DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 July) – “A priest is like a father and the father would like to return to his children.”
That is what Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi wants to do now after kidnappers who identified themselves to him as “Abu Sayyaf” set him free late Thursday night in Sultan Naga Dimaporo (formerly Karomatan) Lanao del Norte: return to his parish in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — A total of four battalions of government troops is now stationed in Basilan to “stabilize” the situation in the island province following the July 10 clash between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon said.
ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/19 July) – “Are the MILF fighters responsible for this horrible crime of beheading and mutilating the dead Marines (in Basilan)? Could they have done this when they returned to the scene of battle at 5:30 am on Wednesday, July 11? Definitely, no,” Maulana Robert Alonto, a member of the peace panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) told a Round Table Discussion here Wednesday.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — The court in South Cotabato has not acted on the petition for habeas corpus filed by two suspects accused of masterminding the bombing of a Koronadal-bound bus from Tacurong on July 7.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — After successfully marketing Davao City and the famed Kadayawan Festival in the international tourism market a year ago, the Department of Tourism (DOT) now plans to tap South Cotabato's T'nalak Festival as the country's banner attraction for its global tourism campaign next year, Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/19 July) – A Maguindanaon farmer from a remote village here is among the hundreds of beneficiaries of an agriculture-based program launched in the province’s 2nd district Tuesday.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — South Cotabato officials have unveiled a multimillion development package to transform the famous resort town of Lake Sebu as one of the country's top ecotourism destinations.
Mindanao Churches: Opposed to the Anti-Terror Law
(The Human Security Act of 2007-RA 9372)
Because the poor are oppressed, I will now rise up, says the Lord;
I will place them in the safety from which they long’. (Psalms 12.5)
We, the 42 participants Bishops, Priests, Pastors of the Regional Consolidation – Education of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF), gathered on July 16-18, 2007 at CONCORD Inc., Marfel, Subdivision, Barra, Opol, Misamis Oriental to worship God, study and reflect on the implications of the Human Security Act otherwise known as the Anti-Terror Law on the political and economic situation in Mindanao, we have discerned that:
Basilan today poses the biggest threat to the GRP-MILF ceasefire agreement since it was redeclared in July 2003. The decapitation of the dead bodies of the Marines and an Imam last July 10 deserves the strongest condemnation of all peace loving peoples. The implications of even one such dastardly act spells the difference between war and peace not only in Basilan but all over Mindanao.
Aghast. This is the reaction of Gabriela to the news of City Prosecutor Trinidad dela Torre-Cardona that the case against the accused is “dismissed without prejudice.”
