Philippines

METRO MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has ended the ban on oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea, the Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed on Thursday. Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said that the president approved the department’s recommendation to lift the ban that was placed in 2013. He thanked the President’s approval for the recommendation as they need …

METRO MANILA – One of China’s candidate vaccine for COVID-19 has been cleared by the country for Phase 3 clinical trial that is expected to start by November. According to the Food and Drug Administration director general Eric Domingo the vaccine expert panel from the  Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has given the vaccine the green light to proceed …

METRO MANILA – The Philippine Red Cross announced that they will be halting its screenings funded by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. after the agency were unable to settle the balances to the organization over P930 million balances. Chairman Senator Richard Gordon said that the agency cannot afford to have almost a billion pesos in unpaid balances as they are …

METRO MANILA – Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano resigned Tuesday as House Speaker after the members of Congress formally ratified Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco as their new leader at the Batasang Pambansa. Cayetano said in a Facebook live that he is tendering his irrevocable resignation as the speaker of the House of the Republic of the Philippines and that …

METRO MANILA – Filipino fishermen are will to get training from the government to become the country’s to become the country’s maritime militia to counter China’s growing paramilitary fishing fleet being deployed in the area. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told the Senate finance committee which is currently deliberating Department of National Defense (DND)’s proposed P283.2-billion budget for next year, that …

METRO MANILA – A total of 186 congressmen, a majority of the 299 members of the House of Representatives, have elected Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco to unseat Alan Peter Cayetano as the new Speaker in a session held outside the House of Representatives. The election, which described by allies of Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano “illegal.”, happened at the Celebrity …

METRO MANILA –  The administration faction supporting Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco is plotting a move to unseat Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano as the House Speaker, saying the lower chamber needs a leader that has a heart of a public servant, and not with a heart of a tyrant.” Velasco’s camp cited that they have 187 house members supporting them, …

METRO MANILA – The National Basketball Association (NBA) has laid down the blueprint and now it’s the Philippine Basketball Association’s turn to aim and achieve the same success of a safe and secure ‘basketball bubble’ until December. The Asia’s oldest professional league aims to replicate the process of NBA that completed it’s three-month bubble in Orlando, Florida. According to NLEX …

METRO MANILA – Nearly nine in 10 Filipinos have admitted that they have been stressed over the current Covid-19 pandemic situation, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed. The Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted the survey from Sept. 17 to 20 and was based on mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviews of 1,249 participants aged 18 and above. SWS …

METRO MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Court of Appeals Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario as Supreme Court associate justice. He will be replacing Associate Justice Jose Reyes, Jr., who retired last September. According to Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka, they have yet to received a copy of the appointment papers. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed Rosario’s appointment on …