Filipino typhoon victims walk through heavy mud in the typhoon hit town of Taft, Samar island, Philippines, 08 December 2014. Typhoon Hagupit weakened into a tropical storm as it moved towards the Philippine capital after killing at least 27 people and displacing more than one million people in the eastern and central provinces. Hagupit slammed into the country's eastern coast on 06 December evening, bringing heavy rains and gale-force winds that flattened homes, ripped off roofs, and knocked out power and communications. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA)

A worker inspects unfinished firecrackers as they make pyrotechnics at a makeshift factory in Bocaue town, Bulacan province, north of Manila December 27, 2014. Firecracker makers in Bulacan province, the pyrotechnic capital of the Philippines, are in haste to meet the demands for the coming New Year revelry. (Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Inmates sleep on the steps of a ladder inside the Quezon City jail at night in Manila in this picture taken on July 21, 2016. There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800, and they engage in a relentless contest for space. Men take turns to sleep on the cracked cement floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, underneath beds and hammocks made out of old blankets. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Jewelmer is the only pearl producer in the world that has successfully produced pearls with a rich, natural golden color. Through decades of research and biotechnology, Jewelmer was able to perfect the breeding process that produces gold-lipped Pinctada maxima pearl oysters capable of growing large, lustrous, golden pearls. This deep, rich color can only be found in South Sea pearls produced in the Philippines.

Performers dressed as superhero characters pose with a child receiving the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 at a gym in San Juan City, suburban Manila on February 7, 2022. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

Mina Sue Choi (L) from South Korea reacts after winning the Miss Earth 2022 pageant during the coro​nation night in Manila, Philippines, 29 November 2022. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

A university in the Philippines in March 2024 has come up with a novel way to stop students cheating in exams – by getting them to wear hats in the shape of animated characters and random objects such as a crate of beer. (Photo by Angelo Ebora/beampix/Solent news)

Residents, covered with mud and dried banana leaves, ask for money and candles from police before attending a mass celebrating the feast day of the Catholic patron Saint John the Baptist in the village of Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija, north of Manila, June 24, 2013. Hundreds of devotees took part in this annual religious tradition, which has been held in the village since 1945. (Photo by Cheryl Ravelo/Reuters)