From the southern island of Mindanao to the Sulu archipelago and Zamboanga peninsula, Filipino Muslim communities observed the holiday with dawn prayers followed by the ritual sacrifice of goats and cattle, distributing meat among relatives, neighbors and poorer households in keeping with Islamic tradition.

For many families, the celebrations also served as a reaffirmation of ethnic and cultural heritage among the country’s Muslim minority population, which comprises about 6% of the Philippines’ more than 110 million people.“We celebrate it as a feast where everyone is welcome.

Anyone who wants to visit the house and eat is invited,” Tahir Malikol, a chef and educator from Cotabato City known for promoting Bangsamoro culinary traditions, told Arab News.Malikol said the Eid gatherings reflected the Filipino value of “bayanihan,” or communal unity and cooperation, with families and neighbors contributing ingredients, labor and food preparation for large shared meals.

Traditional dishes associated with Muslim communities in the south took center stage during the celebrations. Among Maguindanaon and Iranun households, families prepared sinina, a slow-cooked coconut-based beef or goat stew known for its smoky flavor.Maranao families served riyandang, a regional variation of rendang stew influenced by broader Southeast Asian Muslim culinary traditions.

Unlike Indonesian or Malaysian rendang, the Maranao version relies less on spices and more on ingredients such as toasted coconut, ground rice and sakurab, an aromatic plant native to parts of Mindanao.In Tausug, Sama-Bajau and Yakan communities, celebratory tables featured kulma, a rich curry dish, and tiyula itum, a dark meat soup made using charred coconut meat that gives the broth its black color.

“These dishes are traditionally served only during special celebrations,” Malikol said, noting that some recipes were historically associated with royalty, datus and sultans in Muslim Mindanao.Another ceremonial dish, linigil, is prepared by simmering meat slowly in coconut milk until the sauce thickens and coats the meat.

One variation using chicken requires the bird to be boiled and then hung upside down for a full day to drain moisture before final cooking, a technique still preserved in some households.Desserts also played a central role in the Eid celebrations. Families prepared dudol, a sticky confection made from rice flour and coconut milk that requires continuous stirring for up to eight hours, often by several family members working in shifts.

Beyond the food, many Filipino Muslims described Eid as an occasion closely tied to memory, kinship and continuity across generations.Aliyya Samir, who is from Sulu, said the serving of tiyula itum during Eid reminded her of her late mother, who traditionally prepared the dish for family gatherings.“Eating it now brings back so many memories of her warmth and the way she looked after everyone,” she said.

For Maher Usman from Zamboanga del Sur, the holiday represented both spiritual devotion and cultural preservation.“With every bite of kyuning or sinina, we are reminded of our ancestors and our identity as Maguindanaons,” he said. “Sharing meals together is our way of thanking Allah.”

Officials halted rescue operations on Monday evening following assessments by emergency crews using life-detection equipment at the site of a building under construction that collapsed at dawn on Sunday in Angeles City, north of Manila. Recovery teams on Tuesday focused on retrieving remains from the debris field.

At least four people have been confirmed dead, including a Malaysian national whose body was recovered from a neighboring hotel struck by the collapse. Sixteen others, most of them construction workers, remain unaccounted for, according to authorities.

The tragedy has left families waiting anxiously for news. Lea Casilao said she feared her husband, Joselito, was among those trapped after he spent Saturday night at the workers’ barracks near the construction site. The couple had exchanged messages until the evening before the collapse, but his customary morning response never arrived.

Casilao said she went directly to the site after being unable to contact him and found a scene of twisted steel, shattered concrete and collapsed scaffolding. Speaking from a temporary shelter near the disaster zone, she said her hopes of finding her husband alive had disappeared after rescue operations were called off.
Emergency officials acknowledged the anguish facing families as the mission transitioned from rescue to recovery. Maria Leah Sajili, an information officer with the regional Bureau of Fire Protection, said rescuers had exhausted all available measures to locate survivors before concluding that no signs of life remained beneath the wreckage.

Among those confirmed dead was the father of 19-year-old Evelyn Alicaway. She said she recognized him in footage circulating on social media showing rescuers attempting to recover victims from the debris. Alicaway spoke at her father’s funeral, describing the emotional toll of identifying him through the images.

The collapse has also intensified scrutiny of the project’s compliance with construction regulations. Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident and whether the development exceeded the conditions of its approved permit.
Investigators are examining reports that the building had authorization for nine stories, while a swimming pool was being constructed on a tenth floor at the time of the collapse.

Records show that the Philippine labor agency suspended work at the site in September 2025 over safety violations. The stop-work order was lifted a month later after the company was deemed to have complied with regulatory requirements.

Relatives of the victims have called on the project’s owners to cooperate with authorities and provide assistance to affected families as investigations continue.

Rescuers worked by hand amid intense heat to clear debris from the collapsed structure, located about 80 kilometers north of Manila, avoiding the use of heavy machinery because of concerns that further movement of the wreckage could endanger any survivors trapped beneath the rubble.

Search operations intensified after overnight thermal scans detected signs consistent with heartbeats and breathing under the debris. K9 units were deployed while rescue workers inserted flexible tubes into voids within the wreckage to channel air into potential survival pockets beneath collapsed concrete, twisted metal and scaffolding.

Families gathered near the disaster site expressed frustration over the lack of information about missing relatives. Lea Casilao, whose husband is believed to be trapped beneath the rubble, said she had received no confirmation of his condition as rescue efforts continued.

Officials said the confirmed death toll rose to four after rescuers recovered a third body from the site. Maria Leah Sajili, information officer for the regional Bureau of Fire Protection, said one victim recovered earlier had initially shown signs of life but later died, while another suffered cardiac arrest while still trapped beneath the debris.

Authorities warned that additional victims could remain buried under the collapsed structure.
Among the fatalities was a 65-year-old Malaysian national whose body was recovered on Sunday from a neighboring hotel building that was also affected by the collapse, officials said.

Government agencies have opened an investigation into the incident and are seeking to locate the building owner to determine the circumstances surrounding the collapse and establish how many workers were present at the site when the structure failed.

Planning records showed the project had been approved as a nine-story condominium-hotel development. Authorities said, however, that construction work was underway on a swimming pool located on an additional 10th floor at the time of the collapse.

Geraldine Panlilio, regional director of the Department of Labour and Employment, told DZMM radio that the agency had issued a work stoppage order in September 2025 after inspectors identified multiple occupational health and safety violations at the site. The order was lifted one month later after the construction company complied with regulatory requirements.

The collapse has renewed scrutiny of construction safety oversight in the Philippines as investigators examine whether regulatory, structural or operational factors contributed to the failure of the multi-story building.

More than 2.4 million Filipino workers are employed across the Middle East, primarily in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in sectors ranging from healthcare and hospitality to retail and domestic work. Their remittances account for roughly 10 percent of the Philippine economy, making the regional downturn a major concern for households dependent on overseas income.

The conflict, now in its third month, has triggered uncertainty across Gulf economies reliant on expatriate labor. Filipinos interviewed by Arab News described abrupt job losses, shrinking work opportunities and financial stress amid declining business activity and security fears.

A Filipino domestic worker in Dubai, identified only as Cinderella, said she lost stable employment after the Syrian family she worked for left the UAE because of the conflict.

“The money I raise from my part-time work is not enough,” she said, adding that she often reduced herself to one meal a day to save money while struggling to cover rent and basic expenses.

Another Filipino worker, Kim, said she was among roughly 200 employees laid off from a luxury hotel in Doha as the hospitality sector contracted amid weaker business activity.

“The hotel was cutting employees because of the situation,” she said, adding that the company anticipated reduced operations due to the conflict.
Although the hotel later offered to reverse her termination, Kim said she chose to return permanently to the Philippines after spending more than a decade working in the Gulf.

Others said the instability accelerated plans already underway to relocate home. Tere, a Filipino resident in Bahrain, said suspended projects and weakening business conditions influenced her family’s decision to settle permanently in Manila.

Despite the downturn, remittances from the Middle East still rose slightly in the first quarter of 2026 to $1.55 billion from $1.49 billion a year earlier, according to figures cited in the report.

The Philippine government said more than 11,000 Filipinos have sought assistance through repatriation programs since the conflict intensified, including around 4,500 from the UAE, more than 2,200 from Kuwait, and nearly 1,000 each from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Hans Leo Cacdac, secretary of the Department of Migrant Workers, said many returning workers still hoped to go back once regional conditions stabilized, with roughly 70 percent expressing interest in returning to Gulf jobs after the conflict.
The Philippine government has introduced emergency support measures including financial assistance, psychosocial support, livelihood programs and healthcare services for displaced workers. Filipinos who lost jobs but remain in the region are eligible for one-time assistance payments of $200 under crisis-response programs operating in 10 Middle Eastern countries.
For some workers, however, returning home remains financially difficult despite the instability. Cinderella said she planned to remain in Dubai for now after recently securing cleaning work, though she hoped eventually to move to Cairo, where she previously worked for a decade.

Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, faces allegations including misuse of public funds, unexplained wealth accumulation and threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the first lady and a former House speaker. She has denied all wrongdoing.

The impeachment proceedings unfold amid intensifying political divisions between the Duterte and Marcos camps, whose alliance secured victory in the 2022 national election before deteriorating into a bitter power struggle.

The Senate trial could determine whether Duterte remains eligible for public office and preserves her status as a leading presidential contender. A conviction would require support from two-thirds of the 24-member Senate and would bar her from holding office.

The political climate surrounding the case has become increasingly volatile following the dramatic return of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a close Duterte ally who had reportedly been in hiding for months while facing scrutiny linked to the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the former president’s anti-drug campaign.

Dela Rosa resurfaced ahead of a crucial Senate vote that installed Duterte ally Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president, positioning him to preside over the impeachment proceedings.

Analysts said the leadership shift may strengthen Duterte’s standing within the chamber, where several senators are viewed as aligned with the Duterte political bloc.

“Given that we now have a new majority, thanks to the efforts of Senator Bato, it would make prosecuting Vice President Sara in the impeachment court a little more difficult,” Ederson Tapia, a public administration professor at the University of Makati, said.

The impeachment process comes as Rodrigo Duterte awaits proceedings before the International Criminal Court over allegations tied to his deadly anti-narcotics campaign during his presidency.

The renewed focus on dela Rosa has added to tensions in Manila after reports of unrest and gunfire linked to attempts to arrest the senator. Philippine authorities confirmed on Friday they would pursue legal action to detain him, while dela Rosa has sought relief from the Supreme Court, arguing there is no legal basis for enforcing a warrant issued by an international tribunal.

President Marcos has publicly distanced himself from the impeachment effort, describing it as a matter for the legislature.

The Senate has not announced a formal start date for the trial proceedings.

The International Criminal Court last week unsealed an arrest warrant accusing Dela Rosa, Duterte and other alleged co-perpetrators of committing the “crime against humanity of murder” during the Philippines’ crackdown on illegal drugs.

Dela Rosa, who briefly remained inside the Philippine Senate last week while contesting the warrant, petitioned the Supreme Court to block government efforts to detain him.

In a filing dated May 16, Solicitor-General Darlene Berberabe argued that Dela Rosa had effectively placed himself “outside the protection of the law” and urged the court to dismiss his petition.

“Until he submits himself to lawful authorities, he must be deemed a fugitive from justice and should not be allowed to seek any relief from the courts,” the filing said.

Authorities said Dela Rosa quietly left the Senate building on Thursday, and his whereabouts were not immediately known.

The Philippine justice department said on Friday that authorities would defer serving the ICC warrant until the Supreme Court ruled on Dela Rosa’s petition, unless officials determined he was attempting to leave the country.

The Supreme Court did not immediately comment on the government filing.

Dela Rosa has argued the ICC warrant is invalid because the Philippines withdrew in 2019 from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court.
Berberabe said in the filing that withdrawal from the treaty “does not relieve a state party from cooperating in proceedings already initiated before the ICC.”

The ICC prosecutor opened a preliminary examination into the Philippines’ anti-drug campaign in 2018 after rights groups and activists alleged widespread extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s presidency.
Thousands of people, including suspected drug users and low-level dealers, were killed during the campaign launched after Duterte took office in 2016, according to human rights organizations.

Duterte was arrested in March last year and transferred to The Hague, where he remains in detention awaiting trial before the ICC.

Dela Rosa served as chief of the Philippine National Police from 2016 to 2018 before entering politics. He was elected to the Senate in 2019 and retained his seat in the 2025 midterm elections.

Dela Rosa, a former national police chief and one of the principal architects of Duterte’s war on drugs, has remained inside the Philippine Senate building for a third consecutive day after Senate leaders blocked attempts by authorities to serve an ICC arrest warrant.

The senator, widely known by his nickname “Bato,” faces accusations of crimes against humanity, specifically murder, alongside Duterte and other alleged co-perpetrators linked to the anti-narcotics crackdown that rights groups say left thousands dead.
“I am not appealing for violent support.

I am appealing for peaceful support,” Dela Rosa told reporters, urging military personnel and fellow graduates of the Philippine Military Academy to publicly oppose any move by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration to surrender him to international authorities.

Outside the Senate complex in Manila, approximately 500 riot police were deployed as several hundred demonstrators gathered to demand Dela Rosa’s arrest and extradition to the ICC. Protesters described him as a central figure in the deadly anti-drug campaign launched during Duterte’s presidency.

Dela Rosa served as Philippine police chief from 2016 to 2018, overseeing the early and most intense phase of Duterte’s crackdown on narcotics. Human rights organizations and international investigators have alleged that many of those killed were low-level drug suspects and users.

Duterte himself was arrested in March last year and transferred to The Hague on the same day, where he remains in detention awaiting trial before the ICC.

Dela Rosa had largely avoided public appearances since November before resurfacing this week during a Senate vote that enabled Duterte-aligned lawmakers to secure leadership control of the chamber.

The Senate’s new leadership has stated it would permit Dela Rosa’s arrest only if directed by a Philippine court rather than solely on the basis of the ICC warrant.

A spokesperson for Marcos said on Tuesday that the president would not interfere in Senate decisions regarding the matter.

The Philippine Supreme Court has yet to rule on Dela Rosa’s petition seeking to block the government from enforcing the ICC arrest order.

Voting results showed 255 of 317 lawmakers backed the impeachment complaint, comfortably surpassing the one-third threshold required under the Philippine constitution to elevate the case to the Senate.

Duterte faces allegations including misuse of public funds, accumulation of unexplained wealth and threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the first lady and a former House speaker. She has denied wrongdoing, while her legal team has described the complaint as defective and politically motivated.

If convicted in a Senate trial, Duterte would be removed from office and permanently barred from holding elected office, a penalty that could derail any attempt to seek the presidency in 2028.

The impeachment vote came minutes after the Senate elected longtime Duterte ally Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president, replacing Vicente Sotto III in a 13-9 vote with two abstentions.Cayetano, who served as foreign secretary under former president Rodrigo Duterte, denied the leadership change was linked to the impeachment proceedings.

“I do not blame you if you’re saying that the change in leadership was due to the impeachment, it was not,” Cayetano told senators after the vote.Under Philippine law, the Senate acts as an impeachment court once charges are transmitted from the House.

A guilty verdict requires support from two-thirds of senators.The latest impeachment effort follows a failed attempt in June 2025, when the Senate convened an impeachment court in televised proceedings before returning the case to the House, a move critics described as a de facto dismissal.Political dynamics in the upper chamber have shifted since then.

Candidates aligned with Duterte performed strongly in the May 2025 midterm elections, winning five of 12 contested Senate seats and improving her chances of surviving a trial.Among senators present during Monday’s proceedings was Ronald dela Rosa, the former national police chief who played a central role in Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.

Dela Rosa had largely stayed out of public view since November last year.Dela Rosa and Senator Christopher Go are among current and former officials named by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court as alleged co-perpetrators in the crimes against humanity case linked to Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown.

Dennis Coronacion, chair of the political science department at University of Santo Tomas, said before the vote that Duterte’s acquittal remained a realistic possibility because of support from newly elected senators.“There are new senators who have been very vocal that they are supporting the vice president,” he told AFP.

The Philippine Coast Guard said it deployed aircraft on Wednesday to monitor the Chinese research ship Xiang Yang Hong 33 near Iroquois Reef in the Spratly Islands, where it observed the vessel launching a service boat toward the reef.The coast guard said the operation “confirmed ongoing unauthorized marine scientific research activities” within waters over which the Philippines claims sovereign rights and jurisdiction.

Iroquois Reef lies at the southern edge of Reed Bank, an area believed to contain substantial natural gas and oil reserves and long viewed as strategically significant for Manila’s energy security.

During the aerial patrol, Philippine authorities also reported spotting 41 vessels identified as part of China’s “maritime militia” anchored near Iroquois Reef and around Thitu Island, a Philippine-controlled outpost in the Spratlys inhabited by about 400 civilians and home to a recently established coast guard station.“The Philippines has not granted such consent to the People’s Republic of China for any marine scientific research activities in these waters,” the coast guard said in a statement.

It added that the presence of the research vessel alongside the concentration of Chinese maritime militia ships represented “a serious infringement on Philippine sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction.”China’s embassy in Manila defended the activities, reiterating Beijing’s longstanding claim of “historic rights” over much of the South China Sea and asserting that the islands and reefs concerned were Chinese territory.

The embassy said Chinese research vessels had carried out their missions “in accordance with international law.”The Xiang Yang Hong 33, a research vessel capable of supporting deep-sea submersible operations, departed China more than three weeks ago and has since been tracked near several Philippine-claimed features in the Spratly chain, including Sabina Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal, both recurring flashpoints between the two countries.

Tensions between Beijing and Manila have intensified in recent years as China expanded coast guard, naval and maritime militia deployments across the contested waterway, where competing territorial claims overlap with key shipping lanes and potentially resource-rich seabeds.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that found Beijing’s sweeping claims had no legal basis under international law. China has rejected the ruling.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the incident occurred before nightfall on Saturday when accumulated lava on the volcano’s southwestern slope gave way, sending an avalanche of hot rocks, ash and gas downslope.

The agency’s director, Teresito Bacolcol, said the volcano has been exhibiting mild eruptive activity intermittently since January but emphasized that no explosive eruption had taken place.Authorities reported no casualties, though ash clouds spread across 87 villages in three towns, reducing visibility to near zero in some areas and disrupting road movement.

Caloy Baldo, mayor of Camalig, said residents were caught off guard by the density of the ashfall, which he described as severe enough to halt traffic along national roads.Local officials said agricultural losses were reported, particularly in vegetable farms, while livestock deaths included four water buffaloes and one cow.

Cleanup operations were underway in affected communities, including Camalig, which has a population of about 8,000 people.The volcano, rising 2,462 meters and known for its near-symmetrical cone, is among the Philippines’ most active and closely monitored.

Authorities had raised its alert status to Level 3 in January, indicating heightened unrest with potential for hazardous eruptions, including rockfalls and pyroclastic flows.Bacolcol said conditions had stabilized as of Monday but warned that the threat of further activity remained, noting that the volcano’s behavior continues to require close monitoring under the current alert level.