Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The governor of an island province in the central Philippines said Sunday at least 72 people died in the devastation wrought by Typhoon Rai in more than half of the towns that managed to contact him, bringing the death toll in the strongest typhoon to batter the country this year to at least 146.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A powerful typhoon left at least 19 people dead, knocked down power and communications in entire provinces and wrought widespread destruction mostly in the central Philippines, officials said Saturday. A governor said her island province has been “leveled to the ground.”

Typhoon Rai blew away Friday night into the South China Sea after rampaging through southern and central island provinces, where more than 300,000 people in its path were evacuated to safety in advance in a pre-emptive move officials say may have saved a lot of lives.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Tens of thousands of people were being evacuated to emergency shelters in the southern and central Philippines on Thursday as a powerful typhoon approached.

Crowding in evacuation centers was complicating efforts to keep people safely distanced after authorities detected the country’s first infections caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

MANILA, Dec 11 (NNN-PNA) – The World Bank today approved a 600 million U.S. dollar loan, to support the Philippine government’s reform programme, to position the country for a competitive and resilient economic recovery.

The World Bank said, the loan will support ongoing government reforms for promoting private investment, reducing the cost of doing business, and expanding broadband services, to encourage investments in information and communications technology.

MANILA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines will ban travel from France starting Dec. 13 to stem the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, a government official said Wednesday.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the ban will take effect until Dec. 15 just like the 14 other countries earlier flagged by the government, before a possible extension to be approved.

MANILA, Dec 7 (NNN-PNA) – Around 3.50 million Filipinos were out of work in Oct, down from the 4.25 million reported in Sept, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) survey.

In an online briefing, PSA head, Dennis Mapa, said, the Oct unemployment rate, 7.4 percent, was the third lowest reported this year.

The lowest reported was in July, estimated at 6.9 percent, followed by 7.1 percent in Mar.

The unemployment rate was the highest in Sept, at 8.9 percent.

MANILA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least five were killed and 15 injured on Friday in an accident on a busy road in the central Philippine Cebu province, police and local media reported.

Police said the crash occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time in Talisay City when a dump truck hit a car, triggering a domino effect as the car hit other cars and four motorcycles.

Police said four died on the spot, while the dump truck driver died at a local hospital while being treated for injuries.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

MANILA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai on Friday urged people to remain vigilant against the spread of the potentially more transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant.

The Manila-based WHO regional office said many countries are reporting detection of Omicron increasing daily. "Geographic distribution is likely already wider than currently reported," warned the agency.

MANILA, Dec 1 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines’ total debt increased by 0.46 percent to 11.97 trillion pesos (roughly 237.72 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of Oct, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Bureau of Treasury today.

The bureau said, the country’s total debt rose by 54.48 billion pesos (roughly one billion U.S. dollars) “due to net issuance of domestic securities.”

Of the total debt, the bureau said, 29.3 percent was sourced externally, while the rest was domestic borrowings.

MANILA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least eight rebels were killed when government forces clashed with the leftist New People's Army (NPA) members in the central Philippines on Wednesday morning, the military said.

Major General Benedict Arevalo, commander of the army's 3rd Infantry Division, said fighting broke out around 6:00 a.m. local time between soldiers and up to 70 NPA rebels near Miagao town in Iloilo province.

The gun battle continued until around noontime, Arevalo said, adding that a clearing operation is ongoing in the clash site.