Philippines

MANILA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' total external trade in goods rose by 18.6 percent in March to 19.35 billion U.S. dollars with China remaining its biggest trading partner, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday.

Of the total external trade in March, the statistics agency said 62.9 percent were imported goods, while the rest were exported goods.

China was the Philippines' biggest supplier of imported goods with 17.5 percent of the total imports in March, while exports to China reached a share of 16.5 percent of the total.

MANILA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The global tourism industry is expected to create almost 126 million jobs worldwide within 10 years, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said in a report released on Thursday in the Philippine capital.

The WTTC's latest Economic Impact Report (EIR) says the travel and tourism sector will be a driving force of the global economic recovery from the two-year pandemic.

MANILA, Apr 19 (NNN-PNA) – An offshore earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9, jolted Davao Oriental province, in the southern Philippines today, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

The institute said, the quake, which occurred at 9:23 a.m. local time, hit at a depth of 49 kilometres, about 54 kilometers south-east of Manay town, in the province.

The institute said, the tectonic quake will trigger aftershocks and can cause damages.

MANILA, Apr 15 (NNN-PNA) – The death toll from tropical storm Megi that battered the Philippines last weekend rose to 138, the authorities said yesterday.

Central and southern parts of the Philippines were hit by flooding and massive landslides, with the central Leyte province being the worst affected with 132 deaths.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — As search and rescue efforts increased with the arrival of equipment, the death toll has risen to at least 56, with 28 others missing, after a summer tropical depression that unleashed days of pounding rain caused landslides and floods in the central and southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.

MANILA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The state weather bureau said that the tropical storm Megi made landfall in the central Philippine province on Sunday morning.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said Megi hit land before 8:00 a.m. local time. Megi is the first tropical storm to hit the Southeast Asian country in summertime this year.

Megi was blowing maximum winds of 75 km per hour and with gusts of up to 105 km per hour as of 10:00 a.m. local time Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Chinese coast guard ship last month maneuvered for days near a research vessel deployed by Philippine and Taiwanese scientists to undertake a crucial survey of undersea fault lines west of the northern Philippines, sparking concerns among the scientists on board, officials said Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of American and Filipino forces began on Monday one of their largest combat exercises in years that will include live-fire maneuvers, aircraft assaults, urban warfare and beach landings in a showcase of U.S. firepower in the northern Philippines near the sea border with Taiwan.

MANILA, March 27 (Reuters) - The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Sunday reported a recent incident of "close distance maneuvering" by a Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessel in the disputed South China Sea that "constrained" the movement of a Philippine ship sailing nearby.

The March 2 incident took place during the PCG's maritime patrol operations around the Scarborough Shoal, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, the PCG said in a news release.

MANILA, March 27 (Reuters) - A small but restive volcano near the Philippine capital Manila ejected two more plumes on Sunday, indicating continued eruption and prompting authorities to urge residents to stay out of harm's way.

Located in a scenic lake in Batangas province south of Manila, the 311-metre (1,020-foot) Taal volcano spewed an 800-metre-tall plume followed by one of 400 metres. This followed a phreatomagmatic eruption - the result of super-hot magma interacting with water - from its main crater on Saturday.