Philippines

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Vice President Leni Robredo for criticizing his war on drugs, and offered to put her in charge of law enforcement.

The president has a frosty relationship with opposition leader Robredo, who was elected separately from Duterte, whose drugs crackdown has killed thousands, stirring global alarm, although polls show strong domestic support for the campaign.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine national police chief resigned on Monday after he faced allegations in a Senate hearing that he intervened as a provincial police chief in 2013 to prevent his officers from being prosecuted for allegedly selling a huge quantity of illegal drugs they had seized.

Manila, Oct 10 (AP) Philippine police and immigration authorities say they have arrested more than 500 illegally working foreigners, mostly Chinese involved in telecommunications and investment scams, in one of the biggest such mass arrests this year.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente and other officials say the 542 foreigners, who were arrested Wednesday night in a raid on their company premises in metropolitan Manila, did not have work permits and were involved in defrauding victims mostly in China by blackmailing or tricking them into sending out money.

MANILA, Sept 9 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines has started reintegration of former rebels into society, a move Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, said, will bring “lasting peace” in southern Philippines.

Chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and interim chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, handed over an assault rifle to Duterte, at the start of a decommissioning ceremony in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat in southern Philippine Maguindanao province.

TALUSTUSAN, Philippines (AP) — The American priest’s voice echoed over the phone line, his sharp Midwestern accent softened over the decades by a gentle Filipino lilt. On the other end, recording the call, was a young man battered by shame but anxious to get the priest to describe exactly what had happened in this little island village.

“I should have known better than trying to just have a life,” the priest said in the November 2018 call. “Happy days are gone. It’s all over.”

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — An American woman who attempted to carry a 6-day-old baby out of the Philippines hidden inside a sling bag has been arrested at Manila’s airport and charged with human trafficking, officials said Thursday.

The Philippine officials said Jennifer Erin Talbot was able to pass through the airport immigration counter on Wednesday without declaring the baby boy but was intercepted at the boarding gate by airline personnel.

Talbot was unable to produce any passport, boarding pass or government permits for the baby, airport officials said.

MANILA, Philippines, Sept 2 (NNN-PNA) – All seven passengers and two pilots on board an 11-seater private plane were killed, in a fiery crash on Sunday afternoon, in Laguna province, south of Manila, in the Philippines.

The medical evacuation plane, carrying seven passengers, a pilot and a co-pilot, crashed into a private pool resort, inside a subdivision in Pansol, a village in Calamba City, around 3:00 p.m., the report said.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — At least three people were killed and 245 others were rescued after a fire engulfed a ferry in the southern Philippines overnight, the coast guard said Wednesday.

Search and rescue efforts were continuing after the fire on the M/V Lite Ferry 16 off Dapitan city in Zamboanga del Norte province, coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said.

MANILA, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The continued chaos in Hong Kong, created by anti-government protesters and apparently encouraged by foreign hands, must be quickly stopped, a Philippine analyst has said.

Like in the Bangkok protests a few years ago or in France during the Paris riots, the Hong Kong police must now decisively move in to quickly restore order, Wilson Lee Flores, columnist of The Philippine Star newspaper, told Xinhua.

Manila, Aug 4; IANS/GANASHAKTI: At least 25 people were killed and six others reported missing after three boats capsized due to bad weather in the Philippines, police said on Sunday.

Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan that as of Sunday afternoon, 25 bodies have been recovered after the accidents took place on Saturday night off the rough seas between the city of Iloilo and Guimaras province amid heavy rains, reports Xinhua news agency.

He added that search is continuing to find the missing people.