BEIJING | Xinhua | China urges the United States to refrain from using the Philippines as a pawn to destabilize the South China Sea. The Philippines also needs to refrain from being manipulated by the United States, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks …
Read More »WWII sex slavery victims in Philippines urge Japan to recognize war crimes
During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women and girls from China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions were forcibly conscripted by Japanese militarists as sex slaves and experienced horrific sexual violence, both mentally and physically Manila, Philippines | Xinhua | Surviving Filipino women sexually enslaved by …
Read More »Manny Pacquiao declares bid to run for Philippine president in 2022
Manila, Philippines | Xinhua | World boxing champion and Philippine senator Manny Pacquiao announced on Sunday that he will run for president of the Philippines in the 2022 elections. Pacquiao, 42, said he officially accepted the nomination to be the standard-bearer of the PDP-Laban faction led by Senator Aquilino Pimentel. “We are …
Read More »COVID-19 cases in Philippines top 100,000 with record-high 5,032 new cases
Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA | The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 103,185 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported a record-high 5,032 new cases on Sunday, making a record daily increase for the fourth consecutive day. The DOH reported 3,954 new cases on Thursday, 4,063 …
Read More »Philippines observes ‘no-contact’ Ash Wednesday to beat virus
Manila, Philippines | AFP | Filipinos marked Ash Wednesday with a bow and a sprinkling of dust instead of a cross being daubed on their foreheads, as Asia’s bastion of Catholicism guarded against the spread of coronavirus. Leaders of the Philippine church urged priests to adapt the rite in order …
Read More »Orphan goes from sniffing ‘Rugby’ glue to playing for the Philippines
Manila, Philippines | AFP | Long before Lito Ramirez was one of the Philippines’ first homegrown rugby stars he was a six-year-old orphan addicted to sniffing glue, who survived on trash and begging. If there was any luck in his hellish world, it was that the brand of glue he and …
Read More »Philippines’ Duterte under fire for saying he ‘touched’ maid
Manila, Philippines | AFP | Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte drew outrage Sunday after saying he “touched” his maid when he was a teenager, with women’s rights groups accusing him of attempted rape and encouraging sexual abuse. Duterte frequently sparks uproar with his comments on women, including rape jokes and boasting …
Read More »Porky peak: Manila pig roasters in Christmas frenzy
Manila, Philippines | AFP | Row upon row of pigs on bamboo spits sizzle slowly over orange embers in Manila just days before Christmas, peak season for the Philippines’ pig roasting “lechoneros”. Smoke rises day and night from their cooking pits in the La Loma area, which brands itself a …
Read More »Journalist critical of Philippines’ Duterte pays bail
Manila, Philippines | AFP | The journalist who leads a news site that has battled Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte paid a cash bail Monday on a tax fraud charge she says is an effort to intimidate the publication. Maria Ressa’s Rappler has been hit by a string of government efforts …
Read More »Hundreds strip off for Philippine ‘underpants run’
Manila, Philippines | AFP | Clad in underwear, loincloths, tutus or body paint, hundreds of semi-naked young people pounded the streets of Manila on Sunday in an unusual race that brought a sweaty spectacle to the capital of the conservative, mainly Catholic Philippines. The city’s first-ever “Underpants Run” drew crowds …
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