MANILA (Agencies): As he delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23, at the start of his third year in office, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Rappler reported that thousands of demonstrators from all sectors of society braved the threat of rain to protest among many things, the threat of constitutional change; labour issues;corruption in government; and the tragic, so-called war against drugs which has victimised the poor. 
 

MANILA (UCAN): An ecumenical peace group in the Philippines on July 11 marked the 33rd anniversary of the disappearance of a Redemptorist priest and leading figure in the resistance movement against the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
 
The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform paid tribute to Father Rudy Romano’s “contribution to the advancement of peace and human rights” in the country.
 

MANILA (UCAN): “We are saddened by the fact that in spite of official requests for and on behalf of our three young people, they are still unable to leave the Philippines,” a July 2 statement from the United Methodist Church read as Catholic and Protestant Church groups from around the world are called on the Philippine government to release a detained Protestant missionary and allow two others return to their home countries. One has been in detention for seven weeks.
 

MANILA (UCAN): A group of six tribal teachers in the southern Philippines accused soldiers of trying to arrest them and sought sanctuary in a parish church in the province of Surigao del Sur on June 20.
 
Father Raymond Ambray, head of the social action centre of the Diocese of Tandag, said that soldiers had tried to take the teachers to a military camp. 
 

MANILA (UCAN): Nearly 250 Filipino priests and pastors have applied for permits to carry firearms however, many did so before the recent spate of priest murders, according to Oscar Albayalde, the national police chief.
 
Of 246 permit applications filed with the Philippine National Police over the last year, 188 came from Catholic priests while 58 came from Protestant pastors and ministers.
 

MANILA (UCAN/Agencies): Church groups and university students in Manila, the Philippines, launched campaigns in the third week of June in support of at least half a dozen labour strikes around the Philippine capital.
 
The Council of the Laity of the Philippines has issued a call of support for the striking workers of a US$360-million ($2.8 billion) food conglomerate.
 

MANILA (UCAN): The Department of Justice of the Philippines decided on June 18 that 71-year-old Sister Patricia Fox, who had been ordered immigration authorities to leave the country, should get her missionary visa back.
 
The justice department declared the forfeiture of the nun’s visa by the Immigration Bureau “null and void” because there was no legal basis to declare it forfeit. 
 

MANILA (UCAN): “Let him reveal his so called exposé as long as it is the truth,” Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila, said challenging Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, to come good on a threat and reveal alleged sex scandals committed by priests, saying it would not ruin the Church.
 
The bishop said Church leaders would thank him if what he revealed was the truth.