The Philippines said Monday it would protest to China about what it called Beijing's increasing patrols in a disputed area of the South China Sea believed to hold vast oil and gas resources.

Foreign Department spokesman Charles Jose announced the protest a day after the airing of a television interview in which President Benigno Aquino raised the alarm over the Chinese vessels at Reed Bank.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino will on Monday receive a completed draft bill to create a Muslim autonomous area, aimed at ending decades of fighting that has claimed thousands of lives, his spokesman said.

Receiving the draft bill would allow Aquino to quickly submit it to Congress so it could be quickly passed into law and implemented before the president's term ends in mid-2016, Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma said.

The Philippines will work to repatriate thousands more of its nationals from Libya after more than 700 were ferried to safety on a chartered ship, the presidential palace said Sunday.

President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma said "the commitment of the government is to continue to work for the rescue of all the Filipinos in dangerous situations in other countries".

Hardline Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines said Friday they have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, the extremist jihadists who now control large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Clips have been uploaded in recent weeks on the video sharing site YouTube showing both southern Philippines-based Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Abu Sayyaf rebels pledging support to the Islamic State (IS).

A Philippine-chartered ship evacuated 449 Filipinos and a small number of other foreigners from Libya on Thursday, the foreign department said, due to the deteriorating security situation in the North African country.

The operation from the eastern port of Benghazi marked the largest single evacuation of Filipinos from the country in its latest bout of violence, though the foreign department said 10,000 other Filipino workers have yet to leave.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino has said he may try to change the constitution and serve a second term in office, a stunning announcement in a nation haunted by dictatorship.

Pope Francis called for an end to "displays of force" on the divided Korean peninsula Thursday, as North Korea marked his arrival in Seoul for a five-day visit by firing short-range rockets into the sea.

A retired Philippine general implicated in multiple political assassinations was arrested in a rundown house in the nation's capital on Tuesday after nearly three years on the run. 

Indonesia's president-elect Joko Widodo said his country was ready to act as an intermediary to calm rising tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, according to an interview published Tuesday.

Peace negotiators for the Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group said Sunday they had "reached agreement on substantial portions" of a draft self-rule law aimed at ending years of bloody rebellion.

Both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels said in a joint statement they were committed to completing the draft bill by August 18 so it could be passed by Congress as soon as possible.