The Philippines has recalled its ambassador to Canada, Manila's foreign minister said Thursday, in an escalation of a festering diplomatic row over tonnes of trash dumped in the Southeast Asian nation.

Canada has vowed to pay for the return of garbage shipped to the Philippines more than five years ago after President Rodrigo Duterte issued an ultimatum, an official said on Tuesday.

The Philippine Supreme Court has issued an order directing the government to "protect, preserve, rehabilitate and to restore" the marine environment in three areas the country claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte berated Canada on Tuesday in a longrunning dispute over waste exported to the Southeast Asia nation, threatening to sail it back to Canada.

Philippine rescuers were scrambling Tuesday to reach some two dozen people feared buried under a building near Manila that collapsed a day earlier in a strong earthquake, as a powerful new tremor hit the nation.

At least five people were killed when buildings collapsed near Manila after a powerful earthquake set skyscrapers swaying and drove terrified locals into the street.

Seven people died on Saturday after a truck fell into a ravine in the northern Philippines, police said.

An Indonesian fisherman held hostage for four months by Islamic militants in the Philippines has drowned, a military spokesman said Saturday, while two other captured men have been rescued.

The presence of more than 200 Chinese fishing boats near an island occupied by Manila in the disputed South China Sea is illegal and a clear violation of Philippine sovereignty ...

Philippine authorities said Wednesday they had filed more criminal charges against Maria Ressa, a veteran reporter and prominent critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, six weeks after detaining her overnight.

The Philippines was poised to officially quit the International Criminal Court on Sunday, though the beleaguered tribunal has pledged to pursue its examination of possible crimes in the government's deadly drug war.

The Philippine military believes it may have ‘neutralised’ the remnants of an alliance of pro-Islamic State militants, after the suspected death of the group's de facto leader during clashes last week.