News in Pictures: April 14, 2024

A week of drills

Around 40 members of the 11th United States Marine Expeditionary Unit and 350 Filipino soldiers and police officers hold live-fire exercises on Saturday in the jungles of Barira, Maguindanao. This caps a week of military drills beginning on Sunday in the West Philippine Sea, which saw four allies (Philippines, the United States, Japan and Australia) in naval formations. On Thursday, FA-50PH fighter jets of the Philippine Air Force and F-16 aircraft of the US Air Force held maneuvers taking off from Basa Air Base in Pampanga as part of the annual “Cope Thunder” joint training.

—PHOTOS BY JEOFFREY MAITEM AND NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Vaccination drive

Arnel Emanel of Barangay Batasan Hills in Quezon City administers a pentavalent vaccine on a baby that serves as protection against pertussis, or whooping cough, and four other viral infections common among infants. Emanel and other health workers went door-to-door on Friday at Kalayaan Homeowners Association in that village to offer free immunization, primarily against pertussis, after more than 500 cases affecting mostly unvaccinated children were reported early this month. —LYN RIL­LON

Ice now essential

Customers at Marikina Public Market form a line at a stall that sells ice on Tuesday. At 42 degrees Celsius, the heat index in Metro Manila and other parts of the country reached danger levels that day, according to the weather bureau. The heat index in the capital region, however, eased during the rest of the week, but it remained high in parts of northern Luzon and Western Visayas.—GRIG C. MON­TE­GRANDE

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