COTABATO (UCAN): Islamic Relief Worldwide, an international relief organisation, distributed at least 3,870 kilogrammes of meat to 1,800 displaced families living in temporary shelters on the outskirts in war-torn Marawi in the southern Philippines to mark the observance of Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) on August 22.
 
Maryann Zamora, a spokesperson for the group in the Philippines, said the animals were slaughtered to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice even his son to God.
 

MANILA (UCAN): A Philippine senator, Risa Hontiveros, has proposed declaring August 16 as an annual National Day of Remembrance to mark the death of 17-year-old Kian de los Santos.
 
De los Santos death on 16 August 2017 at the hands of police during an anti-drug operation sparked national and international outrage.
 
Hontiveros said the killing “underscored the human rights atrocities committed in the name of the bloody war on drugs.”
 

MANILA (UCN): At least two Catholic bishops have dismissed the threat by Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, that he would resign out of frustration over his failure to address corruption in government.
 
In a speech on August 14, Duterte said he was ready to quit the presidency should the military and police find the right successor.
 

Light rain in the early morning is a welcome treat for Carmelite Father Gilbert Billena every time he goes home to the southern Philippines. However, perfect mornings in his parish in Manila are rare, especially during the rainy season in this tropical country.
 
Monsoon rains are terrifying during the rainy season, said the priest, especially with the seemingly endless downpours causing widespread flooding in the country’s capital.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Butch Rosales, a 42-year-old volunteer for human rights group, Rise Up for Life and for Rights, in the central Philippine province of Cebu, was shot and killed in the middle of a busy city street on August 8.
 
The victim was shot in the head several times by an unidentified gunman who escaped on a motorcycle driven by another man.
 
Human rights group, Karapatan, condemned the killing, noting “the rising number of killings conducted with impunity in Cebu.”
 

MANILA (UCAN): “We had a confirmation that the army has pulled its troops out of our village. Now, we can finally return,” said Sarry Campos, spokesperson of the Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang Sa Sumusunod (Mapasu), an inter-municipal organisation of Lumad tribal people in Surigao del Sur, Mindanao.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Philippine authorities barred retired Australian law professor, 84-year-old Gill Boehringer, from entering the country claiming he allegedly joined “illegal political activities” during previous visits to Manila.
 
He was detained by immigration officials detained at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he arrived from China on August 8.
 

Cotabato (UCAN): “There can never be peace if we continue this kind of attitude of fomenting fear among our people,” Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamiz, in Mindanao, said after security forces were placed on full alert in the southern Philippine region after a deadly suicide car-bomb attack in Basilan province —blamed on the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group—killed 10 people on July 31.
 
The archbishop, who was the bishop of Basilan for 14 years, said the attack makes the achievement of peace on the island elusive.