Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday, killing at least eight people, injuring about 60 and causing substantial damage.

The quakes collapsed houses built of stone and wood, arousing residents from sleep, said Roldan Esdicul, who heads the Batanes provincial disaster-response office. Footage showed people clearing boulder-size stone bricks to pull out one body from the rubble of a home.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Amnesty International urgently called for international pressure and an immediate U.N. investigation to help end what it says are possible crimes against humanity in the Philippine president’s bloody anti-drug crackdown.

The London-based rights watchdog said in a study released Monday that extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s 3-year-old campaign remain rampant and the scale of abuses has reached “the threshold of crimes against humanity.”

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Amnesty International urgently called for international pressure and an immediate U.N. investigation to help end what it says are possible crimes against humanity in the Philippine president’s bloody anti-drug crackdown.

The London-based rights watchdog said in a study released Monday that extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s 3-year-old campaign remain rampant and the scale of abuses has reached “the threshold of crimes against humanity.”

MANILA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck Sultan Kudarat province in the southern Philippines on Thursday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

The institute said the quake, which struck at 4:41 a.m. local time (2041 GMT Wednesday), hit at a depth of 470 km, about 17 km northeast of Palimbang town.

The institute said the tremor, which was tectonic in origin, was also felt in Cagayan de Oro City.

There was no reported casualties or damage.

The institute said aftershocks are expected.

MANILA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The cargo ship commissioned by the Canadian government to repatriate truckloads of garbage that Canada transported to the Philippines in batches from 2013 pulled away from the country on Friday morning, a port official said.

"Finally, the containers of garbage transported from Canada and stored at the Subic Bay Freeport for several years have been pulled out as of today, May 31, 2019," Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma said in a statement.

MANILA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines said it has rejected Canada's new proposal to ship back tons of trash it dumped in the Philippines by June 30, the spokesperson of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday.

"They said it will take the end of June. The president will not agree with this. I understand from (Finance) Secretary (Carlos) Dominguez that it will be set the soonest. The trash will be sent back the soonest," the Philippine Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a news conference.

22 May 2019; DW: Philippine youth, who make up more than half of their country's population, are generally anti-establishment. Their failure to make an impact on the mid-term polls raises many questions about the future of the country.

MANILA, May 18 (Xinhua): At least 29 passengers were injured when an oncoming train of the Light Rail Transit hit a parked train in one of its stations in Metro Manila of the Philippines late Saturday night, local media reported.

The collision happened between two stations of Light Rail Transit Line 2 in the western Metro Manila. A passenger told local media that they heard a loud thud causing the passengers to fall over themselves.

14 May 2019; DW: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's allies appear to have scored sweeping victories in the country's midterm elections. The results signal broad public backing for the leader's authoritarian style, say experts.

Manila, May 13 (AP) Filipinos began casting their vote Monday in midterm elections highlighted by a showdown between President Rodrigo Duterte's allies who aim to dominate the Senate and opposition candidates fighting for checks and balances under a leader they regard as a looming dictator.

Nearly 62 million Filipinos have registered to choose among 43,500 candidates vying for about 18,000 congressional and local posts in the high-stakes elections in one of Asia's most rambunctious democracies.