DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 July) — A “political blocktimer” who hosted a program in Radyo Ukay DXDS in Digos City was shot dead by two-motorcycle-riding gunmen at 1 p.m. today in the vicinity of Rizal Avenue.
M18vigo (DAVAO CITY) — One month after the killing of couple George and Maricel Vigo in Kidapawan City, the family’s quest for justice has remained elusive. But as far as the police is concerned, the Vigo case has been deemed “solved” since June 23, when a criminal complaint was filed before the city prosecutor’s office against an alleged former member of the New People’s Army and three John Does.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 July) — For private use also?
Around a hundred government vehicles in the cities of Davao and Cagayan de Oro have been monitored to be used for private purposes, the Office of the Ombudsman reported.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 July) — This city will soon implement its water ordinance, signed in 2005, with the submission of the proposed implementing rules and regulations (IRR) to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Councilor Pilar Braga co-chair of the joint committee that prepared the rules told reporters Tuesday.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/18 July) – In Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao), it’s not a question of whether or not to give workers a wage increase but more on how much the increase will be, Maria Lourdes Lim, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) said.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 July) — Thirteen candidates, seven from Mindanao and six from Luzon, have applied to be the next Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao as the seven-year term of Antonio Valenzuela ended earlier this month, an official from the Office of the Ombudsman told reporters Monday.
POLOMOLOK, South Cotabato (MindaNews/16 July) – Members of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) – Site 4 and the Young Moro Professionals Council (YMPC) turned over last Saturday a reconstructed water system to the Markadz Al-Mansour Islamic Center’s orphanage which houses 32 children mostly orphaned by war.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 July) — More people are suffering from diabetes without them knowing it, diabetes expert Dr. Roy Ferrer of the state-run Davao Medical Center said.
Ferrer, a diabetologist, told a press conference Monday that most patients notice and take the disease seriously only when they experience complications.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/17 July) – Two days after a police officer assumed the post of acting city police chief, the City Council here passed a resolution unanimously endorsing a bemedalled police officer who once served as city police chief, to assume the post again.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 July) – Landslide brought about by continuous heavy rains in Kitaotao, Bukidnon rendered the Davao-Bukidnon highway impassable but the Bukidnon Engineering District II of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is working round the clock to ensure everything’s “back to normal” within the next 72 hours, the Philippine Information Agency in Northern Mindanao reported.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/16 July) — Prisoners who enrol in schools within their detention centers can earn credit not only for acceleration to the next year level but also for "good conduct time" to shorten their stay in jail.
Prisoners who volunteer to teach academic or vocational subjects can also avail of the same “good conduct time.”
These proposals are contained in Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s Senate Bill 2022.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/16 July) – Government financial institutions and corporations poured P11.7 billion for micro-finance lending in Mindanao from July 2004 to March 2006, according to the People’s Credit and Finance Corporation (PCFC) records cited by the Mindanao Microfinance Council.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/16 July) – An assistant secretary-general who also serves as spokesperson of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) met with the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels last Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/16 July) – The city has a new police chief, although on an acting capacity: Chief Inspector Leo Ajero.
Ajero was the chief of operation of the North Cotabao police for two weeks before his assumption as OIC city director on Saturday.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/14 July) — Four leaders of militant groups based in this city have been reportedly receiving death threats from an alleged "death squad" believed responsible for the daring killings of several militant activists in nearby areas over the last few months, a Hong Kong-based human rights lobby group said Friday.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/14 July) – To protect children from the effects of the armed conflict between government troops and communist-led guerillas, local government officials and village leaders in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat are considering the transfer of an Army detachment from its present location near a public school to an unpopulated area.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/14 July) – Minimum wage earners in Southeastern Mindanao received the highest wages in Mindanao's six regions, with those in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) earning the lowest in 2005, according to the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/14 July) – A Moro human rights organization has expressed fears that Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon’s appointment as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will intensify crackdown on militants.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/14 July) — Using modern technology to monitor and report abuses will improve local capacity to protect human rights in the Philippines, Commission on Human Rights chair Purificacion C. Valera Quisumbing told reporters Friday.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/14 July) — The South Cotabato Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) is pushing for the declaration of the entire province under the state of calamity due to the worsening incidence of the Surra disease (Trypanosomiasis) among livestock.
BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/13 July) — Fr. Saturnino Urios University is the new name of Urios College, after the Commission on Higher Education approved its application to become a university, school president Fr. John Christian Young announced in a press conference here.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/13 July) — Residents here would be asked to grow at least 10 kinds of indigenous medicinal plants in their backyards to ensure supply for their communities’ needs for herbal medicines, according to a resolution approved by the city council on July 11.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/13 July) — South Cotabato’s famed export products have taken the center stage in the ongoing 2006 Regional Agri-Industrial, Technology and Trade Expo at the Protech Center in Koronadal City.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/13 July) – For the city government, a good way to save poor market vendors here from “loan sharks” or usurers is to extend them loans at zero or minimal interest.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/13 July) — The National Food Authority (NFA) has strengthened its Farmers’ Incentive Rice Purchase (FAIR) program among various accredited farmers organizations and cooperatives in North Cotabato.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/13 July) — City Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco and various agencies last week pledged support to the iron-fortified rice program initiated by the National Food Authority North Cotabato provincial office.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/12 July) — South Cotabato Governor Daisy Avance-Fuentes has ordered police and military personnel to arrest all illegal miners, especially those involved in the “banlas” or sluice mining in Barangay Kematu in T’boli town.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 July) — The regional wage board here has approved an additional P16 cost of living allowance for workers in the region’s five cities, bringing to P240 per day the minimum wage for workers in non-agricultural sectors, P230 for agricultural workers in plantations, P209 for agricultural workers in smaller farms and for retail and service workers.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/12 July) – Soon, houses in the city’s 40 barangays will bear permanent numbers. The City Council here approved on second reading Monday a proposed ordinance requiring households to secure and display their house numbers.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/12 July) — Australian Ambassador Tony Hely will grace the launching of the annex building of the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital on July 18, the province’s 40th or Ruby foundation anniversary.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/11 July) — With an annual per capita vegetable consumption of only 40 kilograms as of 2003, Filipinos are among the lowest consumers of vegetables in Asia, according to an official of the National Nutrition Council (NNC). Consumption rate has reportedly been going down since 1978. Maria Lourdes A. Vega, chief of the NNC's nutrition information and education division, told MindaNews Tuesday the declining vegetable consumption has pushed them to create a national strategic plan to increase vegetable consumption to at least 50 percent in 2010 as domestic production of vegetable also went down.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/11 July) — Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao wants to push the area as a tourism destination in the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysian, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), especially with the upcoming tourism meeting here to be participated in by member countries that will coincide with the province’s T’nalak Festival. Cesar Sulit, acting provincial tourism officer, said the 3rd BIMP-EAGA cluster meeting on joint tourism development from July 16 to 18 was timed for the T’nalak Festival so the foreign visitors will witness “our rich cultural heritage.”
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/11 July) — Some 17,000 dogs were given free anti-rabies vaccines during the first and second quarter implementation of the mass rabies vaccination in the 16 towns of North Cotabato. Dr. Enrico Garzon, provincial veterinarian, said the all-out support of various local officials in the barangay and town levels helped in the success of the anti-rabies campaign. The provincial government has earmarked P800,000 for the purchase of anti-rabies vaccines during the first two quarters.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/11 July) — A three-year-old daughter of a policeman and hardware owner abducted by female store helpers in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat Monday was rescued by authorities just a few hours later. Police said the suspects took the girl to avenge verbal abuses they suffered from the victim’s grandmother. Chief Insp. Samsom Obatay, spokesperson of the Cotabato City police station, identified the victim as Gabriela Victoria Cabico. She is the daughter of Chief Insp. Reynante Cabico, chief of police of Carmen in North Cotabato, and a doctor. The couple owns a hardware shop in Barangay Upper Dansuli, Isulan.
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/10 July) — Tons and tons of cheap imported cement are being dumped in the Mindanao market with the arrival of 125,000 bags at the Polloc Port in Parang, Maguindanao last week, a Department of Trade and Industry official said. Lawyer Ishak Mastura, DTI secretary for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the cement, aboard a 5,000-metric ton vessel, came from Conch Cement, the largest cement manufacturer in China. “Conch is known for its high standards,” he added. Vicente Tilao, owner of Maharlika Agro Ventures, imported the cement for distribution in the ARMM at P10 to P15 cheaper than the prevailing price. Locally produced cement are being sold in the region between P182 to P185 per bag, Mastura said.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/10 July) — The provincial government of South Cotabato is readying criminal charges against the parents of three minors who were earlier caught working at an illegal sluice mining site, referred to locally as “banlas,” in the gold-rich village of Kematu in T’boli town. South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said she has directed the Provincial Legal Office to press charges against the parents of the minors as they should be held responsible for the illegal activity and for allowing their children to work in such hazardous situation. “We’ve given them so much favor just to convince them to stop their illegal activities and leave the area. But they abused our kindness and now they’ve gone too far,” she said.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/10 July) — The provincial government of South Cotabato is set to pour in additional investments for the development of the province’s agricultural sector through the upcoming implementation of the second phase of the World Bank-assisted Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP). South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said the provincial government has agreed put up a counterpart fund for the MRDP, which would be implemented by the Department of Agriculture (DA) through a loan grant from the World Bank. During its regular session on Tuesday last week, the provincial board formally endorsed the province’s participation to the program and authorized the allocation of the local government’s funds for its implementation.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/09 July) — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has established a desk at the provincial capitol of North Cotabato following the signing on Wednesday of a Memorandum of Agreement between Vice Gov. Jesus Sacdalan and OWWA deputy director Adam Musa.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/09 July) — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led
the distribution of rice and checks worth some P1 million to around 2,000 residents of former conflict areas in North Cotabato in her visit to Cotabato City on Saturday.
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/09 July) – Elementary students in poor and conflict-affected areas in Mindanao will benefit from the $27 million (around P1.4 billion) United Nations World Food Program that aims to improve their academic performance.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/08 July) – Joint operatives of the Philippine Army and Philippine National Police in Sultan Kudarat arrested on Wednesday two of the “most wanted” persons in Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao).
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 July) – Want to be an “Iskolar ng Bayan?”
Graduating high school students have until July 15 to file their application to take the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) on August 5 and 6 at the UP Mindanao campus in Mintal.
MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/08 July) — Despite speculations of a NO-EL (no elections) scenario in 2007, and 10 months before the scheduled polls, a citizens group here has started preparations to transform Lanao’s image as a lair of cheaters to a place where clean and honest elections are possible.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews /07 July) — Administrators and teachers of the biggest public school in this city agree teaching sex education to high school students “would help them understand various sex-related issues.”
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews /07 July) – What can your P150 buy? Lunch for two at a fastfood chain or watch a movie with a friend? With P150 you can also attend a training on cinnamon and ensaymada-baking, and maybe start your own business.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews /07 July) – A Hong Kong-based group that monitors and lobbies human rights cases across Asia has urged the new Philippine police chief to "exhaust all possible means" to stop the “relentless killings of human rights defenders and social activists” in the country.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews /07 July) – A soldier and a militia were killed in an ambush Wednesday allegedly by the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) guerrillas in remote Arakan town in North Cotabato.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews /07 July) – The amount for bribery in the country has been estimated to be as high as 20 percent of the project contract in public offices and the dirty game appears to go unabated as many of those in the know prefer to keep silent.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/6 July) — The Drug Stores Association of the Philippines (DSAP) is strict with its members against selling of counterfeit drugs, the head of the local chapter here said. Carolyn U. Carreon, president of the DSAP Davao chapter, said they have a policy against selling fake drugs and violators would be penalized by expulsion from the association. But Carreon admitted that only 40 percent, or 100 of the 250 drugstores identified by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) operating in Davao City, are members of the association. Carreon said they can only extend reach to their members, who benefit from membership privileges like training, advocacy and other forms of support. Members pay a minimal annual due.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/6 July) — The provincial government of South Cotabato plans to invest an additional P50 million over the next two years for the continuing upgrading and expansion of the provincial hospital here and for various public health services. Dr. Edgardo Sandig, provincial health officer, said the fresh funds would primarily be used to purchase modern medical equipment and the hiring of new personnel for the hospital’s new annex building, which is now almost complete. “The provincial government has committed to prioritize these investments, which are very essential in ensuring the delivery of proper public health services to our residents, especially the poor,” he said.
