Tag: Philippines

Fate of kidnapped Philippines priest – 57 today – ‘uncertain’

August 1, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Islamic State, Marawi, Maute, Mindanao, Philippines, South Cotabato, Teresito Suganob

Catholic Priest Suganob is spending his 57th birthday in captivity, held by the Maute terrorist group in Marawi, Philippines. (Photo: still taken from a 'propaganda' video released by the kidnappers)

The fate of the kidnapped Filipino priest Teresito “Chito” Suganob – 57 today – has “become uncertain”, as the battle for the southern city of Marawi continues, according to the Catholic news agency UCAN. In June, World Watch Monitor reported that Father Suganob – who was abducted by the Maute . . . Read More

Philippines reconsiders bill for autonomous Bangsamoro

July 20, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Cotabato, Islamic State, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Zamboanga

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) shakes hands with Al-Hajj Murad (L), chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as Ghazali Jaafar (R), vice chairman of MILF, looks on during a ceremony where a draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was submitted to the president at the Malacanang Palace in Manila on July 17, 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

A new law that will govern the creation of a new autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines was submitted as a bill to the government on Monday (July 17) for approval by Congress. President Rodrigo Duterte received the draft “Bangsamoro Basic Law” (BBL), crafted by a 21-member commission that . . . Read More

Filipino Bishops: ‘Marawi war is not a religious conflict’

July 11, 2017 Philippines Bangsamoro, Catholics, Manila, Marawi, Maute, Philippines, Teresito Suganob

Smoke is billowing from Marawi's homes. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Catholic Bishops in the Philippines, at the end of their episcopal Conference in Manila on Monday (10 July), have called for an end to the crisis in the southern city of Marawi (Mindanao), which, they say, “is not a conflict of religion”. “We heard and read truly amazing stories . . . Read More

Islamic State in Asia: what you need to know

June 29, 2017 Abu Sayyaf, Islamic State, Malaysia, Maute, Myanmar, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Rohingya, Samarinda, Selangor

When Islamic State (IS) launched its so-called caliphate in 2014 it had seized territory in Iraq and Syria. However over the last 18 months, militants claiming allegiance to the group have carried out attacks in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, while the group also has sympathisers in India . . . Read More

Arrest of Philippines bishop condemned as ‘illegal’

May 16, 2017 Philippines Human rights, Philippines

The arrest and detention of Carlos Morales, Bishop of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church), for harbouring a man wanted by the police has been condemned as “appalling and a violation of human rights”, reports ACNS. Mathews George Chunakara, general secretary of the Thailand-based Christian Conference of Asia, said in a statement . . . Read More

Isolated, female and vulnerable to abuse: Christian nannies in the Gulf

March 8, 2017 India, Nepal, Philippines, Trauma, Women

Locked up in the palaces of rich families, abused and treated as slaves by their “owners”, sexually exploited, or almost starved to death. Such is the plight of many foreign Christian nannies and housemaids from Asian countries working for families in the Arabian Peninsula – and almost nobody knows about . . . Read More

Philippines churches could cancel services over terrorism threat

December 2, 2016 Philippines Cotabato, Islamic State, Manila, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte

Philippine soldiers and police erected a checkpoint in Manila in September, after the government declared a ‘state of lawlessness’ following a bomb explosion at a night market in Davao City, which killed 14 people. A Filipino cardinal has condemned as “terrorism” a bomb explosion outside a Catholic church in the . . . Read More

Islamic extremism on rise in Philippines

April 18, 2016 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Indonesia, Islamic State, Malaysia, Mindanao, Philippines, Southeast Asia

Islamic extremism is growing in the southern Philippines, with alarming implications for the rest of Asia, reports . For more than four decades, Islamist groups have been engaged in an insurgency for an independent province in the Mindanao island group of southern Philippines. Several have now , while one of . . . Read More

Philippines: former missionary freed

April 11, 2016 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Mindanao, Philippines, Zamboanga

Italian businessman and ex-missionary, Rolando Del Torchio, kidnapped in the Philippines last October, was released on Friday 8 April, . Police picked up the 57-year-old in the southern Philippine island of Jolo. After six months of captivity, he appeared much thinner and was immediately taken to hospital for a check-up. . . . Read More

IS allegiance reported in Philippines

January 11, 2016 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro, Islamic State, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Philippines, Zamboanga

A video has emerged showing the leader of Abu Sayyaf (a militant Islamist group based around the islands of and in south-western Philippines) swearing allegiance to the leader of Islamic State, reports Rappler, a digital news website based in the Philippines. The Abu Sayyaf leader is shown marching with other extremist . . . Read More

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