Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to exercise restraint to maintain peace in the South China Sea, Manila's presidential office said on Saturday.

The two leaders held an hour-long telephone summit on Friday, discussing a broad range of topics including concerns over the Ukraine crisis and COVID-19 pandemic responses.

Japan and the Philippines agreed on Saturday to consider further expanding defence cooperation against a backdrop of regional tensions and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting in Tokyo of the two Asian nations' foreign and defence ministers was the first in the "2+2" format between the key U.S. allies.

The Philippine Consulate General in New York would send out the ballots for overseas absentee voting as soon as possible, Consul General Elmer Cato said Sunday.

In a statement, Cato announced that the boxes containing the equipment and election paraphernalia had just arrived at the FedEx Facility in New Jersey while other packages have departed Alaska.

Tropical Storm Agaton continued to move slowly westward over the coastal waters of Balangiga, Eastern Samar, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said Sunday.

In its 2 p.m. bulletin, PAGASA said the center of “Agaton” was spotted over the coastal waters of Balangiga, Eastern Samar with maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center, gustiness of up to 105 kph, and central pressure of 998 hPa (hectoPascals).

A labor official dismissed proposals to lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers in some parts of the Middle East, saying it may be “unwise” to do so at this time.

Labor Attaché Alejandro Padaen of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Lebanon said in a news release on Sunday that officials should first consult with people on the ground and carefully study the situation in destination countries before policy pronouncements are made.

“I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.”
—Henny Youngman

“A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.”

—Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Money is my military, each dollar a soldier. I never send my money into battle unprepared and undefended. I send it to conquer and take currency prisoner and bring it back to me.”
—Kevin O'Leary

THE exchange rate from Philippine peso to U.S. dollar as of April 6, 2022 was P51.42 to $1.