', suggesting that he was eager to see a reshuffle in Bangkok. 'The relationship between Cambodia and Thailand is pretty asymmetric. Thailand is a much wealthier country, it's more powerful militarily,' said Mr Strangio. 'So this sort of approach is a way of leveraging Cambodia's relative advantages over Thailand in order to score nationalistic points with domestic political constituents.' Although Cambodia and Thailand have faced border disputes in the past, the leaked phone call and subsequent fallout sparked by this latest incident could have a long-term impact on relations between the two countries, according to Mr Napon. 'Relations between Thailand and Cambodia are likely to remain severely strained for the foreseeable future,' he said. 'The leaked phone call controversy has fundamentally damaged trust between the two nations, not just between the Hun and Shinawatra dynasties.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Will I get deported for sharing this meme of JD Vance?
I have a very important public service announcement to make. Do not, under any circumstances whatsoever, make fun of Vice-President JD Vance by sharing one of the millions of unflattering memes dedicated to him. Don't you dare chuckle at the images of him looking like the 'lollipop kid' in Shrek (the resemblance is uncanny) or a chicken nugget. And, whatever you do, do not share the meme that you can find here, where he looks like a big bald baby. You risk hurting the poor man's feelings and, also, you might get kicked out of the country. So says a 21-year-old Norwegian called Mads Mikkelsen, anyway. Mikkelsen recently accused American border officials of denying him entry into the US because he had a meme of a bloated baby Vance saved on his phone. Mikkelsen, who had travelled to the US to visit friends, told the Norwegian paper Nordlys that immigration officers at Newark airport interrogated him, forced him to give fingerprints and blood samples, and went through his phone. After they found the Vance meme, as well as a picture of Mikkelsen holding a homemade wooden pipe, they sent him home. 'Both pictures had been automatically saved to my camera roll from a chat app, but I really didn't think that these innocent pictures would put a stop to my entry into the country,' Mikkelsen told Nordlys. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rejected Mikkelsen's claim that he was kicked out of the country for disrespecting the vice-president. 'FACT CHECK. Claims that Mads Mikkelsen was denied entry because of a meme are unequivocally FALSE,' they posted on Facebook earlier in the week. 'TRUTH: Mikkelsen was refused entry into the US for his admitted drug use.' A homeland security assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, also called the story 'BS' in a post on X. Mikkelsen, meanwhile, insisted to the fact-checking website Snopes that the meme played a role in getting him denied entry. The 21-year-old claimed border officials told him he was getting sent home because of 'extremist propaganda [the meme] and narcotic paraphernalia'. However, that claim hasn't been verified. We may never know if the Vance meme really did play a role in getting Mikkelsen kicked out of the country. While I don't normally side with border officials, one imagines the pipe picture was probably the actual culprit. Still, the story, which made headlines around the world, won't help America's tourism industry. International visitors are staying out of the US after a spate of stories about tourists getting sent to Ice detention centers without any explanation. The World Travel & Tourism Council has said the country could lose $12.5bn in international visitor spending this year. The story has also reignited interest in JD Vance memes, which have been circulating for months now, peaking at end of February after the vice-president scolded Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an exchange that launched a million memes. Indeed, the Irish lawmaker Ivana Bacik recently held up the Vance baby meme while speaking in the Irish parliament about the Mikkelsen story. While claims that making fun of Mr Hillbilly Elegy may get you deported might be exaggerated, the fact that so many people immediately believed Mikkelsen's claims is a sign of just how badly the US's international image has been damaged and how dystopian the country has become. The US is heading very quickly towards authoritarianism. It is cracking down on dissent and protest. Book banning has surged and the Trump administration has instructed the Department of Education to end their investigations into these bans, calling them a 'hoax'. Free speech rights are being shredded. And the people responsible for all this? They're not evil geniuses, they're embarrassing dweebs with massively meme-able faces. 'I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down,' Rebecca Shaw said in a Guardian piece earlier this year. 'What I didn't expect, and don't think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly cringe it would all be.' 'The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors, a national network of advocates for those hurt by domestic violence, found that 75% of the 170 advocates they surveyed across the country said the immigrants they serve fear they'll face arrest or deportation if they contact authorities,' reports USA Today. Meanwhile the Fox News host Jesse Waters seems to think all this is hilarious. 'I bet a bunch of guys that are dating illegal alien Spanish girls are like Ice, here's the address! She hasn't been very good,' Watters recently said. In related news, a man was recently arrested for allegedly impersonating an Ice officer and sexually assaulting a woman, saying he'd deport her if she didn't comply. Mark Rutte made a weird statement in which he referred to Trump as 'Daddy' and then quickly walked it back. Speaking at an office hours event, the Michigan representative Karl Bohnak (a Republican), said 'I don't' after a constituent asked him, 'So you don't support a woman's autonomy over her own body?' The case, Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, 'is part of a longstanding effort by anti-abortion activists to 'defund' Planned Parenthood by cutting it out of Medicaid', the Guardian reports. 'Of the 2.4 million people treated at Planned Parenthood each year, almost half use Medicaid.' The prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, told his Facebook followers that he was prepared to expose himself to the head of the Armenian church, to prove they were wrong that he had been circumcised. This is just the latest development in an ongoing spat between Pashinyan and the head of the Armenian Apostolic church. And they say women are too emotional to lead! Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion As the title suggests, the game involves a male protagonist who is looking to get revenge on 'gold-digging' women. After a lot of controversy it's been renamed Emotional Fraud Simulator, but the content is the same. 'I cannot go into further detail about the number of victims in the case beyond confirming that it is a double-digit number,' the Oslo police attorney said. Mel Owens, a 66-year-old former NFL player, who is the new star of ABC's senior-focused dating show, has said he is only looking to date women between 45 and 60. 'If they're 60 or over, I'm cutting them.'' The handful of attenders included a local podcast host who praised the city's lack of Black residents. '[A] job title isn't everything, and it's more important to stay true to your values,' Judge Karen Ortiz, who worked in the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's New York office, said. That's according to a brilliant advertising campaign which aimed to destigmatise herpes via a spoof tourism advertisement. Israeli officers and soldiers said that they were ordered to fire at unarmed civilians waiting for humanitarian aid, Haaretz reports. Here's something to mews about: is it disgusting to kiss your partner after kissing your cat? You still have time to vote on this very im-paw-tant question via a Guardian poll.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Bangkok protesters demand prime minister's resignation over leaked phone call
Thousands of protesters have gathered in Bangkok to demand the resignation of Thailand's prime minister over a leaked phone call with a former Cambodian leader. Paetongtarn Shinawatra faces growing dissatisfaction over her handling of a recent border dispute with Cambodia involving an armed confrontation on 28 May. One Cambodian soldier was killed. The recorded phone call with the former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen led to the protests on Saturday and has triggered a series of investigations in Thailand that could lead to Paetongtarn's removal. The call caused anger because of Paetongtarn's comments about an outspoken regional army commander and her perceived attempts to appease Hun Sen, the current Cambodian Senate president, to ease tensions at the border. There were about 6,000 protesters, according to Bangkok police. Despite a downpour, they held national flags and placards around the Victory Monument in central Bangkok as speakers took turns attacking the government. Protesters chanted slogans, sang and danced to nationalist songs. 'From a heart of a Thai person, we've never had a prime minister who's so weak,' said Tatchakorn Srisuwan, 47, a guide from Surat Thani province. 'We don't want to invade anyone, but we want to say that we are Thai and we want to protect Thailand's sovereignty.' There were many familiar faces from a conservative royalist group known as Yellow Shirts. They are opponents of Paetongtarn's father, the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who reportedly has a close relationship with Hun Sen and who was toppled in a military coup in 2006. Rallies organised by Yellow Shirts also helped oust the elected government of Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, in a 2014 coup. Hun Sen said on Saturday the border action by the Thai army was a serious violation of Cambodia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, despite the country's goodwill in attempting to resolve the border issue. 'This poor Cambodia has suffered from foreign invasion, war and genocide, been surrounded and isolated and insulted in the past, but now Cambodia has risen on an equal face with other countries,' Hun Sen told an audience of thousands at the 74th anniversary celebration of the founding of his ruling Cambodian People's Party in the capital, Phnom Penh. There is a long history of territorial disputes between the countries. A 1962 International Court of Justice ruling awarded Cambodia the disputed territory where the historic Preah Vihear temple stands and there were sporadic, though serious, clashes in 2011. The ruling from the UN court was reaffirmed in 2013, when Yingluck Shinawatra was prime minister. The scandal has broken Paetongtarn's fragile coalition government, losing her Pheu Thai party the support of its biggest partner, Bhumjaithai party. Its departure left the 10-party coalition with 255 seats, meaning it has a slender majority in the 500-seat house.
