Singapore’s 2018 ASEAN chairmanshipThis week, Singapore announced its priorities going into 2018 as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Southeast Asia has its problems with drug-related crime mostly with trafficking and substance abuse, and each country in the region has been tackling this issue differently. There was a visualisation of a Drug-Free ASEAN in 2015.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has cancelled all future peace talks with communist rebels waging one of Asia's longest insurgencies, in a blow to efforts to end the half century-long conflict.In a speech Tuesday night, Duterte criticised the insurgents over deadly attacks against soldiers and police while threatening to categorise them as a "terrorist" group.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has pledged two accused Russian drug traffickers will be detained in a "comfortable house", rather than his nation's badly over-crowded jails.Duterte made the commitment at a meeting late Monday with Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev on the sidelines of a regional summit in Manila."I would just like to say that we have a working functional justice system here and they will get a fair trial and that they will be detained in a comfor

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he stabbed a person to death as a teenager, in a defiant speech to promote his drug war ahead of a summit of world leaders in Manila.Speaking to the local Filipino community in the Vietnamese city of Danang on Thursday, Duterte also threatened to slap a UN rights rapporteur if he met her, and used obscene language to hit back at critics of his deadly drugs crackdown."When I was a teenager, I would go in and out of jail.

“A gun didn’t kill those people. Didn’t kill my friends. A gun stopped him… Not a cop gun. A civilian,” Robert Kunz, friend of several victims of the Sutherland Springs massacre in Texas, said to AFP.His statement was intended to protest the pro gun movement in the US which has responded meekly to the latest massacre.Back in Southeast Asia, gun-related violence and deaths are very much a scary reality.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has offered to shoot criminals himself, while warning he may bring police back to the frontlines of his deadly war on drugs.Duterte made the comments late Friday following his announcement on October 11 to withdraw the police from his anti-drug war after they were accused of rights abuses in killing thousands of people while following his orders to eradicate illegal drugs in society.He replaced them with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned he is prepared to establish a "revolutionary government" to fend off alleged efforts to oust him, fuelling fears of a looming dictatorship.He issued the warning on state television late Friday as he railed against the press, European lawmakers and other critics of his drug war that has left thousands dead and led rights groups to warn of a crime against humanity.Duterte said he would resort to a revolutionary government, as opposed to

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte incorrectly based his threat to expel European ambassadors within 24 hours on news reports, and there are no plans to kick them out, his spokesman said Friday.Duterte threatened in a fiery speech on Thursday to quickly send European envoys home as he accused their governments, without citing evidence, of plotting to have Manila "excluded" from the UN."You think we are a bunch of morons here. You are the one.

A recent poll conducted by the Philippine-based SWS (Social Weather Stations) showed that President Rodrigo Duterte’s satisfaction ratings has slumped 11 points from 78 percent in June to 67 percent. This leaves his net satisfaction rate (percentage satisfied – percentage dissatisfied) at 48 percent – a decline of 18 points from a net satisfaction rate of 66 percent in June this year.His trust ratings also took a hit as it fell nine points from 82 percent to 73 percent.