PHILIPPINES
Senator critical of Duterte forced from safe haven and held
Manila — A Philippines legislator fiercely critical of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war was arrested on Tuesday on charges for which he had been granted amnesty, a move condemned by watchdogs as persecution of the government’s opponents. Senator Antonio Trillanes was taken into custody and then posted bail in Manila shortly after a court-issued warrant forced him from the senate building, where he was holed up for weeks to avoid arrest. Trillanes is the second senator critical of Duterte’s drug war to be detained. Leila de Lima has been behind bars since February 2017 on charges which she says were concocted to silence her. Earlier in September, Duterte rendered void an amnesty granted eight years earlier to the senator, a former navy officer, for his role in two coup attempts in the mid-2000s. "They twisted the law so our democracy and institutions failed," Trillanes told reporters. "This [case] has nothing to do with anything except for the vengeance of Duterte and his underli...
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