MANILA: Raging orange flames and thick black smoke billowed into the sky Sunday as fire ripped through hundreds of houses in a closely built slum area of the Philippine capital Manila.
Manila Fire District said around 1,000 houses were burned in the blaze that is thought to have started on the second floor of one of the homes.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Drone footage shared online by the city’s disaster agency showed houses in Isla Puting Bato village of Manila razed to the ground.
The structures housed around 2,000 families, according to the fire department.
Village resident Leonila Abiertas, 65, lost almost all her possessions, but managed to save her late husband’s ashes.
“I only got the urn with the ashes of my husband,” a crying Abiertas said.
“I really don’t know how I can start my life again after this fire.”
Fire and disaster services deployed 36 trucks and four fire boats while the country’s airforce sent in two helicopters to help extinguish the fire.
“That area is fire-prone since most of the houses there are made of light materials,” firefighter Geanelli Nunez said.
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Fire rips through slum area in Philippine capital
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Fire rips through slum area in Philippine capital
- Manila Fire District said around 1,000 houses were destroyed in the blaze
- The structures housed around 2,000 families, according to the fire department
ASEAN will not certify Myanmar election or send observers, Malaysia says
KUALA LUMPUR: The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will not send observers to army-ruled Myanmar’s ongoing three-stage election and will therefore not endorse the poll, Malaysia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021.
The election, which began in December last year, has been criticized by the United Nations, many Western countries and rights groups as a ploy to legitimize military rule through political proxies — a charge the junta has denied.
In a low turnout, voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier this month, with the military-allied Union Solidarity and Development Party leading after securing 88 percent of the lower house seats contested over the first phase.
Speaking in parliament, Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN had rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, though some individual member states had decided to do so on their own.
“We have said that ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the poll,” Mohamad said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the election.
Separately, Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing this year concerning activities in the South China Sea.
“We hope we are able to do it by this year,” he said.
ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct but took 15 years to start discussions, and progress has been slow.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration activities by those countries.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021.
The election, which began in December last year, has been criticized by the United Nations, many Western countries and rights groups as a ploy to legitimize military rule through political proxies — a charge the junta has denied.
In a low turnout, voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier this month, with the military-allied Union Solidarity and Development Party leading after securing 88 percent of the lower house seats contested over the first phase.
Speaking in parliament, Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN had rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, though some individual member states had decided to do so on their own.
“We have said that ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the poll,” Mohamad said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the election.
Separately, Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing this year concerning activities in the South China Sea.
“We hope we are able to do it by this year,” he said.
ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct but took 15 years to start discussions, and progress has been slow.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration activities by those countries.
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