Philippines

MANILA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Philippine ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), elected Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the new president during a national assembly convened by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday.

Duterte, the party chair, led the national assembly held in Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga province north of Manila. In his speech at the assembly, Duterte thanked his party mates for their continued support of his leadership.

MANILA, Jul 16 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines detected its first local COVID-19 cases of the Delta variant, as the total cases of the more transmissible variant in the country rose to 35, the Department of Health (DOH) said today.

Health Undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire, said, 16 new cases of Delta variant have been detected in the country, including 11 locally transmitted, with 15 recoveries and one death.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked his Southeast Asian counterparts Wednesday to jointly press for an end to violence in Myanmar, its return to a democratic path and the release of all political prisoners in a video conference attended by the military-led nation’s top diplomat.

MANILA, July 13 (Reuters) - The Philippines' defence minister on Tuesday ordered the military to investigate a report by a U.S.-based tech firm that hundreds of Chinese vessels were dumping sewage into contested areas of the South China Sea.

China maintains a constant presence of coastguard and fishing boats in the South China Sea to assert its claim of sovereignty, including hundreds in the Spratly islands, where the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia also have claims.

MANILA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Philippine investigators have found the "black box" from the military plane that crashed in the southern Philippines on Sunday, the military chief said on Tuesday.

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Cirilito Sobejana said that another critically injured soldier died on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 53.

He said that seven of the 50 soldiers killed in the crash have been identified, while many of the victims were charred and "beyond recognition."

MANILA, July 5 (Reuters) - Philippine authorities ordered an investigation on Monday into the crash of an Air Force plane that overshot a runway and killed more than 50 people, including civilians, in the country's worst military air accident in nearly three decades.

President Rodrigo Duterte flew to a military camp in the southern city of Zamboanga, where the dead and dozens of injured were brought following the crash on Sunday of a transport plane the defence ministry said was in good condition.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops found the last five dead from the crash of a transport aircraft in the south, raising the death toll to 50 in the military’s worst air disaster, officials said Monday.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was carrying 96 mostly combat troops when it overshot the runway while landing Sunday at the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said. It slammed into a coconut grove beyond the airport and burst into flames in a noontime disaster witnessed by horrified soldiers and villagers.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying troops crashed in a southern province after missing the runway Sunday, killing at least 17 military personnel while at least 40 were rescued from the burning wreckage, officials said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing. The aircraft had 92 people on board, including three pilots and five crew and the rest were army personnel, he said.

LAUREL, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of people were being evacuated from villages around a rumbling volcano near the Philippine capital Friday, but officials said they faced another dilemma of ensuring emergency shelters will not turn into epicenters of COVID-19 infections.

The alert was raised to three on a five-level scale after Taal Volcano blasted a dark gray plume into the sky Thursday. The five-minute steam- and gas-driven explosion was followed by four smaller emissions but the volcano was generally calm on Friday, volcanologists said.

MANILA, July 1 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday landed an insulting verbal blow on boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, seen as a possible successor in next year's presidential election.

Pacquiao has recently railed at corruption in government as well as the president's friendly relationship with China.

"When you are a champion in boxing, it does not mean to say that you are a champion in politics," Duterte told a media briefing. "He is blubbering his mouth."