The Philippines has taken drastic measures to combat the spread of Covid-19. The entire country is under strict quarantine and the army is on the streets to monitor compliance. According to official figures, there are 462 positive cases and 33 dead in the Philippines, but it is thought that thousands of cases remain undetected due to lack of resources in a country where millions of people have no access to health care. In the poorest and most crowded areas, it’s almost impossible to adhere to the physical distancing required during quarantine
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Inside the cruise ship that became a coronavirus breeding ground
As contagion swept through the Diamond Princess, its crew had to carry on working. Here, they recall the climate of chaos and fear that prevailed during the ship’s two-week quarantine
Christian Santos* remembers staying awake at night, anxiously listening to the sound of his colleague coughing. They were sleeping below deck, in one of the small rooms shared by workers on board the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship.
He had spent the previous two weeks serving guests who were confined to their rooms, and watching the miserable failure of disease-control measures on the vessel. Now he knew the coronavirus, which had already transmitted to hundreds of people onboard, had almost certainly entered his own cabin.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: couples in Philippines marry wearing masks – video
Hundreds of Filipino couples participated in a mass wedding wearing face masks because of coronavirus fears. As part of efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, officials in the city of Bacolod conducted health tests and provided the 220 couples with masks before they tied the knot
Continue reading...Philippines coronavirus patient has recovered, authorities say
Woman, 38, who travelled with the only victim to die outside China and Hong Kong, is no longer infectious, says doctor
The first case of novel coronavirus in the Philippines – a Chinese tourist from Wuhan who had been travelling with a man who died of the virus – is no longer showing symptoms and may be discharged soon.
The last test on the 38-year-old woman, conducted on 6 February, showed she was negative for the virus, according to the health department. Two consecutive negative tests are required before a patient may be discharged.
Continue reading...Philippines races to trace those linked to first coronavirus death outside China
A 44-year-old man from Wuhan travelled with a 38-year-old woman through Hong Kong and three provinces before his death
Officials in the Philippines are racing to identify people who had contact with a 44-year-old man who has become the first person to die from the new coronavirus outside China.
The man, who was from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak in China, had visited three provinces after arriving in the Philippines from Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Ashen landscapes of the Philippines after Taal volcano eruption – in pictures
The eruption of Taal volcano near Manila spewed lava into the sky, leaving villages blanketed by heavy ash. The falling ash pushed aviation officials to temporarily shut down the capital’s main airport, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and stranding tens of thousands of travellers.
Continue reading...More than 300 human rights activists were killed in 2019, report reveals
Colombia was the bloodiest nation with 103 murders and the Philippines was second, followed by Brazil, Honduras and Mexico
More than 300 human rights defenders working to protect the environment, free speech, LGBTQ rights and indigenous lands in 31 countries were killed in 2019, a new report reveals.
Two thirds of the total killings took place in Latin America where impunity from prosecution is the norm.
Continue reading...Taal volcano: thousands flee as ash and lightning fill the sky
Thousands of people have fled the area surrounding Taal volcano in the Philippines, which has been erupting since Sunday. It has ejected ash up to 15km into the sky and has generated bursts of lightning within its ash cloud
Continue reading...Drones show Philippines town cloaked in ash from Taal volcano – video
Drone footage published on social media shows thick ashfall from the Taal volcano covering buildings, roads and trees in Batangas province in the Philippines. Clouds of ash were blown more than 62 miles (100km) north of the volcano, reaching Manila and forcing the main international airport to close. More than 500 flights were cancelled
Continue reading...Lightning and ash: timelapse footage shows Taal volcano eruption – video
A video captured from a nearby home in Tagaytay City shows volcanic lightning and a thick ash column erupting from the Taal volcano in the Philippines.
Flights have been suspended and thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as the volcano spewed ash 1,000 metres into the sky, prompting a warning from the Philippines of an 'explosive eruption'.
Continue reading...Lava gushes from Taal volcano in Philippines – in pictures
Red-hot lava gushed out of the Taal volcano in the Philippines after a sudden eruption of ash and steam forced villagers to flee en masse and shut down offices and schools. Clouds of ash blew more than 60 miles north, reaching the capital, Manila, and forcing the shutdown of the country’s main airport. There have been no reports of casualties or major damage from the eruption that began on Sunday
Continue reading...Taal volcano in Philippines emits giant plume of smoke and ash – video
Flights have been suspended and thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as the volcano spewed ash up to nine miles into the sky, prompting a warning from the Philippines of an ‘explosive eruption’
Continue reading...From the man with a three-week erection to the UK’s last MEPs: what happened next?
Plus, an update on the trans man who gave birth, the woman deported to Grenada, and more
Last March, Margaret Simons wrote about the abandoned children of British sex tourists in the Philippines. Brigette Sicat, now 12, was unable to go to school because of ill health, and was living in a leaky shack with a dirt floor and no toilet. Today, thanks partly to the generosity of Guardian readers, Brigette and her family live in decent accommodation, she is a regular attendee at school and her grades are outstanding. The turnaround has been even more dramatic for twins Melanie and Madeline delos Santos – now 19. Reading of Madeline’s ambition to be an architect, a reader is supporting her through university in Angeles City. Human rights law firms in Britain, Griffin Law and Dawson Cornwell, are in the process of confirming the twins’ right to British citizenship; they are also exploring the use of DNA technology to help other children establish parentage, and their rights to child support. Simons and photographer, Dave Tacon plan to visit the children again next May. Their report won a Foreign Press Award last month for best travel and tourism story of the year.
In April, Simon Hattenstone interviewed Freddy McConnell about his quest to conceive and carry his own baby. The film of McConnell’s story, Seahorse, was screened widely. In September, the high court ruled that McConnell cannot be registered as his son’s father. He is appealing the decision and the hearing is expected next year. His young son is thriving.
Continue reading...Typhoon Phanfone: at least 16 killed in Philippines on Christmas Day
Toll could rise as internet and mobile phone networks are still cut off in some badly damaged areas
A typhoon that swept across remote villages and popular tourist areas of the central Philippines on Christmas Day claimed at least 16 lives, authorities have said.
Typhoon Phanfone, with winds of 195km (120 miles) an hour, tore roofs off houses and toppled electric posts as it cut across the Philippines on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Philippines typhoon brings Christmas Day misery
People stranded in evacuation centres and at ports as Typhoon Phanfone passes over string of islands
Typhoon Phanfone has pummelled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions. Thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres while others sheltered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone crossed from one island to another for the second day.
The typhoon toppled houses and trees and blacked out cities in the Philippines’ most storm-prone region. More than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centres as the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday, civil defence officials said.
Continue reading...Philippines massacre: masterminds of country’s worst political attack jailed
Ampatuan family members convicted over killing of 58 people in 2009 attack on political rivals
Members of one of the Philippines’ most powerful political clans have been found guilty of a massacre that left 57 people dead in the country’s worst ever case of election violence.
At a special court in Taguig City, five key members of the Ampatuan family, which governed the southern province of Maguindanao for decades, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the killings.
Continue reading...‘I hate Isis’: uprooted survivors of Marawi siege long to return home
Two years after their city on the Philippine island of Mindanao was liberated, tens of thousands of people driven from their homes remain in limbo
Thousands of survivors of an Islamic State siege in the Philippines are stuck in makeshift dwellings more than two years after their city was liberated, with many forced to drink contaminated water despite the presence of EU-funded aid agencies.
They were among an estimated 350,000 people driven from their homes when Islamist fighters seized control of the city of Marawi, on the island of Mindanao, in May 2017.
Continue reading...The Kingmaker review – exquisitely horrible portrait of Imelda Marcos
The former first lady of the Philippines is revealed as a monstrous, loathsome, absurdly queenly figure in Lauren Greenfield’s superb documentary
Lauren Greenfield’s film about the Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos reveals a grotesquely self-pitying, wholly unrepentant and very rich woman, who has clearly still kept her hands on a great deal of the American aid money that successive US presidents once gave the Philippines in return for suppressing communism and civil rights and showing hospitality to US naval power – cash that she and her husband, Ferdinand, looted from the public purse and salted away abroad.
Related: 'She's an unreliable narrator': Lauren Greenfield on her Imelda Marcos documentary
Continue reading...Australian paedophiles pay as little as $15 for online abuse of children in Philippines
Australian federal police say livestreaming of children performing sexual acts marks ‘alarming shift’
Australian paedophiles are paying as little as A$15 for children to perform sexual acts online while being filmed in the Philippines, according to the head of the Australian federal police team in Manila.
Senior officer Andrew Perkins told Guardian Australia there was an “alarming shift” from previously more common types of “sex tourism” to “convenient and low-risk” online abuse of children which can be customised to the specific requirements of customers.
Continue reading...Thousands flee Typhoon Kammuri in the Philippines – video
More than 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, say officials, after Typhoon Kammuri slammed into the central Philippines.
The typhoon, the country's 20th this year, brought winds of up to 124mph (200km/h) and caused flooding and landslides. Hundreds of flights at Manila's Ninoy Aquino airport were cancelled. At least three people are reported to have been killed
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