News about Ferdinand Marcos

Sarah Ferguson of ABC discusses what happened behind the scenes when she confronted Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with some tough questions he was not keen about answering.

Arthur Wyndham, the ABC's program manager, has died at the age of 98. Wyndham, one of the last Australian broadcasting pioneers from the pre-television era, died in Sydney on October 6, according to an obituary written by daughter Susan Wyndham for the Sydney Morning Herald. He is survived by his three children and six grandchildren.

On Monday, the Chinese military said an American naval ship had "illegally invaded" into waters off the second Thomas Shoal, the center of a hot territorial conflict between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. During the operation, a Chinese naval force was mobilized to track down USS Gabrielle Giffords, according to a People's Liberation Army statement issued in Southern China.

The explosion occurred at Mindanao State University's gymnasium in Marawi, the country's largest Muslim city, according to regional police Chief Allan Nobleza. According to a statement released by the Islamic State terrorist group on its Telegram channels, it had detonated the bomb. According to police Lieutenant General Emmanuel Perpeta, the assault wounded more than 50 people and hospitalized. The country's police and military have increased protection in the south and around the capital. Images shared on the Lanao del Sur government's Facebook page earlier this week showed several overturned plastic chairs and rubble around the gymnasium's floor, ahead of ISIS' assertion that it was behind the attack.

In a bomb blast at a Catholic mass in the Philippines, four people were killed and dozens injured. According to regional police Chief Allan Nobleza, the explosion occurred during a regular service at Mindanao State University's gymnasium in Marawi, the country's largest Muslim city. More than 50 people were wounded and hospitalized by the assault, which is being blamed on 'foreign terrorists,' by President Ferdinand Marcos, according to police Lieutenant Emmanuel Peralta. According to some intelligence officials, the bombing may have been a reprisal strike against a string of military operations against Islamist militant groups in recent days. On the Lanao del Sur government's Facebook page, several overturned plastic chairs and rubble around a black patch on the gymnasium's floor.

An elephant named the world's saddest animal died at the age of 49 after nearly half a century alone. Vishwamaali, also known as Mali to locals, died of congestive heart failure on November 28 after more than four years spent in a grubby enclosure at Manila Zoo. Mali's last photograph taken just hours before she died shows her greeting children and their parents who visited her at the Manila Zoo on November 27.

According to police, Juan Jumalon, a news broadcaster, was shot twice during a morning broadcast in Calamba, Misamis Occidental province. The journalist looked up at something away from the camera before the shots were fired, causing him to slump back in his chair as the music continued. On the way to a hospital, he was declared dead. An investigation is currently underway to identify the perpetrators and determine the nature of the shooting. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. strongly condemned the shooting and announced that the national police have been ordered to track down, arrest, and prosecute the perpetrators.

On Monday, President Joe Biden told his Filipino counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the US's commitment to helping its ally was 'ironclad,' during a meeting designed to strengthen a key link amid growing tensions regarding China's growing military threat. Marcos, nicknamed 'Bongbong,' was the first White House visit by a politician from the Philippines in ten years. They decided on greater military cooperation in an attempt to restore US-Philippine relations in the year after he took power from Rodrigo Duterte, who's hardline, nationalist policies put him at odds with the Biden administration.

The annual drills by the long-serving treaty allies, Balikatan, will run up to April 28 and include more than 17,600 military troops, as well as a live-fire drill. It will be the first demonstration of American firepower in Asia as the Biden administration expands an arc of alliances to better combat China, including a potential war against Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing claims to be its own. Chinese warships and aircraft were still operating around Taiwan, Taipei's defence ministry said, a day after Beijing declared an end to the massive war games. China announced Monday that a three-day Chinese military exercise that mimicked strike operations and a blockade of self-ruled, democratic Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory. However, Taiwan's defense ministry said it had seen nine Chinese warships and 26 aircraft around the island as of 11:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday.

The Philippines was'seriously concerned' by a news that China had reclaimed several unoccupied areas of the Spratly Islands, according to the Philippines (pictured). Bloomberg announced that new land formations have emerged around the contested Islands in the sea, where a Chinese vessel with a hydraulic excavator has been seen operating in recent years. "We are extremely worried,' the Philippine foreign ministry said this week, because such conduct violates the Declaration of Conduct on the South China Sea's efforts on self-restraint and the 2016 Arbitral Award.' Other departments had been asked to look at the report, according to the ministry. Beijing claims that over half of the country's resource-rich waterway, which sees trillions of dollars in trade every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan are among the islands' rivalries. China has dismissed a 2012 decision by a UN-backed tribunal that the country's assertion is baseless. Over the past few years, the Chinese government has constructed military installations and airstrips, as well as artificial islands on reefs in the contested waters.

Around 300 troops were sent to participate in an amphibious drill held on an uninhabited beach in Zambales province, about 150 miles east of Scarborough Shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in 2012. Images of the drills displayed striking photos of platoons storming beaches from amphibious landing craft, while US marines were seen instructing Philippine soldiers on the use of specific military arms and weapons. In the drills, a small group of South Korean and Japanese troops served as well. The KAMANDAG - the Philippines' acronym for 'Cooperation of the Warriors of the Sea' - started on Monday and will be held throughout the country's largest island of Luzon until October 14.

Thousands of people have fled into the Phillipines today after a Super Typhoon with winds of up to 180 miles per hour. After an 'explosive increase, Typhoon Noru barrelled through Luzon's densely populated main island, according to the state weather forecaster. Nearly 8,400 residents have been evacuated from Noru's path, with winds toppling trees and taking out power lines. After making landfall, the category 3 tropical storm's maximum sustained winds were recorded as 121 mph and gusts of up to 180 mph, according to the state weather service.