Church bells to ring in protest against Philippine drug killings

A Philippine Catholic official has ordered churches in his northern district to ring their bells every night for three months to raise alarm over a sharp spike in police killings of drug suspects, adding to a growing outcry over president Rodrigo Duterte's bloody crackdown.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas said church bells would toll for 15 minutes nightly across his religious district from Tuesday to November 27 to rouse a citizenry "which has become a coward in expressing anger against evil." The start and end of the protest mark days of Catholic veneration.

The move comes after more than 80 drug and crime suspects were gunned down by police in metropolitan Manila and nearby Bulacan province in just three days last week, the bloodiest few days since Mr Duterte's crackdown began in July last year.

"The sounding of the bells is a call to stop approval of the killings," archbishop Villegas, who also heads an influential bloc of Filipino Catholic bishops, said in a statement read out on Sunday in churches in his district in Pangasinan province. "The country is in chaos. The officer who kills is rewarded and the slain get the blame. The corpses could no longer defend themselves from accusations that they 'fought back.'

"Why are we no longer horrified by the sound of the gun and blood flowing on the sidewalks? Why is nobody raging against drugs that were brought in from China?" he asked, referring to a huge drugs shipment that managed to pass through Manila's ports under the watch of customs officials appointed by Duterte.

Without naming the president, the archbishop criticised Mr Duterte's praises for police killings of 32 drug suspects in just a night of raids across Bulacan province last week and how his supporters applauded in response.

In a separate statement read in Manila churches, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle offered to host a dialogue on the drug problem among government and police officials, along with families of victims, nongovernment groups and medical experts.

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Anger and protests have focused on the killing last week of a teenager, Kian Lloyd delos Santos, who police say was a drug dealer who opened fire with a pistol during a raid, prompting officers to shoot him. The family of the slain 17-year-old student say he was shot by police as he was pleading for his life.

Police said the student attempted to escape during a raid that sparked a chase on Wednesday night in suburban Caloocan city in Manila metropolis. The student's parents and some neighbors denied the police claim, pointing to security camera footage that showed a man, who they said was delos Santos, being held by both arms and dragged away from his home shortly before he was shot nearby.

Vice president Leni Robredo condemned the killing and visited the wake of the slain student on Sunday, accompanied by a volunteer lawyer who she said may be able to help the victim's family attain justice. She said the country had a big drug problem, but the solution should not trample on human rights and victimise the innocent.

Amid the outcry, police officials removed three police officers involved in the killing of delos Santos, along with their commander, and ordered an investigation.

Senators allied with Mr Duterte scheduled a meeting on Sunday to discuss a possible investigation of the most recent killings. In radio interviews, two of them warned the police not to abuse Mr Duterte's strong backing of law enforcers in his anti-drug campaign.

"Legitimate police operations are okay, but summary executions have no place in our society because they're barbaric acts," said senator Joseph Victor Ejercito. "They should not go overboard."

More than 3,200 drug suspects have been gunned down by police since Mr Duterte launched his crackdown. More than 2,000 others have died in drug-related killings, including attacks by motorcycle-riding masked gunmen, who human rights groups allege are policemen in disguise or their civilian hit men.

Human rights groups have said the death tolls are higher.

Mr Duterte has said he erred in his initial estimate that the drug menace could be ended in three to six months and now says it would be difficult to have the problem under control during his six-year term. The crackdown will not stop under his watch, he said.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Church bells to ring in protest against Philippine drug killings

Anger over president Duterte's campaign mounts after more than 80 were killed in just three days