As Covid-19 cases rise, the Philippine public’s abysmal public trust in vaccines will be a huge hurdle in the government’s vaccination bid.

Defence authorities ended a pact that had kept military and police off campus saying the university was a safe haven for ‘extremists’. A senator took a dig at China by saying the government should look for communists elsewhere, such as in the disputed South China Sea.

‘The emotional set-up of a woman and a man is totally different’, president says in reference to a possible presidential run by his daughter.

The death of a 23-year-old flight attendant during a New Year’s Eve party received national attention after police threatened to hunt down ‘suspects’.

A top medical expert warns that the country faces a long battle with Covid-19 unless a coherent strategy to fight it is implemented.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ has been blamed for a culture of police impunity, with a Christmas prank highlighting abuses of power.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is deciding whether to investigate the Philippine president’s war on drugs, which is alleged to have claimed thousands of lives.

The country’s biggest holiday is an exuberant combination of Philippine, US, Spanish and Chinese customs and traditions – but many are toning down or skipping the festivities this year.

The Philippine president is once again in hot water, this time for sexist jokes with an old school friend. But a psychologist says he uses outrage for political gain.

Retired Philippine general Emmanuel Bautista said the superpowers would seek to control strategic waterways linking the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean.

Force proposed by military officials would be made up of fishermen and organised into seaborne militia units, but former senator warns the strategy cold raise the risk of war with China.

Concerns have been raised over the health and environmental impacts of the crushed dolomite used to make the artificial beach along Manila Bay.

The ‘pastillas’ scam netted hundreds of millions of pesos in bribes from Chinese nationals who bypassed immigration to enter the Philippines.

A clash between the world’s superpowers in their own backyard is the last thing Southeast Asian nations need. But they are likely to find staying neutral is not an option.

Ferdinand Marcos led a regime that killed and tortured thousands of Filipinos and looted billions of dollars. Now a group of lawmakers are calling for his birthday to be a holiday in his home province.

Words of new armed forces chief Gilbert Gapay contrast to those of Duterte who vowed to China in 2016 he would ‘separate’ from the US, which had ‘lost’.

In a first under the Duterte administration, Manila says it is prepared to invoke its Mutual Defence Treaty with the US in the face of Chinese aggression.

It is now Southeast Asia’s worst-affected country, with more than 164,000 confirmed cases and a president who is pinning his hopes on a Chinese or Russian vaccine.

Manila has been bubbling with rumours about the president’s health, forcing him to address citizens in a Facebook live video on Monday evening.

Officially the move is aimed at keeping a lid on tensions, but a former senator says it is meant to ‘demonstrate allegiance to China’.

Two ostriches were caught after escaping from a Quezon City property, as the region went into a strict coronavirus lockdown.

Philippine president took aim at ‘troublemakers’ who recorded and shared a Tagalog version of Do You Hear The People Sing? from Les Miserables.

‘I made a plea to Xi Jinping. Can we be one of the first to have it … or can we buy it?’ said President Rodrigo Duterte in State of the Nation Address.

Duterte’s controversial anti-terror law is so vague it could even be used to censure criticisms of Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea, retired Supreme Court justices warn.

‘Why would you want to re-litigate something that you won? You don’t like you won?’

The bodies of high-profile prisoners including Jaybee Sebastian, a witness against opposition leader Leila De Lima, were cremated without autopsies, fuelling rumours they were ‘resurrected’.

Wang Yi and Teddy Locsin’s call came after the US issued explicit support for the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling. While Duterte has aligned his country with Beijing, Manila has recently been more vocal about the disputed waterway’.

Congress has refused to renew the broadcaster’s franchise, citing bias and lewdness, leaving a question mark over 11,000 jobs. Sceptics draw a parallel to its treatment under Marcos.

Unexpected warning by Manila’s foreign secretary over Chinese naval exercises comes as US and Chinese forces gather in the disputed waters, so close they can see each other.

There were more than 5,500 Covid-19 cases there as of Monday, along with some 150 deaths.