Thailand’s new parliament is set to meet next Monday following the 14 May election. Convening the new House of Representatives and picking a new prime minister will top the agenda. A showdown is looming between monarchists and the military against the biggest coalition.
For the second time this year, the Sandiganbayan, the Philippines’ special anti-graft court, dismisses a case against the Marcoses and their cronies for "lack of evidence". The only witness lacked direct knowledge. Electoral support for the Marcos family hinders a balanced view of the dictatorship.
The massacre took place in mid-June in a region where the communist insurgency has been fighting against the Philippine state for decades. Local authorities had targeted the Faustos for a while. Various farmers' associations were summoned to sign a resolution against the Communist Party.
The alarm raised by PM Wong confirms experts' fears. Young people in particular are a 'valuable target' of fundamentalist propaganda, from Isis to al-Qaeda. A problem that also concerns Christians, as emerges from the indoctrination case of a 16-year-old boy who wanted to strike two mosques.
Driven by government incentives for consumer credit and home loans, 85 per cent of Thai households now find themselves with debts equivalent to 30 per cent of their income without adequate risk assessment. The Central Bank has set the household debt ratio at 80 per cent of GDP to avoid risks to the country’s overall financial stability.
To maintain ethnic harmony, housing must reflect the relative size of the country’s Chinese, Indian, and Malay communities, but this risks creating market distortions and segregation.
Alarm is growing after volcano erupts in south-eastern coast of Luzon. The lava is flowing slowly but consistently, with toxic fumes and rockfalls putting residents at risk. The Diocese of Legazpi mobilises to bring assistance.
About 10,000 new nurses graduate annually but 7,000 leave state-run establishments for better pay at facilities serving foreign patients or located abroad. Low wages and heavy workloads (up to 80 hours per week) are blamed.
The current head of the Malaysian federation speaks out after the government drops an appeal against a court ruling that allows non-Muslim publications to use the word. Now some believe the use by non-Muslims might be restricted to Sarawak and Sabah, the two states on Borneo Island where the Christian presence is strongest. The controversy has been politicised for years.
The alliance between Pita Limjaroenrat's Move Forward, Shinawatra's Pheu Thai and other smaller forces lacks the votes of 66 members of the (military-controlled) Senate to have a majority in parliament after winning the May 14 vote. The specter of a new coup by the generals in case a government is not reached within the 60-day deadline. Meanwhile, the Defense Council proposes streamlining the armed forces to regain consensus.
Two unidentified hitmen gunned down Cresenciano Aldovino Bunduquin. Despite some improvement as reported by Reporters Without Borders, press freedom in the Philippines is still under threat. Radio broadcasters are particularly affected.
On Sunday Thailand will vote in poll to end era of Prayut Chan-ocha's rule in a country deeply in crisis. Weakened by divisions the 2019 vote winners, the Move Forward Party is a possible outsider. Army chief rules out new "interventions." The unknown factor of a possible return from exile of Shinawatra in case of a broad affirmation of his Pheu Thai.
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