Category Archives: Philippines

Ruined centuries-old town re-emerges as Philippines dam dries up during heatwave

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After a long spell of intense heat and little rain, water levels have fallen to reveal parts of a sunken church, tombstones and foundations at Pantabangan

Ruins of a centuries-old town have emerged at a dam parched by drought in the northern Philippines.

After a prolonged spell of intense heat and little rain, water levels in the dam have fallen to reveal parts of a sunken church, tombstones and the foundations of structures from the 300-year-old town in Nueva Ecija province.

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Jeepney strike under way in Philippines as deadline to modernise nears

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Government tells operators they must join cooperatives by Tuesday and gradually replace their vehicles with greener options

A three-day strike by drivers of jeepneys in the Philippines began on Monday as transport groups warned that thousands could be pushed off the roads by government modernisation plans.

The jeepney is the backbone of the Philippines’ transport system. The customised, privately-owned buses, which look like a cross between a Jeep and a van and are decorated in flamboyant colours, ply routes in neighbourhood streets and city centres, offering rides for as little as 13 pesos (23 US cents). They have featured in pop songs and films – Pope Francis even travelled through Manila in a jeepney-inspired popemobile.

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Wave of exceptionally hot weather scorches south and south-east Asia

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Warnings of dangerous temperatures across parts of Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and India as hottest months of the year are made worse by El Niño

Millions of people across South and Southeast Asia are facing sweltering temperatures, with unusually hot weather forcing schools to close and threatening public health.

Thousands of schools across the Philippines, including in the capital region Metro Manila, have suspended in-person classes. Half of the country’s 82 provinces are experiencing drought, and nearly 31 others are facing dry spells or dry conditions, according to the UN, which has called for greater support to help the country prepare for similar weather events in the future. The country’s upcoming harvest will probably be below average, the UN said.

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China sounds warning after Philippines and US announce most expansive military drills yet

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Exercises starting on Monday will be the first to be held outside Philippines’ territorial waters, and come amid a rise in tensions in the South China Sea

Philippine and US forces will carry out their first ever military exercises outside the south-east Asian country’s territorial waters, in a move China has said will only lead to greater insecurity in the South China Sea.

The annual Balikatan or “shoulder-to-shoulder” drills – which will run from 22 April to 10 May – will involve 16,700 soldiers simulating retaking enemy-occupied islands in areas facing Taiwan and the South China Sea.

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Dynamic in South China Sea is changing through growing US and Japan ties, says Philippines president

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Ferdinand Marcos Jr says building trilateral ties vital, after the three countries criticise China’s ‘dangerous and aggressive behaviour’ in the region

A cooperation agreement by the Philippines, the United States and Japan will change the dynamic in the South China Sea and the region, the Philippine president has said, while seeking to assure China it was not a target.

“I think the trilateral agreement is extremely important,” Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a press conference in Washington on Friday, a day after meeting President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, in the nations’ first trilateral summit.

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Biden pledges to defend Philippines from any attack in South China Sea

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US president describes defence commitment to the Philippines and Japan as ‘ironclad’ as Beijing accuses Manila of violating Chinese sovereignty

Joe Biden has pledged to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea, as he hosted the first joint summit with Manila and Tokyo amid growing tensions with Beijing.

“The United States’ defence commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” the US president said on Thursday as he met the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida.

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Schools close and crops wither as ‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia

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Governments across region grappling for response as temperatures soar to unseasonable highs

Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.

A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. In updates posted on X, he said heat that was unprecedented for early April had been recorded at monitoring stations across the region this week, including in Minbu, in central Myanmar, where 44C was recorded – the first time in south-east Asia’s climatic history that such high temperatures had been reached so early in the month. In Hat Yai, in Thailand’s far south, 40.2 C was reached, an all-time record, while Yên Châu in north-west Vietnam hit 40.6C, unprecedented for this time of year.

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Manila accuses Beijing of ‘dangerous manoeuvres’ in South China Sea

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Philippines says vessels were damaged and four people injured after Chinese boats caused two collisions

The Philippines has accused China of “dangerous manoeuvres” in the disputed South China Sea that damaged its vessels and left four Filipinos with minor injuries, warning such action had put lives at risk.

The Philippines said Chinese coastguard and maritime militia vessels had caused two collisions, which led to superficial structural damage to the hull of one of its coastguard vessels. The simultaneous use of water cannon by two Chinese vessels against a civilian supply boat shattered the vessel’s windshield and caused minor injuries to at least four personnel onboard, according to a Philippine national taskforce.

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Philippines rescuers find girl alive 60 hours after landslide

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Three-year-old has given fresh hope of finding more survivors in a gold-mining village where death toll has climbed to 27

The rescue of a child nearly 60 hours after a landslide hit a gold-mining village in the southern Philippines has been hailed as a “miracle” after searchers had given up hope of finding more survivors.

The girl, who the Philippine Red Cross said was three years old, had been among scores of people missing after the rain-induced landslide hit the village.

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Philippines says it is ready to use force to quell secession attempts as Duterte row deepens

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Former president has called for his home town, Mindanao, to split from the Philippines as his alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr crumbles

The Philippine government is ready to use “authority and forces” against attempts to divide the nation, a security official has said, after former president Rodrigo Duterte threatened to separate some southern islands from the rest of the archipelago.

Duterte has called for the independence of his home town, Mindanao, from the Philippines as his alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr disintegrated this week over disagreements around efforts to amend the constitution.

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Duterte calls Philippine president ‘a drug addict’ as rift deepens

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Ferdinand Marcos Jr hits back with fentanyl insult amid breakdown in relations between political families

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte accused his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of being a drug addict who risked being ousted from office in an expletive-laden tirade that underlined the breakdown in relations between the two powerful political families.

Duterte’s speech on Sunday, in which he claimed Marcos Jr’s allies were trying to remove constitutional term limits so they could cling to power, follows long-running speculation about hostilities between the families.

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Weather tracker: Tropical Cyclone Kirrily brings 170km/h gusts to Queensland

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Cyclone downgraded after dense fog hits parts of the US and India while drought affects Philippines and southern Africa

Tropical Cyclone Kirrily made landfall on the coast of Queensland on Thursday night (local time). Kirrily originated as a tropical low over the Coral Sea, and gradually intensified over several days. The tropical cyclone then quickly intensified on Thursday, reaching a category 2 system by 10am AEST, and category 3 by 3pm, producing gusts of 170 km/h (105mph). As Kirrily moved inland five hours later, it left more than 34,000 homes and business without power in Townsville. However, the cyclone was quickly downgraded back to a category 1 by midnight.

Earlier in the week, dense fog developed from Montana all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico, reducing visibility on Tuesday to less than a quarter mile for many. The combination of last week’s arctic blast, followed by the introduction of warmer air from the south this week, allowed water vapour to condense closer to the surface, which is also known as advection fog. Dense fog reappeared on Thursday morning, affecting just under 99 million people from North Dakota across to central Pennsylvania, and as far south as New Orleans.

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Philippines president sparks outcry for using presidential helicopter to see Coldplay concert

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Ferdinand Marcos Jr was flown in because concert-goers created ‘unforeseen traffic complications’, bodyguards say

Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr has been criticised for using a presidential helicopter to attend a Coldplay concert north of the capital Manila, bypassing the area’s notorious traffic jams.

On social media, many accused the president of wasting taxpayers’ money, and pointed out that the public has to endure Metro Manila’s infamous traffic daily while commuting.

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‘I feel like a criminal for quitting’: nurses in the US fight ‘stay or pay’ agreements

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Filipino nurses for Ohio-based company say they have been forced to pay thousands in fees after signing training contracts

Filipino nurses are calling for the US’s top labor watchdog to review controversial “stay or pay” training repayment agreement provisions that have left them facing lawsuits and thousands of dollars in fees after they quit their jobs.

Training repayment agreement provisions (Trap) are contracts employers require workers to sign before beginning a job and stipulate that if a worker leaves the job before a specified time, they owe substantial fees.

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Festive cheer for Filipino fishers after supply boat evades Chinese vessels

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Boat from Philippines with gifts for fishers, troops and coastguard in South China Sea slipped past vessels that intercepted festive flotilla

It looked, for a time, as if Christmas had been cancelled. A Philippine mission by volunteers to bring the festive spirit to the fishers, troops and coastguard crew in the disputed South China Sea was forced to turn back on Sunday after organisers said they had been shadowed and intercepted by Chinese vessels.

But it later emerged that a smaller supply boat had managed to slip past the Chinese vessels.

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Tropical Cyclone Jasper live update tracker: category 2 storm hits North Qld, more than 14,000 homes lose power, BoM radar track map – latest

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BoM tracker map shows forecast path of category 2 cyclone will hit north of Cairns and Port Douglas on the Queensland coast at about 1pm with heavy rain, 140km/h winds and storm surge predicted. Follow the latest Australia news and weather updates today

Ceasefire ‘can’t be one-sided’

Emergency management minister Murray Watt is also speaking to ABC RN this morning, and was asked about the PM’s joint letter with his New Zealand and Canadian counterparts urging a ceasefire.

[It] shows that we want to work with like-minded countries towards what would be a just and enduring peace. I think the whole world has been pleased to see the release of hostages and the pause in hostilities that we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, but what we need to do is move towards a sustainable ceasefire …

I think everyone who watches this conflict unfolds on their television screens, is really disturbed about the loss of life that we’re seeing go on at the moment.

I think that’s the value that a country like Australia can play here by really taking that even-handed approach that does call out the abhorrent behaviour by Hamas, but also as a friend of Israel, calls on them to respect international humanitarian law.

We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza. The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.

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Philippine festive flotilla turns back after Chinese ‘intimidation’

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Forty fishing boats loaded with donations, Father Christmas figurines and nativity had set sail in disputed South China Sea

A Philippine mission to bring Santa Claus to the South China Sea to spread holiday cheer to fisherfolk, troops and coastguard officials was cut short after organisers said Chinese vessels intimidated their convoy.

The flotilla of 40 fishing boats loaded with Christmas donations, Father Christmas figurines and nativity displays set sail from El Nido in Palawan province at 1am local time on Sunday (1700 GMT Saturday), on its way to disputed areas that Beijing claims, without legal grounds, as its own.

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Bombing of Catholic mass in southern Philippines leaves four dead

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Police say explosion at Mindanao State University gymnasium in Marawi could be revenge by pro-Islamic State militants

Philippine forces were on high alert after a bomb killed four people and wounded many more during a Catholic mass in a university gymnasium in the south of the country, an attack the authorities called Islamist terrorism.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and most heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists,” said the president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “Extremists who wield violence against the innocent will always be regarded as enemies to our society.”

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Philippines earthquake: woman killed by collapsed wall as fleeing residents return home

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The magnitude 7.5 quake in Mindanao triggered tsunami warnings in Japan and more than 600 aftershocks

Philippine residents were allowed to return to their homes on Sunday after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the country’s south, killing at least one person, with disaster officials reporting minor damage to some infrastructure.

The Saturday night quake shook parts of Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces, triggering coastal evacuations and tsunami alerts in the country and in Japan.

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Who are the first hostages released from Gaza?

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Hamas released 24 hostages on Friday, including 13 Israelis, one Filipino man and 10 Thai citizens

The group of hostages brought out of Gaza on the first day of the ceasefire with Israel included 13 Israelis, 10 Thai citizens and one Filipino man.

The Israeli hostages included four children with female relatives, who were all visiting family at Nir Oz kibbutz when Hamas attacked on 7 October, and five elderly women, four of them residents of Nir Oz and one from a nearby kibbutz.

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