Terror groups that continue to target the Philippines and its ASEAN neighbors
A year after the Philippine military finished off at least 800 ISIS-inspired militants in the Islamic city of Marawi, four terror groups continue to remain a security threat for the Southern Philippines region, particularly the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and its ASEAN neighbors.
Al-Arabiya

Islamic State finds safe haven in the Philippines
Despite Islamic State’s failure last year to establish a caliphate in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, foreign militants continue to flock to the island of Mindanao, waiting in the wings to strike anew.
Asia Times

MARAWI

Robredo eyes ‘economic center’ for Marawi residents
Vice President Leni Robredo’s Angat Buhay program continues to help Marawi City by providing assistance to displaced residents in terms of livelihood.
Manila Bulletin

SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE WORLD      

When Fighting Domestic Terrorism, You Get What You Pay For
The recent anti-Semitic attack in Pittsburgh—the deadliest of its kind in U.S. history—is part of a steady increase in hate crimes in the United States in recent years. The synagogue massacre offers yet another stark reminder of how the United States lags far behind other Western democracies in terms of preventing extremist violence. This should come as little surprise; Washington gets what it pays for.
Foreign Policy

Democratic Tunisia is taking the wrong path in the fight against terrorism
On Oct. 29, a 30-year-old Tunisian woman blew herself up on Avenue Bourguiba, the iconic boulevard in downtown Tunis. The “very primitive” suicide bombing reportedly targeted police officers, who made up 15 of the 20 injured. The bombing was the first terrorist attack in Tunisia’s capital since 2015.
The Washington Post

The psychology of how someone becomes radicalized
Before he walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue with three handguns and an assault rifle, authorities say, professed his desired to “kill Jews” and opened fire, Robert Bowers was radicalized. He became an angry white nationalist who authorities say killed 11 people in an act of hate.
The Washington Post

CIS Anti-Terrorism Center, UN Office of Counter-Terrorism agree to cooperate
The Anti-Terrorism Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS ATC) and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism have agreed to develop cooperation. The CIS ATC press service told TASS that the center’s head, Andrei Novikov, and Under-Secretary-General of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the UN represented by its Office of Counter-Terrorism and the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center.
Russian News Agency (TASS)

Russian trolls stoked UK hatred of Islam after terrorist attacks
Fuelling Islamophobia and provoking religious divisions were the main focus of Russian Twitter accounts targeting the UK, research has found. The internet trolls came to the fore in 2017 when three separate terror attacks hit the UK, with posts on Islam retweeted 25 times more often than other previous messages.
The National UAE

Preventing acts of terror, before Jihadists plan them
Can research on radicalization eventually prevent terror attacks from happening? Yujiao “Sue” Su ’19 is working to answer that question as part of a team of paid student researchers with Brandeis’ Western Jihadism Project. Launched by politics professor Jytte Klausen in 2006, the Western Jihadism Project is housed inside a Brandeis computer laboratory and supports research on Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror networks in Europe, North America and Australia.
Brandeis University

Lawmakers laud Duterte’s EO on Mindanao barter trade as helpful to economic growth
Leaders of the House of Representatives lauded President Duterte’s issuance of an executive order formalizing the barter trade system in Mindanao, saying that it would spur economic growth in the South.
Manila Bulletin

BANGSAMORO ORGANIC LAW

Iqbal orients Key Leaders of ZAMBASULTA MILF - Dawah Committee on BOL, Peace Process
The Chairman of MILF Peace Implementing Panel Mohagher Iqbal oriented the key leaders of MILF - Committee on Dawah coming from Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi - tawi (ZAMBASULTA) on Bangsamoro Organic Law (BO) and Peace Process held at Lantaka Hotel, Zamboanga City on October 19, 2018. 
Luwaran

MAGUINDANAO AND COTABATO CITY

LANAO PROVINCES

BASILAN

SULU 

SULU SCHOOL RENAMED after SLAIN PRINCIPAL
The Department of Education (DepEd) central office in Pasig City made an unprecedented move recently when it changed the name of a Sulu rural elementary school to honor its Christian principal who was kidnapped and later killed by Abu Sayyaf bandits.
The Manila Times

Indonesian consulate warns its citizens in Sabah to stay vigilant following Abu Sayyaf kidnapping warning
The Indonesian consulate in Tawau has issued an alert to its nationals working in Sabah to exercise caution at all times especially when carrying out duties or activities at sea.
The Star Online (Malaysia)

TAWI-TAWI 

DRUGS

Nancy pushes for drug prevention, intervention and treatment programs in secondary, tertiary schools
Senator Nancy Binay is now pushing her colleagues in the Senate to expedite the passage of a measure that seeks to establish a comprehensive program for the prevention, intervention, evaluation, treatment and continuous care for tobacco, alcohol and other drug abuse in all high schools, colleges and universities.
Manila Bulletin

Group calls government: Protect children's rights amid drug war
A child’s rights group on Thursday called on the government to prevent children being used as collateral damage in its brutal war against illegal drugs. Child Rights Network Philippines, in a statement, urged the government to thoroughly investigate the case filed against a rookie cop accused of raping a teen.
Philippine Star

Police lapse in inventory of seized drugs forces SC to acquit Laoag City resident
For failure of the police to follow strictly the guidelines on the custody of seized illegal drugs in a buy-bust operation, a Laoag City resident, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for selling shabu in 2011, has been acquitted by the Supreme Court (SC).
Manila Bulletin

Tell it to SunStar: Our so-called ‘ports of shabu’
SINCE the creation of man and the establishments of government, its(government’s) rise and fall has always been a question of leadership and never of membership. Assigning military men to the Bureau of Customs was experimented from the time by former president Ferdinand Marcos and even by former president Cory Aquino.
Sunstar Cebu

Inevitable and indubitable conclusion
There is something really fishy in the shipment of P11 billion worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) from China. Under RA 9526, the importation, manufacture, sale or distribution and use of this kind of drug are illegal, prohibited and punishable with heavy penalty of imprisonment and even death. And since this is an importation from China it is the Bureau of Customs (BOC) which is primarily tasked with preventing and intercepting their shipment into our country.
Philippine Star

Open drug shipments by force
The military will be allowed to “forcibly open” suspected drug shipments passing through the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and even throw them into the sea, President Duterte revealed Wednesday.
Manila Bulletin

Accountability in the war on drugs
A news story on an ongoing assessment by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) on anti-drug councils nationwide came on the heels of the sacking of Customs officials and their replacement with soldiers after more than P6 billion worth of shabu were confirmed to have been recently smuggled on board four magnetic lifters in Cavite province.
Cebu Daily News

Operations/ Incidents

Cop caught using cocaine in posh Taguig club faces raps
National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) head, Director Guillermo Eleazar, on Thursday said the rookie policeman caught sniffing cocaine inside an upscale Taguig City club will face dismissal proceedings soon.
Philippine News Agency

Recovery and Rehabilitation  

ILLICIT FIREARMS, EXPLOSIVES AND AMMUNITION

CROSS-BORDER TRADING/ SMUGGLING  

HUMAN TRAFFICKING 

SCAM 

Duterte: Honor loved ones, emulate saints
President Duterte urged the public to remember their departed loved ones during the Undas holidays. In his All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day message, Duterte said that the bonds with people’s departed loved ones remain intact.
Manila Bulletin

What is wrong when the President speaks?
President Duterte recently said that he will place the Bureau of Customs (BOC) under military control. This violates the Constitution which provides  that “no member of the armed forces in the active service shall, at any time, be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the government, including government-owned or controlled corporations or any of their subsidiaries.”
Manila Bulletin

Duterte spends All Saints' Day attending to Rosita damage
President Rodrigo Duterte spent his All Saints' Day attending to relief and recovery operations following the onslaught of Typhoon Rosita (intenational name Yutu) in Northern Luzon. On Thursday afternoon, November 1, Duterte did an aerial survey of areas buried in earth and debris following landslides in the Benguet and Mountain Province area.
Rappler, ABS-CBN News, Manila Bulletin

-----------

DISASTER

Death toll from ‘Rosita’ landslides now 17 as rescue continues
Authorities have received casualty reports more than what they expected from typhoon ‘Rosita’ as rescue teams started to reach the landslide sites, especially in Mt. Province where more than 30 people were buried alive. The death toll has now reached 17 in four regions of Luzon.
Manila Bulletin

MINDANAO

ELECTION RELATED

Duterte to announce senatorial bets after Christmas
President Duterte is set to announce the senatorial candidates that he will support for the 2019 polls after Christmas Day this year. Duterte made the statement in a speech during the distribution of certificates of land ownership award in Cagayan de Oro City Wednesday evening.
Manila Bulletin

Election-related Violence

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

JUDICIARY

First among equals: How influential is a chief justice on the Court?
The chief justice is primus inter pares or first among equals, but the position is still highly-coveted because of the power and influence that it wields despite being just one vote in a Bench of 15.
Rappler

LEGISLATIVE

LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS (LGUs)

DEFENSE AND SECURITY

Lorenzana says PH open to acquiring military planes, boats from Spain
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday said that the Philippines is open to the possibility of acquiring planes and boats from Spain after the European country expressed its desire to participate in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization program.
Manila Bulletin

ECONOMY AND INVESTMENTS

US-China trade war to bring 'mild disruption' to Philippines, think tank says
The Philippines is among the economies in Asia that will be disrupted by the trade war between the US and China, the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a study released Thursday. In September, US President Donald Trump announced an additional $267 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, to which China responded by announcing $60 billion in tariffs on American goods a few weeks later. 
Philippine Star

Business group says 'no reason' for PH drop in World Bank rankings
There is "no reason" for the Philippines' steep drop in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking, a business group leader said Thursday. Members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry are telling potential investors that the country is "doing much better than before and we're seeing it from the ground up," said its chairman, George Barcelon.
ABS-CBN News

Renminbi rises
I started visiting China in the late ’80s with a delegation of professors from the University of the Philippines, lecturing on and engaging the faculty and students in discussions on entrepreneurship and SME development in seven of the major Chinese universities.
Manila Bulletin

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD

OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

GRAFT AND CORRUPTION

Ex-Surigao Sur mayor wanted for graft nabbed in Davao
The Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) on Thursday arrested an ex-mayor in Surigao del Sur with a standing warrant for graft case. CIDG agents, backed by the Talomo police personnel, arrested former Tagbina town mayor Rufo C. Pabelonia, 65, in his residence in Matina Pangi, this city.
Philippine News Agency

FOREIGN RELATIONS  

West Philippine Sea

BFAR invites local fishermen to catch fish in West PH Sea
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Mimaropa is inviting local vessels and large commercial fleets to catch fish in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) to help meet the country's fish consumption targets. Robert Abrera, BFAR assistant regional director, said Wednesday the move is to give respite to over-exploited fishing areas and allow certain species of fish to mature and repopulate.
Philippine News Agency

Beijing opens weather stations on artificial islands in South China Sea
China opened weather observation stations on three of its artificial islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday, according to state media.
South China Morning Post

LABOR

Lawmaker slams P25 wage hike in Metro Manila ‘a ghostly figure’
“Eerily discomforting.” This was how Akbayan partylist Rep. Tom Villarin described on Thursday the P25-peso wage increase granted to workers in Metro Manila.
Manila Bulletin

OFW saved from UAE death row
Jennifer Dalquez, the Filipino household worker who was facing the death penalty in the United Arab Emirates for killing her employer in December 2015, is now free and is scheduled to return to the Philippines on Friday.
Manila Bulletin

19 Filipina workers nabbed in Halloween party in Riyadh may face charges
The 19 Filipino women who were earlier released to the custody of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh after being nabbed for participating in a Halloween party in the Saudi capital are not yet off the hook.
Manila Bulletin

TRANSPORTATION

LTFRB: ‘No fare guide, no fare increase’
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) reminds riding public that public utility vehicle drivers are not allowed to charge higher fares until an updated fare guide is issued.
Manila Bulletin

Poe tells NAIA: Improve services first before raising terminal fees
Airport authorities should first work on improving their services to passengers before considering the hike in terminal fees at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), said Senator Grace Poe. Poe on Thursday expressed disapproval on the plan of the Manila International Airport (MIAA) to increase the rates in terminal fees for international and domestic flights at the NAIA starting next year.
Manila Bulletin

HEALTH 

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

EDUCATION

ENERGY

POVERTY

HOUSING

TOURISM

ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 

COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY

3rd telco player may be known by Nov. 7, 2018
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) are ready to fulfill President Duterte’s promise to announce a third telco player by next week.
Philippine Star

DEVELOPMENT SECTOR