Mindanao

At least four people were killed and dozens wounded in a bomb attack on a Catholic mass in the insurgency-plagued southern Philippines on Sunday, with President Ferdinand Marcos blaming "foreign terrorists."

The blast happened during a morning service at Mindanao State University's gymnasium in Marawi, the country's largest Muslim city.

The death toll from a storm that battered the Philippines has jumped to 98, the national disaster agency said Monday, with little hope of finding survivors in the worst-hit areas.

Just over half of the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.

Turkey on July 4 extended condolences to the Philippines over the loss of lives in a military plane crash.

"We learned with great sorrow that a Philippine Air Force plane crashed on 4 July 2021 in the Jolo island of the Sulu province," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred 69 km north-northwest of the city of General Santos on the Philippine island of Mindanao, according to Reuters, citing the US Geophysical Institute.

The initially announced magnitude was 6.7, with an epicentre 70 km southwest of Davao City with a population of 1.21 million.

There are no reports for casualties and destruction.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino soldier, five militiamen and four villagers were killed by a powerful bomb that exploded in a van the troops were inspecting Tuesday amid threats of bombings in a southern province, military officials said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened on July 19 to end peace talks with communist rebels, hours after suspected guerrillas wounded four of his military bodyguards in an ambush.

President Rodrigo Duterte plans to extend martial law in the southern Philippines to defeat Islamist militants who have seized a major city, his spokesman said on July 18, as a critic warned the country could be edging towards a dictatorship.

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte wants the extension of martial law in Mindanao until the end of the year, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Duterte, in a letter to Congress, said the “existing rebellion” in Mindanao would not end on July 22, the 60th day in the limit prescribed by the Constitution.

The decapitated bodies of five civilians have been found in a Philippine city occupied by Islamist rebels, the military said on Wednesday, warning the number of residents killed by rebel “atrocities” could rise sharply as troops retake more ground.

An international group looking at ways to help Turkey?s Kurdish ?solution process? has been visiting the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to discuss the ongoing peace initiative between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.