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Japan will seek to bolster military ties with the Philippines during a visit to Manila by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that comes after tensions escalated between Beijing and the Southeast Asian nation over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
American leaders have made numerous visits to the Philippines, a long-standing military ally in Southeast Asia. But Vice President Kamala Harris’ stop on Tuesday in the country’s archipelagic province of Palawan represents something new. She is the first U.S. official to go there, in what observers say is meant more as a message to China than one to the Philippines.
Tensions over the South China Sea escalated Monday with China filing a diplomatic complaint, the Philippines summoning Beijing’s ambassador, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordering a probe a day after vessels from both nations collided in the disputed waters.
Three people are dead after a Philippine fishing boat “accidentally” collided with an oil tanker that the nation’s coast guard says fits the description of a vessel registered under the Marshall Islands transiting off a disputed South China Sea shoal.
On Feb. 25, 1986, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, from nuns to office workers, occupied one of the Philippine capital’s main arteries—the culmination of a four-day mass protest dubbed the “People Power Revolution.” It was unlike anything Asia, or the world, had seen before. By evening, the authoritarian regime of ailing President Ferdinand Marcos ended—with Marcos leaving for exile in Hawaii along with his wife and children. Replacing him was Corazon Aquino, the widow of an assassinated pro-democracy opposition leader.
The Philippines has accused China of “a blatant disregard” and “clear violation” of sovereignty, alleging that a Chinese coast guard ship last week directed a “military-grade laser light” at a Philippine Coast Guard ship in the hotly contested South China Sea, temporarily blinding the Filipino crew onboard.
Musa Muhammad stands at the site where 400 Islamist militants launched an invasion of the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga little over two years ago, sparking 20 days of heavy fighting with security forces. The ruins of his old house can be found there, amid several hundred other razed homes. Since then his family has lived in a sports stadium, refusing to move to a newly built house in another part of town.
Mass shootings are a result of a confluence of factors, but at the heart of the problem are guns—of which the Philippines has plenty. Firearms are sold openly in malls, and almost anyone can carry them, even priests and accountants.