Manila  - At least nine people were killed when a passenger motorboat capsized amid bad weather in the central Philippines on Thursday, local officials said.

It was the second motorboat to sink in the Philippines in three days.

The boat was battered by strong waves spawned by a tropical depression while on its way to an island off Concepcion town in Iloilo province, 450 kilometres south-east of Manila.

Manila - An Australian family in the Philippines sought the help of police and the Australian embassy on Thursday after armed men allegedly surrounded a resort they owned on a central island.

Greg Hutchinson told police and the Australian embassy that he and his family were holed up in their apartment next to the resort on Boracay Island, 330 kilometres south of Manila.

"The embassy is in communication with the family and local police who advised the embassy that police officers were on the scene to resolve the matter," Kiel Enrique, the embassy's press officer, said.

"We will maintain communication with the police and continue to provide assistance to the family and ensure its welfare and safety," Enrique added.

Manila - Philippine troops have arrested a suspected Islamic militant commander accused of being involved in the kidnapping of 21 Western tourists and Asian workers from a Malaysian resort island in 2001, a military official said Thursday.

The suspect, Sakirin Andalan Sali, 44, was arrested Wednesday on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, a stronghold of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebel group, said Major General Juancho Sabban, commander of an anti-terrorism task force on Jolo.

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Manila - Fifteen people were killed in the southern Philippines when a 10-wheeler truck slammed into a passenger van after its front wheel exploded, police said Thursday.

The accident occurred Wednesday in the town of Dangcagan in Bukidnon province, 855 kilometres south of Manila, said the town's police chief, Inspector Teresita Taperla Salana.

Salana said the truck's front wheel exploded as it was negotiating a curve in the village of Poblacion.

Manila - Rescuers raced against time Wednesday to search for nine people missing after the sinking of a motorized wooden boat in the eastern Philippines that killed 42 people, officials said.