Then there’s housing. Voters are still frustrated by high mortgage rates and prices staying elevated due to a shortage of properties. Shelter is 37% of the consumer price index. Price increases for housing have eased, but shelter costs are still rising at 4.6% a year, compared with annual increases
They had begun turning up in cities all over the Philippines ever since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a controversial war on drugs this year — so many that one local newspaper had to create a “Kill List” just to keep track.Dealers and addicts were being shot by police or slain by unidentified gunmen in mysterious, gangland-style murders. Their bodies ended up dumped on highways in the rain, curled in pools of blood in the slums. Some were found tied up, with masking tape plastered across their faces. Some were draped with cardboard signs that warned, “I’m a pusher. Don’t Be Like Me.”
With each new death, Betchie imagined losing the man she had loved for a decade — a proud father of three who was also an addict.“We talked about it a lot,” she said. “I told him, ‘Please don’t go out at night.‘”“Don’t worry,” Marcelo always told her. “It’s gonna’ be OK.”
Marcelo’s addiction began when he was working as a driver in the eastern province of Bicol. And all it took was one hit.A colleague introduced him to a potent methamphetamine known in the Philippines as “shabu,” saying it helped him stay awake at night. The drug was ubiquitous and easy to get. It could also be smoked, snorted, or injected for as little as one dollar.
When the couple moved to Manila last year, hoping for better work prospects, they settled in a busy central district called Las Pinas. Marcelo found a new job driving a “tricycle” — a rickshaw with a motorcycle attached that is used as a taxi. He earned about $10 per day ferrying customers around the city, just enough to support their two boys, ages 6 and 7, and a newborn baby girl.
He also found a new group of friends who were into shabu, and his year-old drug habit did not let up.Among the regulations that had been placed on hold were ones setting cleanliness standards for abortion facilities and requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain types of hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers) or 15 minutes of where an abortion is provided.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement that “today’s decision from the Missouri Supreme Court is a win for women and children and sends a clear message — abortion providers must comply with state law regarding basic safety and sanitation requirements.”Planned Parenthood maintains that those restrictions were specifically targeted to make it harder to access abortion.
Still, the organization — which has the state’s only abortion clinics — immediately started calling patients to cancel abortion appointments at Missouri clinics in Columbia and Kansas City, according to Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.Wales said it’s a familiar but disappointing position for the organization.