Japan is suffering a nationwide shortage of surgeons in more than half of its teaching hospitals, even in major urban centers like Tokyo and Osaka. Even as the total number of physicians grows nationwide, the number of surgeons is declining. There are severe shortages in rural areas, especially in Tohoku, where surgical…

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On April 12, a 53-year-old construction worker named Jhony Lanquino was trying to beat the 38-degree heat by shedding his tee-shirt while mixing cement outside his home in Mandaluyong City in the Manila national capital region when he was surrounded by barangay officials and police officers including SWAT members trained for high-risk operations.

Lanquino was fined ₱500 (US8.33) for violating a local ordinance on public decency by being shirtless, although two days later, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla descended on Lanquino at home and personally apologized, returning the ₱500 fine amid public outcry and acknowledging lapses in the initial implementation of his “Safer Metro Manila Plan,” also called the “Safer Cities” initiative.

Jonvic, suspected of being the Marcos camp’s candidate to take on Sara Duterte in the 2028 presidential sweepstakes, rolled out the plan on April 6 with the fanfare of a national event to take on one of the world’s most chaotic, polluted, traffic-choked, slum-ridden cities, which for decades has cheerfully resisted all attempts to redeem or reform it.

While designed to instill discipline, Remulla’s drive has faced criticism for allegedly targeting poor individuals, leading to calls for better police discretion, compassion and refinement in its implementation. Over 72,000 individuals were flagged in Metro Manila alone within the first 10 days, with a daily average of 6,000–7,000 apprehensions.

If there is a certain nostalgia, a balik-tanaw spreading in Metro Manila, something people here have seen before, it is justified. Manila saw it under Imelda Marcos, then first lady, governor of Metro Manila and minister for human settlements and mother of the current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. She was nicknamed the Steel Butterfly, sometimes the Iron Butterfly for her unique combination of fragile beauty, lavish lifestyle and iron-fisted, unyielding political ambition.

Appointed governor of Metro Manila (1975–1986) by her strongman husband Ferdinand Marcos Sr, she led the Manila Cleanup Crusade” to polish the city’s streets, waterways and public spaces in preparation for major international events, a failing effort to put a shine on the chaotic conurbation of 15 cities, suburbs and slums into a “City of Man” including construction of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and a “Great Wall of Manila” to hide poverty-stricken slums behind white walls from the view of visiting foreign dignitaries.

Alas, Manila, often noted for its high levels of happiness and contentment, cheerfully resisted all attempts to redeem or reform it, lost as she focused on aesthetics to mask deep-seated social issues and ignoring actual sanitation and welfare needs.

Remulla’s new attempt, led by his Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police, aims to bridge the gap between crime statistics and the public’s sense of security through high-visibility policing and strict enforcement of “quality-of-life” ordinances. In short, make police more visible and streets more orderly to fix the feeling of insecurity. His modern echo, flagging shirtless workers and shutting down late-night karaoke parlors amid public outcry, is driven by the Philippines’ hosting the ASEAN Summit. Once again, Manila is being dressed up for the world, and poverty is treated as a public relations problem.

After his apology to Lanquino, he insisted that his initiative would be strictly enforced, albeit with clearer guidelines. Men going shirtless without practical reasons will be fined, he said, even in secluded alleys.

“Working shirtless men are allowed,” Remulla told the Manila Bulletin. “But those just hanging out topless outside, walking that’s prohibited.’’ However, he said, “anything goes, even shirtless men roaming the streets may be allowed during special celebrations like fiestas, as long as no troubles or violent incidents transpire during these festivities.

Where Imelda reshaped what people saw, this policy targets how people behave, which immediately has drawn condemnation from progressive and human rights groups, describing it misdirected and a crackdown against the poor. Critics say the pattern is clear. The plan’s visible targets are not major criminals but minor violations: public drinking, curfew breaches, noise complaints, and “indecent exposure.”

“This is not about safety,” said Secretary General Cristina Palaba of the human rights NGO Karapatan. “This is a crackdown on the poor, plain and simple. We have seen this before. Thousands were rounded up in the name of ‘order,’ yet nothing changed for the better in the lives of the people. Instead, the poor were harassed, detained, some of them even get killed in these operations.”

The irony is hard to miss. In a city where trillion-peso flood control projects disappear into the ether and high-profile fugitives slip through international borders with the grace of Olympic gymnasts, enforcement zeroes in on small, visible offenses. It’s easier to police behavior than dismantle systems that make the city unsafe.

Much like Imelda’s rush to hide “eyesores” before international conferences and beauty pageants, Remulla’s initiative seems less about long-term crime reduction and more about presenting a sanitized, “disciplined” facade to ASEAN delegates.

Enforcement also reveals a class divide. Shirtless laborers are fined, but joggers in gated villages are not. Curfews apply in poorer districts, while nightlife districts run late. Order, it seems, depends on where you live.

The Interior Department plans to expand the program to other cities after its Metro Manila pilot. As it does, the question becomes clearer: do we want a city that is truly safe, or one that simply looks orderly? Until deeper inequalities are addressed, these patrols risk becoming little more than performance—highly visible, tightly enforced, and aimed at those with the least power to resist.

Few environmental disasters illustrate the consequences of human mismanagement as starkly as the fate of the Aral Sea. Once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, it has lost roughly 90 percent of its volume since the 1960s after the main flow of the rivers that sustained it were diverted for large-scale irrigation projects. …

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Women’s rights are actually regressing globally, with millions of women and girls denied equal rights to education, employment, pay, inheritance and land rights. Nearly a quarter of countries report a rollback, according to the 2026 UN Secretary-General’s reports on women and girls, which highlight a seve…

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Bhutan, the isolated Himalayan nation that has gained worldwide distinction for its royal family’s voluntary relinquishment of power and its replacement of gross national product with gross national happiness as a measure of wellbeing, now expects its first railway connection, courtesy of India, to link the southern ci…

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The Indian government is faced with the monumental task of ensuring functional, gender-segregated toilets in all schools and distributing free, biodegradable sanitary pads via vending machines for millions of girls in the wake of a January 30 landmark judgment by the Supreme Court of India declaring menstrual health an integral component of individual fundamental rights.

The ruling moves menstrual hygiene from a welfare scheme to an enforceable right, targeting the reduction of school dropout rates and enhancing gender equality. The Court announced it would follow up after three months to determine how well the mandates have been implemented, which makes India the only country in the world to mandate such a constitutional guarantee.

Equally important toilet scheme

The decision dovetails with an equally important scheme launched in 2014, officially known as the Swachh Bharat Mission or toilet scheme, that could do more than almost anything to cement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s place in Indian history. It has provided for some of the most basic human sanitation needs for hundreds of millions of poverty-stricken Indians, emphasizing sustainable sanitation, solid waste management, and the construction of new toilets to meet growing demand.

The Swachh Bharat Mission has facilitated the construction of more than 120 million household toilets across India by last September, significantly increasing sanitation access with more than 110 million of them built in rural areas. The scheme in rural India has been of enormous significance for women, not only for dignity and hygiene but by reducing the risk of sexual assault and disease. Previously, more than 70 percent of sexual assaults in some areas occurred when women left home for bowel movements, often at night.

Lack of essential hygiene sparks dropouts

Some 23 million girls drop out of school annually in India due to a lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities, including toilets and sanitary products. Nearly 60 percent of girls skip school during their menstrual cycle, with 70 percent unable to afford sanitary pads. The lack of affordable disposable pads causes menstruating girls to use newspaper, old rags, sponges and dried leaves despite the 2011 launch of the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a landmark attempt to destigmatize menstruation at a national level, by targeting adolescent girls aged 10–19 with subsidized sanitary pads and menstrual education.

The court’s 127-page judgment mandates all Indian states and union territories to ensure that proper sanitation is essential for dignity and bodily autonomy, not just charity. All public and private schools must install vending machines for eco-friendly sanitary pads and provide, at minimum, “Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) corners” in schools, equipped with spare uniforms, underwear and waste disposal systems including soap and disposal bags to ensure the provision of functional, accessible, and gender-segregated toilets in every school with usable water and handwashing facilities and safe environmentally compliant mechanisms for their disposable. It requires integration of gender-responsive education on menstruation and related health concerns into school curricula to break the stigma around puberty and menstruation.

“Despite some progress, menstrual hygiene discourse in India has not been discussed vocally as a fundamental right,” said activist Debanjana Choudhuri. “Onset of menstruation leads to irregular school attendance. Inadequate toilet facilities, lack of privacy, unavailability of sanitary products and fear of embarrassment compel many girl students to remain absent during their menstrual cycle. This has a huge impact on her life choices, economic freedom and her dignity. What begins as a temporary absence frequently develops into an academic difficulty and, in several cases, results in discontinuation of education. She just simply stops going to school.”

“When girls are forced to sacrifice their education or dignity due to biological realities, the harm is constitutional in nature. When a society allows this harm to happen then we fail as a society collectively. If this happens because of stigma or taboo for menstruation, then we have completely failed despite all the years of advocacy and activism in India for gender rights,” said Debanjana Choudhuri, a gender justice activist, emphasizing that the Supreme Court decision on menstruation talks about living with dignity.

There are also the needs of out-of-school adolescents, many of whom belong to the most marginalized communities in India, or those who drop out of school due to early marriage or some other social reason. They also need equal access to menstrual hygiene interventions, as those in formal education. Civil society, communities, and policymakers will be called upon to work together to achieve success.

Global problem as well

The problem is not confined to India. Even in wealthy countries including the US, one in five teens as well as homeless, low-income, and/or imprisoned women struggle to afford products, with four in five missing some class time, according to a 2023 World Bank study. A new report launched by UNICEF and the World Health Organization analyzes for the first time emerging national data on menstrual health and hygiene in schools globally. The report underscores the urgent need for global action to improve menstrual health and hygiene in schools.

Globally, more than 500 million women lack access to adequate menstrual products and sanitation facilities. Use of sanitary pads leads to a significant reduction in sexually transmitted infections and bacterial vaginosis. Poor menstrual hygiene can pose serious health risks, like reproductive and urinary tract infections. Promoting menstrual health and hygiene is an important means for safeguarding women’s dignity, privacy, bodily integrity, and, consequently, their self-efficacy.

Studies show that menstruation-related stigma and discrimination remain widespread. It is often fuelled by harmful social norms and cultural taboos around menstruation. In some parts of the world, even today, menstruating girls and women are seen as dirty or untouchable, restricting their movement and access to spaces. Myths include that menstruating women and girls should not touch certain food, or it would rot, or enter places of worship as they are unclean, and that they should be isolated.

Shobha Shukla is the award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of Citizen News Service (CNS). Follow her on X or read her writings here. Shared under Creative Commons (CC)

Singapore has taken a major step in helping to dismantle the alleged multi-billion dollar criminal empire put together by Benjamin Mauerberger, a 47-year-old South African who parlayed his connections to top Cambodian and Thai officials to amass a fortune from cyber scams, according to a statement by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on March 9.

Police…

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On March 6, the US State Department announced that the first charter flight of Americans from the Middle East had arrived back in the Unted States, the latest in a flurry of such messages internationally as government-sponsored refugee flights landed in Germany, the UK, Spain, India and other countries carrying stranded diplomats, tourists and others eager to escape the widening war, which has seen retaliatory missiles and drones spatter wreckage not only in Israel and Iran but a long list of other gulf states.

But there seemingly has been little attention paid to the plight of as many as 41.4 million international migrant workers and refugees hosted by Arab countries, according to the International Labor Organization. More than 24 million of them are migrant workers, 83 percent of them men, representing a significant portion of the Middle East workforce, particularly in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. There are also millions of women from the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh who have signed contracts as domestic helpers.

Governments seeking solutions

Governments of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan said they are monitoring the location of their citizens and urged them to shelter in place. Although some governments are preparing evacuation and repatriation plans should the attacks worsen, which they seem to be doing, commercial airports throughout the region are closed. Many of the unfortunate are in low-income work and often lack adequate protection.

The situation is characterized by a “perfect storm” of physical danger, economic desperation, and, for many, abandonment by employers, according to reports by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, which reported on March 2 that the conflict “has already resulted in the deaths and injuries of migrant workers, including Filipinos, Pakistanis, Nepalis, and Bangladeshis, due to missile and drone strikes on civilian and critical infrastructure. Workers in areas like Lebanon, Israel, and Iran face immediate risks from airstrikes. In early March, a Filipino caregiver was killed in Israel during a counterattack.”

Other media describe thousands of workers trapped in their accommodations, unable to commute to work, with limited access to food, medical care and security. Thousands are seeking, or have already initiated, repatriation, which means losing their source of income and facing financial ruin at home, as many are the sole breadwinners for their families, according to the Philippine Inquirer. Previous conflicts in the Middle East have seen some migrant workers abandoned by employers, often without their wages or travel documents, according to the London-based Business and Human Rights Center.

Implications likely to endure

Beyond the immediate human rights crisis, the rise of these countries is thanks to the labor or tax benefits of people with no stake in them. And even if the war is short, the implications for the Gulf states and their economies will endure. This time, instead of being confined to the warring parties Israel and Iran and its client states, the war is being taken to countries with large foreign worker populations that previously hadn’t had to endure the violence. That includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, and Cyprus, all of which have been hit, putting these workers’ lives in danger and triggering a wider exodus – if they can find transportation out. The violence has closed thousands of commercial flights.

The scale of dependency on foreign workers in the Middle East is breathtaking as the oil-rich find poverty-stricken workers, the preponderance of them from the Global South, to do what is called “3D” jobs—Dirty, Dangerous, and Difficult— construction, engineering, healthcare, and domestic service. Local citizens universally avoid these jobs. The jobs are largely managed through the Kafala (sponsorship) system, which gives employers significant control over workers’ legal status and movement.

In Qatar and the UAE, foreign workers make up 88 percent of the population of each, 60 percent of Kuwait, 55 percent of Bahrain, 44 percent of Saudi Arabia, and 43 percent of Oman.

At the other end of the pipeline, foreign remittances are a significant contributor to poor countries’ GDP, leading to overseas foreign workers being termed “economic heroes” although “economic hostages” might be more appropriate given the strain and damage to family and community relationships back home.

India, the world’s largest recipient, with 10 million workers in the Gulf, received US$137 billion in 2024 from overseas workers although it benefits from a shift toward high-skilled workers in the US and Europe, according to the World Bank. Although that is a fraction of India’s US$4.15 trillion economy, other countries like Nepal, for instance, with 1.7 million Nepali nationals estimated to be living and working across the Middle East, derived 25.2 percent of GDP from inward remittances.

More than 4.5 million Pakistanis live and work in the Middle East, sending home roughly 10 percent of the country’s GDP. Formal remittances to Bangladesh equaled roughly 4.6 percent to 5 percent of its GDP based on 2022-2023 data. In 2025, total cash remittances from all overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reached a record high of US$35.63 billion, accounting for 7.3 percent of GDP. Although the US is the top source of remittances, the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, account for roughly 30 percent. Total remittances from 946,000 overseas Indonesian workers reached a record US$12.7 billion by Q3 2025, although given the size of Indonesia’s US$1.5 trillion economy, that amounted to less than 1 percent.

Desperate plight

Returning home for tens of millions of these workers prematurely not only means losing jobs, which could lead to severe debt for those who paid for the jobs, according to the American Community Media, but loss of income for millions of families in home countries, posing a significant threat to local economies, especially in South Asia. But staying where they are means many are in the direct line of fire, with reports of casualties among Filipino, Pakistani, Nepali, and Bangladeshi nationals. Many have been forced to take shelter as missiles and drones strike near residential and work areas. There seem no viable choices.

Hong Kong courts in recent days have concluded two trials, one convicting the father of a prominent US‑based democracy activist on February 11 for allegedly helping to pay for his daughter’s US-based protest activities against the government, and the other on February 26, quashing the convictions of jailed publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai and …

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For more than four decades, the Asian Development Bank has avoided direct investment in the mining sector. In recent years, however, with many of the world’s conflicts driven by the rush for fossil fuels and, increasingly by the demand for so-called critical minerals,…

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Cybercrime has metastasized across the globe, becoming one of the most widespread and damaging forms of crime, generating large volumes of illicit proceeds through the exploitation of victims, according to a new study by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.

Cyber fraud now accounts for 40 percent of all crimes in the Unite…

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Asia’s demographic story is shifting with startling speed. Fertility rates are plummeting across much of the region. Japan’s population has been shrinking for 16 years. South Korea’s birth rate remains one of the lowest in the world. China’s population has also begun to decline, falling for the fourth consecutive year in 2025 …

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Jolted awake at 2 am, I rushed into the hotel bathroom. The churn in my stomach had a certain culprit: a nondescript mom-and-pop hotpot restaurant down the street. I was being extra careful with boiling the thin slices of beef and checking to make sure that the eatery was patronized by repeat customers. Still, I was ensnared by the ingred…

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When torrential rains triggered floods and landslides across three provinces in Sumatra late last year, entire villages were swept away, more than 1,200 people were killed and forests upstream collapsed under the weight of decades of unchecked exploitation. Now, Indonesia’s government is moving to hold companies accoun…

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When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos married Lauren Sánchez in Venice last June, the nuptials were estimated to have cost up to US$56 million, a lavish, multi-day celebration for approximately 200–250 guests included venue buyouts, high-profile celebrity guests, and extensive security. But Bezos looked li…

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Iran today resembles the Iran of the late Sassanids: a frail body, a heavy, swollen head (the militarized state) and a weary soul ready to open the gates to anyone promising change. The longing for the alien is not born of treachery but is the final refuge of a nation that has become a stranger in its own fatherland. The path from 2009, when protests broke out in major cities in support of opposition candidates, to 2026 has been a descent from civic agency to waiting passivity. If in 2009 people asked: “Where is my vote,” in 2026, through silence or monarchist chants, they ask “Where is the Savior?”

The 12-Day War last June with Israel and this January’s massacre have driven the final nails into the coffin of the social contract. A society that witnesses 36,000 dead and Black Bags has nothing left to lose. But the danger lies in this very desperation: A society that ties its hope entirely to the Other is susceptible to accepting any form of change from without, even if it entails territorial disintegration or infrastructural ruin. The absence of “Woman, Life, Freedom,” the rallying cry for women’s rights and autonomy following the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amin, in 2026 is a grave warning; a warning that democratic and human rights values have been crushed under the boot amid the struggle for survival.

The history of the Iranian plateau has often been narrated through the lens of invasion and resistance, a narrative in which the “Other” or “Foreigner” has invariably occupied the position of the antagonist against whom national identity is forged. However, deeper examination reveals a more complex dynamic: oscillation between aggressive xenophobia – prejudice against people from other countries – and desperate xenophilia – longing for help from anything foreign.

Contemporary Iranian society is undergoing a painful transition from hope for endogenous reform to longing for exogenous intervention. This national desperation is rooted in the total asphyxiation of civil society, the collapse of the middle class, and the failure of reformist paradigms.

The Semantic Rupture of 2009

The 2009 Green Movement, the mass protests following the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, marked a turning point in Iranian society’s engagement with the concept of foreign power. Previously, the dominant discourse, even among critics, was based on independence. However, the slogan “Obama, Obama, are you with them or with us,” directed at former President Barack Obama, heralded a new paradigm.

Contrary to interpreting this as a call for military intervention, it was a moral appeal for recognition. Protesters were signaling to the US President that the policy of engagement should not come at the cost of ignoring the suppression of civil society. At that juncture, society still believed in reform. The request to Obama was not for crippling sanctions, but for the delegitimization of the Ahmadinejad administration.

The Obama administration’s relative silence and continuation of diplomatic tracks was interpreted by many protesters as a betrayal. This sense of abandonment sowed deep cynicism. Society realized that global diplomacy prioritizes security interests over human rights. This disillusionment laid the groundwork for the shift from reformist discourse to more radical postures in the following decade.

The Rise of the Punitive Savior

With the US withdrawal by the Trump administration from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 agreement between Iran and the world powers to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, the dynamic between Iranian society and the West underwent a fundamental transformation. If the request in 2009 was for “solidarity,” by 2019, segments of society began to welcome pressure.

The first Trump administration’s campaign pushed Iran’s economy to the brink. Yet, statistical and field evidence suggests a significant portion of society blamed domestic inefficiency, not sanctions, for their plight. A 2021 survey by the Netherlands-based Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAAMAN) revealed that 86 percent of Iranians believed domestic corruption and mismanagement were the primary causes of the economic crisis, while only 10 percent blamed foreign sanctions.

For parts of the opposition, Trump embodied the strict father figure who does not hesitate to punish the unruly child (the regime), which can be viewed as strategic self-destruction, in which society is willing to endure the pain of sanctions if it leads to the weakening of the ruling structure.

The Death of the Middle Class

Sanctions and mismanagement shattered the backbone of the Iranian middle class. This class, the primary carrier of democratic values, plummeted below the poverty line. The Grey Layer merged with the Barefoot Class. The result was a massive, angry populace no longer concerned with the intellectual nuances of 2009, but seeking bread and revenge, a shift evident in the slogans of 2017 and 2019, which directly targeted the core of the system.

The final turning point in the collapse of society was the brief but devastating war between Iran and Israel last June, which severed the regime’s last thread of legitimacy: the promise of security. The conflict began with preemptive Israeli strikes on nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordow. Iran retaliated with over 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones. Israeli and US defenses intercepted the majority of the projectiles. The Israeli Air Force, maintaining air superiority, destroyed critical infrastructure, including refineries and the state broadcaster studios in Tehran. The destruction of air defense systems left the country virtually defenseless.

The most shocking aspect was the societal reaction. Unlike the Iran-Iraq War, which galvanized patriotism, the 12-Day War exposed a complete state-society rupture. A September postwar GAMAAN survey revealed bitter truths: 44 percent held the Islamic Republic responsible for starting the war, 51 percent believed Israel was successful and achieved its objectives. These figures indicate absolute alienation – Iranians interpreted the bombing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities not as an attack on the country, but as the weakening of the jailer. The myth of “we provide security,” used for years to justify internal repression and regional intervention, evaporated.

National Desperation and the Black Bags

The protests of January 2026 were not a civic movement for reform but a rebellion of absolute despair. Facing internal collapse following the military defeat, the regime opted to erase the problem. The Supreme National Security Council issued orders for direct fire against protesters. Hospital lists confirmed by surgeons indicate over 30,304 deaths in just two days, January 8 and 9. The scale of killing overwhelmed the logistical system. Reports emerged of authorities running out of body bags and using refrigerator trucks to transport piles of corpses. The term “Black Bags” became a grim symbol of this era.

January slogans reveal a profound ideological metamorphosis. The progressive slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” central to the 2022 uprising was completely absent from street protests. 65 percent of slogans were negative/negating (”Death to the Dictator,” “We don’t want...”). 20 percent of slogans explicitly praised the Pahlavi era (”Reza Shah, Bless Your Soul”). This shift signifies desperation regarding modern democratic models. When society faces naked violence and absolute poverty, priorities shift from civil liberties to order and sustenance. The return to monarchist slogans is a plea for a strongman from the past, a desire for a savior to end the chaos with an iron fist.

Why the Stranger?

Shi’a culture is intertwined with the concept of “Waiting” (Intizar) for a Savior. The Islamic Republic attempted to fill this void with the “Velayat-e Faqih,” or guardianship of the Islamic Jurist. With its failure, society did not discard the mechanism of “waiting” but secularized it. The savior is no longer the Hidden Imam, but an external force –Trump, Israel – or a historical king.

Repeated cycles of protest and suppression (1999, 2009, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2026) have induced learned helplessness in the collective psyche. Iranians have concluded that internal change is impossible against a ruthless apparatus. Thus, the only salvation lies in a superpower capable of militarily matching the IRGC.

In political psychoanalysis, the despot plays the role of the “bad father.” When the father kills his children and loots their future, the children suffer from unresolved Oedipal conflict. In this state, the children turn to the neighbor – the foreigner – to punish the father. Implicit support for foreign pressure is a manifestation of the desire for patricide. Society is willing to see the house (homeland) damaged, provided the tyrannical father is buried under its rubble.

This psychological state is not a new phenomenon but has been brewing in the intellectual subconscious for decades. It was diagnosed by the renowned poet Mehdi Akhavan Sales (M. Omid) in the 1960s. Addressing himself by his pen name Omid (Hope), he wrote in a moment of historical despair:

“Again they say: wait for another tomorrow...

Wait until another appears...

No Kaveh [The Internal Hero] will be found, Omid...

Would that an Alexander [The Foreign Conqueror] be found...”

Akhavan’s verse captures the chilling essence of 2026. He realizes that Kaveh the Blacksmith, the mythical internal champion of justice, will not rise. In this vacuum, the collective unconscious trades the dream of a national hero for the nightmare of an Alexander, willing to accept the alien conqueror if it means the end of the current stagnation.

This is written by a resident of Tehran who writes to Asia Sentinel: “I managed to access the internet using various VPNs and some specific workarounds during a brief window where the connection seems slightly more accessible. I have not stopped writing; for me, it is the only way to shout to the world that I am still alive and surviving.”

A powerful Filipino gaming tycoon accused of complicity in more than 100 murders who has ties to top police officials and judges up to members of the Supreme Court apparently has fled the country, allegedly with the equivalent of P10 billion [US$170 million] in cash, according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, raising questions why he wasn’t arreste…

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On February 5, an “independent committee” investigating the cause of last year’s Wang Fook Court fire, which consumed seven of the eight blocks of the complex and took the lives of at least 168 people, will begin its work. Hong Kong police arrested executives from a construction company involved in the renovations on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence including employing highly flammable construction mesh and polystyrene foam boards during exterior renovations, which allowed the fire to spread rapidly across the seven towers.

Although reports indicate that fire alarms and safety systems were ineffective and questions have been raised regarding inadequate government inspection of materials and potential corruption in the tender process for the renovations, Beijing’s national security office has warned against using the tragedy to fuel political unrest, while some observers suggest the disaster highlights deeper issues with corporate misconduct and regulatory neglect.

Justice grinds slowly

Friends and relatives of the bereaved, and indeed the public at large, will be hoping for a swifter and more persuasive conclusions than in the case of the 2012 Lamma Ferry disaster, which killed 39 people including eight children on their way to a National Day (October 1) fireworks display.

The ferry disaster occurred at about 10:30 pm when the passenger ferries Sea Smooth and Lamma IV collided off Yung Shue Wan, the main population center on Hong Kong‘s Lamma Island. It was the deadliest maritime disaster in Hong Kong in more than four decades. The bow of Sea Smooth collided with the stern of Lamma IV on her port side, rupturing two of the latter ship’s watertight compartments, which quickly flooded, with Lamma IV’s bow rising almost 90 degrees into the air. Lamma IV soon capsized with her aft sinking into the sea and going down in less than two minutes, so quickly that more than 100 passengers were thrown into the water unprotected despite an abundance of life vests on board. Sea Smooth left the scene after the accident and continued on to the pier.

On 14 February 2015, Sea Smooth′s captain Lai Sai-ming was convicted of 39 counts of manslaughter over the deaths, while Lamma IV′s captain Chow Chi-wai was acquitted of the same charges by the High Court. Both men were found guilty of endangering the safety of others at sea. On 16 February, Lai and Chow were each sentenced to eight years’ and nine months’ imprisonment, respectively.

Earlier this week, on January 21, a coroner finally ruled the ferry matter was a case of “unlawful killing” but suggested that this was the result of the actions of the captains of the vessels involved. The coroner rejected claims that the vessel, which had undergone extensive modification to increase capacity, was to blame for its rapid sinking, or that it wasn’t in compliance with requirements relating to bulkhead doors.

Stunning conclusion

The conclusion stunned many observers who were familiar with the case and, in particular, with a 270-page report released in 2013. Presided over by two senior judges and hearing a large number of expert witnesses on naval architecture, navigation and other relevant subjects, that report concluded that the cause of so many fatalities was less the collision itself than the very rapid, stern-first sinking due to the absence of a bulkhead door, the addition of lead ballast to the keel during modification, and other issues including seats which detached easily and lifejackets that passengers had no access to. Modifications hadn’t met the required standards but nonetheless had been repeatedly approved by the Marine Department despite not meeting Damage Stability requirements. Other issues included inadequate crewing.

The report was a damning document casting blame on the Lamma IV ferry owner Hong Kong Electric Company, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, which had organized the company outing, but it couldn’t be used as evidence. An official report by the Transport Bureau was subsequently made in the following years, but most of it was never released, including the names of various officials. In addition to the charges against the captains, two Marine Department personnel were briefly jailed for failure to ensure lifejackets for children. But no action was taken against the owners, designers, builders or officials responsible for the seaworthiness of the vessel after modifications had been made.

As Asia Sentinel wrote in 2014, the secrecy surrounding the bureau’s report was viewed as “another bureaucratic cover-up” in which most of the blame could be saddled on captains working very long hours and not on the state of the vessel that sank. Thus, with the convictions in 2015, it seemed that the matter was at an end, however unfair and however the result of internal government issues.

But some people, particularly relatives of some of the dead, were not to be brushed off. They repeatedly sought an Inquest into the full cause of the tragedy and hence responsibility for the deaths. That request was repeatedly denied until 2023, when it was allowed by the Court of Appeal. Eventually, there was a hearing in 2025, 13 years after the tragedy, which heard from 84 witnesses. Announcement of the conclusion was twice delayed, giving rise to further speculation. As for the coroner’s conclusions, the families and followers of the case could only note the stark differences between that decision and the contents of the 2013 report.

Justice has taken a very long time and, in the view of many, remains denied by the system. The public will be expecting better things from the fire enquiry, not least actions against influential parties. Given Beijing’s warnings, the public has a right to be skeptical.

Billionaire Filipino-Chinese gambling tycoon Charlie Tiu Hay Sy “Atong” Ang, is on the run, reportedly with the help of former and active law enforcement officers from the same agencies now hunting him over the macabre disappearances of scores of cockfighting afficionados between 2021 and 2022. They reportedly ended up in sacks at the bottom of the scenic volcanic Lake Taal 70 km south of Manila, around which movie stars, tycoons and politicians have built luxurious homes.

The 68-year-old Ang, often seen in the company of actresses and beauty queens, may already have fled the country, witnesses say. He is considered one of the most powerful criminal figures in the country, with connections that go to the very top of the political, judicial and law enforcement hierarchies that have long kept him from justice. The victims’ families have urged authorities to further examine the possible involvement of a broader “Alpha Group,” which they believe provided him with political and logistical protection. Those named include semi-retired actress and Ang’s business partner Gretchen Barretto, retired Lt. Gen. Jonnel Estomo, Ang’s children who allegedly held administrative roles, and a mysterious figure believed to be a front used for certain transactions involving the group’s “share” of the profits.

This time, the deaths of scores of devotees of cockfighting, or sabong, mostly gamblers known as sabungeros, may be too big to ignore, although many are betting his connections mean he will never see the inside of a jail cell. It has been five months since charges were filed by relatives of the dead, an indication of how gingerly authorities are treating the case.

Regional courts issue warrants

Regional trial courts in Santa Cruz. Laguna and Lipa City, Batangas have finally issued warrants for Ang’s arrest for 10 counts of kidnapping with homicide and 16 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention—non-bailable offenses under Philippine law, meaning he will be detained indefinitely if captured.

Ang has skipped the country before, however. He was a key figure and co-accused in the 2001 impeachment trial for plunder and corruption of former President Joseph Estrada but fled to the United States, where he lived until he was arrested and extradited in 2006. The following year, he pleaded guilty to indirect bribery and escaped with just two years in prison.

For relatives of the missing sabungeros, the issuance of arrest warrants represents the first major step toward accountability. Earlier media reports placed the number of missing at 34. However, the cases filed against Ang and his 21 co-accused account for only 26 victims. His former chief security aide has cited as many as 108 disappearances of victims suspected of cheating in the online cockfighting, or e-sabong, events that he controlled.

Ang’s influence is deep-rooted. Before the warrants were issued, critics widely perceived him as a figure with significant political and law enforcement protection, owing to his longstanding presence in the gaming industry and past interactions with government agencies and officials. Media and political commentators often described him as “untouchable”—a belief reinforced by how long investigations into the disappearances dragged on without resolution.

‘e-sabong’ a goldmine

Ang built his fortune primarily through gaming, betting and cockfighting ventures, with online gambling on cockfighting, a Filipino national obsession, a particular goldmine. His net worth was estimated at around US$900 million as of 2024, with Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. involved in massive, high-volume betting operations. During a 2022 Senate inquiry, Ang said his firm Pitmasters Live (Lucky 8 Star Quest), handled roughly ₱60 billion in monthly bets, generating about ₱3 billion (US$50 million) in gross monthly income with a 5 percent commission—yet remitted only a fraction in taxes, raising questions about regulation and oversight of the online gambling industry. At the peak of e-sabong, Ang’s network reportedly earned up to ₱1 billion a day, enabling him to retain top-tier legal defense and potentially sustain life as a fugitive.

To underscore the seriousness of the manhunt, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has offered a ₱10 million reward for information leading to Ang’s arrest, branding him the country’s “No. 1 most wanted” and a fugitive who “travels with no less than 20 bodyguards.”

“He’s used to facing authority and solving problems with aggressiveness. So we consider him armed and dangerous,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said, warning Ang not to trust his own security detail, as “one of them may sell him out.”

The Philippine National Police have revoked permits for six firearms issued to Ang and tightened monitoring at airports and seaports nationwide. Tracker teams and intelligence units have been mobilized, while the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has sought an Interpol red notice, potentially making Ang a wanted man in 196 countries.

Many already in custody

Authorities say all 21 of Ang’s co-accused—13 police officers and eight civilians—are already in custody. Only Ang remains at large. The National Police Commission has dismissed the police officers from service, stripping them of retirement benefits and barring them permanently from public office. Remulla has also confirmed that four retired police generals are under investigation for alleged links to Ang.

Despite raids on at least 10 properties linked to Ang, the National Bureau of Investigation has acknowledged difficulty locating him, though it maintains there is a “high chance” of arrest. Immigration records suggest Ang hasn’t left the Philippines, but whistleblower Julie Patidongan insists his former boss may have slipped the country in December before the warrants were issued. The Philippines’ porous thousands of islands, some not far from ther Malaysian state of Sabah, make escape relatively easy.

The Department of Justice says it has established evidence with a reasonable certainty of conviction, largely based on testimonies of former security aides Julie, Elakim, and Jose Patidongan, now under the state witness protection program. Julie Patidongan, Ang’s former security chief, claimed that sabungeros were abducted and that police personnel were bribed with significant monthly payouts, including claims of millions of pesos to a senior police officer and smaller amounts to others. In his most recent interview on radio last January 17, Patidongan revealed more gruesome details, alleging that victims were strangled with wire before being dumped in Taal Lake. Elakim, on the other hand, allegedly witnessed the killing of 10 missing cockfighting enthusiasts.

Ang’s lawyers have denied all allegations, asserting that the Patidongan brothers were unreliable and that the DOJ resolution was “flawed and unfair,” prompting motions for reconsideration. Lawyer Gabriel Villareal has challenged the integrity of the prosecution’s case and highlighted gaps in evidence. They are pursuing all available legal remedies, including motions for reconsideration and constitutional challenges to the arrest warrants, which could delay enforcement and trial proceedings. His legal team has dismissed the allegations as flawed and politically motivated.

Ang earlier filed countercharges against Patidongan and Alan Bantiles, another whistleblower, for alleged extortion, intimidation and slander, asserting the accusations of related to the missing sabungeros were motivated by financial disputes. The Mandaluyong City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed all five criminal complaints — robbery with violence or intimidation, grave threats, grave coercion, slander and cyber libel—in October for lack of factual details and insufficient evidence.

Significant obstacles remain, including possible evasion of arrest, vigorous legal defense, and challenges in securing reliable evidence. Combined with the historical difficulty of prosecuting powerful figures in the Philippines, these factors could mean that justice for the missing sabungeros’ families will require persistence, transparency and sustained institutional commitment.

Whistleblowers have alleged that Ang’s camp offered as much as ₱300 million (roughly US$5 million) to recant testimonies, and there are ongoing concerns regarding his ability to influence local courts.

Once captured, Ang faces the most severe penalties under Philippine law: multiple life sentences. Authorities have begun moving to revoke licenses and freeze assets linked to alleged crimes. With or without his arrest, DOJ officials say trial proceedings will move forward for those already in custody. Preliminary hearings for those already in custody are expected to begin within the first week of February.

Whether Ang’s apparent untouchability proves real or temporary will test the Philippine justice system. His case has become a litmus test of the country’s capacity to enforce the rule of law against powerful figures—and a potential watershed moment for accountability if justice ultimately prevails.

Search and retrieval operations officially ended on January 18 in Cebu City with the recovery of the last victim of the collapse of the 20-story-high Binaliw Landfill, which occurred on January 8 when a garbage avalanche engulfed administrative and maintenance buildings. The grim toll was 36 dead and 18 injured after they were buried under tons of garbage, soil, steel trusses and discarded office structures. The site is reportedly operated by Prime Integrated Waste Solutions Inc., led by billionaire Enrique K. Razon Jr., chairman of International Container Terminal Services Inc., the Philippines’ largest ports operator by revenue, with subsidiaries in the Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Americas.

The disaster exposes the hollow core of the country’s waste management strategy, in which the dumpsite is not merely a place of refuse. It is home, workplace, lifeline and occasional macabre burial site. There are now 343 landfills scattered across the country, populated by scavengers and waste pickers, primarily impoverished families including children who survive by collecting and selling recyclables like plastic, metal and e-waste.

Most of the Binalaw victims were sanitation workers and residents housed inside the facility. Their deaths underscore the extreme risks borne by people forced by poverty to live and work amid hazardous waste. Families still depend on salvaging recyclables to meet basic needs like food and medicine. Informal settlers erect shanties on or beside towering piles of garbage, breathing toxic fumes, drinking contaminated water, and risking their lives daily to earn a few pesos. Children grow up sorting through waste instead of books, learning early that survival often comes before safety. This is not a choice; it is what poverty leaves behind when alternatives vanish.

Illegal dumps surged by 84 percent in the past year alone. The Philippines generates about 2.7 million tons of plastic waste annually, ranking it 3rd globally in mismanaged plastic pollution, including an estimated 163 million sachets used every day. Existing policies, including the 2022 Extended Producer Responsibility Act, have been criticized as toothless, focused on recovery after damage is done rather than compelling reductions in production.

In Binaliw, the landslide buried a Materials Recovery Facility and nearby houses, leaving children orphaned and families without breadwinners—another turn in a cycle that pushes the poor into the most dangerous environments. Now considered among Cebu City’s deadliest industrial disasters, the tragedy is a suffocating reminder that when environmental problems are swept aside, the ground eventually gives way.

Initial findings point to violations of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, enacted after a massive garbage slide in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City in July 2000 that officially killed at least 260 people although other estimates suggest the death toll was closer to 700–1,000. Laws strictly prohibit open dumps, yet investigations found Binaliw was effectively operating as one. Before the collapse, the waste pile was far beyond the safety limits of the original landfill design.

The most famous – or infamous -- of these dumpsites was the 17-story Smokey Mountain, covering 20 hectares on the outskirts of Manila and home to 30,000 people who made their living from picking through the landfill’s rubbish, attracting worldwide negative attention. The original site was closed in 1995 and converted into public housing, although 25,000 to 30,000 people still live in the immediate tenement and slum areas of Tondo –nicknamed Happyland (or Hapilan) that replaced the landfill. Thousands of the scavengers moved on to the Patayas site, which became known as Smokey Mountain II, and with more poverty and desperation.

That the Binaliw collapse echoes Payatas a quarter-century later, a facility labeled “sanitary” is a warning. Without strict enforcement and real support for the urban poor, crimes of neglect will recur. The facility’s operator has publicly attributed the collapse to the 6.9-magnitude earthquake in September 2025 and heavy rains from Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) in early November, which supposedly destabilized the massive heap of waste. Legal experts counter that proximate cause may still lie with improper stacking and ignored warnings. Preliminary assessments by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources cite waste oversaturation, excessive height, prolonged rainfall, and technical limits. The landfill reportedly handled nearly 1,000 tons daily, reaching unsafe heights and trapping methane-rich pockets amid mixed waste, symptoms of chronic failure in source segregation.

After an inspection on January 9, the environment department’s Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visayas issued a cease-and-desist order, after people had already been buried, after-the-fact enforcement after the mound rose to skyscraper scale. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau flagged the estimated 35-meter height, poor drainage and slope instability as key risks. The sudden closure of the facility, which services not only Cebu City, has triggered a regional waste crisis, forcing the neighboring Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City and Consolacion town to scramble for alternative disposal and temporary waste-handling solutions.

Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla has ordered a comprehensive assessment to determine whether the site can ever reopen or must be permanently decommissioned. Yet warnings long predated the collapse. The landfill, originally run by ARN Central Waste Management and taken over by Razon’s Prime Integrated Waste Solutions in 2023, faced years of complaints about open dumping, foul odor, fly infestation, water contamination and unpermitted earth-moving. Inspections in 2024 and 2025 reportedly flagged violations and urged revocation of the site’s Environmental Compliance Certificate. This was not a sudden accident. Risks had been raised for more than seven years.

As search operations ended, attention turned to accountability. A Senate inquiry is forthcoming to examine compliance with the law and possible negligence by local officials and regulators. Human rights and labor groups are pushing to criminalize safety violations and pass a Magna Carta for Waste Workers to guarantee living wages and hazard pay. The Department of Labor and Employment is investigating reports that workers lacked social security and were exposed to imminent danger without adequate safeguards.

What happened in Cebu—and in Payatas 25 years ago—is not merely environmental. This was not a natural disaster. It was a systemic failure. A society that allows its poorest citizens to live and die under heaps of garbage has failed its most basic duty: to protect human dignity.