Rodrigo Duterte was appointed as President of the Philippines on July 1, 2016. At the same time, he realized his political promise to catch up drug lords, through a war on drugs policy. War on drugs attempts to eliminate drug trafficking and use in the Philippines by arresting and/or killing dealers, both large dealers and small dealers, and drug users. In its implementation, Duterte hired police, paramilitaries, and assassins (BBC News, 2016).

The Philippines did suffer from drug emergencies as Duterte said in his speeches. According to data from the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) in 2016, drug users in the Philippines reached 1.8 million, equivalent to 1.8% of the total population of the Philippines which reached 100.98 million people. The data was collected from the age range of 10-69 years which at least had used drugs even once in his life (Gavilan, 2016). read more

Last Friday (21/06/19), Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies, UGM organized the Discussion Series on (ASEAN) Identities II with the speakers: Dr. Wening Udasmoro (Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM) and Dr. Budiawan (Graduate School, UGM).

The Southeast Asian Languages ​​Program (SEA Gate) program opening ceremony (13/06/19) was attended by Dr. Hamam Supriyadi, M.A., Asst. Prof. Dr. Pravit Khaemasunun, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ratchaneekorn Sae-Wang, Dr. Pongthep Vorakitpokatorn, and Dr. Veluree Metaveevinij from Thammasat University and Dr.phil. Hermin Indah Wahyuni, Drs. Muhadi Sugiono, M.A., and Dr.phil. Vissia Ita Yulianto from Universitas Gadjah Mada. This semester, there are 23 SEA Gate participants from College of Innovation, Thammasat University and Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University . read more