Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte fired Vice President and arch-critic Leni Robredo from her post as overseer of his deadly drug war on Sunday, an aide said, just days after calling her a "scatterbrain" not to be trusted with state secrets.Robredo, 54, lasted less than three weeks steering Duterte's signature anti-narcotics campaign, which she vowed to reform amid allegations police were committing crimes against humanity in killing thousands of drug suspects."The Vice-

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has disclosed that he suffers from an autoimmune disease that can potentially have serious complications, the latest condition for a leader whose health has been subject to speculation.Duterte, 74, was the oldest person to be elected president of the country and questions about his health have swirled since taking office in 2016.His occasional skipping of events and meetings, as well as him discussing his ailments, has only added to the speculation.Duterte

Murders of environmental activists and land defenders in the Philippines have risen sharply under President Rodrigo Duterte, an international rights watchdog said Tuesday, alleging his speeches and policies have "emboldened" the killers.Campaigners who challenge powerful logging, mining and fruit growing interests have long faced deadly violence in the Philippines, but the recent increase marked a "disturbing" jump, according to a report from Global Witness. In Ju

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's administration has ordered the suspension of all loan and grant talks with foreign governments that backed a United Nations (UN) resolution to review human rights abuses during his signature anti-drug war.The Iceland-sponsored UN Human Rights Council resolution passed by a minority vote in July, drawing the ire of Duterte, who bristles at Western condemnation of his campaign which has killed thousands and drawn international condemnation but is wide

A Philippine senator who initially led President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war sparked outrage Thursday when he dismissed the killing of a toddler in a police anti-narcotics operation with an expletive and as collateral damage.Ex-Philippine police chief Ronald Dela Rosa, who won a senate seat in May, made the comments as police burned 1.4 tonnes (over 3,000 pounds) of seized narcotics while warning the nation still faced a flood of illegal drugs.Authorities said a three-year-old girl

The sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in the disputed South China Sea was "just a collision", the Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday as he moved to soothe anger over the crash.The typically brash Duterte urged calm in his first public comments about the June 9 incident, which has fed into outrage over China's expansive claims to the resource-rich waterway.Critics have voiced anger over the Chinese trawler's failure to rescue the 22

Two years after the Philippine city of Marawi was overrun by jihadists it remains in ruins, with experts warning that stalled reconstruction efforts are bolstering the appeal of extremist groups in the volatile region.The 23 May, 2017 invasion by gunmen waving the black flag of the Islamic State (IS) group sparked a five-month battle that shattered swathes of the southern city.Demolition of blast-pocked buildings has finally begun, but after several false starts the government does not expect

Filipinos headed to the polls on Monday in a vote that is expected to strengthen President Rodrigo Duterte's grip on power, opening the way for him to deliver on pledges to restore the death penalty and rewrite the constitution.More than 18,000 positions are at stake, including half of the seats in the upper house Senate, which has served as a bulwark against some of Duterte's most controversial policies.Duterte is known internationally for his foul-mouthed tirades, but remains huge

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned Beijing to back off from a disputed island in the South China Sea, warning of possible military action if China "touches" it amid rising tensions over the key waterway.Duterte, aiming to attract trade and investment from the Asian superpower, has mostly withheld his early criticism of Beijing's expansive claims to the sea – a point of regional contention because trillions of dollars of goods pass through it.But as the Philippine m

The Philippines was officially out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Sunday, though the beleaguered tribunal has pledged to pursue its examination of alleged illegal killings in the government's drug war.Under court rules, Manila's withdrawal took force a year after it told the United Nations (UN) that it was quitting the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, the second nation to do so."The Secretary-General...informed all concerned states that the withdra