The quake hit at a depth of around six kilometers (four miles), on the central island of Leyte, the US Geological Survey said.
There was no immediate warning of a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Marlon Tano, a Leyte farmer and journalist, told AFP the quake knocked him off his feet at his eggplant farm in Borauen, a town near the quake's epicentre.
"It was so strong that I fell," Tano said.
"I saw buses and motorcyles stopping on the highway and people getting off them," he added.
Huge tsunami-like waves smashed the city of Tacloban and nearby areas, leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.
In February, a 6.5-magnitude quake killed eight people and left more than 250 injured outside the southern city of Surigao.
The following month a 5.9-magnitude tremor killed one person there in March.
Before the Surigao quakes, the last lethal earthquake to hit the country was a 7.1-magnitude tremor that left more than 220 people dead and destroyed historic churches when it struck the central islands in October 2013.
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