Daily Tribune (Philippines)
Marcos, Congress may face liability over budget abuses
Vice President Sara Duterte and opposition lawmakers on Wednesday called for accountability from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and members of Congress after the Supreme Court (SC) declared unconstitutional key provisions and increases in the 2024 and...
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Digital leap
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (center) leads the ceremonial bell-ringing of Mynt Inc., parent company of GCash, marking a major milestone for the country’s fintech industry. Joining him (from left) are Ayala Corporation chairman Jaime augusto Zobel de...
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EDSA Busway at risk
The EDSA Busway faces possible service disruptions next year after receiving zero allocation in the proposed 2027 national budget, threatening a transport system that serves up to 183,000 commuters daily. Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez warned...
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France aflame: Protesters police clash; looters strike
France woke up Sunday to devastated streets after clashes between police and protesters, mass looting and fires erupted nationwide as marches against rising costs of living degenerated into “extreme” violence. The widespread unrest followed
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Livid solons want Jing out
After clashing with Teodoro and Philippine Coast Guard Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, the PCG’s spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, the Chinese Embassy also took on legislators it accused of exaggeration. The diplomatic row between the Philippines...
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Spat flares up over ‘threat’
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will summon Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan to Malacañang to clarify a statement he made that Marcos considered threatening. Last Thursday, in an interview at a forum in Quezon City, Jing denied that...
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PALACE DENIES DY REPLACING SARA
Malacañang on Thursday denied discussing a succession plan in the event of the conviction of Vice President Sara duterte, amid speculation the Marcos administration would back House Speaker faustino “Bojie” dy iii as her replacement in the office of...
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House budget slashes rail projects
Senator JV Ejercito on Wednesday flagged the sweeping changes made in the House-approved 2027 budget, saying it deviated from the National Expenditure Program (NEP), with massive cuts to flagship railway projects and an additional P8.04 billion...
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3 CHARGES DROPPED, SO SARA CAN’T ANSWER
Vice president sara Duterte’s defense team on Tuesday insisted on its right to rebut three impeachment charges the senate has allowed the House prosecution to drop, arguing that she should be able to challenge allegations already aired before the...
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‘Higher calling’ behind PCO chief’s dismissal
How do you ease out a Cabinet man who has outlived his usefulness and usher in a new, fair-haired political boy who can be weaponized for the 2028 elections? The answer shocked many, especially Presidential Communications Office Secretary Dave...
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mans claims bills, denies Sara link
Lawyer Manases Carpio defended his credit card purchases in Japan and Malaysia as personal expenses, rejecting attempts to link the transactions to Vice President Sara Duterte as the Senate impeachment court examines allegations that the couple...
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U.S. punishes ICC; Digong gains? SANCTIONS MAY CRIPPLE TRIBUNAL
The United States announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday, vowing to cripple the tribunal’s operations in a move that geopolitical experts said could indirectly benefit its high-profile detainee, former Philippine...
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WB: Impose 5% UA cap
The 2024 budget kept it high. Congress increased the UA from the executive’s submitted P281.9 billion to P731.4 billion, a 159-percent jump. That was about 13 percent of the budget. While acknowledging that it is an essential part of the annual...
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P11.5-B NEAR-MIDNIGHT PORK RITUAL FLAGGED P99-B budget amendments questionable
In the witching hour of 1 October, livestreamed on the House website but with media and civil society organizations made off-limits, a total of P11.49 billion worth of projects was inserted in the 2027 budget of the Department of Public Works and...
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TULFO HITS LAWYER’S ‘PA-CUTE’ ANTICS
Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo on Thursday took the House prosecution panel to task over what he called unnecessary witnesses and “pa-cute” courtroom antics, as former Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV withdrew as a witness in the impeachment trial of...
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CenPEG: BSKE freeze creates beholden execs
The two-year postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) could help the incumbent administration consolidate its forces through patronage so it would dominate the crucial 2028 national polls. A tighter grip on grassroots...
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Baste: inday sara never intervened
Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte on Tuesday said his sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, never intervened in the city government’s procurements involving GenCorp Industries Inc. nor did she ask for special treatment for the...
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Still waiting
The barren landscape of the Tapian open-pit mine in Marinduque bears the scars of a disaster that began in 1996, when a fractured drainage tunnel released millions of tons of toxic mine tailings into the province’s waterways. Thirty years on,...
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Dizon-Cayetano link clouds Taguig probe
The decade-long professional ties between Secretary Vince Dizon of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano are now under fresh scrutiny after Dizon told the Senate there were no ghost projects in Taguig, only...
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Polls freeze draws fire SC PETITION EYED
The next Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections will now be held in 2028, putting the country’s grassroots polls in the same election year as the presidential and national races, which has prompted civic groups to question the democratic...
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4 in 10 unconfirmed
Public governance and legal experts have called out the Marcos administration for appointing a record number of temporary heads of critical agencies, bypassing the government’s checks-and-balances mechanism. The more critical posts have officials in...
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Flexing gold Carlos
Yulo shows off his gold medal during the awarding ceremony for the men’s floor exercise at the 2026 Asian Games — another golden moment for the Philippines’ gymnastics ace.
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Senate rewrites impeach math
The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, on Wednesday voted to change the basis for calculating the conviction threshold in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, reducing the number of votes needed to convict from 16 to 14. The court...
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OLYMPIC
medalist Kayla Sanchez narrowly misses the podium, settling for fourth in the women’s 100-meter freestyle final at the 30th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan. Her medal chase isn’t over yet — Sanchez next plunges back into the pool for the women’s 50-meter...
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Sara blames Marcos for school shootings
Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday accused the Marcos administration of failing to protect Filipino children after a shooting at a South Cotabato high school left three students dead, including the suspected gunman, and eight others...
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Martial Law protest likens BBM to ‘Apo’
A case of the fruit not falling far from the tree? President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. faced accusations of repeating the repression and corruption associated by protesters with the alleged dictatorship of his father as groups took to the streets Sunday, a...
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Neglect breeds violence COUNSELOR SHORTAGE LEAVES YOUTH VULNERABLE
The recent wave of campus violence is a manifestation of a deeper problem in the education system, which has suffered from years of neglect under policies that prioritized the mass production of labor for export over character development, an...
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WATCHDOGS TAG P970-B 2027 PORK
Budget watchdogs under an umbrella organization have flagged P970 billion, or a significant portion of the P7.2-trillion proposed 2027 national budget, as discretionary funds vulnerable to being turned into a pork barrel. The People’s Budget Coalition...
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MARCOLETA REJECTS THRESHOLD VOTE PLAN
Senator Rodante Marcoleta on Thursday questioned the Senate impeachment court’s decision to revisit the constitutional threshold for convicting an impeached official, saying the matter should not be subject to a vote. “Why should it be a subject of...
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VP verdict bar: All means all
A widely used problem-solving principle called the law of parsimony states that when presented with competing explanations for an event, the one that makes the fewest assumptions is usually correct. Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo...
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SARA'S WEALTH 'SURGE' EXAMINED
Increases in the annual net worth of public officials are common and do not necessarily indicate unlawful acquisition, an Ombudsman records official told the Senate impeachment court Tuesday as prosecutors presented Vice President Sara Duterte’s
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Seize Marcos, ‘biggest fish’
Saying the battle against corruption does not end with former House Speaker Martin Romualdez being brought yesterday to an ordinary jail, a militant lawmaker has urged the Office of the Ombudsman to now set its sights on the biggest fish in the flood...
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Hands off Sara trial, BBM told
House prosecution spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers said Sunday that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should remain neutral in the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte and allow senator-judges to decide the case based on...
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Dike collapse worsens Liwliwa coastal crisis
SAN FELIPE, Zambales — Resort owners have laid down armor rocks along the shoreline and footpaths of Sitio Liwliwa in a futile battle against coastal erosion and to salvage what remains of their properties, but the same environmental degradation led to...
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DUTERTE DEMANDS MARCOS RESIGN
On the 109th birth anniversary of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his son, incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was advised by his Vice President, Sara Duterte, to step down. Duterte’s call ratcheted up the political rift between the two,...
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Zambales’ sand vanishes; resorts, homes at risk
The sea has long been a part of life in Liwliwa, San Felipe, Zambales. But along portions of the province’s coast, the familiar boundary between land and sea appears to be shifting. A resort in Barangay Liwliwa has raised the alarm over the worsening...
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PROSEC, DEFENSE CLASH OVER SARA TESTIMONY
The prosecution in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday sought to keep open the possibility of calling her to the witness stand after it has completed its presentation of evidence, but the defense immediately objected, saying...
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Romualdez arrested in San Juan hospital
The Sandiganbayan Third Division on Monday issued warrants of arrest against Leyte 1st District Rep. and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, former Congressman Zaldy Co, and two other respondents in connection with the P7.44-billion plunder case...
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Sara’s QC case won’t sway Senate, says Win
The criminal case against Vice President Sara Duterte pending before a Quezon City court will have no bearing on her ongoing impeachment trial before the Senate, Senate President Win Gatchalian said Sunday. Gatchalian said the Quezon City
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VP posts bail, fears for life
Vice President Sara Duterte posted bail of P360,000 in cash on Saturday to secure her temporary liberty after a court issued a warrant for her arrest over alleged grave threats she made against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and two others. Before...
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Court orders VP Sara arrest
Vice President Sara Duterte was ordered arrested by a Quezon City court on Friday, deepening the legal siege mounted against the country’s second highest official who is on trial before the Senate on separate articles of impeachment. Quezon City...
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MARCOS ON TRACK FOR BIGGEST DEBT BUILDUP
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is on track to leave behind the biggest national debt buildup of any postEDSA president when he steps down in 2028, having already added P6.6 trillion to the government’s debt in just over four years. And if the numbers...
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Political noise chills investors
The political noise in the country is weighing on investor and business confidence, adding to concerns over slowing economic growth and weakening consumer spending, warned BDO Capital and Investment Corp. president Ed Francisco. In a recent television...
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TINIO QUESTIONS PALACE ‘FREE PASS’ ON BUDGET
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So should the same go for the Offices of the President and Vice President, ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. Antonio Tinio insists. Tonio yesterday questioned the House of Representatives’ decision to defer...
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Floods take bite out of Christmas cheer
For Allan, the flooding has brought him more work. But for families in flood-hit communities, it has brought new expenses — from having to buy prepared food, replacing damaged appliances to, for some, purchasing a boat. Their contrasting experiences...
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Marcos sings, Palace drowns out critics
Malacañang came to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s defense on Sunday after a video of him serenading First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos went viral, with critics tying the 26 August performance to the flooding that hit Metro Manila three days...
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VULTURES CIRCLE P15-B ROAD TAX
In December 2018, a high-profile dispute erupted between the House of Representatives, led largely by then Majority Leader Rolando Andaya, and then Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno during debates over the proposed 2019 national budget, amid accusations...
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PROVING VP RAPS, MARCOS’ ACID TEST
The impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte would be the first concrete test of whether the Marcos administration can heed its own call for justice and turn corruption allegations into accountability, according to University of the Philippines...
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PINOY MISSING; SCORES KILLED IN NEPAL FLOODS
No Filipino has been reported killed or injured in the massive mudslide and flash floods that struck Nepal and the Tibet border, Malacañang said Thursday as rescue teams searched for more than 1,300 missing persons. The Nepal Tourism Board, however,...
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Liza hails Gwyn Dorado
Former National Economic and Development Authority chief Solita Monsod on Wednesday accused government leaders of treating public funds as their own, warning that corruption has reached “world-class magnitudes” and is now dragging down the country’s...
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Palace mulls FB Ban
‘AMONG ALL GAMING APPS, AND ANYTHING THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED HARMFUL TO OUR YOUTH AND OUR COUNTRY, THE PRESIDENT IS OPEN TO HAVING ALL OF THEM REMOVED.’ Malacañang on Tuesday said it was open to proposals to ban social media and gaming platforms that...
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Pampanga drowning; governor seeks help
Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda on Monday made an emotional appeal to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for urgent government intervention as hundreds of barangays in the province remained submerged in floodwaters, with the number of affected residents...
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Poverty’s hard face
A mother and her two children make do with a makeshift home inside concrete pipes, a stark portrait of poverty amid government claims that the number of poor Filipinos has gone down.
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NEP ‘wish list’ conjures 20% Pork
In Disney’s animated Aladdin, the villain Jafar tells his equally wicked parrot, Iago, “I love the way your foul little mind works” — an oblique compliment that could just as easily apply to members of the House of Representatives and their ingenuity...
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9.7% POVERTY LOW RAISED DOUBTS
Amid weakening economic momentum, the government announced yesterday a sharp improvement in the share of the poor in the population, with poverty incidence falling to a historic low of 9.7 percent last year, or about 6 million people lifted out of...
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Taiwan eyes Phl role in Pax Silica chip, AI push
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan sees the Philippines’ planned Pax Silica hub in New Clark City as a potential platform for cooperation in semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other strategic technologies, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said. Lin...
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Who owns the other gun?
Authorities are investigating the ownership and custody of the second firearm used in Tuesday’s shooting at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, after the Bureau of Customs (BoC) clarified that only one of the two guns was owned by the suspect’s...
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2 A STUDENT. GUNS. 2 DEAD IN ZAMBO
Two students, including the alleged gunman, died in a shooting at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School campus on Tuesday morning, less than two months after a school shooting in Tacloban City left three students dead. Police received...
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Flood paralyzes MM: Where did billions go?
A three-hour journey home for a student in Manila on Monday became a slow crawl through flooded roads and jammed traffic, offering a stark reminder of the vulnerability of the Philippine capital as the government investigates alleged corruption in...
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Senate not scrapping UAs
Unprogrammed Appropriations (UAs), which have been marred by corruption allegations in recent years, will remain in the proposed 2027 national budget unless the Supreme Court (SC) issues a temporary restraining order (TRO), Senate President Win...
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‘No ill-gotten wealth, no way’
A coalition associated with the slain former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of repeating what it called a decades-old pattern of deception after the Chief Executive rejected allegations that his family’s...
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COLD WAR SCALES UP
While President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday rejected suggestions the Philippines had a special “arrangement” with China over the West Philippine Sea (WPS), an apparent tit-for-tat has emerged over the treatment of nationals of both...
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MARCOS’ EDSA PROJECT FACES PERFECT STORM
“The question is no longer what happened. It is who allowed it.” Good governance advocate Dr. Tony Leachon posed that question on Thursday in connection with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s much-touted EDSA rehabilitation project as it faces a Senate...
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Bonoan: All senators got ‘leadership funds’
Former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan testified Wednesday that all the senators availed themselves of “leadership fund” insertions in the 2025 national budget, with each lawmaker receiving at least P500 million in allocations while chairpersons...
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Garbage crisis
As river warriors or the so-called ‘estero’ rangers from the Department of Public Works and Highways, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Parañaque City attempt to clear tons of garbage trapped...
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P6-B EDSA rehab marred by potholes
The P6-billion EDSA rehabilitation project has encountered an early setback after heavy rains caused water to accumulate and potholes to emerge on the newly repaired EDSA Busway by Estrella Street in Makati City. Public Works and Highways Secretary...
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Deadly habagat exposes Marcos’ Floodgate mess
As the ghosts of alleged nonexistent, substandard and overpriced floodcontrol projects haunt the Marcos government, at least seven Filipinos were killed and more than 382,000 were displaced Sunday as relentless habagat rains triggered floods and...
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Eala rallies past McNally, enters R16
The effects of playing consecutive matches with little time to rest finally caught up with Alex Eala. But the 21-year-old still emerged victorious over world No. 70 Caty McNally of the United States, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, in the Round of 32 of the Canadian...
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AYUNGIN DEAL MAY SPARK PBBM IMPEACH
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. can be held liable and removed from office as a result of the provisional understanding between the Philippines and China over resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal, which is a reversal of the 2016 arbitral award...
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EXPLAIN CHINA DEAL, MARCOS GOV’T TOLD
Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has challenged the Marcos administration to explain why it entered into a provisional understanding with China on Ayungin Shoal that, he said, effectively surrendered Philippine sovereign...
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Carpio slams DFA ‘deal’ with China
Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Wednesday warned that the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) “provisional understanding” with China on resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal could weaken the...
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