Jamela Alindogan

The age of sex­u­al con­sent is 12 years in the Philip­pines, one of the low­est in the world.

The net­work was forced to let go of thou­sands of its em­ploy­ees af­ter Con­gress vot­ed against the re­new­al of its li­cence.

A strict lock­down in the cap­i­tal, Mani­la, is eas­ing, and many are hop­ing it will help kick-start eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery.

A pow­er­ful earth­quake has hit a cen­tral Philip­pines re­gion, dam­ag­ing hous­es and a sea­port and prompt­ing peo­ple to run out­doors for safe­ty.

The Philip­pines has re­port­ed more than 3,200 new coro­n­avirus in­fec­tions, push­ing it close to In­done­sia as the worst-hit coun­ty in South­east Asia.

One of Pres­i­dent Duterte’s last re­main­ing State of the Na­tion speech­es be­fore leav­ing of­fice in 2022 comes as many Fil­ipinos wait for a clear­er plan to steer the coun­try through un­cer­tain times.

The Philip­pines now has the high­est num­ber of ac­tive COVID-19 cas­es in South­east Asia.

The US says it is ready to sup­port coun­tries that be­lieve Chi­na’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al claims in the South Chi­na Sea are il­le­gal.

Jour­nal­ists say the net­work is be­ing pun­ished be­cause of Pres­i­dent Ro­dri­go Duterte’s griev­ances, and the de­ci­sion will fur­ther dam­age an al­ready trou­bled na­tion.

The Philip­pines does a u-turn on eas­ing its coro­n­avirus lock­downs, af­ter a surge in in­fec­tions in the cap­i­tal.