PALIMBANG, Sultan Kudarat (MindaNews/19 March) –About a thousand Moro people who gathered in a peaceful assembly at the public plaza here on March 18 urged the government to stop the war and honor the MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain), claiming this is the “fulfillment of the aspiration of the Bangsamoro and an ideal solution to end the conflict in Mindanao.”
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/18 Mar) – Army bomb experts preempted an attempt to topple an electrical transmission tower in Tulunan, North Cotabato earlier today.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 March) – As his fellow trainees to his right and left were felled by the hail of bullets, Jibin Arula started running but about four meters away, fell off a cliff (later measured to be about 18 meters high), held on to what he could hold on to and rolled down as gunshots followed him.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 Mar) – I was trembling a little, maybe because the room was very cool. Ironically, I was sweating a lot.
No, I was neither sipping any hot soup nor drinking hot coffee. But I was on the hot seat. I was facing the very difficult challenge of the night – to use a pair of chopsticks for the first time. Worse, all eyes were fixed on me, watching my every move, as the rest around the table were done with their dinner.
I came in late. Following the group to that “chopsticks only” Chinese restaurant was my greatest mistake and greatest regret of the night. I could have comfortably taken my dinner elsewhere.
DATU PIANG, Maguindanao (MindaNews/18 March) – What would have taken only a few minutes to negotiate the 14-kilometer stretch from the Cotabato-General Santos highway to Datu Piang in Maguindanao took more than an hour as thousands of evacuees and residents lined the road chanting “MOA-AD,” raising messages written down on manila paper, sack and plywood, demanding government to “respect, implement, sign and support” the MOA-AD.
In Cotabato City, thousands of residents also lined up the road from Quirino Bridge to City Hall, with the same demands.
