Defending Moral Obligation: Duterte's Dauntless War Against Drugs

As the mainstream media describes Rodrigo Roa Duterte,the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines,widespread generalizations emerged.He was the country's first Mindanaoan president and acquired popularity among Filipinos by working on platforms to reduce drug addiction,corruption,and criminality,and received 39 percent of the vote in the 2016 Presidential Election.Back on the year 2016,during the first Presidential Debate,Duterte had sworn that he will eliminate the extensive propagation of drugs in the country with his first six months of authority.With the advent of his presidential campaign,arises the issue on extra-judicial killings from his ruthless hunt for drug pushers and users which is highly criticized by the human rights devotees.This was the cornerstone of Duterte's presidential campaign and the crime solution hallmark of his 22-year period as mayor of Davao City.While the president's critics state that this is unjust and immoral,this paper argues that Duterte's radical politics is necessary in the lessening if not total eradication of criminality and corruption that the country had been experiencing.Using the lens of Deontological Ethics and Utilitarian Ethics,this paper tries to explain Duterte's radical politics and why it is needed in the contemporary Philippine society.

Variable retention harvesting: conceptual analysis according to different environmental ethics and forest valuation

Background:Conceptual clarity is important to attain precise communication of scientific knowledge and to implement appropriate technological and policy actions.Many concepts referring to forest management are widely used by decision-makers,regardless of their complexity.Although the scientific and methodological issues of forestry practices are frequently discussed in the literature,their normative dimensions are rarely treated.Thus,linguistic uncertainty increases when different environmentally ethical perspectives and ways of valuing forests are considered.The objective was to compare different conceptualizations on the silvicultural systems suggested for forest management and the implications they have for conservation.We have conceptually contrasted highintensity forestry practices with variable retention harvesting,considering different environmentally ethical perspectives and forest valuation alternatives.Results:Clear boundaries between clear-cutting,selective logging,and variable retention harvesting can be evidenced when different ethical points of view and alternatives in the human-nature relationships are considered.We have found a variety of definitions of variable retention harvesting that can be analyzed under different ethical positions.Sharply contrasting views on variable retention harvesting can be evidenced if nature is considered to be purely at human’s service or if it is conceptualized as humans co-inhabiting with nature.The latter position implies that the maintenance of ecological,evolutionary,and historical processes supported by unmanaged forest stands is a crucial step for forest management proposals based on variable retention harvesting.Conclusions:Forestry practices that are focused on forest yields and that misinterpret functional uncertainty of forest functioning would be risky.Moreover,forestry with variable retention harvesting could imply good yields with reasonable conservation management in some contexts,while it could be unacceptable in other socioecological contexts.The improvement of conceptual clarity on the different meanings of variable retention harvesting and the development of indicators for forest management based on the variations of this concept can reduce controversies.