Category Archives: Philippines

‘They were shot in the head’: morgue gives up truth of Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war

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Crusading pathologist Raquel Fortun finds evidence of multiple murder at the direction of ‘a madman’ in the exhumed remains of young Filipinos

It was in an old university stockroom, with wooden tables salvaged from a junkyard, that Raquel Fortun began to investigate the merciless crackdown launched under the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

Fortun, one of only two forensic pathologists in the country, has now spent more than 18 months examining the exhumed remains of dozens of victims of the so-called “war on drugs”, revealing serious irregularities in how their postmortems were performed – including multiple death certificates that wrongly attributed fatalities to natural causes.

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Search for wreckage atop volcano after plane with two Australians goes missing in Philippines

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The Cessna 340 with former Santos employees Simon Chipperfield and Karthi Santhanam lost contact on Saturday

Two Australian men are feared dead after a plane lost contact in the Philippines with four people on board, as crews work to verify if a wreckage spotted near the crater of a restive volcano is the missing plane.

The plane, which was bound for the capital Manila, lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday, three minutes after it departed Bicol international airport in Albay province, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said in a statement.

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Philippines president summons Chinese ambassador over laser incident

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The Philippines accused a Chinese coastguard ship of directing a ‘military-grade laser light’ at one of its vessels, temporarily blinding a crew member

Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos has summoned the Chinese ambassador to express serious concern over the “increasing frequency and intensity of actions” by China against Philippine vessels.

The meeting came a day after the Philippines accused a Chinese coastguard ship of directing a “military-grade laser light” at one of its vessels, temporarily blinding a crew member and disrupting a mission in the South China Sea.

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Chinese ship accused of using ‘military-grade laser’ against Philippine vessel

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Philippines coastguard says crew member temporarily blinded and mission disrupted in South China Sea

The Philippines has accused a Chinese coastguard ship of directing a “military-grade laser light” at one of its vessels, temporarily blinding a crew member and disrupting a mission in the South China Sea.

The Chinese ship shone a green laser light twice towards the boat as it sought to deliberately block a resupply mission, the Philippine coastguard said. It also accused the Chinese vessel of making “dangerous manoeuvres by approaching about 150 yards from the vessel’s starboard quarter”.

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US seals crucial military deal with the Philippines close to China ‘flashpoints’

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Deal expands Washington’s access to military bases close to Taiwan and the South China Sea

The Philippines has granted the United States expanded access to its military bases, greatly enhancing Washington’s presence in the region at a time of growing concern about Chinese aggression.

Washington would be given access to four additional military bases in “strategic areas of the country”, without specifying the locations, the Philippines’ Department of National Defence said on Thursday in a statement.

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Maria Ressa: Nobel-winning Philippine editor keeps a ‘go bag’ in case of arrest

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After beating tax-evasion charges, Rappler news chief says that cases against her have left her ‘living on quicksand’

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa says she keeps a prison “go bag” with bundles of cash for bail and runs simulations of police raids with her staff as she fights for press freedom in the Philippines.

The editor of news website Rappler won acquittal on four tax-evasion charges on Wednesday but said she was prepared for the worst from the three further outstanding cases that could see her sent to jail or her online news organisation shuttered.

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Qantas flight to Philippines forced to turn back to Sydney as authorities close airspace

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QF19 was three hours into New Year’s Day journey when pilots learned they could not land at Manila

A Manila-bound Qantas plane was forced to turn around mid-flight and return to Sydney after an air traffic control malfunction forced Philippine authorities to shut down the country’s airspace.

Flight QF19 departed Sydney shortly before 1pm local time on New Year’s Day and was about three hours into its eight-hour journey when pilots learned they would not be able to land at the plane’s destination.

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Power, corruption and fury: the killing of Percy Lapid

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Mystery surrounds the alleged involvement of top officials in the murder of the high-profile Philippine journalist

It was just past 8pm on 3 October and the veteran broadcaster Percy Mabasa was on his way to record his nightly radio show. Every weekday evening, tens of thousands of Filipinos, many living abroad, would tune in to listen to his news commentary and sharp humour.

But on this evening, as Mabasa drove up to the entrance of his gated community where his studio is located in Las Piñas, Metro Manila, a motorbike began to trail him. Footage taken by a camera on the back of his car, and since released by police, shows two figures on the bike pulling up alongside him. Then gunshots can be heard. There’s a bang as Mabasa’s car slams into the vehicle in front. The motorbike turns and drives away. Mabasa was killed instantly.

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Philippines searches for survivors after dozens killed in floods and landslides

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Rain-induced floods and landslides unlike previous disasters in the country, which are typically triggered by severe typhoons

Rescue teams across nine provinces in the Philippines raced to try to locate 26 people missing after weekend rains, floods and landslides that have killed at least 25 people, in one of its deadliest weather events this year.

The national disaster agency on Wednesday said casualties reported so far had increased to 25 from 17 the previous day, with most deaths caused by drowning from flash floods.

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China accused of seizing rocket debris from Philippines navy in South China Sea dispute

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Coast guard cut towing cable the Phillipines navy was using, say military officials, on eve of visit to region by Kamala Harris

China’s coast guard forcibly seized the suspected debris of a Chinese rocket that the Philippine navy was towing to its island in the South China Sea, Philippines military officials have said, in the latest confrontation in the disputed sea.

The Chinese vessel twice blocked the Philippine naval boat before seizing the floating debris it was towing on Sunday off Philippine-occupied Thitu island, Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos said on Monday. He said no one was injured in the incident.

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Australian man jailed for 129 years in child sexual abuse case in Philippines

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It is the second conviction for Peter Gerard Scully who was already serving a life sentence for the rape and trafficking of girls

An Australian man has been sentenced to 129 years in a Philippine jail as part of a child sexual abuse case involving victims as young as 18 months, a prosecutor has said.

“I hope this sends a very strong message to all abusers, all human traffickers, that crime really does not pay,” Merlynn Barola-Uy, a regional prosecutor in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro, said on Wednesday.

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Philippine police allege prisons chief ordered murder of journalist

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Gerald Bantag behind killing of Percival Mabasa in Manila suburb last month, authorities claim

Police in the Philippines have accused the country’s prisons chief of ordering the killing of a prominent radio journalist whose death sparked international alarm.

Percival Mabasa, 63, who went by the name Percy Lapid on his programme, was shot dead in a Manila suburb on 3 October as he drove to his studio.

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Weather tracker: Storm Nalgae heads towards China after pelting Philippines

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Sixteenth tropical cyclone to affect the Philippines this season caused deadly floods and landslides

Tropical Storm Nalgae swept through the Philippines on Saturday with sustained winds of 60mph.

Heavy rain caused the most damage, with significant flooding and landslides. Dozens of people have died and 170,000 sought shelter in evacuation centres.

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Storm Nalgae: floods and landslides in Philippines kill at least 45

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Officials revise death toll after fast-moving waters sweep away entire families and damage almost 500 houses

The Philippines has significantly revised down the death toll from a tropical storm ravaging the country, saying only 45 people have been killed.

The civil defence office had earlier reported 72 dead, 14 missing and 33 injured, but civil defence officials acknowledged rescue teams sent to the country’s flood-hit south on Friday had erred in their reporting, leading to some deaths being counted twice.

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‘Strange and unusual’ Philippines lottery win draws call for inquiry

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Prize worth £3.55m to be split between 433 winners who all chose multiples of nine for their numbers

A “strange and unusual” lottery draw in the Philippines that led to 433 people winning with a combination of numbers that were all multiples of nine has prompted suspicion and calls for an investigation.

A prize of 236m pesos (£3.55m) will be split between the winners, with each receiving about 545,000 pesos, subject to taxes, for picking the numbers 09, 45, 36, 27, 18 and 54 during the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) grand lotto draw on Saturday.

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Outrage after Philippine journalist Percival Mabasa shot dead in Manila

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Media groups and activists describe assassination of radio star, known on air as Percy Lapid, as a blow to press freedom

A prominent Philippine journalist has been shot dead while driving in the country’s capital, Manila, according to police, prompting condemnation from media groups and activists, who described his assassination as a blow to press freedom.

Radio journalist Percival Mabasa, 63, was killed by two assailants at the gate of a residential compound in the Las Pinas area of Manila on Monday night, police said. He was shot twice in the head.

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Weather tracker: Typhoon Noru wreaks havoc across south-east Asia

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As Hurricane Ian hits the Americas, Noru has been ripping through the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand

Hurricane Ian has been in the headlines but it is not the only storm that has been causing havoc in the past week.

On Tuesday, Typhoon Noru struck south of the city of Da Nang in Vietnam, heading westwards to Thailand. Initially a tropical storm, Noru originated in the Philippine Sea on 23 September, propagating westwards while gathering moisture and strengthening.

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More than 1,700 environmental activists murdered in the past decade – report

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Figures likely to be an underestimate, says Global Witness, as land defenders are killed by hitmen, crime groups and governments

More than 1,700 murders of environmental activists were recorded over the past decade, an average of a killing nearly every two days, according to a new report.

Killed by hitmen, organised crime groups and their own governments, at least 1,733 land and environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2021, figures from Global Witness show, with Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras the deadliest countries.

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Super Typhoon Noru hits Philippines after thousands flee homes

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Sustained wind speeds of 125mph recorded in what is expected to be strongest storm to hit country this year

Super Typhoon Noru has slammed into the Philippines, battering the heavily populated main island of Luzon with strong winds and heavy rain that have forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

The storm was packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 125mph (195km/h) after an unprecedented “explosive intensification”, the state weather forecaster said.

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Philippines struck by powerful 7 magnitude earthquake, killing at least two

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Dozens injured after tremor hit mountainous area of Abra province, causing extensive damage to some homes and buildings

A strong earthquake left at least two people dead and injured dozens in the northern Philippines, where the temblor set off small landslides and damaged buildings and churches and prompted terrified crowds and hospital patients in the capital to rush outdoors.

The 7-magnitude quake centred in the province of Abra in a mountainous area, said Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

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