Category Archives: Philippines

Philippines court allows Nobel laureate Maria Ressa to go to Norway

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Journalist permitted to receive peace prize in person after judge eases travel restrictions

The Philippine journalist Maria Ressa will be allowed to travel overseas so she can accept her Nobel peace prize in person after a court gave her permission to leave the country to visit Norway this month.

Ressa, who is subject to travel restrictions because of the legal cases she faces in the Philippines, shared the prize with the Russian investigative journalist Dmitry Muratov, amid growing concerns over curbs on free speech worldwide.

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Children back at school in Philippines after 20 months of home study

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Pilot scheme launched in what is thought to be the last country to reopen schools since March 2020

Thousands of children have returned to their classrooms after more than 18 months of home study in the Philippines, thought to be the last country to reopen schools since the start of the pandemic.

On Monday morning, 120 schools began on-site lessons through a pilot project. Footage by the broadcaster ABS CBN showed children at a school in Alaminos line up outside to take their temperatures, complete a health form and wash their hands before entering class.

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Daughter of Philippine leader Duterte to run for vice-president

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Sara Duterte will stand alongside son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 2022 elections in move that has alarmed rights activists

The Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter has registered her candidacy for vice-president in next year’s elections and was chosen as the running mate of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the late Filipino dictator, in an alliance that has alarmed human rights activists.

Sara Duterte backed out this week from her reelection bid as mayor of Davao City in the south, then took the place of a largely unknown vice-presidential candidate of her political party, Lakas CMD, in a move that allowed her to seek the second-highest post even after a deadline lapsed for candidates in the 9 May elections.

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Joy, toys and bumper cars as Manila’s children reclaim the city

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Malls, restaurants and arcades in the Philippines capital are packed with children as Covid curbs ease

Ten-year-old Gabriel Estrella beams as he talks about T-shirts he bought on his first day out at a shopping mall after nearly two years of staying away due to coronavirus restrictions in the Philippines.

“Before the pandemic, buying T-shirts used to be boring,” he said, sweaty after playing with his eight-year-old sister. “Now, it’s exciting! I bought four shirts. They’re anime shirts.

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‘The time for change is now’: demonstrators around the world demand action on climate crisis

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Up to 100,000, including Kahnawake Mohawk delegates, brave Glasgow rain as 22 arrested after scientists blockade bridge

People on almost every continent were gathering for marches and rallies on Saturday to mark a Global Day for Climate Justice, halfway through the Glasgow climate change summit.

Activists in the Philippines, eight hours ahead of the UK, had already finished their rally as protesters gathered in Scotland. There were also rallies in South Korea, Indonesia, the Netherlands and France. The Belgian arm of Extinction Rebellion occupied a street in Brussels.

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‘He cared when no one did’: Filipino human rights lawyer Chito Gascón dies of Covid

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Gascón, who frequently clashed with Rodrigo Duterte over his ‘war on drugs’, has been hailed as a ‘true hero’ of democracy

José Luis Martín C Gascón used a walking stick to carry out his duties as the Philippines’ “courageous” human rights lawyer, a result of living with with diabetes and the wound it left on his right foot.

But in the words of his brother, Miguel Gascón, who confirmed his death on Facebook earlier this month, “of all the battles you fought, we had to lose you to Covid-19”.

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Maria Ressa says her Nobel prize is for ‘all journalists around the world’

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Press groups and rights activists hail peace prize won by vocal critic of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte

Veteran Philippine journalist Maria Ressa has said her Nobel peace prize was for “all journalists around the world” as she vowed to continue her battle for press freedom.

Ressa, co-founder of news website Rappler, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the prize on Friday for their efforts to “safeguard freedom of expression”.

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Moment Maria Ressa learns of Nobel peace prize win during Zoom call – video

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Maria Ressa, the journalist and founder of the Philippine news organisation Rappler, said she was 'speechless' after learning of her Nobel peace prize win while participating in a panel discussion on journalism in south-east Asia.

Ressa could be seen answering a call from the Norwegian Nobel committee informing her of her win on the event's live video feed. Reacting with visible shock, she briefly left the panel to continue the call.

'It's a recognition of how we're going to win the battle for truth,' she said, after returning to the discussion. 'We hold the line.'

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Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov win Nobel peace prize

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Filipina and Russian given 2021 award as organisers warn of threat to independent media worldwide

Campaigning journalists from the Philippines and Russia have won the 2021 Nobel peace prize as the Norwegian committee recognised the vital importance of an independent media to democracy and warned it was increasingly under assault.

Maria Ressa, the chief executive and cofounder of Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, were named as this year’s laureates by Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.

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Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa: ‘A world without facts means a world without truth’ – video

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Maria Ressa, the journalist and founder of the Philippine news organisation Rappler, said 'we are fighting for facts' after she was announced the joint-winner of the 2021 Nobel peace prize with the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. 'This shows that the Nobel peace prize committee realised that a world without facts means a world without truth and trust,' she said. 

Ressa, a former CNN bureau chief, founded Rappler in 2012. She and her organisation have faced threats of closure and arrest after publishing critical coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs. Ressa was named a Time Person of the Year in 2018 for her work on press freedom.

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Manila’s newly homeless tell of survival in lockdown – photo essay

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As Covid hit, thousands of Filipinos were left trapped in the capital without work. Many ended up on the street and are still waiting to rebuild their lives

Like so many others before her, Michelle Sicat, a 28-year-old single mother from the province of Nueva Ecija, had come to Metro Manila to get a job to support her family. She left her daughter with her parents so she could work as a shop assistant in one of the city’s busiest commercial districts. Sicat’s sacrifice was one that many Filipinos from rural areas have to make.

Despite missing home, Sicat was happy to have a job. But then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The Philippine government placed the entire island of Luzon – where the Metro Manila region is located – under the strictest level of lockdown. The restrictions forced most businesses to close. Most people were ordered to stay at home.

For many living on the streets, there is no shelter from the elements

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Haitians fleeing and Hotel Rwanda case: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Germany

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Philippines’ youth call for systemic change at climate protest

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Protesters parading an effigy of Rodrigo Duterte in Manila call for policies that prioritise people and planet

A monstrous effigy of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was paraded through the country’s capital Manila on Friday as protesters joined a worldwide youth climate action.

About a hundred young people wearing masks gathered in one of several socially distanced demonstrations around the country in support of the global climate strike by the international Fridays for Future movement.

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Will she run for president? Duterte’s daughter keeps the Philippines guessing

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Sara Duterte ahead in the polls despite refusing to commit to presidential race

It was a decade ago, before her father had become Philippine president, that Sara Duterte attracted national attention. A local sheriff had ignored orders issued by her, the mayor of Davao City, to delay the demolition of a shantytown. She arrived at the scene furious and punched him, not once, but four times in the head, in front of reporters.

Duterte, 43, a motorbike lover and tough talker, has a combative image that echoes that of her 76-year-old father, the populist president Rodrigo Duterte. It is widely believed that, as he nears the end of his six-year term limit, she will follow in his footsteps to Manila’s Malacañang Palace.

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‘Their future could be destroyed’: the global struggle for schooling after Covid closures

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Hundreds of millions of children fell behind around the world as schools closed during the pandemic. We look at four countries as pupils try to resume their education

Children’s mental health suffers as schools remain shut

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‘Lost generation’: education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse, study warns

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Covid, climate breakdown, poverty and war threaten return to school after pandemic kept 1.5bn children out of classes

The education of hundreds of millions of children is hanging by a thread as a result of an unprecedented intensity of threats including Covid 19 and the climate crisis, a report warned today.

As classrooms across much of the world prepare to reopen after the summer holidays, a quarter of countries – most of them in sub-Saharan Africa – have school systems that are at extreme or high risk of collapse, according to Save the Children.

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Where’s Edelyn? The search for the Filipina maid who vanished in Saudi Arabia

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Mired in debt, the mother of three left to work as part of the Gulf’s kafala labour system. She was last heard from in 2015 and her family want answers

Edelyn Eborda Astudillo wanted a better life for her three children. The 36-year-old from Mariveles in the Philippines, and her husband, Crisanto, had been unemployed for six years and things were getting desperate. So, in early 2015, Edelyn made the decision to travel to the Middle East to get a job as a domestic worker.

After applying to a Philippine recruitment agency, Manumoti Manpower, Edelyn was soon on a flight abroad. She was placed in a house to work for a couple in Taif, in the west of Saudi Arabia.

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‘Monsters at the door’: migrant workers trapped in UN Afghan compound

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Security contractors among hundreds from the Philippines, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka stuck without clear plans for evacuation

When Taliban fighters started to kick at the door of a UN compound in a northern province 250 miles (400km) from the Afghan capital, Kabul, Rajesh* was certain he was going to be killed.

The Taliban had taken control of the area on that day. Rajesh, a UN security contractor from India, hurried with his colleagues into an emergency steel-doored room. Before they sealed themselves in, they saw a group of seven or eight heavily armed men.

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Philippines’ Duterte agrees to run as vice-president in 2022

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President’s ‘sacrifice’ paves way for leader to stay in power beyond June next year

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has agreed to be the ruling political party’s vice-presidential candidate in next year’s elections, laying the groundwork for the leader to stay in power beyond his term.

The PDP-Laban party made the announcement before a national assembly on 8 September, where it is also expected to endorse Duterte’s aide and incumbent senator, Christopher “Bong” Go, to be its presidential candidate in the 2022 poll.

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