Teodoro said the sanctions were aimed at those who speak out against what he described as China’s actions in the region.

“That is truly what they do to those who speak the truth against their deception,” Teodoro said in a statement.

“I will just keep doing my duty and uphold our nation in the face of the wickedness they are committing here and even in our seas,” he added.

China announced sanctions on Thursday against Teodoro and his close relatives, accusing him of repeatedly making remarks that harmed China’s interests and bilateral relations.

Relations between China and the Philippines have deteriorated in recent years, with frequent disputes as Manila has challenged Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea.

China has accused the Philippines of repeated encroachment in waters claimed by Beijing, while Manila has raised concerns over what it calls aggressive Chinese actions.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said the government would seek discussions with Chinese authorities over the sanctions, adding that Manila preferred diplomacy and dialogue.

The Department of Foreign Affairs described the sanctions as an “unfriendly act” that further complicated bilateral relations.

The department said such measures would not help build trust, manage differences or create conditions for constructive engagement between the two countries.

Beijing has previously imposed similar sanctions on foreign officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio over criticism of China and European Union lawmakers who accused Beijing of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

China last week criticised Teodoro after he described Beijing as a threat during remarks linked to regional security concerns. Manila also recently took diplomatic action against China over what it called the illegal presence of a floating structure in a disputed area.

The deal, signed with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), covers a 500-hectare site within a special economic zone about 100 kilometers north of Manila. The project is expected to supply renewable electricity to the rapidly growing industrial and technology hub.

BCDA estimates the investment at a minimum of $400,000 per megawatt, with total project capacity reaching up to 500 MW upon full completion.

Philippine Finance Secretary Frederick Go said the investment would help attract new businesses, create jobs and strengthen economic growth, while ACWA Power Chief Executive Samir Serhan described the project as an opportunity to support industrial expansion with reliable and lower-cost renewable energy.

The development forms part of ACWA Power’s broader expansion into Southeast Asia and follows discussions with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on clean energy investments.

The dispute erupted after Teodoro told Reuters in an interview on Saturday that China remained a “severe threat” and had shown no evidence of long-term good faith, even after Beijing supplied fertilizer and fuel to the Philippines during shortages linked to regional conflict-related disruptions.

Responding to the remarks, China’s Foreign Ministry accused the Philippine defense chief of politicizing issues affecting ordinary citizens and disregarding the benefits of Chinese assistance.

Speaking at a regular briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Teodoro’s comments demonstrated that he was “solely driven by personal interests” and had failed to consider the welfare of the Philippine people.

Mao questioned how China could be expected to continue providing aid and essential supplies to the Philippines if such views prevailed among senior officials in Manila.

The exchange underscores the fragile state of relations between Beijing and Manila, which have been strained by longstanding maritime disputes, security concerns and competing strategic interests in the region.

Teodoro’s remarks reflected continued skepticism within the Philippine security establishment regarding China’s intentions, despite recent efforts by Beijing to project a more cooperative image through economic and humanitarian assistance.

China’s response signals growing frustration over what it views as Manila’s unwillingness to separate practical cooperation from broader geopolitical and security disagreements.

Neither side indicated any immediate plans for high-level talks following the latest diplomatic exchange.

Prosecutors accused Estrada of receiving illicit kickbacks worth 573 million pesos ($9.3 million) from projects tied to flawed flood-control facilities. Plunder is a non-bailable offense under Philippine law.

Estrada, the son of former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, denied wrongdoing and said the case was politically motivated. He told reporters he would not seek Senate protection and was prepared to face the charges in court.

The scandal has fueled public anger over corruption and raised concerns about governance, while also affecting confidence in public infrastructure spending.

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.

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 dispute marks the latest escalation between China and the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, over Sandy Cay, an unoccupied sandbar located in one of the region’s most contested maritime zones.China’s Coast Guard said it had identified five Philippine personnel who landed on Sandy Cay, calling the move illegal and accusing Manila of violating Chinese sovereignty, according to state-run outlet Global Times.

The report did not specify whether Chinese authorities had taken any direct action following the alleged landing.Last week, Manila said it had dispatched Philippine Coast Guard personnel to the same area after Chinese state media published images showing Chinese coast guard officers on Sandy Cay holding a Chinese national flag, an act that drew criticism in the Philippines.

The competing actions have further strained already tense relations between the two countries, which have repeatedly confronted each other over reefs, shoals and fishing zones across the South China Sea.Beijing claims sovereignty over nearly the entire strategic waterway despite overlapping claims by several Southeast Asian nations and a 2016 international arbitration ruling that rejected the legal basis of much of China’s claim.

China has rejected that ruling and continues to maintain an extensive coast guard and maritime militia presence across the region.Also on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Philippine Coast Guard said Manila had identified four Chinese vessels conducting what it described as illegal research activities inside Philippine waters and warned that aircraft and ships could be deployed to force them to leave.

The official did not specify the precise location of the Chinese vessels or the nature of the research operations.China’s Foreign Ministry and the Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The renewed confrontation underscores the volatility of maritime disputes in the South China Sea, where sovereignty claims intersect with strategic shipping lanes, fishing grounds and potential offshore energy reserves.

The dispute remains closely watched by Washington, which has repeatedly reaffirmed that its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines applies to armed attacks on Philippine forces, vessels and aircraft in the Pacific, including the South China Sea.