#ThewRap: Things you need to know, February 23, 2018

 

Good day, Rapplers!

Amnesty International (AI) urged the Philippine government to immediately drop all charges against detained Senator Leila de Lima with James Gomez, AI’s Director of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, calling the charges against De Lima ” pure fiction.”

President Donald Trump and America’s powerful gun lobby meanwhile cast citizens with weapons as a solution to shootings, as it emerged an armed deputy was on campus during a deadly Florida rampage but failed to act.

Read about these and more on today’s wRap. 

 

Amnesty Int’l urges PH gov’t to release De Lima

‘It is a sad state of affairs when the Philippines government is more interested in jailing critics than preventing police from killing thousands of mainly poor people,’ says Amnesty International’s Director of Southeast Asia and the Pacific James Gomez

Trump, gun lobby chief push armed citizens as solution to shootings

National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre hits back at what he calls ‘the shameful politicization of tragedy’ and repeated the organization’s position that ‘to stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun’

NBI junks cyber libel complaint vs Rappler

The NBI’s legal and evaluation service says the complaint has gone beyond the one-year prescriptive period for libel

Alvarez denies calling Sara Duterte part of opposition

‘Wala talaga akong sinabing ganyan. Hindi ko alam kung saan nanggaling ‘yung kuwento na iyan,’ says House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, after drawing the ire of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio

Haiti suspends Oxfam operations pending sex scandal probe

‘These reprehensible acts, alleged crimes, acknowledged by the perpetrators as well as the NGO, are a serious violation of the dignity of the Haitian people,’ a government statement says

Foreign investment pledges down 51.8% in 2017

A significant 82.8% drop is recorded in the 4th quarter of 2017 alone, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority

DENR’s Roy Cimatu: ‘We can save Boracay’

‘We will do our very best for the next 6 months to accomplish the mission. I know that we will and we can do it. Kaya natin to save Boracay (We can save Boracay),’ Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu stresses.