News & Announcements

After being in service for over eight decades, flag carrier Philippine Airlines being the oldest airline in Asia is currently undergoing a significant transformation journey from an aged legacy carrier to a more modern airline. Speaking at the airline’s anniversary event last week, Chief Operating Officer Stanley Ng revealed numerous new programs the changing airline undertook this year.

All new programs and improved developments are geared towards elevating the passenger experience, including new routes and enhanced service innovations. Among the new programs mentioned, Ng highlighted that Philippine Airlines would soon offer a new Port-to-Door service.

Hassle-free cargo deliveriesSince emerging strongly from Chapter 11 early last year and while global restrictions were slowly lifted, Philippine Airlines emphasized a heavier focus on cargo operations to avoid dependency on a single revenue stream. The airline dedicated most of its fleet to cargo-only flights until travel for air demand picked up.

Last year, the airline carried a total of 22.96 million kilograms of domestic cargo and approximately 55.46 million kilograms of international shipment. Satisfied with an alternative revenue stream, Philippine Airlines still dedicates some of its Boeing 777-300ERs to cargo operations today.

But similar to how the airline wants to improve the flying experience for passengers, it also wishes to strengthen the freight experience for customers, so the Port-to-Door service will eventually be introduced in the coming months. Ng described the new service as:

“We will soon roll out a new feature called Port-to-Door Service, where cargo customers can have their shipments delivered hassle-free to their doorstep. We are proud of this innovation because it will benefit SMEs and make shipment and last-mile delivery seamless and convenient for customers.”

Following the modern trendsBesides the new Port-to-Door cargo service, Philippine Airlines also announced that a new Mabuhay Lounge would be opened later this year for international departures at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1. The new lounge will feature a contemporary design suited to a younger, trendier vibe.

Fitted with a food and beverage buffet service, the new lounge will also have shower rooms and free WiFi to highlight a premium haven suited for the perfect pre-flight work or relaxation. Philippine Airlines hopes that the new lounge design and amenities will reflect its modernized brand of customer service.

The efforts to elevate the passenger experience don’t stop there, as the flag carrier will also be introducing the Anniversary Menu for business class passengers to North America and Australia. The new menu will include dishes like Tiger Prawn Sinigang, Adlai Champorado, and many more, featuring a gastronomic journey of bolder flavors and unique textures.

A year of growing transformationsThere are currently no specific dates when these new services and products will officially roll out, but they are still undoubtedly something for passengers to eagerly look forward to.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been re-elected.

He received 762,134 votes, defeating Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, who received 312,329 votes, and Abdul-Azeez Adediran aka Jandor, who received 62,449 votes.

Sanwo-Olu was declared the winner at 1:15 a.m. on Monday, nearly 48 hours after the election began.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the results at the commission’s state collation centre, but not without the LP collation agent condemning the exercise.

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The election was marked by voter suppression, ethnic discrimination, political thuggery, and physical attacks on voters, electoral staff and security personnel alike.

Amid the reports, state Commissioner of Police Idowu Owohunwa had assured Lagosians that security personnel deployed for the election were responding promptly to the cases, saying “a lot of arrests” and “recoveries” had been made.

‘Lagosians Have Spoken Well’Moments after INEC’s declaration, Sanwo-Olu, in his acceptance speech, said Lagosians had made their voices heard.

“To all of our fellow contestants, we want to salute you for participating in the democratic process, but Lagosians have spoken and have spoken well. They have spoken loud.,” he said.

“Please remember that we’re extending a hand of fellowship to you, no victor, no vanquished. In the true spirit of sportsmanship, if you indeed believe that you want to serve this state, you have an opportunity with us and we will open our doors to listen and to give you a space in this government.”
He also spoke out against the identity politics that became commonplace in the lead-up the polls last Saturday.

“During this campaign, unfortunately, we have seen very divisive rhetoric which is not a definition of who we are,” he said.

“So, Lagosians, we need to come together and further rebuild the capacity, the competence, and the experience that we have in this city. Religion should not divide us, ethnicity will not divide us. Lagos will come out bigger, stronger, and better.”

“A Slap On The Face Of Democracy’Earlier, LP’s Rhodes-Vivour expressed disapproval of the electoral conduct in Lagos, describing the process as a sham.

He took to Twitter on Sunday, saying, “Collusion between the ruling party and electoral officials to return the candidate of the APC is a slap on the face of democracy and everyone who came out to vote for us on Saturday.

“In the light of this, I am convinced beyond any doubt that the results being released by INEC do not represent the wishes of majority of peaceful Lagosians. More so the results from our field agents and situation room indicated that we won this election.”

The architect stated that every vote cast for him was done in the face of intimidation and risk of personal harm, adding that every such vote must count.

“Defending every one of those votes is a sacred duty. I will defend your votes – this is my vow to every LP voter,” he added.

Muhammed Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress has been named the victor of the Gombe State governorship election by the Independent National Election Commission.

With a vote total of 342,821, the incumbent governor defeated Muhammad Barde, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party, who received 233,131 votes, as well as Khamisu Mailantarki of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, who received 19,861 votes, to claim victory.

It was reported, that out of 11 local government areas, Barde won two, while the APC cleared nine LGAs to emerge victorious.

“That Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,” Waziri said.

Gombe has 1,575,794 registered voters, of whom 618,231 were accredited, according to the returning officer.

In addition, he said that of the 616,745 total votes cast, 605,355 were legal ballots and 11,390 were void.

According to the earlier Gombe LGA election results, the APC received 58,645 votes, the PDP candidate received 31,605, and the NNPP received 4,878 votes.

For Kwami LGA, the APC won by 33,956 votes, while the PDP scored 17,454 and the NNPP 1,087 votes; Yalmatu Deba of the APC won with 43,981, the PDP had 28,538 and the NNPP recorded 2,320; Funakaye LGA – the APC scored 30,371, the PDP recorded 17,332 and the NNPP 606; Akko LGA – the APC scored 50,919, the PDP scored 36,759 and the NNPP recorded 2,953.

Others are: Shongom LGA, APC – 14,752 votes, PDP – 23,066, NNPP – 3421; Nafada LGA – the APC scored 15,025, the PDP scored 9,378, and the NNPP recorded 411; Balanga LGA APC scored 25,341, PDP recorded 20085, NNPP polled 1,130; Dukku LGA APC won with 35,207, the PDP scored 14,181, and the NNPP recorded 1,079; Kaltungo LGA – the APC scored 21,015, the PDP won with 21,321 and the NNPP recorded 1,129; Billiri LGA – the APC recorded 14,752, the PDP won with 23,066 and the NNPP polled 3,421 votes.

The Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Yakubu Sanda, and the Majority Leader, Daniel Nanlong, both of the All Progressives Congress have lost their seats to Peoples Democratic Party candidates.

Sanda, who represents Pengana State Constituency, was defeated by Happiness Akawu of the PDP in the House of Assembly election held on March 18.

Happiness is the wife of the initial PDP candidate, the late Mathew Akawu, who died after the party’s primary and was replaced by his wife.

The Pengana Constituency Returning Officer, Prof. Sati Chanle, who announced the result, said Akawu polled 9,926 votes to defeat Sanda who got 7,936 votes.

According to the results, Faisal Maitala of the Peoples Redemption Party scored 6,721 votes to finish third.

“Mrs Happiness Akawu, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes cast, is hereby declared winner of the election and returned elected,” he declared.

Meanwhile Nanlong, a two-term member representing Mikang State Constituency, also lost his re-election bid to Moses Sule of the PDP.

The result announced by Mikang Constituency Returning Officer, Prof. Umaru Takum, showed that Sule scored 12,880 to defeat the current occupant who got 9,848 votes.

Takum said, “Having fulfilled the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, Moses Sule of the PDP is hereby declared winner and is returned elected.”

Kwara State’s Governor AbdulRazaq AbdulRahman has been elected to a second term in office.

Yaman Abdullahi of the People’s Democratic Party came in second with 155,490 votes, but Abdulrazaq, who ran on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, prevailed with 273,424 votes to win the state’s governorship election on Saturday.

The returning officer for the state governorship election, Professor Isaac Itodo, who serves as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, announced the results on Sunday at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s office in Ilorin. AbdulRazaq was declared the winner of the election after receiving the majority of the votes cast.

All 16 local government councils in the state were won by AbdulRazaq. He won in the local governments of Offa, Oyun, Ifelodun, Irepodun, Oke-Ero, Ekiti, Patigi, Edu, Kaiama, and Baruten as well as Ilorin South, Ilorin West, and Ilorin East.

Dapo Abiodun, the governor of Ogun State, has won re-election for a second four-year term.

Following the tallying of 276,298 votes by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday, Abiodun was named the victor of the governorship election held on Saturday.

Oladipupo Adebutu of the Peoples Democratic Party, who received 262,383 votes, and 12 other candidates were defeated by Abiodun.

With 13,915 votes, Abiodun defeated Adebutu.

At the state’s collation center, the commission’s returning officer for the governorship election, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, pronounced Abiodun the winner.

Adebowale stated that there were 666,406 accredited voters out of a total of 2,688,305 registered voters.

Adebowale stated that a total of 645,133 votes were valid, while 18,835 ballots were rejected. He stated that 663968 ballots were cast in total.

Odeda, Egbado-North, Egbado-South, Ewekoro, Ijebu-North, Ijebu-Ode, Ipokia, and Abeokuta-North were all won by the APC. The state’s Ado-Odo/Ota, Ifo, Obafemi-Owode, and Imeko-Afon local governments.

Ijebu-North/East, Ikenne, Ijebu-East, Remo-North, Odogbolu, and Sagamu were all won by the PDP.

Other results are: Accord Party polled 724 votes; Action Alliance 382; African Action Congress 2613; Action Democratic Congress 94,753; Action Democratic Party 2770; Allied People Movement 2066; Action Peoples Party 207; New Nigeria Peoples Party 1394;  National Rescue Movement 779;  Peoples Redemption Party 248 and Social Democratic Party 515.

During the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in Ebonyi State, Oyibo Nwani, a PDP leader and agent, was shot and killed on Saturday by thugs who stormed his polling place in the Onicha Local Government Area.

The PDP governorship candidate, Chief Ifeanyi Odii, resides in the Onicha LGA.

The attackers allegedly came to steal ballot boxes, but young people frantically tried to resist them.

The PDP leader, who was clinging to a vote box, was shot in the head during the ensuing brawl.

When contacted, SP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, the public relations officer for the Ebonyi Police, confirmed the death.

She did, however, point out that the PDP member had been hit by stray bullets from nearby gunmen’s strikes.

Seyi Makinde, the PDP candidate for governor of Oyo State, was declared the victor of the state’s governorship election on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Adebayo Adelabu of the Accord Party received 38,357 votes, while Teslim Folarin of the All Progressive Congress received 256,685 votes, giving Makinde a victory margin of 563,756 votes.

“That Makinde Oluseyi having satisfied the requirement of the law is declared winner of the poll,” The state Returning Officer, Olusola Kehinde, said.

Folarin ended in second place by winning two local governments, Irepo and Ore-lope, while Makinde won 31 of the state’s 33 local government districts.

See the results as announced by INEC below:

1) Ona-Ara Local Government

Accord: 1,212
APC: 5,510
PDP: 17,326

2) Ibadan Northwest Local Government

Accord: 1,291
APC: 5,947
PDP: 19007

3) Ibarapa East Local Government

Accord: 1,885
APC: 7094
PDP: 11,125

4) Afijio Local Government

Accord: 1,357
APC: 5,588
PDP: 13,139

5) Atiba Local Government

Accord: 1,113
APC: 7,484
PDP: 18,389

6) Orire Local Government

Accord: 1,895
APC: 9,216
PDP: 13,767

8) Oluyole Local Government

Accord: 1,386
APC: 6,592
PDP: 21,700

7) Ibadan Southwest Local Government
A: 2,270
APC: 9,491
PDP: 31,273

9) Atisbo Local Government

Accord: 1,188
APC: 6,955
PDP: 9,199

10) Saki East Local Government

Accord: 188
APC: 5,519
PDP: 8,374

11) Surulere Local Government

Accord: 271
APC: 8,882
PDP: 15,554

12) Itewiwaju Local Government

Accord: 2036
APC: 4,597
PDP: 8034

13) Ogo Oluwa Local Government

Accord: 50
APC: 5,570
PDP: 10,930

14) Irepo Local Government

Accord: 388
APC: 9,785
PDP: 7,193

15) Olorunsogo Local Government
Accord: 998
APC: 4,851
PDP: 5,838

16) Ibadan Northeast Local Government

Accord: 1,564
APC: 8,486
PDP: 29,396

17) Ogbomosho South Local Government

Accord: 10
APC: 8,257
PDP: 17,693

18) Ibadan Southeast Local Government

Accord: 1,846
APC: 9,147
PDP: 23,585

19) Ibarapa North Local Government

Accord: 563
APC: 5,678
PDP: 10,845

Accord: 1,455
APC: 6,287
PDP: 10,491

21) Oyo West Local Government

Accord: 431
APC: 7,599
PDP: 15,084

22) Oyo East Local Government

Accord: 571
APC: 6,999
PDP: 15,751

23) Ogbomosho North Local Government

Accord: 562
APC: 10,661
PDP: 20,387

24) Ido Local Government

Accord: 822
APC: 7,865
PDP: 19,284

25) Kajola Local Government

Accord: 1,710
APC: 9,523
PDP: 13,562

26) Lagelu Local Government

Accord: 886
APC: 10,661
PDP: 19,104

27) Ibadan North Local Government

Accord: 2,120
APC: 11,883
PDP: 39,658

28) Iseyin Local Government

Accord: 501
APC: 9,694
PDP: 25,740

29) Egbeda Local Government

Accord: 3072
APC: 7,377
PDP: 30,444

30) Saki West Local Government

Accord: 607
APC: 13,753
PDP: 17,452

31) Ore-lope Local Government

Accord: 1602
APC: 7077
PDP: 6,483

32) Iwajowa Local Government

Accord: 269
APC: 6,441
PDP: 9029

33) Akinyele Local Government

Accord: 1287
APC: 9,445
PDP: 28,920

A Labour Party agent has been reported to have been killed by gunmen during Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Apapa axis of Lagos State.

Aside from killing the agents, the hoodlums were also said to have destroyed the voting exercise in some other polling units in Apapa axis of the state.

It was gathered that some of the locations allegedly attacked by the hoodlums during the exercise were said to be strongholds of the LP where they were expected to have polled many votes.

The party’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, confirmed death of the agent’s death while responding to attacks on their members across the state.

According to Gbadebo, the unidentified agent was murdered in the Apapa neighbourhood of the state by thugs suspected of belonging to the ruling All Progressives Congress.

“We are receiving reports of voter intimidation and voter suppression from all over Lagos. One of our agents was shot and killed in Apapa. And it’s concerning that INEC and the police have been implicated in this.

“The worried thing is that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police were complicit in this matter. And they are provoking Lagosians at the moment. And if tonight Lagos goes up in flames, no one should blame the Labour Party or the act. They did not do the right thing.

“Many parts of Lagos are still under intense attacks by thugs supporting the APC. I appeal to INEC and other authorities to ensure that they do the needful to ensure that the process is free and air across the state.

“It was learnt that no police officer was at some of the polling units within the council, allowing the hoodlums to have a filled day, threatening that voters that are not ready to cast their vote for the APC should stay away from the polling units”.

The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.

Reuters reports that Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during its one-year invasion of its neighbour and the Kremlin branded the court decision as “null and void” with respect to Russia.

Neither Russia not Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv granted it jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory.

The tribunal, with 123 member states, has no police force of its own and relies on member countries to detain and transfer suspects to The Hague for trial.

While it is unlikely that Putin will end up in court any time soon, the warrant means that he could be arrested and sent to The Hague if travelling to any ICC member states.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the very questions raised by the ICC “outrageous and unacceptable.”

Asked if Putin now feared travelling to countries that recognised the ICC, Peskov said, “I have nothing to add on this subject. That’s all we want to say.” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel that the arrest warrants had “no meaning for our country” as it is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty underpinning the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal.

In its first warrant for Ukraine, the ICC called for Putin’s arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

“The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from February 24, 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” it said.

Putin is the third serving president to be the target of an ICC arrest warrant, after Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.