MLANG, North Cotabato (MindaNews/4 March) — Poor residents in one of the villages here have been selling one of their kidneys for P200,000 to foreigners needing transplants, triggering an alarm among health officials here.
MATI, Davao Oriental (MindaNews/04 March) — Protesters from affected communities here picketed Monday the office of BHP Billiton, their spokesperson reading a statement announcing the filing in Metro Manila of several petitions against the “legality and constitutionality “ of the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) and the Financial Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA) under the 1995 Philippine Mining Act.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 March) –A former two-term president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines says the Senate “may not really be the proper venue for seeking the truth” behind the National Broadband Network-ZTE deal.
Cotabato Arcbhishop Orlando B. Quevedo, one of the three drafters of the February 26 CBCP statement on “Seeking the Truth, Restoring Integrity” said in a March 4 commentary on the Bishops’ Statement, that “very many” bishops “believe that the present process of arriving at the truth is seriously flawed for several reasons,” among them that the Senate “has become a partisan venue for the opposition to pile up charges upon charges, proven or not, for their own political interests.”
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 March) – A recommendation by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in its February 26 statement that has been “hardly mentioned by the media” is the “formation of circles of prayer, discernment and action in parishes, religious organizations and movements, colleges and universities, and Basic Ecclesial Communities,” the Archbishop of Cotabato said.
BUTUAN CITY (Mindanews/4 March) — A mayor in Agusan del Norte who was ousted by a court is still holding office at the town hall as he refuses to step down, vowing to fight for judicial reform.
Carmen Mayor Ramon Calo’s rival is his older brother Jesus, who was declared winner by Judge Francisco Maclang of the Regional Trial Court Branch 3 last Feb. 8.
ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/4 March) — A spectacular one-night show of Taiwanese folk arts infused with sports, martial arts and folk dances wowed locals here Monday night as teenagers from the Keelung Chung Cheng Junior Middle School Folk Sports Troupe of Keelung, Taiwan performed with colorful silk-fabric costumes and traditional props.
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/04 March) — May I provide some personal thoughts toward a better and more accurate understanding of the CBCP statement of February 26, 2008. These are my personal thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the thought of CBCP.
1. Emergency meeting? Special Meeting?
The background of the meeting: The CBCP Permanent Council was going to meet in order to decide on the present situation. Wisely the CBCP President wanted to consult the Bishops so that the Permanent Council decision would reflect the mind of the “college of bishops.” When the Bishops finally met, they discussed the nature of the meeting. Would it be a consultation or would it be a regular CBCP meeting? At the end the Bishops decided: Let the assembly be a meeting of the CBCP rather than simply a consultative meeting.
