Mr Joko Widodo, President of the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world called on Indonesia not to rush the roll-out of vaccinations, citing public awareness issues as to whether they were halal. Indonesia has struggled to get its epidemic under control with more than 365,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 12,000 deaths, and the government has been rushing to …

MANILA – The US Navy deployed has deployed their Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group to resume maritime security operations in the region. The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group comprises of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) aircraft carrier with embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 and Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54). SS Halsey (DDG 97) and USS John …

METRO MANILA – The Department of Health’s (DOH) P2.5-billion allocation for COVID-19 vaccines in the 2021 national budget lacks some P10 billion to purchase coronavirus vaccines that will be enough to cover the 20 million Filipinos or 20% of the country’s population Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press briefing that DOH sent a recommendation that the …

METRO MANILA – Palace on Monday, depended the the Department of Education (DepEd) from the public’s criticism that it is promoting “blind obedience” to the government but including materials in the modules that discourages students from joining protest and rallies. The module in question, was being used in the media literacy subject of Grade 12 students, contain pictures of protesters …

PETALING JAYA – New political party Pejuang has nominated its co-founder Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the third time as the Prime Minister in order “to save the country”. The announcement came in after Dr. Mahathir denied giving support to anyone as a candidate to replace the current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Abu Bakar Yahya, Mahathir’s political secretary the the Pejuang’s …

KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin says that the government will do its best to ensure that ample supply of the country’s water resources is being managed sustainably. Muhyiddin said that doing this will contribute to the overall achievement of the national key performance index of 99% of water supply coverage, 80% connected sewerage system services and …

Free Youth and the United Front for Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) asked their social media supporters to turn to interacting with them through Telegram, a messaging app, following reports that the government would ask Facebook to take down the pages of the groups. The groups posted on their Facebook pages that they had heard the request had already been made …

Setiono Ono stops his morning wildfire patrol at a small timber dam between a logged area and an oil palm plantation near the northeast coast of the island of Sumatra. Water leaks the color of charcoal from the dam through a small canal cut to drain the peatland surrounding it. The dam, built by the local community in Riau province’s …

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati stressed that Indonesia’s omnibus job creation legislation had attracted praise from a number of multilateral institutions and credit rating agencies as it offered a glimmer of hope for Indonesia’s economic recovery. Moody’s concluded that in the long term, the Job Development Legislation will be able to draw investment for the economic growth of Indonesia. …

MANILA – Beijing and Manila announced that they have reached an agreement on the joint exploration of oil and gas resources in the South China Sea. The announcement came after President Rodrigo Duterte lifted the ban on oil and gas exploration in the contested West Philippine Sea area. According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China …