MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato (MindaNews/02 March) — Soldiers fired 105mm artillery shells toward rebel positions in Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao last night after two soldiers were wounded when they were fired upon by unidentified gunmen in the nearby town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan.
The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) express its utmost concern over the recent harassment and detention of one of our members, Sr. Stella Matutina, OSB last week in Cateel, Davao Oriental. We are aghast that the political repression which has defined the human rights landscape of our times has again, descended its evil scepter among the church-people and environmental advocates.
QUEZON CITY (Office of Rep. Mendoza/01 March) — Amid the strained supply of corn nationwide, Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza is pushing for the creation of a new Corn Research Institute (CRI) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) to ensure that the country's future requirements of the grain are adequately met.
DAVAO CITY (iFARM/28 February) —Scientists took center stage last week in a forum at the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) of the University of the Philippines-Mindanao (UP-Min) in Mintal and discussed the future of a science-based Philippine agriculture.
The forum, entitled “Making Science Work for Us,” was held during CSM Week, which was celebrated as part of the UP-Min’s 14th foundation anniversary.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 March) – For one year, Catholics attending the daily and Sunday masses here will recite “on bended knees” after the Holy Communion, an Oratio Imperata (obligatory prayer) for the city’s healing “in view of the unabated series of summary killings” here.
In his Circular 04 dated February 24, 2009, Archbishop Fernando Capalla said the Oratio Imperata – Prayer for healing of our people – should be recited “personally and as a community” for one year starting Ash Wednesday on February 25.
HUA HIN, Thailand (MindaNews/01 March) — Outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has committed to work for the immediate resumption of the formal peace negotiations between the the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as he reiterated Malaysia's willingness to help end the decades-old Moro rebellion in Mindanao.
Abdullah, however, has less than a month to fulfill his commitment. Following disastrous results in last year’s general elections, he is scheduled to step aside on March 31, in favor of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
HUA HIN, Thailand (MindaNews/01 March) — Indonesia has formally adopted a proposed fisheries consortium with the Philippines that will eventually grant Philippine-based tuna fishing vessels access into Indonesia's tuna-rich fishing grounds.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Indonesian President resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono accepted the proposed agreement from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 5th Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Leaders Summit at the Dusit Thani hotel here on Saturday.
MAKATI CITY (Young Moro Professionals/01 March) — If there's fashion produced in jails, now it's fashion produced for peace.
Bring Mindanao to Makati was the dream of the producers of the show called Moro Fashionistas: Celebrating Moro and Mindanao Life.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 March) – I smile and chuckle, sometimes even when I am alone.
That is how stupid I may look like when my simple or “shallow” happiness strikes every time I hear the jokes of a duo of disk jockeys or DJs who call themselves “Idol Dagol” and “Inday Tanini.”
Even if others may brand their humor as nonsense and without class or elegance, I appreciate their jokes for two reasons. First, they are delivered in the Visayan dialect, specifically Cebuano. And second, those DJs use terms which could be better understood and appreciated by people who grew up in the barrio. They are “rural terms,” if I may call them that way.
