Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops killed an Abu Sayyaf rebel commander blamed for years of ransom kidnappings and on Sunday rescued the last of his four Indonesian captives, the military said.

Marines wounded Amajan Sahidjuan in a gunbattle Saturday night and he later died from loss of blood on Kalupag Island in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi. Two other militants managed to flee and dragged along the last of four Indonesian hostages but troops finally rescued him on Sunday, regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr. said.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine government expressed concern after spotting more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels it believed were crewed by militias at a reef claimed by both countries in the South China Sea, but it did not immediately lodge a protest.

A government body overseeing the disputed region said late Saturday that about 220 Chinese vessels were seen moored at Whitsun Reef on March 7. It released pictures of the vessels lying side by side in one of the most hotly contested areas of the strategic waterway.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Police killed a central Philippine city mayor and two of his aides, while two of the police officers were killed in the latest deadly violence involving the police force, officials said Tuesday.

“I can only assume that this was a mistaken encounter,” Brig. Gen. Ronaldo de Jesus, a regional police commander, said based on initial police reports.

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to armed kill rebels was legal, his spokesman said on Monday, as catholic leaders joined condemnation of the killings of nine activists in separate weekend raids against suspected insurgents.

Human Rights groups are outraged over the deaths of what they said were legitimate activists under the guise of counter-insurgency operations, which came two days after Duterte told security forces they could kill rebels if they were holding a gun and to “ignore human rights”.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials.

Cabinet officials, along with health workers and military and police personnel, were among the first to be vaccinated in six hospitals in Metropolitan Manila, after President Rodrigo Duterte and other top officials received 600,000 doses on Sunday of COVID-19 vaccine donated by China.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines will let thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate much-needed coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The Philippines, which has among Asia’s highest number of coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its healthcare workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president has approved an amnesty program for Muslim and communist rebels who would agree to surrender their weapons as they return to normal life in the latest such attempt to tame rural insurgencies that have raged for half a century.

Thousands of guerrillas belonging to two large Muslim groups in the country’s south and a communist rebel faction could apply for the amnesty within a year after it gets approved by Congress, according to President Rodrigo Duterte’s signed orders made public late Tuesday.

MANILA (Reuters) - The United States is providing the Philippines with military aid that amounts to “loose change” compared to other Asian countries, a top official said on Monday, justifying demands by President Rodrigo Duterte for Washington to pay more.

Duterte last week said the United States should fork out more if it wants to maintain a two-decade old Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which he unilaterally cancelled last year in an angry response to an ally being denied a U.S. visa.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines and the United States will meet this month to iron out differences over a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Manila’s top diplomat said, amid renewed regional concerns over China’s assertive maritime agenda.

The Philippines in November suspended for a second time President Rodrigo Duterte’s unilateral decision to terminate the VFA, to allow it to work with Washington on a long-term pact.

MANILA (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with 6.3 magnitude struck the southern province of Davao del Sur in the Philippines on Sunday, with damage and aftershocks expected, the country’s seismology agency said.

The earthquake was initially recorded at magnitude 6 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences earlier said.

The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) said it recorded the depth at 15 km, adding that the earthquake was tectonic.