A raid on the Philippines' biggest jail on Monday uncovered drug lords "living like kings" in secret luxury cells with strip bars, sex dolls, a jacuzzi and methamphetamines, the justice secretary said.

Police commandos in full battle armor and tracker dogs swooped down on the infamously crowded and corrupt Bilibid prison complex before dawn to verify reports that drug rings were operated from behind bars.

Philippine prosecutors on Monday filed murder charges against a U.S. Marine accused of killing a Filipino transgender woman, in a case that has fanned anti-American sentiment.

Prosecutors found "probable cause" against Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton and decided that he used "treachery, abuse of superior authority and cruelty" against his alleged victim, lead prosecutor Emilie Fe delos Santos told a televised briefing.

A member of the Philippines parliament was wounded in an ambush Thursday that left four of his aides dead, he said in a television interview.

Vicente Belmonte Jr. said his two-car convoy was travelling on the national highway from the airport in the southern coastal province of Misamis Oriental when gunmen in a black vehicle fired at them, killing his two drivers and two bodyguards.

Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group are suspected of carrying out a bus bombing that claimed 10 lives, the military said Wednesday.

A miltary spokesman said the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a band of a few hundred guerrillas operating on the troubled southern island of Mindanao, are believed to have staged Tuesday's attack, which also left 42 wounded.

Philippine authorities and aid agencies rushed relief supplies Wednesday to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by a powerful typhoon, as survivors sifted through debris to rebuild their lives.

Military cargo planes will make eight deliveries to worst-hit Samar, a poor farming island in the central region, while two Red Cross convoys will deliver thousands of food packs, water purifiers, blankets and hygiene kits, officials said.

Nine people were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a bus in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, a military spokesman said.

The bus operated by the Rural Transit company was travelling through the town of Maramag in the strife-torn island of Mindanao when the bomb went off, said spokesman Major Christian Uy.

A giant storm left the Philippines Tuesday after killing at least 27 people and devastating remote coastal towns, but the government won praise for unprecedented preparations that were credited for saving lives.

Hagupit hit the far eastern island of Samar on Saturday with winds of 210 kilometers (130 miles) an hour, making it the most powerful typhoon in the Philippines this year and threatening widespread destruction.

The Philippines shrugged off criticism from China on Monday after Beijing slammed the nation for challenging its territorial claims in international courts, in a dispute over resource-rich waters.

Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose denied Manila was taking its complaint to a U.N. tribunal as a way to put China under foreign pressure.

Millions of people in the Philippine capital hunkered down on Monday as a major storm churned towards the megacity, after claiming at least 23 lives while ripping apart homes in remote island communities.

Soldiers and aid workers rushed to reach devastated coastal villages on Samar island, where Typhoon Hagupit crashed in from the Pacific Ocean at the weekend with winds of 210 kilometers (130 miles) an hour.

A year after losing all their belongings to one of the world's strongest storms, thousands of weary people in the Philippines emerged from evacuation shelters on Sunday to find their homes again in ruins.

Typhoon Hagupit hit the central Philippines late on Saturday with gusts of 210 kilometers (130 miles) an hour, destroying flimsy houses, tearing roofs off others, knocking down power poles and smashing bridges.