Fish farmers in Bincungan, Tagum City prepare to stock their pond with bangus fry on Saturday, 15 November 2025. MindaNews photo by GAIL ILAGAN
Along Matina Crossing sidewalk in Davao City, a grape vendor uses the trilingual “No Vendors Allowed” sign to mark her stall while used shoes sellers display their goods at the entrance to a construction site, in defiance of the sign that says “Do not block gate at any time.” Photo taken Thursday (30 October 20250) by GAIL ILAGAN / MindaNews
A tree man topiary standing guard at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao beachfront. Photographed Thursday (14 August 2025). MindaNews photo by GAIL ILAGAN
Artisanal fisherfolk glean petite oysters in the brackish waters in Bincungan, Tagum City on 08 July 2025. MindaNews photo by GAIL ILAGAN
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 06 April) – Walking into the Faculty Union Conference Room for Prof Alisa Cabacungan’s dissertation defense yesterday, I was pleasantly happy to find fellow psychologists Drs. Orange Lozada, Fe Arcenas, Nieto Vitto, and Ruel Billones. The
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 December) — At breakfast the other Saturday, I opened my email to find an unfamiliar word on my X-ray report. Osteopenia. GMT (for Google Mo, Te) told me it meant loss of bone density, quite
(This piece written by Dr. Gail T. Ilagan was first published in the book, “Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader,” edited by Jose Jowel Canuday and Joselito Sescon, published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press and launched on June 22,
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 Oct) – The title of my article on the book Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader is Local Frontlines of Globalized Islamic States Networks: The Emerging War Arena for the Filipino Soldier. And in the article,
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 28 Sep) – Hubby and I had been saving to get ourselves a condo unit for our retirement years. There was one such property that often caught my eye because it had had lots of pools.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 Oct) – My neighbor Jimmy Sasin had a stroke a nd died some years ago. His wife and kids went away to New Zealand. Back when the Sasins still lived there, our children would call
(Keynote Speech at the 3rd ADMU SOSS Research Conference during the Opening Ceremonies on 12 October 2020) DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 October) — Dr.Fernando Aldaba, Dean of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Social Sciences, Prof. Joselito Sescon,
(Gail Ilagan delivered this address in a webinar sponsored by the Commission on Higher Education Region XI on 22 May 2020 for an audience of academics in accredited colleges and universities. Readers may send comments through gail@mindanews.com) Thank you for
ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/ 31 Jan) – Death came like a thief in the night up north. And don’t we all wish that? – That, when we die, we die in our sleep? But surely not halfway down the long road,
ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/6 November) — On 21 January 2019, the plebiscite to ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) will be held in the core territories of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), along with other areas that would opt
Colorful cages in Panabo City, Davao del Norte house high value fish species to meet domestic and international demand.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 16 April) — Republic Act No. 10908 was signed into law on 21 July 2016, mandating the integration of Filipino-Muslim and Indigenous Peoples history, culture and identity in the study of Philippine History in both Basic
(Excerpt from plenary address given by the author at the 1st Graduate Research and Innovation Conference of the Ateneo de Davao School of Arts and Sciences held on 04 March 2017.) I am employed as a higher education instructor in the
18 February 2017 Dear Col. Dubria, I am writing to relay to you a public safety concern brought to my attention yesterday. One of our graduate interns, Ms. _________ hailed a white taxi outside Damosa at around 8:30am yesterday and
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/05 July) — Some months back, during a meeting of the Multistakeholder Advisory and Action Group (MSAAG) of the 10th Infantry “Agila” Division, I heard MSAAG Chair Ednar Dayanghirang mention that he sits at a similar body for
SKIEN, Norway (MindaNews/09 May) — It was 2am at a cozy cabin in Fossingfjord on the sunny side of Norway when my phone started beeping with incoming messages. I had forgotten to put it on silent mode when I left
LISBON, Portugal (MindaNews/01 May) — In the pre-dawn light, the imposing white marble monument on the Marques de Pombal plaza in downtown Lisbon made for a leisurely examination all on my lonesome. It immortalized this people’s past of back-breaking labor
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/11 April) — In my sporadic camp sojourns in childhood, I knew foot soldiers as friendly just-adults who fashioned slingshots for me and taught me how to use them. Sometimes they rescued me when I couldn’t get down
Work on the Cateel-Compostela road cut through the side of a mountain in Barangay Bango in Compostela town, Compostela Valley province, exposing the holes drilled by small scale miners in search of gold. MindaNews photo by Gail Ilagan
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 January) — Half-naked, the young man obligingly paused for my camera balancing a 50-kilo sack of copra on his head. He summoned a smile as I shot him. He was poised to get off the
CATEEL, Davao Oriental (MindaNews/31 December) — Light rain turned the road misty and gray up ahead. We had entered the municipality of Baganga in Davao Oriental. “It’s been three years to the day since we were here together,” I reminded
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 November) — Eager to escape the nightmare of travel and security restrictions for the holding of the APEC summit at the Philippine capital, my mother-in-law left early for Europe, my wandering boots in tow. On
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 8 Oct) – Monday was weird. I started the day talking about sex for a Teachers’ Day lecture at the Philippine Science High School Southern Mindanao Campus. Many hours later, I said a silent prayer before
TACLOBAN CITY (MindaNews/18 September) — Almost midnight, from six floors up in a corner suite of a downtown hotel, the sparse streetlights cast their lambent glow on a lonely figure treading the deserted road. It was three blocks down heading
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 August) — It had been almost two hours since Iglesia ni Cristo members started gathering on the sidewalk outside the Davao City Overland Transport Terminal on Sunday night. At first look, it was a scene straight out
ROME, Italy (MindaNews/20 July) — The phone rang at 3:30 in the morning, the LED blinking an unknown Italian number, but there was nobody on the line. Three messages had come in while I was asleep. About an hour earlier,
FLORENCE, Italy (MindaNews/12 July) — Firenze slumbered on as I slunk about its Old Town Center. Hunched in my gray hoodie, I imagined Ezio Auditore tracking my movements up there on the roofs, jumping from roof to roof. I wouldn’t
SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao (MindaNews/17 June) — It was almost noon and the heat inside the gym of the old Maguindanao capitol in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat was getting to be oppressive. With the program winding down, the Presidential Security Group personnel
DUMAGUETE CITY (MindaNews/03 March) — Thank God for soul sisters. They know when your heart is breaking. I’m here in Dumaguete, ostensibly to speak at a multidisciplinary interfaith forum in Silliman University, where I suspect I’ll get some talk time
Ay, Gregorio Pio A-Tapang A-Tao… DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 Feb) — The Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff’s ill-timed, ill-advised declaration of all-out war against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) at noon on Freedom Day (February 25) was
MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao (MindaNews/09 February) — “We regret the death of our brothers in the SAF, but we cannot do anything about that now. Search our hearts, and you will see that that is how we feel. If only the government
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 January) — They were from Class Poseidon. They go down in Philippine military history as the only SCUBA Diving Course batch to ever be sent on a test mission – and not for the execution of a
LIPATA, Surigao City (MindaNews/20 January) — We were thirteen hours stuck in the Montenegro Shipping Lines port in San Ricardo, Southern Leyte on Sunday night with all hope of taking the 10:00pm boat gone. We were car number 154 on
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 Dec) — Sweet Sevilla mounted a toy drive just before school went on Christmas break. She wanted the loot to be part of COPERS’ (Center of Psychological Extension and Research Services of the Ateneo de Davao University)
SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao (MindaNews / 24 Dec) — We did not have a car pass. The Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces elements doing sentry duty at the Simuay entrance to Camp Darapanan were polite, but firm. No car pass, no entry.
AMPATUAN, Maguindanao (MindaNews/25 November) — “It’s not like how it was five years ago. I do travel at night now. I would not do that before,” confided Rene. We were a kilometer off the Isulan roundball on the road that
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 October) — Artoro Dagansan is a kagawad in Barangay Manurigao, a geographically isolated and depressed area in the farthest highlands of New Bataan. The village council had been preparing to receive the medical mission that was arranged
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 September) — In his talk on peace movements and the UN during the 2014 International Peace Research Association (IPRA) conference in Istanbul last month, Emeritus Research Fellow Unto Vesa of the Tampere Peace Research Institute in Finland
ISTANBUL (MindaNews / 14 August) — Istanbul was a most appropriate meeting ground for the coming together of peace researchers and scholars from all over the globe on the occasion of the 50th year anniversary of the International Peace Research
