With the success of this year’s Indo-Pacific Endeavor (IPE 2021), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Jose Faustino Jr. is looking forward to holding more bilateral engagements with the Australian government. Faustino made this comment after he congratulated the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Steven Robinson AO, during a meeting at the AFP Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Thursday. “The AFP acknowledges the significance of participating in this year’s Indo-Pacific Endeavor. Collaboration on activities like IPE echoes our mutual commitment in advancing our partnership to inculcate resiliency in the region through events of beyond military

While seemingly calm, the Indo-Pacific region has many flashpoints and hostilities that could ignite at any moment if security issues are not properly addressed. Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana made this comment during an online Stratbase ADR Institute for Strategic and International Studies forum titled “70 Years of the 1951 Philippine-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)” on Thursday afternoon. “The Indo-Pacific region is relatively small, but beneath this calm surface, are issues between and among nations that if not managed properly could ignite open hostilities,” he added. He added that these issues and challenges are beyond the capacity

Senator Manny Pacquiao was the first aspirant to file a certificate of candidacy (COC) for president at the Sofitel Harbor Garden Tents in Pasay City on Friday. The senator also named his running mate — former Manila mayor and Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza. Accompanied by his wife Jinkee, Pacquiao filed his COC with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the first day of the one-week filing period. He is represented by an alliance composed of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), Probinsya Muna Development Initiative (Promdi), and the People’s Champ Movement (PCM). Pacquiao said an alliance was sought since

Members of the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) in this province took advantage of its mass oath-taking ceremony to convince their chair, Mayor Sara Z. Duterte, to seek the presidency in next year’s elections. In a show of force, Davao del Norte stalwarts led by Vice-Governor Rey Uy, 2nd District Rep. Allan Dujali, and HNP convenor De Carlo “Oyo” Uy led new members in taking their oath of allegiance before Mayor Sara, who virtually attended the event held at the Carmen municipal gym on Thursday. At a press briefing, De Carlo said that despite the presidential daughter’s refusal to

As the country celebrates the 2021 Elderly Filipino Week (Linggo ng Katandaang Pilipino), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported it has already distributed the PHP100,000 cash gift to 1,130 centenarians nationwide. The data provided as of August 2021 was in compliance with Republic Act No. 10868 or the Centenarians Act of 2016. Under the law, all Filipinos who reach 100 years old, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad, will be honored with a Letter of Felicitation from the President and a cash gift. In a statement on Friday, the DSWD reiterated its reminder to relatives of

The private news outfit Philippine News Service (PNS) was the country’s first news agency, organized on Oct. 1, 1950, but it had to cease operations after martial law was declared. “The Handbook of Journalism” by former Manila Times executive editor Jose Luna Castro said PNS was organized as a news-gathering cooperative by the publishers of the major dailies The Manila Times-Mirror-Taliba, Manila Chronicle, Manila Bulletin, Philippines Herald, Evening News, Bagong Buhay, and Fookien Times. Its main function then was to supply daily news and photos from the provinces to the newspapers. Radio and television stations also used PNS stories for