Philippines News Archives

Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, for so long a vocal critic of Ms Arroyo, said the framers of the Constitution did not think of imposing a ban on an outgoing president running for a lower office simply because it was unthinkable.

“There appears to be no reasonable cause for such a constitutional prohibition as really there is no person in his or her sound mind who will do such a funny and demeaning political circus,” Cruz said.

Cruz denounced Ms Arroyo’s “addiction to power.”

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Monday she will run for Congress next year, opting to stay a political player after her tumultuous term ends.

The death toll in the stunning mass killing of people, including journalists this week in the restive southern Philippines reached 64, state officials reported Saturday.

A POWERFUL Muslim clan accused of staging a massacre in the Philippines last week of 57 civilians, including dozens of journalists, denied any involvement in the killings during a rare news conference yesterday.

MANILA // The quiet grassy hillside just outside the provincial capital of Maguindanao in the southern Philippines continues to give up its dead almost a week after 64 people, including women and journalists, were butchered in a frenzied attack said to have been politically motivated.

Monday, 30 November 2009, 1:02 pm Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission Philippines: How Could The 'Maguindanao Massacre' Been Allowed To Happen? As it has been widely reported, 57 people-including two human rights lawyers and 30 journalists - were slaughtered on November 23 in Maguindanao, a province in central Mindanao.

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - " An improvised explosive planted near a road went off Wednesday in the southern Filipino province of Sulu, but there were no reports of casualties, security officials said.

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao – (UPDATE) Governor Zaldy Uy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) came to the defense of his brother, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., who has been charged with masterminding the Nov. 23 killing of at least 67 people – most of them journalists.

"I believe (that he is innocent)," Ampatuan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA 7 reporters in an interview at his palatial house Sunday afternoon.

Monet, the journalist’s widow was talking to the Philippine Daily Inquirer when a relative came in and informed her that the top glass of her husband’s coffin had just cracked.

“My husband is crying for justice,” was Monet’s immediate reaction to the information.

Salaysay, editor of the Cotabato City-based Mindanao Gazette, was part of the convoy of some 30 journalists and members of the Mangudadatu family and their supporters held hostage by a group of armed men allegedly led by Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr in the morning of Nov. 23 in Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao.

“He was the most evil of all evils,” Monet said of Andal Jr., the main suspect in the carnage now known as the Maguindanao massacre.

Monet, speaking in the vernacular, did not hide her anger when she added: “if I were to decide on his fate, I would have him burned on a stake," in an apparent reference to the old Christian practice of punishing individuals accused of being heretics or evil practitioners.

Monet welcomed the filing of charges against Andal Jr. but said it was not enough.

Several white wooden coffins -- all but one shut to hide the journalists' disfigured remains -- were crammed into a rundown funeral parlor in the southern Philippines, not far from where they were slaughtered with guns, machetes and a backhoe.

SHARIFF AGUAK, Philippines a ' Undeterred by the deadly attack that killed 57 in a campaign convoy, Ismael Mangudadatu filed to run for governor of Maguindanao province Friday, heavily guarded by police and soldiers.

A slender, hard-faced man, outwardly calm and obviously used to authority, stood last week in the governor's office in Bacolod, capital of Negros Occidental Province, and heard himself sentenced to death.

After the euphoria over the victory of boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, and the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year award of Efren Penaflorida, Filipinos across the globe suddenly felt 'shell-shocked' by the horrific and senseless massacre that occurred last Monday the 23rd of November. Forty-seven people have so far been reported murdered (including over a dozen journalists) in what is being called the Maguindanao massacre.

MANILA, Philippines – Terrorism, and not just multiple murder, should be filed against perpetrators of the November 23 killings of more than 50 persons in Maguindanao, Senator Miriam-Defensor Santiago said on Friday.

Santiago, a former regional trial court judge, said the mass murder was an “act of terrorism” because the perpetrators committed murder, “thereby sowing and creating a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.”

One hundred more suspects -- including police officers -- could face arrest over massacre in the Philippines, a government official said Friday after authorities charged the alleged architect of the killings.

A politician whose wife, sisters and relatives were among 57 people killed in the southern Philippines because he wanted to contest elections next year, registered his candidacy on Friday.

In what the Philippine Government feels is a major development to ease tension and get justice for massacre victims in Maguindanao The Philippine Secretary of Justice has requested formally that a special trial court be set up the Philippine supreme court to handle the trial in the capitol in Manila.

There will be no special treatment given to the Ampatuan political clan amid its alleged involvement in the massacre in Maguindanao even though President Arroyo is inclined to keep her friendship with them, a senior Palace official said Thursday.

Deputy Presidential Spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said they are “glad” that Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town has been placed in custody in connection with the massacre, and assured the prosecution of those involved regardless of power and influence.

“But it doesn’t mean that we are no longer friends with them if they are guilty. I think that should be treated separately,” Fajardo said. “The function of the President as head of state (is) that the law should apply to everyone whether they are friends, allies or relatives.”

The confirmed death toll in the Philippines massacre has risen to 52, with the prospect of further bodies being discovered.

Officials found 11 more bodies Wednesday at the site of an attack on an election caravan in the south, bringing the death toll in the massacre to 57, and police said they are investigating a member of a powerful clan allied with the president's administration.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 8:04 a.m. MANILA, Philippines - Alejandro "Bong" Reblando, a veteran Filipino journalist and former Associated Press stringer, was among at least 18 reporters killed in an attack on an election caravan, authorities said.

DAVAO CITY, the Philippines: Unidentified gunmen seized on Monday 40 people, including 20 journalists, in the province of Maguindanao, southern Philippines.

The Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, left, has received strong electoral support from Andal Ampatuan, second from right.

MANILA: At least 21 people were killed in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao yesterday, in what the authorities described as one of the country*s worst cases of political violence in recent memory.

Yesterday forty six people were slaughtered in Maguindanao. The news is reporting it as a feud between two datu clans among the Moros.

Map locates Peshawar, Pakistan, where militants have been killed in an assault on insurgents blamed for a wave of bombings Map locates Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces in the Philippines, which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed under a state of emergency A police officer uses banana leaves to cover bodies which they recovered from a ...

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will not order the disarmament of the Ampatuans despite the political family's alleged involvement in the kidnapping and gruesome killing of at least 24 people in Maguindanao, an Islamic studies professor said Tuesday.

Outraged senators on Tuesday challenged President Arroyo to go after her political allies, the Ampatuans, who have been tagged in the massacre of at least 22 people, including women, in Maguindanao on Monday.

... last week with the filing of candidacies for more than 17,800 national and local positions. Elections in the Philippines are usually marred by violence, especially in the south, where security forces are battling communist rebels, Islamic radicals ...

Gunmen ambushed a caravan of political supporters and journalists on their way to file election papers, killing at least 24 people in a massacre considered shocking even for a region notorious for violence between rival clans.

In this July 21, 2008 photo released by the Presidential Close-in Photographer's Office, Malacanang Palace in Manila, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, right, is welcomed by Congressman Didagen Dilangalen, left, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, upon arrival at Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan Province, in the ...

Reporting from Seoul and Zamboanga City, Philippines -- Twenty-four people were found dead in the southern Philippines after scores of gunmen on Monday kidnapped a caravan of supporters accompanying a woman en route to file her husband's nomination papers to run for provincial governor, authorities said.

Police in the Philippines are looking for a Hawaii man who allegedly killed the son of a government official during a road-rage shooting.

A judge reserved ruling Monday on whether a former Philippine National Police officer who served prison time for receiving classified U.S. government documents will be extradited to face murder charges back home.

Twenty-one people who were among a group of local politicians and journalists abducted Monday in Maguindanao, southern Philippines have been found dead, Philippinemilitary officials said.

A week after boxer Manny Pacquiao's stunning victory over Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas, another Philippine hero Efren Peñaflorida received a top award becoming CNN's Hero of the Year for 2009. And as Pacquiao thanked the Filipino people for his string of boxing victories, Efren will have you to thank for his stunning victory.

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino has received international recognition for his innovative effort in educating poor children. Efren Peñaflorida, who started the “Kariton Klassroom” to bring education to poor children, has been named CNN Hero of the Year, the cable news network announced yesterday.

Suspected pirates have abducted the skipper and two crewmen of a tugboat and barge that took shelter in the southern Philippines in bad weather, officials said Sunday.

Today, we rented a van that could fit the whole clan and set forth to see the sights of Cebu.

Manny Pacquiao is a box office hit, selling 1.25 million pay-per-views for his fight with Miguel Cotto in a performance that could set up the richest fight ever against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

China's top political adviser Jia Qinglin met Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo here on Friday, pledging further efforts to bolster bilateral ties.

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo endorsed her former defence chief as her successor on Thursday although major defections hit the Philippines' largest political party ahead of presidential elections next May.

Widespread physical and sexual abuse of domestic workers from overseas is rampant throughout the Arab world.

(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, NOVEMBER 18 - The parliamentary commission for Labour Affairs of the Philippines has urged the government to suspend the sending of domestic workers to the Middle East followed an inspection by three delegates to the region, who documented situations tantamount to "modern slavery", reports the daily paper Khaleej Times.

The mission, sent by the parliament of the Philippines, visited five cities: Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Amman in Jordan. "We have seen violations in all three countries," said member of parliament Carlos Padillas, explaining that "some of the victims were tricked by the employment agencies, while others suffered physical and sexual abuse from their employers."

Master Sgt. Rose Gould assigned to passes out handouts during a psychological combat stress class at Camp Navarro General Hospital at Western Mindanao Command Nov.

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - " Philippine Muslim rebels have denounced Thursday the violent dispersal by armed policemen of dozens of Muslim dwellers in Pasay City that killed 3 people and injured many others.

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Government troops mounted fresh operation against communist rebels who raided a logging firm and left at least three dozen people dead and wounded in Surigao del Sur province in Mindanao, officials said Friday.

TFI Global Limited announced today the opening of its Money Remittance Network for live money sending transactions.

A 79-year old Irish priest, who was released unharmed one month after being kidnapped in the Philippines by a militant Islamic group, says he wants to continue serving as a missionary - writes Ray McMenamin .

Two Korean men in their 40s were found stabbed to death on a beach in Cebu according to local police in the Philippines.

In line with Brunei Darussalam's objective of achieving it's 20 per cent self-sufficiency target by 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources' , on behalf of the Government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, signed an Implementing Arrangement with the Philippine Department of Agriculture to promote ...

MANILA // When Hillary Clinton arrives in the Philippines today it will be the first visit by a secretary of state to the former United States colony since Condoleezza Rice accompanied George W Bush in 2003 - a trip primarily aimed at shoring up Manila's commitment to the 'war on terror'. The Philippine government can be expected to make a lot of ...

DESPITE ample time given to them, over a thousand gun owners have chosen not to register their firearms under the government's Final and General Firearms Amnesty .

“We don’t really have to go as far as naming gun violators as terrorists. That’s why we are urging gun owners to register their weapons or avail of the amnesty,” Armilla told Sun.Star. “But these harsh measures may be put into effect if gun owners don’t cooperate.”

Police Chief Superintendent Danilo T. Empedrad, regional director of PNP-Northern Mindanao, appealed to gun owners to take advantage of the one-month extension of the gun amnesty program, which will end on November 30.

Jeers greeted Malacañang for its decision to replace Gilberto Teodoro Jr. with Norberto Gonzales Jr. as head of the Department of National Defense.

"With the appointment of (the) much-hated national security adviser...Gloria Arroyo has just brought Adolf Hitler back to life," Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) executive vice president Lito Ustarez said in a statement sent to media on Saturday.

The leftist labor group claimed that Gonzales' alleged "crimes to the people should land him in jail, not in any government post."

"He is one of the worst Filipinos for the job of a Defense secretary. We are concerned that his appointment will signal another escalation of extra-judicial killings enforced disappearances and all-out militarization in the country, especially in Mindanao," the group said.

MANILA // The killing yesterday of an election official in the northern Philippines has raised fears that another violent election season is in the making in a country where political rivals all too often settle scores through the barrel of a gun.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew-in a few days ago; President Barack Obama was in Japan and Singapore for the APEC Summit; Philippine President Gloria Arroyo will soon fly to China as part of Obama's 'advance team' but all anyone can talk about in these islands is Manny Pacquiao! At present, he's likely the only 'kabayan' Filipinos everywhere can point to with pride...

Philippines News.Net Saturday 14th November, 2009 US President Barack Obama has sent a letter to the leader of the main Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, an official of the group said Saturday.

Three suspected Muslim separatist rebels have been charged in connection with the kidnapping of an Irish priest in the Philippines, the national police chief said today.

The Philippine president signed a bill criminalizing all forms of torture and prohibiting state authorities from using secret detention centers, her spokesman announced Friday.

Communist guerrillas raided and torched a logging company in the southern Philippines and killed at least 12 people in a shootout with security forces, officials said on Friday.

Nineteen people were killed when communist rebels attacked a logging firm in the southern Philippines, a regional police chief said Friday.

US secretary of state Hilary Clinton will seek a guarantee that the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) remains in place despite a move by the Philippine Senate to have it scrapped.

One of the prime movers in the senate is Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who said recently: “Why is Mrs Clinton coming here and why are we so excited about her visit? She is coming here because of that VFA resolution. She wants the Americans to stay in the Philippines.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday vowed support for the Philippine fight against al-Qaida-linked militants and highlighted the U.S. military's role in helping the country recover from deadly typhoons.

MANILA, Philippines - Almost a million Filipinos lost their jobs between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, the peak of the prevailing global financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report.

In a report titled “How has Asia fared in the global crisis? A tale of three countries: Republic of Korea, Philippines, and Thailand,” ADB estimated that 950,000 jobs were shed in the Philippines during the period.

Michael Sinnott, 79, who was kidnapped on 11 Octobner. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images/Hangop Kabataan Foundation An elderly Irish priest kidnapped and held captive in the Philippines has been released, it has been revealed tonight.

Nearly 60 people were killed, Manila was blacked out and airline flights were suspended as a powerful typhoon battered the main Philippines island of Luzon on Saturday, disaster officials said.

At the MOPC "Presidentiables Series" at the Intercontinental Hotel recently, Manny Villar answered media’s questions on how he will improve life in the Philippines if he is elected president.

He wants employees paid properly.

I checked at the Villars’ mall, the Metropolis. Employees there are indeed not paid properly… "menos pa po sa kalahati ng minimum wage." P140/day? The vouchers they sign state the legal minimum wage payable, but the cash in the envelope is less than half of the amount stated in the voucher.

Father Sinnott, a Colombian priest based in Pagadian in the Philippines, was abducted and held for ransom exactly 4 weeks ago today.

Scientists say the cone-shaped Mayon volcano in the central Philippines has shot an ash plume into the air and are advising nearby residents to be ready to move in case of eruption.

E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.

Muslim rebels wants U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit volatile southern Philippines to look into the situation a year after fighting erupted following the failure of signing of a deal that would suppose give autonomy to the area.

MANILA, Philippines - Gunmen in camouflage stormed a plywood factory and abducted three workers Tuesday, a day after suspected Muslim militants beheaded a kidnapped schoolteacher on a nearby southern Philippine island, officials said.

Only Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can save the ruling party from certain disintegration by running for the No.

Manila - Muslim militants beheaded a school principal on a remote southern island in the Philippines after holding him for ransom for three weeks, a marine general said on Monday.

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - " Abu Sayyaf gunmen beheaded a school principal they kidnapped in Sulu province in the southern Philippines after his family failed to pay ransom.

Suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines beheaded a schoolteacher after kidnapping him last month, officials said Monday.

Official says 16 people killed in fire that gutted Philippine residential building.

Tom Clark and Violet Halverson of Sartell and Ellen and Bob Nelson of Bowlus are home from a tour of the Philippines celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Leyte landings.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit the Philippines next week for talks with top Philippine officials that is expected to include human rights issues in the country, China's Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs as saying on Saturday.

A Norwegian government mediator is in the Philippines to seek the possible resumption of talks between the Philippine government and leftist Communist rebels, a senior official said Monday.

MANILA, Philippines - President Barack Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, next month in a high-level affirmation of Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

Philippine political affairs are rarely straightforward. The former Spanish and U.S. colony, which also endured occupation under Japan during the Second World War, has experienced major upheavals since independence was finally achieved-and recognised, this time-in 1946.

The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a report which found both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were guilty of serious human rights violations during the 22-day conflict in the Gaza Strip over Christmas and New Year.

Antonio 'Tony' Q Alabastro, a sub-editor with Borneo Bulletin, has been chosen to receive the 2009 Bagong Bayani Award, which honours Philippines' outstanding and exemplary Overseas Filipino Workers s, the Philippine Embassy announced yesterday.

Friday, 6 November 2009, 9:34 am Press Release: US Department of State - Background Notes October 2009 Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs PROFILE OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of the Philippines Geography Area: 300,000 sq.

The Philippine government aims to approve contracts to explore and develop the country's massive geothermal energy resources, which could attract more than $2.5 billion in private investment, an official said.

A powerful typhoon slammed into the northeastern Philippines on Saturday, killing four people, tearing roofs off houses and uprooting trees, but damage and flooding was much less than expected.

Tropical Storm Marinae is heading toward central Vietnam after lashing the central Philippines, where authorities say it killed at least 14 people.

Gunmen opened fire on a commuter bus in the restive southern Philippines, killing two and wounding eight passengers, authorities said on Thursday.

AGENTS of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police on Thursday night ended the checkered career of notorious robber Alvin Flores and three of his men in a gunbattle in Cebu.

The end for the heavily-armed suspects known for posing as cops came at 8 p.m. Thursday when operatives of the NBI led by Ruel Lasala and the Directorate for Intelligence under Director Eugene Martin raided the their hideout at the Tripina Ceneca Compound in Barangay Staca, Compostela, Cebu.

The Philippines has sent hundreds of armed policemen to the southern region of Mindanao to force the release of a kidnapped Irish priest after rejecting an offer of help from Muslim rebels, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 11 people are dead and six missing after Typhoon Mirinae roared across Manila and southern Luzon island before weakening into a storm and moving west of the Philippines toward the South China Sea.

Louisiana Association of Educators officials said Monday they will meet with the Avoyelles Parish School District's Filipino teachers who have joined hundreds of other Louisiana educators denouncing labor contract violations by their recruiter.

I was asked to pay $11,200 for a placement fee, and some of it I had to borrow from a company," said Amy F. Bihag, one of 20 Filipino teachers working for Avoyelles Parish schools. As she spoke, she broke into tears when referring to payments that have left her in deep in debt.

The firms have been used by some Louisiana school districts, including in Avoyelles, Caddo and East Baton Rouge parishes, to fill teacher positions.

Girls in gangs become more vulnerable when families can ill afford to feed them, increasing risk of being prostituted.

Thirty-nine fishermen on board 14 boats returned safely ashore hours after authorities declared they were missing, local media reported Monday.

Google has been implicated in copyright issues for more than four years, digitizing millions of books without permission.

However, Ms. Courtney Hohne, a Google spokeswoman said, “We take the view, backed up by international copyright law, that no copyright is violated in this process since the amount of text displayed is so small and it’s purely for information.”

“In fact, it’s comparable to a quotation from a book in a review or our Web search results, both of which are perfectly legal,” she added.

In October, Google offered to pay each U.S. based author at least $60 per book scanned, and 63 percent of future sales revenue. The company also said that it was “actively encouraging authors, publishers, and rights-holders around the world to register for the settlement”.

Philippine government Sunday rejected the kidnappers' demand to pay 2 million U.S. dollars in exchange of the freedom of an elderly Irish priest being abducted in the country's troubled south for three weeks.

A fire swept through a residential building as people slept in a slum community in the central Philippines on Monday, killing 16 residents including women and children.

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A 27-year-old pedicab driver was killed while his cousin was seriously wounded when an unidentified armed man shot them in Binondo, Manila last Friday evening, police said Saturday.

Angelo Corpin, a resident of Gate 54 Area C, Parola compound, Binondo, Manila, was declared dead on arrival at a hospital from multiple gunshot wounds. Jet Lee Corpin, 16, is now being treated at the Philippine Orthopedic Hospital for a single bullet wound on his right arm.

The shooting incident took place at around 7 p.m., Friday near the Iglesia ni Cristo chapel at Gate 54, Parola compound, Binondo, Manila, according to Police Officer 2 Jay Santos of the Manila Police District – Homicide section.

The victims were watching television at a mini store near their house when the unidentified armed suspect passed by and shot at them using a still undetermined fire arm, Santos said. (Leonard D. Postrado)