Grammy award-winning singer Chris Brown's departure from Manila was delayed Wednesday because of fraud allegations against him and his promoter for a canceled concert last New Year's Eve.

The recording artist, who performed at a packed concert Tuesday night in Manila, was prevented from leaving on a private plane Wednesday pending clearance by the Bureau of Immigration.

Japan and the Philippines flew patrol planes near disputed South China Sea waters for a second straight day on Wednesday, despite Chinese criticism of this week's air and sea exercises.

A Japanese P-3C Orion and a Philippine navy Islander conducted a search and rescue drill 50 nautical miles (93 kilometers) northwest of the Philippine island of Palawan, officials said.

The Philippines has freed nine Chinese fishermen convicted of poaching endangered sea turtles after they completed one-year jail terms, officials said Wednesday.

The nine, arrested in disputed waters in May last year, were jailed after they failed to pay fines of $100,000 each for poaching and an additional $2,662 each for catching an endangered species.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Friday welcomed Japan's growing security engagement, as regional tensions with China grow, the day after signing a deal to buy 10 ships to bolster his coastguard. 

Closing out a four-day visit to Japan that has highlighted the warm relationship between Manila and Tokyo, Aquino said no one need fear moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to beef up the role of the Japanese military.

Typhoon Maysak was downgraded to a tropical depression and made landfall in the Philippines Sunday, forecasters said, easing fears after thousands of residents were evacuated from remote coastal communities to avoid potentially dangerous storm surge.

Maysak, which began as a Super Typhoon in the Pacific Ocean, reached the northeast coast of the main island of Luzon with winds of 55 kilometers (34 miles) an hour, chief state weather forecaster Esperanza Cayanan said.

The FBI has said that DNA analysis indicates one of the world's most wanted terrorists, Bali bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, was likely killed in a Philippine police raid last month that also claimed the lives of 44 officers.

Zulkifli, also known as Marwan, was the main target of the chaotic January 25 anti-terror operation on a remote town.

Philippine police arrested three people for cracking jokes about a bomb while on their way to attend Pope Francis's mass in Manila, an official said Tuesday.

The man and two women were arrested at a police checkpoint on Sunday while heading to the mass in Rizal Park which attracted a record six million people, said officer Alberto de Guzman of Manila police radio control office.

An eight-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a toilet at a notorious Philippine prison, officials said Saturday, fueling a national uproar over revelations that its inmates were "living like kings" with stripper bars and jacuzzis.

The girl, who was visiting her inmate father at Bilibid prison in suburban Manila on New Year's Day, was found sprawled on the bathroom floor, naked from the waist down and with a rope tied around her neck, officials said. Initial medical tests did not indicate that she had been raped.

Tens of thousands of people fled roof-high floods and one girl drowned in the Philippine capital on Friday as another vicious storm swept across the disaster-plagued country.

Rescue workers in trucks and rubber dinghies plucked residents from the tops of flooded homes, after one of Manila's major rivers burst its banks, swamping heavily populated eastern districts.

Three people were arrested after a bomb was found in a van parked at Manila's international airport, but there was no ongoing safety threat for travelers, authorities said Monday.

A utility vehicle containing an "improvised explosive device" was found at the airport's terminal three car park about 1:45 am (1745 GMT) Monday, said a short report released by the National Bureau of Investigation.