The GCF Task Force is a really important initiative because it's really showing leadership at the sub-national level. Signing that declaration shows a serious commitment to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. And what's important about that is that many of these member states are in key countries like Brazil, Peru, Indonesia. And so there actually could be a massive positive impact from this pledge among these particular member states. And CIFOR has been lucky enough to collaborate more closely with the GCF Task Force throughout this year, basically. And we participated in the annual meeting in Acre where there were several presentations by CIFOR scientists from the Global Comparative Study on Red. I guess there were two. One is lessons from Red Proponents. These are proponents of sub-national Red projects and programs in six different countries. And the challenge is that these organizations and governments are facing in reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. And the kinds of lessons that can come from those challenges to inform Red at a broader scale. That was one part. And then another part was actually some of the impact evaluation work that we've done in the state of Acre following policy intervention since 2010 until the present. And the kinds of early impacts that we're seeing from some of those innovative policies. Political continuity is really important. So a lot of these countries are facing elections in the near future. And there is a certain instability associated with that. You have a set of governors now who are committed, but what happens at the next election cycle being an optimist? We hope that it's established enough in these places that it can't be affected by a simple election. For example, in the state of Acre, the passing of the state system of incentives for environmental services is key because it's a state law. And it's now got an infrastructure around it, new institutions. It would be hard to reverse something like that. And other states and provinces are following suit. So it's that kind of institutional transformation that's needed so that these processes aren't vulnerable to a new governor or a new set of secretaries. I think what we're really seeing is the importance of valuing these bottom-up innovations. We're talking always about the global climate agreement. And that is obviously important, but this attention that's needed at the subnational level and the advancements that have happened and the faster pace, because we need a faster pace actually to make some of these changes happen. And so not ignoring that and not only counting on the international framework, but also really placing value at lower levels. And there's a lot of inspiring stories that are coming out of that level that need to be valued, paid attention to, and lessons learned for higher-scale action. I think there is, I mean, even some of the New York Forest Declaration, some of the Brazilian states have signed onto it, even though Brazil did not sign onto it. So these subnational entities take leadership at these events. The Governor's Climate and Forest Task Force had an event here. There is this attention. They're at every event. They'll be at the COP in Lima. It's not just about countries. It's also about these lower-level jurisdictions.


What's up guys we're back with another viewer mail video we have some insane mail this week I have a ton of mail I haven't had a chance to make a video on it So we've got a lot of different stuff from you guys some stuff I think has been coming for like months and it finally got here So this can be pretty awesome before we get started the giveaway I'll be giving away these three cards all you got to do is like this video be subscribed And let me know your favorite piece of mail from you guys also wanted to mention I've been streaming a lot on twitch.tv slash ruxin 34 I put the hyperlink in the description just click it there you can follow me We just became affiliate. It's been pretty awesome. So check that out We've been doing a lot of dual links and stuff like that. So let's go ahead and hop into you guys stuff First we have a note. It says hey ruxin 34 you miss these guys in your every pack Besides that you've been putting in work besides if I mistake apparently hope 2021 is a bigger and better year for the channel your boy Ben from Wisconsin So I don't know what which one he's talking about but we're gonna start off with some of the stuff He sent I opened the box already because it was huge. I couldn't get it on to the On to the screen. So he sent a couple of cards leaves. That's always awesome. He sent us Collectors album. Okay, I don't know. This is really big and it's too big for the whole thing So we'll try and do this four stacks and one mega stack. It's a panini product This bag is not a toy. Oh, I think it is a toy. So there's one there's actually two of these So that's super cool.  All right, and he also sent this we have Six Yu-Gi-Oh Flicks picks that sounds kind of sketchy to me up. Okay. Yeah, so yeah, these aren't actual like TCG cards So I don't count it as missing it, but yeah, I definitely did not open this There's a lot of cool stuff like this that I didn't I didn't have in that video. What wow, there's a ton of these Okay, what exactly are these this is alpha the magnet warrior. This is a tops It's a tops product Interesting, let's see what's in here. We're gonna open these up or at least some of them because there are a ton So it might take a long time to open up all these Whoa, okay. Whoa, what just happened? We have Wait, oh, it's on the back. Oh, I remember these actually these kind of things at least Joey Joey wheel. Oh, these are actually sick. They change. I remember these. I think I had some Pokemon of these Joey wheel. We got the millennium scales. Is that what they're called? Yeah, we got to turn this around because that's where oh Look at this red eyes.  This is somebody jumping, but I don't know what it is It doesn't tell it says number 40 The feeling on these is so weird. It like oh Blue eyes, is it not changed? Oh, there it is. Okay. Oh blue eyes wide dragon What monster is that I don't know what that is Okay, I need to change it to the next thing or it gets closer I'm not sure what that is guys. What is that? Did you guys know? I don't know you guys will have to let me know Okay, we got it. We got to speed it up a little bit the flicks picks. That is really cool Oh, there's a checklist. There's only 20. No, wait. Oh, it's folded up. I was like 23 cards. Okay, there's still going 7d cards in the set that's kind of a lot or I guess you call them cards. What do you even call these things flicks picks? Okay, let's open a couple more of these and then we'll probably do these on another video at some point Maybe in a different viewer mail video just because there is a ton of mail this week So I don't want this video to be an hour long But we'll open these eventually for sure because these are actually really cool Okay, we just destroyed that All right, we got another checklist there in every pack. It looks like oh a kybo with blue eyes That's super sick We've got a Amazon is chain master I think Pegasus Reaper the cards Where is he? Oh, we can come all the way down here. Check that out. Oh Oh, what is this guy's name? I forgot this guy's name. I mean, I know Odeon, but I don't know what the the monster is and then Okay, now what's his voice is something like that? It's something whack. Yeah, so that's these are actually really cool Okay, let's open like two more packs of this if you guys notice there are a ton of packs in here So we're gonna save these up. Let me know if you guys want to see that in a future video I would be down to open all of them But I also do not want to edit an hour long video tonight Yeah, cuz maybe we will be streaming the new dual links box tonight, so go check out the twitch link It has been pretty fun. A lot of you guys have been supporting like crazy. There's a crash clown with bones Get them bones. Oh Yugi becomes Yugi Yami Yugi I should say The way these like like rub against each other just makes me cringe. Oh Gaia Gaia the fierce night. Oh There's a red eye. Is that a wait red eyes. Is that a metal dragon red eyes black metal dragon or what's gone? Makura and then inside Necro fear that's kind of sketchy. I have one more pack of this One more pack. This is already taking up a lot of our time, but how can you not enjoy these? These are actually some of the coolest like I want to say off brand, but they're not off brand. I mean they're a big brand. It's just like just kind of random products So dude, thank you again, Ben for sending us these We have a another odion with that that dude another arcana Another Yugi. Oh he becomes dark magician girl. That's kind of kind of weird Then we have a dark magician Very cool. Wait, does this one change? There it is slight change It's a Performant Oh Jinzo, of course we pulled Jinzo naturally naturally joey Joey wheel I got the Jinzo. We have a letter from let's see who it is. Oh, wow This is a this is a huge piece of paper. It feels like Dear rucksack. I hope you're well and healthy. Thank you. I hope you are as well Subscribe to your channel since about 3,000 subscribers. That's awesome And my collection grew almost as fast as your sub count. Oh really by the time you receive this letter you rb way past 50k We are quite a bit past 50k. That's pretty awesome. So congrats on that And I was thinking about what my collection was still missing. I thought it would be awesome. I have a blue eyes sign You send a blue eyes to get signed by the legend himself Be endlessly grateful if you could send the blue eyes back to me the rest of the cards for you To cover shipping of the letter. Okay. Thank you very much and keep up the awesome videos Best regards from biggest fan in germany marcell.  I can't remember There's one like a rare machine king. I can't remember which one it is though Okay, so we have he sent us an invader of darkness. He sent us a shadow spell This blue eyes is is kind of beat up. So I won't feel as bad signing it. All right Oh hallowed life barrier ultimate rare. We got a penguin soldier for all you penguin soldier fans out there I know you guys are watching. Okay, so that's some pretty cool cards. He sent us Really cool. Now we're gonna have to sign this blue eyes and send it back to him So, okay. Is this a german language? That's actually cool. I don't think I've ever had one of those Or ever held one of those. All right. So next package We'll see what we're gonna do this time. We have from collin mckay There doesn't seem to be a letter in here. So he sent it in a dragon shield box He sent some cards in here, but he didn't send a letter. So I guess we're just gonna go through them Oh, no, get first of all gypsy and godsline. That's cool pierna to reka del amastro Oh my goodness. He got some fake cards. That's amazing It's in a different language great moth We got some cocoons. We got some pecanos naturally. Oh my goodness The washing machine found this one Oh, no Oh, no This might be the thumbnail guys. This is brutal This is brutal. Okay. Look here's a fake slifer That's the one. These are the ones that everybody had back in the day those fake ones Man, these cards got mascot. Are these your childhood cards? I really wish there was a note with this the super magic warrior Melting control to this monster can realize special control This card is suit for keep loss of one card can cause the magic card disabled 500 score will be obtained What in the world does that mean? The sky dragon At the time of thundering under guidance of ancient magic power to show the limitless power Wow, okay. That's actually the right name long life dragon Time magician baddie dragon. That's a baddie dragon right there Oh my goodness We're sent too much to feel it activate the call. Okay. Now. It's not too interesting The dark master While the dark master released While the dark master is all monster with endless offensive will be destroyed I like this card is actually not killed You gotta love these fakes. They're so funny Whoa, whoa, whoa time out. Is this card like minty?  It's like near mint mint Look at that card. That's sick. We're gonna sleeve that up Oh, wow. Okay. First of all form those synchrons a nice card What is this the custom genzo? That's sick That looks really cool Yeah, that's really cool. Okay, so No note in there. So that's kind of I feel like this this needed a note Like there's a story behind this deck and we didn't get it So we're gonna have to you're gonna have to comment down below comment down below callin Let us know what's the story behind those cards. I mean over there your childhood cards or what you gotta let me know All right next we have there's no name yet Is there a note in here there is a note because there's a note this time What's up rocks your hand down my hand down I've been reading those Crazy cards for too long. I can't speak English your hands down my favorite youtuber and one of the main reasons I am into you yo and card collecting kratz congrats on 50k and too many more future milestones See some reprint packs to open up awesome Some extra sleeves and some cards for the giveaway inside the top loader is an extremely rare valuable card You sign it send it back to me only if you have a good pull only if I have a good pull sign it send it back to you Are you saying like you don't want me to send it? Well, I feel like I should send it back either way, right? I don't know. Let me know at tape though. I guess that's his instagram and then So here are the packs we're gonna open right here. There's four packs. Cool. I'm guessing is this the top loader? Yeah, that's the rare and valuable card. I think these are the extras for the giveaway that we can add to the giveaway Which are what? Okay, yeah, these are the giveaway cards. I think so you guys have a chance to win all these. There's also multiple cards in here What's in here? Oh, they were just stuck nevermind. Okay, so I'm in great foxy and what was the last one? We got a danger mothman. Okay, so all those cards will be added to the giveaway make sure you guys like and subscribe to Ender there Okay, so I guess we'll open these packs and then we'll reveal what his rare card is that I'm gonna sign If you ever send something to get signed if you send a pre-filled envelope That's clutch so then I don't have to find your address and accidentally forget and something like that It's just really nice because somebody did that and I was super easy I just signed it right away put it in there and I was done so it was really easy for me So if you do that, it's helpful But I can still do it otherwise, but here we go dark crisis. We're opening in this video We already opened those cool things earlier, but here's some real packs. All right Can we pull the zodiac necrosis? I need still need to get that greater that we pulled the other day Check out that video if you didn't see it. Here we go Ooh interdimensional matter Transporter we got an ultra rare right off the bat on these free packs So the free content coming in. Thank you guys. Yes, that is awesome So we're definitely have to sign his card. I'm always gonna do that anyway, but we have Definitely good reason. He sent us some good packs. All right. Let's save the pharaoh servant and metal raiders for after this This is some good viewer mail today. This is high quality All right dark witch the sonic bird psychic kappa Curse of fiend. Okay cyber jar. Good one brutal and ceremonial bell Two more packs Can we pull another foil before then this? One pharaoh servant pack, you know, you guys know what that means one pharaoh servant bank the regulation of trying By the way, this is from basketball. I got annihilated on a layup. So science soldier DNA surgery cold wave And dimension hole thousand eyes idol. Okay, nothing in pharaoh's servant, but here we go. We have the final pack. We have metal raiders Can we pull gay guardian? Can we pull summon skull? Can we pull soggy the dark clown? ancient lizard warrior mega thunderball here we go Embers judge. Okay magician of faith. We got some good rares here. I can't complain cocoon. There it is The pecanium moth has grown up. We got a nice ultra rare. So that's pretty cool. Now. Let's reveal What was the rare card? rare card rare card Oh, here we go The madolche A chicka latte The hoop cake with those cute chicka latte. Just check out those little chicka latte Just hugging on the little tree right there. Okay. This is actually not to be opened on this video This is for a big video's giveaway. So at some point We're going to be giving away a number hunter's first edition booster box Thanks to jim. So thank you jim for sending us in Um, we're this was his package. So I don't have anything to open for him or anything But thank you again jim. You guys are going to get a chance to win this booster box. So it's going to be pretty cool So Always love a nice giveaway. I mean who doesn't love a nice giveaway. That's pretty awesome tomorrow if you're seeing this on Tuesday I think you probably will be we're going to doing the magic ruler box break 6 p.m Central it's going to be pretty awesome live on youtube so make sure you guys are there to check it out And here is the note congrats on 50k, but time to guess i'm sure you'll be well in your way to 60k It was fun catching you stream on twitch. Hopefully I can catch another one twitch.tv slash reduction 34 makes you guys check out that link in my description And yes, he's he's been coming a lot. He's actually my first twitch subscriber. So he's he's dedicated I'm coming to start streaming soon So maybe we can have friendly competitions in the future the cards in here are mostly modern cards If I figure I supply your giveaways in the future.  Oh, that's a good sign I'm more than likely weighed and probably light I'll bring them about two or three years ago as part of an ebay lot Or I bought them about two or three years ago as part of an ebay lot But if you decide to open hopefully you pull something cool Yeah, we're opening up key up the good work and look forward to more content in the future So there's his info if you guys want to follow him. So thank you airless media. Here we go Let's see if we can open this thing get something insane. Okay.  So first of all, okay, we have god cards We got pecanum off first editions.  We got a red-ass Oh, nice. What one language is that s Spanish? Okay, cool Dark arm. That's cool. It's a secret rare This is like basically a mystery. He's okay. So he said he wanted these to be in giveaways So I'm guessing we're gonna be given these away eventually. There's so many right now That giving all these away would just be a nightmare for me like right now all at once I guess I could do it like a box to one person, but there's so many it's like I feel like they should be to multiple people I don't know maybe we'll figure that out later. Okay. We've got some more cards. We got all kinds of crazy stuff Wow, there is a ton of cards in here There's an absolute ton That's not even close to all of them Okay, what else we got we got we all kinds of legendary collection kyba stuff a blue eyes white dragon always awesome This is the card. I was trying to get the other day in dual links. I think I missed it in an event What else can we get from here that will be potentially being given away to you guys Rank up spellboat. I mean there's all kinds of newer stuff in here. So some older stuff some newer stuff Got zombie stein flying sea Shrink, I mean there is I can't even shuffle through them because this stack is so big virus cannon Dragoonity Parrot dragon, that's a cool one. That's the first reprint of parent dragon. I think I think it was originally tp2 and then it got reprinted there. There is a utopia. That's cool Neutron blast attack burst stream of destruction Instead of white lining for some reason, okay So there's that we're almost done last stack. These are hall. He sent all of these. There's some cards in Top loaders and stuff. I don't know why those rares are in top loaders. That's interesting Okay, here's some more legendary collection kyba We've got some Yeah, it looks like all of his doulos pack yugi stuff is Slept up like that. I mean make sure there's not like foils in here or something Okay, it's it looks like you just put all the copies in one thing. So that makes sense. There is some nice pins That's really cool as well. So there's all kinds of cool stuff doulos league and finally We have some booster packs. We have portuguese first edition. You guys have seen some of this portuguese metal raiders Soul of the doulos unlimited. We got doulos pack yugi doulos pack kyba And we have the dog tags. So there's all kinds of cool stuff. Let's just start opening these obviously We're gonna open them You never it's portuguese. So there's a good chance they weren't scaled Because they're just portuguese packs. They're still not very expensive Even now So we could pull blue as white dragon. That'd be pretty cool. We got a opresa deprata Chicote not almost chic a latte. It's close electro aqua madur All right He said they're probably white light, but we're gonna we're gonna do our best to pull a foil Hopefully we can do it. All right. We got a larvas. Whoa insect basico radicayo a temperature All right, we got that churub in the fire night. All right. Okay. We got m more your number one and crystal Violet crystal Let's go with the doulos pack yugi because we know naturally that's going to be the the worst pack There's really not anything too great in here Unless you get dark paladin or dark magician. I mean it's a rare. That's cool Dark magician should we go to soul of the duelist english pack so we could pull a horse here Horace the black flamed dragon. Oh dark mimic is actually kind of a nice little card Soul of the duelist here we go dark mimic two man cell battle The sandwich fusion of sangan and wish the black forest Oh, I skipped how old life barrier So we were given one of these in viewer mail and now we have pulled one So that's cool one, but it was the ulti that we got till that was pretty awesome Hollow life barrier super rare. So this one was not scale We got one that was unscaled. That's pretty cool next pack duelist pack a yugi big shield god Green gadget. Oh yellow gadget jackson. I and a marshmallow Let's try a metal raiders. Can we pull? What do we want gate guardian? It's hard to say no to gate guardian summon skull time wizard these okay, they're all good They're all good except the cursed one You know what i'm talking about kojo kazi the same name What's he said? Did you go on us? Oh, there it is the coven And the star boy Star but we had two kojo kazi in that same pack. That is weird duelist pack kaiba I duelist pack kaiba legend blue eyes I mean kind of it's it's blue eyes. So close larvis It is blue eyes. So will we get blue eyes insect base to go? Come on, baby. All right. Just a rare just a rare. Just a rare. I had a good feeling there I felt like that was it duelist pack kaiba. Here we go Dun dun dun dun. Here we go ultimate rare. Oh Wide dragon in okay. That's fine. That's fine That's okay. We got three more packs. We got three more chances We have pulled a foil though. So they're not all scaled. That's for sure Also, even if you don't pull anything that doesn't mean they're scaled. Yeah, I see you guys commenting.   It must be scaled and number 13 You would think from youtube comments that every time you open packs You should get the best card every single time like legit That's what they think like you didn't get the best card scaled tampered with they probably opened them already and pulled all the good cards There is a juzi Larva moth. Is that something? No, we've got a larva moth though the Cousin of pecanium moth All right, final pet. We could have gotten pecanium moth out of the real pecanium moth the original pecanium moth We have one more pack. So air. Thanks again for sending these Pretty epic. This is a pretty epic mail video guys Here we go dissolve roka terra arida larvas Insecto, basica Ah, solidore decardes. Okay So we didn't get anything out of those except we did get the hollow knife barrier So we got a super out of the english sod packs. That was really cool I hope you guys enjoyed it remember to check out the twitch channel down below if you guys are interested in watching some dual links And in the future more games. I'm getting a pc. It's coming in But for now we're playing a lot of dual links. It's pretty fun. And I got back into it and now i'm addicted, but Yeah, so this has been epic viewer mail day. I hope you guys enjoyed it Make sure you guys check out the la video or the lob first edition box opening the grades all those videos if you missed them this weekend They were pretty awesome. And that's it for today. See you guys later Peace


On to our second speaker. I'm delighted to introduce Christine Montenegro Mendoza from the Philippines. Christine is a human rights activist. She is a consultant in the Senate of the Philippines and has worked for the enactment of a new HIV and AIDS Policy Act of 2018. A human rights centered and evidence based legislation in the Philippines which has shifted the policy and response to cater to key affected populations and opened up spaces for harm reduction in the country. She's a founding member of Street Law Philippines, an organization of lawyers which provides access to justice for services for people who use drugs in the Philippines. Christine, you have the floor. Bwam diya? It was so good to be out of Manila for a while. Thank you so much for having me. So the thirdest war on drugs is supposed to be just a three to six months campaign. The promise was to eradicate crime, improve peace and order and finish the reign of the oligarchs by the rise into power of a supposedly common Filipino who came all the way from impoverished and underrepresented Mendozao south of the most disdained Imperial Manila. Almost three years later, the war on drugs has unraveled into anything but a war against illegal substances. It has become a platform for a populist dictator when span of only 33 months was able to undermine democratic institutions our leaders thought we built over the last 30 years. Here's how I've been doing it. He then, by issuing a police memorandum circular and a dangerous drugs board regulation which allowed police officers to knock on every door of suspected drug offender to quote-in-unquote ask them to quote-in-unquote voluntarily surrender. He then asked the local government units, particularly the village chiefs to come up with a list of known drug offenders and even commanded people to submit names through a drop box which the police will use as targets for their operations. Then he ordered the Department of Education, the Commission of Civil Service, Department of Labor, all other government agencies to conduct drug tests of students as young as high school and employees with a threat of insubordination and termination for non-compliance. His allies in the legislative, they were able to institute regressive drug policies, they were in statement of death penalty for drug offences, lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, police subpoena, construction of compulsory rehabilitation centers. Then the Philippine anti-drug strategy was issued with the obsolete objective and problematic approach of demand reduction by eradicating drug use and supply reduction by launching intense police operations, all towards the goal of a drug-free Philippines by 2022. It will ask drug users in Manila what does drug-free Philippines mean. They thought they're going to get free drugs, that's free drugs in 2022. So what was supposedly a three to six months campaign was extended to two years, three years and became a long term institutionalized, well-funded pseudo war which centralized all governmental powers to one strong man who through effective social control was able to damage our democratic principles such as checks and balances, accountability and transparency, the civilian nature of our police force, the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and respect for human rights. And this democratic reversal did not come without a price. 81,919 drug operations, 170,000 people were arrested, 5,176 were killed during police operations, at least 29,000 as of February 2019. Homicide cases under investigation and 1.3 million drug users to quote and unquote voluntarily surrender. As of February 2019, 29,000 spectra drug offenders were killed and an average of 33 a day. The police already admitted 5,176 who died during their operations by their own hands. The rest they call homicides cases under investigations, HCUIs. They were formerly known as DUIs or deaths under investigation. Same deaths, they wouldn't give their proper term EJK. Academic institutions already profiled the victims. They're more or less in their 30s, breadwinner, working as pedicab driver or construction worker. Most of them are meth users, most of them live in the slums of Manila, a high school graduate who couldn't afford a college education, not seen a doctor or a lawyer in his lifetime, much less afforded services.  After almost three years and 29,000 deaths, so far we only got one conviction. This is Kian de Los Santos, his 17-year-old high school student. He was suspected as a drug runner, was gunned down a few blocks away from his home.  One conviction and it was all because of a CCTV footage which showed police officers dragging him into a dark alley where he was found dead later. Police said the boy fought back. A 17-year-old against three grown police officers. They were convicted. The turtle had to invite the boys' parents to the palace. The operations were suspended for a while. A brewing resistance became felt. Activists went to the streets. Church bells began tolling at 8 p.m. Hashtag stopped the killings, became the national call. And because the resistance became felt, the government had to retaliate. Senator de Lima, who wanted to investigate the killings, has been in jail for 794 days today. Senator Antivero, so-called for a public health approach to drug use, was stripped of her committee chairwomenship and was charged with kidnapping and wiretapping. Chief Justice Sereno has been a dissenting voice in the judiciary of Southside. Maria Ressa, a journalist. Time magazine's person of the year, founder of Rappler, consistently exposing the abuses of the drug war was charged with 11 cases ranging from cyber-level to tax evasion. Bishop David, and other priests who have been speaking against the killings are berated by the president on an almost daily basis on national TV. Other opposition leaders, local officials are linked to the narcolists, media practitioners, critics, all suspected of being connected to an alleged ouster plot. Activists are tagged as communists, lawyers killed. Indeed, it is almost helpful to remind ourselves of what Walter said. It is a dangerous thing to be right when the government is wrong. Since span of almost 30 negotiating months since the launch of this drug war, the territory was able to spur a human rights crisis upon precedented magnitude in Philippine history on the basis and the singularity of its narratives. The drug users are not humans. They are not entitled to human rights. All those protecting them are either drug lords or drug codlers. They are all enemies of the state. While six out of seven Filipinos are reported to worry about extrajudicial killings, it is possible to think why the war on drugs remain to be popular. But it is still popular. 78% of Filipinos are satisfied with the war on drugs. It remains to be the dominant narrative. The territory even promised that its last three years in office is going to be as chilling as ever. He even increased the target from 3 million to 7 to 8 million Filipino drug users. He even brought in the main architect of his drug war, the former chief of police, Batode La Rosa, to run in the midterm elections this May. It is now number four in the survey and if the midterm elections are a referendum of this undy drugs campaign, it seems that majority of Filipinos approve of it so much that they're even willing to hand over this Berdugo a seat in the Senate. It seems that we'll all be losing the independence of the last frontier of our democracy. It's also been a year since the withdrawal from the ICC was submitted and it has now taken effect. Although this will not excuse liability for crimes against humanity committed during our membership, investigation has yet to start. The killing still continues. It has spread out in the countryside. Again, that's still 33 deaths a day. To the next three years, we'll probably remain to be a grim bleak and definitely do not spark joy. There remain small few but growing forces of resistance. These groups have been underground, have been doing underground human rights work amid threats to their security. Faith-based groups, which provide spaces for people who use drugs, EJK victims and their families. Artist groups that continue to challenge the narrative of the drug war through films, performance art, poems and visual art. Photojournalists such as the Nightcrawlers. In fact, the speaker today supposedly Rafi Lerma, unfortunately had his visa denied. He had been at the site of the killing since the war started and has kept on documenting and sharing the stories of the victims. The acadim, which spearheaded Drug Archives PH, that's Atinaeo, the Manila University, University of the Philippines, De La Salle University and Columbia University School of Journalism. They got this database of all the info related to the war that's Drug Archive PH. And civil society organisations like No Box Philippines, which has been doing pioneer work and harm reduction research and training in the Philippines. Local government officials who, in the exercise of their local autonomy, are brave enough to do community-based harm reduction programs that have been saving lives of those in the drug list. Groups of lawyers who have been challenging the constitutionality of the police memorandum working with communities and documenting the EJK cases and providing access to justice services and legal assistance to people who use drugs. This war actually gave birth to Street Law Philippines, a group of lawyers who saw the need to protect the rights of Filipino drug users. We educate them of their rights, we train them to be paralegos, and we will be starting to provide direct legal services for strategic litigation that will hopefully open spaces for drug policy reform. This is during one of our paralegal trainings, and this is with Gadi Euston, Street Law, Denmark, our mentor Nana is here. And of course, a glimmer of hope, our source of inspiration, an organization of people who inject drugs in Cebu City, which is set up a drop in center and conducts outreach under an HIV program. The director, Panky Nadella, is supposed to be here in this conference, but his visa was not granted also. So with the new HIV and AIDS Policy Act of 2018, we hope that their harm reduction work will be protected and supported by the Department of Health. The war on drugs in the Philippines has not only cost the loss of thousands of lives, but has also cost the demise of our democratic ethos. In 1986, we ousted the former dictator, President Marcos, to People Power Revolution, who started a wave of democratisation. 33 years later, we elected a new dictator who is now leading a trend of democratic reversals in neighboring countries, launching their own violent campaigns against drug offenders to tear to stone. As human rights activists pick up the pieces and continue to push back, we can only remain hopeful that international pressure will keep on pouring, that the movement continues to struggle, and that we remain angry. Realising that the best way to protect our rights is to exercise them, especially what's left of it. As of now, there's nothing left to do, but to continue with our work, and in Thomas Paine's words, to rage, rage against the dying of the light. Mabrigada, thank you. Maraming salama. The quick announcement, stop the killings, has been travelling, it has been to Manila, various states in the US, in Colombia, actually, and the banner is coming to Porto. We are inviting you all to a mass action by disbuilding on May 1, that's Wednesday after plenary. See you all there. Thank you.


As a young boy, I was hiking in the mountains with my father. He was hiking on the trail, and I was off the trail jumping from rock to rock. And as I was just about to jump onto a large rock, actually climbing up the rock, my father grabbed the back of my belt and pulled me away and says, Gary, don't climb on that rock right now. And I said, okay, a little bit surprised. And so I fell in behind him as we walked up the trail. And as we did that and we turned around and we looked back down on the rock that I was going to climb and there coiled on that rock. In the sun was a large rattlesnake. I said to my dad, how did you know that that snake was there? And he said to me, Gary, what do you know about the Holy Ghost? And I've learned since then that promptings of the Holy Ghost are going to come to us. And we literally are hearing what the Lord wants us to hear. And I have heard the Holy Ghost warn me. I have felt the Holy Ghost teach me. I have felt peace and comfort from the Holy Ghost. And I have had testimony come to me from the Holy Ghost. And so one of the ways that I hear him is doing all I can to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.