Philippines

MANILA, July 30 (NNN-PNA) – Asian Development Bank (ADB), today said, it has approved a 20-million-U.S. dollar grant, to help the government of Samoa respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Manila-based bank said, the grant will help fund measures to upgrade Samoa’s health sector and support the government’s economic stimulus programme.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Hundreds of protesters in the Philippine capital marched and staged motorcades Monday against a new anti-terror law and other issues despite police threats of arrests ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s annual state of the nation speech.

MANILA, July 20 (NNN-ABN) – Philippines and the World Bank signed a 370-million U.S. dollar loan agreement, for a project to support Filipino farmers, the country’s Department of Finance (DOF) said today.

The project aims to speed-up the process of splitting about 1.4 million hectares of land, covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) and then providing individual titles to these parcelised lots to some 750,000 farmer-beneficiaries.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines’ foreign ministry has told the U.S. Congress that political freedoms and human rights will be respected as concerns linger over an anti-terrorism law that takes effect on Saturday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte early this month signed a stricter anti-terrorism bill, condemned by critics and rights groups as a weapon to target opponents and stifle free speech.

New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who was next in line to head the poll panel, was on Wednesday named as the new vice-president of the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) - a position he can take only after resigning from his current job.

Lavasa, who would have retired as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in October 2022, would be the second election commissioner to step down from the poll panel before the completion of his term.

MANILA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Monday raised the alert level for Bulusan volcano to 1, saying the volcano located in the southeast of Manila "is currently in an abnormal condition."

In a bulletin, the institute said it recorded a total of 53 volcanic earthquakes since July 3, including 43 "low-frequency events that are associated with weak and shallow hydrothermal or magmatic gas activity within the edifice."

MANILA, July 4 (NNN-PNA) – Approximately 40,000 litres of oil spilled into the waters, off the central Philippines’ Lapuz town in Iloilo City, after an explosion rocked a power barge on Friday afternoon.

In a statement, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said, one of the four oil tanks of the power barge, which contained some 48,000 litres of oil, exploded around 3.00 p.m. and spilled around 40,000 litres into the sea.

Manila, Jun 30 (AP/PTI) The Philippine army chief expressed outrage Tuesday over the fatal police shooting of four soldiers, including two officers, and demanded justice with both sides providing contrasting accounts of the killings.

Eduardo Ano, a retired military chief of staff who now oversees the national police as interior secretary, ordered the police involved in Monday's violence in the southern town of Jolo in Sulu province be disarmed and restricted for investigation.

Manila, Jun 15 (AP/PTI) An award-winning journalist critical of the Philippine president was convicted of libel and sentenced to jail on Monday in a decision called a major blow to press freedom in an Asian bastion of democracy.

MANILA (Reuters) - More than 1,000 Filipinos on Friday braved the threat of coronavirus infection to protest against a controversial new anti-terrorism bill, which is awaiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature.

The demonstration, spearheaded by anti-Duterte activists, was held as the Philippines marked the 122nd anniversary of its independence from Spanish rule.