Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine government said Wednesday that it has ordered the mandatory evacuation of Filipino workers from Iraq and the coast guard said it is sending a vessel to the Middle East to ferry its citizens to safety in case hostilities between the United States and Iran worsen.

Manila, Dec 29 (AFP/PTI) The number of deaths from a powerful storm that hit the Philippines on Christmas has climbed to 41, authorities said Sunday, with tens of thousands still in evacuation centres.

Typhoon Phanfone left the Philippines on Saturday after devastating several islands in the central Visayas, including popular tourist destinations, but the extent of the damage continued to grow as assessments came in.

MANILA, Dec 28 (NNN-PNA) – Tourism is booming in the Philippines, with more than eight million visitors coming in 2019, the government said today, Saturday.

“Breaking the eight-million mark is another milestone to celebrate, as it marks the unprecedented growth of the country’s tourism industry,” Tourism Secretary, Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, said, in a statement.

The country’s Department of Tourism (DOT), celebrated on Friday, the benchmark number of eight million guests, four days before 2019 ends.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the president’s spokesman said on Friday.

President Rodrigo Duterte will impose a requirement on U.S. nationals to get visas should any Philippine officials involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima be denied entry to the United States, as sought by U.S. senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy.

MANILA, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Phanfone has pounded the central Philippines with heavy rain and strong winds from Tuesday, killing at least 13 people, the government said on Thursday.

The Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said nine people died in Iloilo and four in Capiz province in the central Philippines. At least six others are reported missing, it added.

MANILA, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of people in typhoon-prone central Philippines have had their Christmas plans ruined after they were told to leave their homes as a severe tropical storm approaches.

Officials on Christmas Eve said residents should evacuate coastal areas, and thousands more were stranded at ports with ferry services shut down as the nation hunkered down for rain and strong winds.

MANILA (Reuters) - At least 11 people have been killed and more than 300 treated in hospital after drinking coconut wine in the Philippines, including some who were celebrating at a Christmas party, health and local authorities said on Monday.

The poisoning occurred in Laguna and Quezon, two provinces south of Manila, and all had consumed lambanog, a drink popular in provinces and consumed widely during holidays and celebrations.

Many were admitted to hospitals on the urging of mayor Vener Munoz in Rizal, Laguna, where the deaths occurred between Thursday and Sunday.

19 December 2019; AFP: The masterminds of the Philippines' worst political massacre were found guilty Thursday of murder a decade after they led the killings of 58 people, rare convictions of powerful figures in a country notorious for its culture of impunity.

However with dozens of other accused gunmen acquitted, and 80 suspects never having been caught, relatives of the victims as well as rights groups gave a mixed response to the verdicts.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine court on Thursday found key members of a powerful political clan guilty of a 2009 massacre in a southern province that left 57 people, including 32 media workers, dead in a brazen execution-style attack that horrified the world.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes acquitted several members of the Ampatuan family and police officers, citing a lack of evidence. Families of the victims and media watchdogs welcomed the convictions but said the fight for justice was far from over.

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) - A strong earthquake struck near the Philippine city of Davao on Sunday, killing a child, damaging buildings and causing several injuries, officials said, the latest in a series of tremors to strike the southern part of the country in recent months.

The magnitude 6.8 quake was centered 61 km (38 miles) southwest of Davao on the island of Mindanao, at a depth of 28.2 km, the U.S. Geological Survey said, revising down the magnitude from an earlier 6.9.