DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) — Romeo Serra has verbally tendered his resignation as chair of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) effective June 21 due to a lingering illness, MinBC immediate past chair Antonio Santos told MindaNews Wednesday evening.
The Mindanao Peoples Caucus is gravely concerned over President Arroyo’s acceptance of the courtesy resignation of Secretary Silvestre Afable last Friday. Such acceptance is plain and simple dismissal of Afable who serves at the pleasure of the President. As an active participant observer in the GRP-MILF peace talks, the question that boggles us is why? Why did President Arroyo fire Secretary Afable?
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – Civil society groups welcomed Fr. Eliseo Mercado’s decision at noon today to decline the chairmanship of the government peace panel in the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – Three Bahraini visitors who earlier donated seven mosques pledge to give 10 more plus an orphanage and livelihood assistance to marginalized Moro here.
(General Gurrea is chair of the government peace panel’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities. This speech was delivered at the forum “Peril and Promise in Mindanao: The Peace Process and its Prospects,” held June 19 at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati City, sponsored by the United States Institute for Peace.)
The guide question for this afternoon’s panel discussion, “Is the Philippines Ready for Peace in Mindanao?” sounds both simple and complex. It begs to be answered not just by people like me who are engaged in the peace process with the MILF. Others—businessmen, religious leaders, sociologists, social workers, even psychologists—deserve to be heard as well. And while different people may have varied opinions on the matter, so disparate too are the socio-economic, political, and cultural indicators of the nation’s readiness for genuine peace.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – If you listen to Secretary Ignacio Bunye, presidential spokesperson, say the appointment of Fr. Eliseo Mercado, Jr. as the new government peace panel chair, is “not yet final” and that the announcement of his appointment did not come from him, you’d think he and Secretary Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, don’t serve the same master.
ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/20 June) — The passage of the Human Security Act disrespects universal humanitarian values and presumes the innocent is a criminal, lawyer Abet Ursua of the Commission on Human Rights office here said in a forum on “Human Security Act and its Implication to Peace” at Berds Theatre Mall today.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – Militant groups under the Consumers Alert network here have warned that the plan of the Davao City Water District to loan a hundred million pesos from the Local Water Utilities Administration will pave the way for its eventual privatization.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – This year’s Mindanao Information, Communications, and Technology (MICT) Congress on October 23 to 24 will be timed for the 1st East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) ICT Conference, organizers said.
At last night’s canvassing by the Sumisip, Basilan Municipal Board of Canvassers, my lawyer, Atty. Asbi Edding, noted the following vote totals: Pimentel 5,418 and Zubiri 5,173 – giving Pimentel a net vote lead of 245 votes.
Election fever has died down. Everything is over but the counting. Now it's payback time. Loyal allies must be rewarded and so former Congressman Romeo Jalosjos will be free in a few months time. For child rights advocates who fought for his conviction for the rape of a then 11 year old girl, the commutation of life sentence of Jaloslos is a blatant disrespect to all Filipino children, by no less than the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who brags to be a child friendly President.
DAVAO CITY (GEM Program/20 June) — Growing bananas for chips has become an attractive proposition in Mindanao, now that growers have gained direct market access to processors and to improved technologies. George Yacapin, chair of the Banana Industry Development Association in Talisayan, Misamis Oriental, said that his group has been able to market its products directly to banana chip processing plants, resulting in higher profits for growers. “(The link) has really improved the standing of the banana growers in the supply chain,” Yacapin said.
(Privilege speech by Councilor Angela A. Librado-Trinidad, chair SP Committee on Labor and Employment Opportunities, June 19, 2007, Davao City)
My esteemed colleagues in the City Council, I stand on a matter of personal and collective privilege to speak of a subject that is gravely affecting us, being civil servants and government employees.
