Asia

‘Walk of shame’ video showing Philippines mayor humiliating thief slammed

A Philippine mayor who forced a man to walk in public with a sign saying he stole fish was denounced by the government's rights body Wednesday amid online outrage.

MANILA // A Philippine mayor who forced a man to walk in public with a sign saying he stole fish was denounced by the government’s rights body Wednesday amid online outrage.

In a clip shown by local ABS-CBN television and uploaded on the video sharing site YouTube, the unidentified man had his hands bound behind his back with a bag of dried fish hanging from the knot, and a poster stating “I am a thief” taped to his shirt front.

A group of men identified by the network as local government security personnel laughed and taunted the bound man, forcing him to kneel in front of a fishmonger to ask for her forgiveness.

“There is a clear, gross violation of human rights here,” Commission on Human Rights chief Loretta Ann Rosales told AFP.

“While he was not physically harmed, he was treated with indignity and psychologically punished,” she added.

“Only the court can determine guilt and punishment. There was no due process.”

Rosales said Mayor Thony Halili should be investigated for abuse of power for his role in allegedly ordering the “shame campaign”.

It was unclear when the clip was made. The mayor could not be reached for comment by AFP on Wednesday.

But he told another Manila television network, GMA, in an interview that he had ordered the public shaming.

“He is a recidivist. I had no other way of making him stop other than shaming him,” Halili added.

The controversy came just days after the United States criticised the Philippines for failing to curb human rights abuses, which it said included extrajudicial killings and widespread abuse of power and corruption.

Rosales demanded that the video be taken down from the mayor’s official Facebook page. By Wednesday, it had been shared over 1,000 times.

“He had been under surveillance for some time,” the Facebook message on the video link said.

On YouTube, the video drew angry comments.

“This type of barbarity still with us? A shame,” said a user identified as Cat Black. Other commenters accused the government of singling out petty criminals, while turning a blind eye to corrupt officials.

While the Philippines is one of Asia’s freest democracies, rights groups say it is afflicted by a “culture of impunity” where officials believe they can commit abuses and get away with it.

This has led to rampant killings of journalists and activists, as well as the routine execution of petty criminals.

* Agence France-Presse

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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.”

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