MANILA (SE): The large gathering of predominately Filipino migrant workers paused prior to a celebration of Christmas at a Mass in Chater Garden on Christmas Eve to pray for the victims of Tropical Storm Tembin, which poured swathes of water onto Mindanao flooding many parts of the island on December 22 and 23.
 
Approximately 100 people are dead and a further 80 or so had not been accounted for by December 27. Few hold much hope for their welfare.
 

Manila (UCAN): “The ambush of soldiers while delivering relief goods is deplorable,” Father Edwin Gariguez, the executive secretary of Caritas-Philippines, said.
 
Fifty gunmen from the New People’s Army shot at troops from Philippine Army’s 20th Infantry Battalion who were assisting families in the town of Catubig, Northern Samar province in the central Philippines, which was battered by the tropical storm, Kai-tak, a week before Christmas.
 

MANILA (UCAN): An upsurge in violence around The Philippines is anticipated following a decision by the president, Rodrigo Duterte, to formally declare a termination of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front and the Communist Party.
 
The three parties have been locked in an informal war for decades which has left tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes over the years.
 

MANILA (UCAN): It is now eight years since the Maguindanao Massacre took place on a lonely road in Ampatuan on 23 November 2009, which saw 58 people murdered and buried in mass graves.
 
At least 34 of them were journalists covering a journey being made by the vice mayor, Esmael Mangudadatu, to file his certificate for candidacy as governor of the province at the office of the Commission on Elections.
 

MANILA (SE): The controversial president of The Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, told a gathering of boy scouts from the First Scout Ranger Regiment in San Miguel, Bulacan, that if he cannot win his pet drug war, then he may think about resigning.
 
“If I can’t hack this I will leave,” Rappler.com quoted him as saying at the gathering on November 24.
 

MANILA (UCAN): Argentinean Father Luciano Ariel Felloni, from the urban poor community of Novaliches in Manila, has been recognised as the Social Media Influencer of the Year by the Catholic Social Media Awards for his work in drawing attention to drug-related extrajudicial killings in The Philippines.
 
Father Felloni said on November 21 that he is able to use social media to explain the contribution the Church can make to the effort against drug use and distribution.
 

MANILA (SE): Thousands of people flocked down EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos) Avenue in Manila on November 5 retracing the footsteps of the massed crowds that formed the giant demonstration of People Power in 1986, forcing the president at the time, Ferdinand Marcos, to allow himself to be removed from the country by the United States of America.