by Cecil Morella Agence France Presse MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — It reads like a modern day take on ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ — five Filipino fishermen cast adrift for days on a makeshift raft after a huge marlin sinks their boat. The men were fishing in the South China Sea last week when a six-foot (1.8 metre) marlin punctured their boat’s wooden hull with its giant bill, vessel master Jimmy Batiller told AFP […]
Tag: philippines
Philippines revs up flagging green energy engine
by Cecil MORELLA Agence France Presse SANTO TOMAS, Philippines (AFP) — Deep below the ancient volcanoes scattered around the Philippines sits a simmering stockpile of intense heat that officials hope will help revive the nation’s sputtering green energy machine. The Philippines — thanks to its spot in the Ring of Fire zone of Pacific volcanoes — has long been one of the world’s top producers of geothermal power, but years of neglect have sent the […]
“Negative” for cancer — President Duterte reveals medical test results to Cabinet members
(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte himself revealed that results of his recent medical test showed that he was “negative” for cancer. The President told his cabinet members in a meeting Monday night, October 8, that test results had cleared him of cancer. Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge Eduardo Año told reporters how the President himself had intimated this to them during Monday’s cabinet meeting, and that there was nothing to worry about his […]
Japan military officer killed during US-Philippine drill
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s military said Sunday one of its members was killed in a car crash in the Philippines during joint exercises with US and Filipino troops. Suguru Maehara, a 38-year-old sergeant of the Ground Self-Defense Forces, was involved in the accident on Tuesday last week, according to a GSDF spokesman who confirmed his death. “It is the first time a GSDF member has died during an overseas drill,” the spokesman told […]
Japan military joins historic PHL war games
Japanese troops stormed a beach in the Philippines Saturday in joint exercises with US and Filipino troops that officials said marked the first time Tokyo’s armoured vehicles rolled on foreign soil since World War II. The small Japanese contingent played a humanitarian support role in the drill after US and Filipino marines made an amphibious landing to retake Philippine territory from a “terrorist” group. Fifty unarmed Japanese soldiers in camouflage marched behind their four armoured […]
US Indo-Pacific Command chief visits the PHL
The Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (Indo-PACOM), Admiral Philip Davidson, visited the Philippines for the annual Mutual Defense Board and Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) on September 25 to 28, reinforcing the longstanding U. S.-Philippine alliance. The trip marks his first visit to the Philippines as Indo-PACOM commander. The annual MDB-SEB coordinates the framework for defense and security cooperation between the U.S. and Philippine militaries. While in the Philippines, Adm. Davidson met with Executive […]
SWS: More Filipinos are satisfied with the way democracy works in PHL
(Eagle News) — More Filipinos are satisfied with the way democracy works in the country. The Third Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey found that 84 percent of Filipinos felt that way, 6 points above the 78% in March 2018. This was, however, below the record-high 86% in September 2016. The survey also found that 59 percent preferred democracy to any other kind of government, while 20 percent said that “under some circumstances, an authoritarian government can be preferable […]
Cayetano slams BBC for docu’s “unfair depiction of democracy” in PHL
(Eagle News)–Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano slammed the British Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday, Oct. 3, for what he said was its unfair depiction of democracy in the Philippines. In a statement, Cayetano said the documentary “Our World—Philippines: Democracy in Danger?” amounts to “nothing more than anti-Duterte propaganda, more worthy of tabloid journalism and gossip than the venerable institution that we thought BBC was.” In the first place, he said the documentary “misleads viewers about President […]
Palace sends condolences to Vietnam gov’t over death of President Tran Dai Quang
(Eagle News) — The Philippine government offered its deepest condolences to the government of Vietnam on Sunday on the death of its President, Tran Dai Quang, last Friday. Quang, 61, passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors” both in Vietnam and abroad, the official Vietnam News Agency said. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement: “The Palace offers its deepest condolences to the government and people of Vietnam […]
Philippines typhoon toll hits 81, expected to rise
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Mangkhut has climbed to 81 and could hit triple digits as searchers dig through a landslide where dozens are presumed dead, authorities said Wednesday. Mangkhut swamped farm fields in the nation’s agricultural north and smashed houses when it tore through at the weekend with violent winds and heavy rains. Since then the toll has climbed mostly due to the corpses recovered from […]
PHL gov’t orders release of some 4.6 million bags of rice to address supply issues
(Eagle News) – The Philippine government ordered the release of some 4.6 million bags of rice from the warehouses of the National Food Authority to retailers in public markets as well as in grocery stores as part of its immediate measures to address food supply issues. This was revealed by the government’s economic managers who assured the public that there would be adequate food supply in the country as vegetables and other food products, […]
China’s Xi condoles with PHL for lives lost during onslaught of “Ompong”
(Eagle News)–Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, Sept. 18, extended his condolences to President Rodrigo Duterte for the lives lost due to “Ompong.” “On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, Xi mourned the victims and expressed sympathy to those injured, the bereaved families and the people in the affected area,” Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said in a statement. The statement, quoting Xi, added that “China and the Philippines are friendly […]





