Manila  - Twenty people were arrested Thursday in anti-drug operations in a town and a city outside the Philippine capital, a regional police chief said.

Twelve suspected drug dealers and users were arrested in separate raids in the resort town of Pagsanjan in Laguna province, 40 kilometres south of Manila, Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad said.

Palad said another eight suspected drug dealers and users were arrested in near-simultaneous raids in the nearby city of San Pablo.

Manila - A Filipino-Chinese businessman and his 10-year-old daughter were abducted by unidentified gunmen who exchanged fire with police during their getaway in a southern Philippine city, police said Thursday.

Wilson Tan, 50, and his daughter Jennifer were seized at gunpoint Wednesday from their house in Cotabato City, 960 kilometres south of Manila, said Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, the city police director.

Police officers chased the kidnappers after they forced the father and daughter into a get-away vehicle, Dangane said.

A firefight erupted between the officers and the gunmen but the kidnappers were able to flee and later burned the get-away vehicle before they boarded a pumpboat, the superintendent said.

Manila  - A suspected Muslim militant, who is allegedly a bomb expert, has been arrested in the Philippine capital, the country's police chief said Wednesday.

Director General Jesus Verzosa said Muaweya Abubakar Masabpi, also known as Aman, was arrested last week along a main highway in Manila's suburban Pasay City.

Versoza said Masabpi is a native of the southern province of Maguindanao and is an expert in manufacturing improvised explosive devices.

Manila - The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday that unprotected male-to-male sex was fuelling the spread of HIV and AIDS in Asia, where the epidemic could worsen amid a lack of services to gays.

"Men who have sex with men have been identified as one of the most at-risk populations for HIV/AIDS," the Manila-based WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific said in a statement ahead of a meeting in Hong Kong.

"Asia is believed to have the world's largest number of men having sex with men, estimated at 10 million," the office added.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Government troops rescued a kidnapped 7-year-old boy and killed one of his captors Tuesday in the southern Philippines, a Marine commander said.

Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero said the boy was kidnapped by two motorcycle-riding gunmen in front of his house in Isabela City in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila.

Guerrero said the suspects fired at a nearby marine checkpoint as they tried to escape along with their victim, but Marines chased them into a nearby village.

Manila  - Amid grim prospects of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos losing their jobs because of the global economic downturn, the government is banking on sending more workers overseas to help ease a projected rise in unemployment at home.

The government has even started reviewing deployment bans to risky destinations such as Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria to find alternative jobs for retrenched Filipino workers.