A Filipino man has been describing the outpouring of emotion as two families on the island of Mindanao settled a 30-year-long feud that escalated from tit-for-tat killings into a dispute involving two factions of a former insurgency movement.
Over 1.5 million people have been affected in the Philippines, where a state of calamity was declared this week in Metro Manila and nearby areas, as Super Typhoon Gaemi swept through the island nation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHCA) has reported.
A reading programme for prisoners in jails in the Philippines is supporting their education as well as enabling them to shorten their sentences.
A jail which has newly opened in the city of Marawi on the Filipino island of Mindanao “symbolizes change” in the Philippines penal system, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The Marawi City Jail, which was built by the Bureau of Jail management and Penology (BJMP) and inaugurated in May 2024, has been established according to the Nelson Mandela Rules.
The conditions in detention facilities in the Philippines, which have been described as “inhumane” by one of the country’s Supreme Court Justices, are expected to improve dramatically as the Southeast Asian nation moves towards adopting rules which focus on the human rights and dignity of prisoners and recommend the minimum standard of treatment across detention facilities.
A more humane approach to dealing with people accused of breaking the law in the Philippines is helping relieve overcrowding in one of the world’s most congested prison systems.
An ex-prisoner in the Philippines, released from jail as a result of a UN-supported Government programme to tackle overcrowding in detention facilities, has spoken of his joy ‘sleeping and eating’ as a free man.
Banana bread, coconut buns and Spanish-style filled rolls are providing a cooperative of women bakers on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines with the promise of a more secure future, thanks to support from the UN Development Programme, (UNDP).
A mother in the Philippines has explained how she feels “90 per cent stronger” after participating in a UN-supported programme which aims to build parenting skills and help children communicate more openly about difficult issues such as drugs.
People who use drugs in the Philippines are being treated less as criminals and more as patients who need medical help and other interventions, as authorities there look to update the country’s former controversial policies.