France on Tuesday called on Brunei to scrap a law due to take effect this week that would make adultery or gay sex punishable to death by stoning, joining celebrities who have spoken out against the legislation.

The new penal code under strict Sharia law, to come into force in the tiny southeast Asian sultanate on Wednesday, has already drawn fierce criticism from rights groups and the United Nations.

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' largest rebel group retired nearly 150 guerrillas and handed over 75 firearms for decommissioning Tuesday to encourage parliament to pass a proposed law giving minority Muslims self-rule.

President Benigno Aquino visited the headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to witness the weapons handover, the first concrete action by the organisation to abandon a decades-old rebellion that has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

Philippine military and commercial aircraft will keep flying over disputed areas in the South China Sea despite Chinese warnings over the airspace, President Benigno Aquino said on Monday.

"We will still fly the routes that we fly based on the international law from the various conventions we entered into," Aquino told reporters when asked whether the Philippines accepted China's position.

Brunei has arrested an Indonesian man en route to Saudi Arabia after authorities found bullets and what appeared to be an Islamic State (IS) group flag in his luggage, Indonesian officials said Thursday.

Rustawi Tomo Kabul, 63, was detained on Saturday in transit at Brunei airport after arriving from Indonesia, and claimed to be going on pilgrimage with a group from his home country, the foreign ministry in Jakarta said.

Malaysia has called for China to cooperate with Southeast Asia in speeding up talks on a set of rules in the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing's island-building activities have sparked international alarm.

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, whose country hosts a regional summit next week, also cautioned rival claimants to the strategic seaway against taking actions that stoke tensions, according to an interview published Thursday in The Star.

Several hundred Filipino and Vietnamese protesters united in a march in the Philippine capital on Friday, demanding that China stop oil drilling in disputed South China Sea waters.

Filipino riot police blocked the entrance to a high-rise building that houses the Chinese consulate in Manila's financial district as around 200 protesters marched on the office.

Brunei would violate international standards on human rights if the oil-rich sultanate presses ahead with stoning and other punishments under sharia law, an incoming U.S. official said Thursday.

Nina Hachigian, nominated to be the U.S. ambassador for the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, told her Senate confirmation hearing that it was "important that a nation's laws conform with its international obligations on human rights."

The United States has raised concerns with Brunei about a new penal code introduced by the sultan which would include Islamic sharia law penalties such as stoning to death, US officials said Tuesday.

But the State Department is not following a growing boycott of a luxury hotel chain linked to all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

Celebrities including Virgin group founder Richard Branson have vowed to boycott a hotel chain linked to Brunei's sultan after he introduced a controversial Islamic penal code in his country.

Brunei's all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announced last Wednesday that he would push ahead with the sharia law that will eventually include tough penalties such as death by stoning.