Liberal Party (LP) mayoralty candidate Rommel Matba and his 31 companions were back in Tawi-Tawi on Thursday night, two days after they were detained by Malaysian authorities because their motorboat drifted to Lahad Datu in Sabah, officials said on Friday.
Nearly 5,000 persons, almost half of them children, have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sabah, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Saturday.
A Filipina who was pregnant with twins died while undergoing Cesarean delivery in Sabah on Monday, the provincial health officer here said.
“They dragged all the men outside the houses, kicked and hit them,” 32-year-old Amira Taradji said on Friday as she recounted her family’s ordeal in Sandakan, which started when Malaysian security forces launched a crackdown on suspected supporters of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III in Sabah.
The Philippines on Saturday called for a peaceful resolution to a tense standoff between Malaysian forces and a group of gunmen claiming to be followers of the heir of a former sultan of Sulu and North Borneo.
A total of 64 people bound for Malaysia were intercepted by agents of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, Vice President Jejomar Binay said Friday, citing belated reports reaching his office.
The Philippine Coast Guard and Naval Forces West (NavforWest) have dispatched patrol and rescue vessels to a distressed luxury cruise ship, identified as MV Asamara Quest, which reported having caught fire outside Tubbataha Reef national marine park off in the Sulu Sea between Palawan and Tawi-Tawi islands.
A Filipino-manned luxury ship carrying about 600 American and European passengers caught fire off Mapun Island in Tawi-Tawi Saturday, a report from the Philippine Navy said.
Some 5,000 people from security forces and volunteers are now combing the western part of Tawi-Tawi in search of the two European birdwatchers abducted by unidentified gunmen on February 1 as their governments are increasingly worried about their safety, a top provincial official said.
Police and local government officials remain clueless about the location of the Europeans who were kidnapped in Tawi-Tawi on February 1.
Ivan Sarenas held his breath as long as he could as he swam underwater in Tawi-Tawi Wednesday night to escape gunmen who had earlier abducted him and fellow birdwatchers Ewold Horn of the Netherlands and Lorenzo Vinciguerra of Switzerland.
In 2011, a record-breaking 1.44 million green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) eggs were laid on Baguan Island in the Philippine Turtle Islands. A good sign for sea turtles, to be sure — but what does it mean for the 6,000 impoverished human residents who share these islands with the turtles? The Turtle Islands is a [...]
