The Philippines said on Sunday it had deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that went against it, and there have been frequent clashes or tense standoffs between Philippine and Chinese vessels.

Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the waters.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman, said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 111 km west of the main Philippine island of Luzon.

“Their goal is to normalise such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement.

He later told reporters Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area to challenge the “unlawful” Chinese patrols.

He said the deployment aimed to ensure Chinese patrols “are not normalised, and that this bullying behaviour does not succeed”.

Tarriela said the Chinese coast guard deployed three vessels from its Guangdong and Hainan bases to Philippine waters between December 30 and January 11.

The South China Sea confrontations have sparked concern they could draw the United States, Manila’s long-time security ally, into armed conflict with China.

Manila:

The Philippines has confirmed two more mpox virus infections of the milder clade 2 variety, its health ministry said Monday, bringing the number of active cases to three.

“We continue to see local transmission of mpox clade II here in the Philippines, in Metro Manila in particular,” Health Minister Teodoro Herbosa said in a statement.

The newly confirmed cases were a 37-year-old male in Metro Manila who had rash on his body last week and was brought to a government hospital, and a 32-year-old male from the capital who had skin lesions on his body.

The Philippines announced last week it had detected a case of the mpox virus’ milder variant in a 33-year-old male who had no travel history outside the Philippines.

The three cases this year means the Philippines has had 12 laboratory-confirmed case since July 2022.

The World Health Organization earlier this month declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, for the second time in two years, because of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had spread to neighbouring countries.

A new form of the virus has triggered global concern as it seems to spread easily though routine close contact.

The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can kill, with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, all at higher risk of complications.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Motorists ride through a flooded street in Manila on amid heavy rains brought about by Typhoon Gaemi.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Relentless rain drenched the northern Philippines on July 24, triggering floods in Manila and deadly landslips as Typhoon Gaemi intensified the seasonal monsoon.

Rescuers were deployed across the densely populated capital to help evacuate people from low-lying homes after downpours turned streets into rivers, trapping vehicles.

People clutched flimsy umbrellas as they waded through thigh-deep murky water or used small boats and shopping trolleys to move around.

“The disturbance it caused is great. The waters reached the second floor of our house,” Nora Clet, a resident, said.

Restaurant employee Rex Morano said he was not able to work due to the “very high” floodwaters.

A state of calamity was declared for Manila, unlocking funds for relief efforts, after the state weather forecaster warned of “serious flooding” in some areas.

Government offices were shut and classes suspended, more than 100 domestic and international flights were cancelled, and tens of thousands of customers lost power because of the weather.

Some shopping malls and churches offered temporary shelter to people affected.

“Many areas are flooded so we have rescuers deployed all over the city. There is an overwhelming number of people asking for help,” Peachy de Leon, a disaster official in suburban Manila, said.

“We were told last night the rain will not hit us, then the rain suddenly poured so we were quite shocked. There is an ongoing search and rescue now.”

Typhoon Gaemi, which has swept past the Philippines as it heads towards Taiwan, intensified the southwest monsoon rains typical for this time of year, the state weather forecaster said.

“Usually the peak of rainy season is July and August and it so happens that there is a typhoon in the eastern waters of the Philippines that enhances the southwest monsoon,” senior weather specialist Glaiza Escullar said.

More than 200 mm of rain fell in the capital in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, Escullar said, which was “not unusual”.

More heavy rain was expected on July 25.

Landslips killed a pregnant woman and three children in Batangas province, south of Manila, and a woman and her five-year-old child in Pampanga province, north of the capital, police and disaster officials said Wednesday.

Three major roads were blocked by landslides in the mountainous Benguet province.

That takes the death toll from heavy rains over swaths of the country in the past two weeks to at least 14, as tens of thousands sheltered in evacuation centres.

President Ferdinand Marcos ordered on July 24 disaster response officials to ensure they had sufficient stockpiles of food for the hardest-hit areas because “their situation is critical”.

Hard-scrabble neighbourhoods near Manila Bay were badly affected, with most of the streets underwater and more than 2,000 people forced to flee their homes.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Philippines “cannot yield” in territorial disputes, President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday, after a series of escalating confrontations with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Manila is locked in a longstanding territorial row with Beijing over parts of the strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars worth of trade passes annually.

Without naming China, Mr. Marcos said the Philippines would continue to “find ways to de-escalate tensions in contested areas… without compromising our position and our principles”. “The Philippines cannot yield. The Philippines cannot waver,” Mr. Marcos said in his annual State of the Nation adddress to Congress.

His remarks came after the Philippines and China agreed to a “provisional arrangement” for resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal, which has been the focus of violent clashes in recent months.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea. 

Ties with China

Philippine relations with China have been turbulent since Mr. Marcos took office in 2022 vowing to defend his country’s claims to the South China Sea.

A series of clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels at flashpoint reefs have fuelled fears of a conflict that could drag in the U.S. owing to its mutual defence treaty with Manila.