Category: News

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/9 Aug) — The principal of Kidapawan City National High School and most of the teachers in the senior level have showed support to the reinstatement of the National College Entrance Examination as proposed by the Department of Education (DepEd). Nenita Rodriguez, the school principal, believe that the reinstatement of NCEE would help the graduating students to choose whether a two-year or a four-year course in college. “The reinstatement of NCEE to the graduating high school students is welcome to our school. This might be a wakeup call to the lower year levels to study harder in order to get high scores in the NCEE,” Rodriguez said. She said KCNHS has a pool of dedicated teaching staff who would give full support to senior students so they will be ready if ever the DepEd would reinstate the NCEE. Many of them, she said, are willing to render extra time just to help the senior students.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/9 Aug) — At least 10 provinces have been eyed as pilot areas in the national government’s national rubber program that is currently being drafted, according to an official from the Department of Agriculture. The national rubber program will be launched by Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban during the 92nd foundation anniversary of North Cotabato later this month. Dr. Rodel Maghirang, the DA’s coordinator for high-value commercial crops, said in his talk during graduation rites of 41 farmers in the first national rubber technology program at the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, North Cotabato, Maghirang that the government can provide financial assistance of up to P100,000 per hectare to those wanting to plant rubber.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/9 Aug) — The provincial government of North Cotabato will sponsor a three-day seminar on ethics, libel and responsible journalism on August 26-27 as part of the province 92^nd foundation anniversary. Caloy Bautista, executive assistant for media affairs, said the seminar will not only be for practicing print and broadcast journalists but also to young writers, including campus journalists. The seminar dubbed as North Cotabato Media Summit aims to equip practicing journalists and school campus writers with skills and full understanding of ethical as well as responsible reporting. “The summit is very timely in the wake of the unmitigated killings of journalists, particularly those in the countryside,” said Juan P. Dayang, the president of Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI) in a press statement.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08 August) –  "It's frustrating and unfair," said Dagz Magaway, a leader of the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS), as around a hundred members walked out of the session hall Tuesday when the City Council deferred the approval of the ordinance banning aerial spraying over plantations.

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/08 August) —  After a month-long respite, the sound of gunfire resumed Tuesday in Mamasapano, Maguindanao but the Joint Ceasefire Committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),  the International Monitoring Team and the Bantay Ceasefire managed to have the CVOs and the MILF stop firing.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/08 August) — Tuna industry players have expressed fears that chances to further penetrate the European Union market are likely to hit a snag after the Codex Alimentarius dropped lead content of fish from its agenda.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/07 August) — Breastfeeding is still the best.
The government will start banning promotions and advertisements of formula milk by January 2007, according to the revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Milk Code, Vicenta Borja, coordinator of DOH's National Infant and Young Child feeding Center, said.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/07 August) —The National Transmission Corporation (Transco) has vowed to fast track the development of more transmission lines from various power sources in northern Mindanao to this city and the neighboring areas to ensure a stable power supply.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 August) — Barangay Tanods (village watchmen) will play a more active role in the government’s anti-insurgency campaign and, where necessary, will even be armed, Local Governments Undersecretary Melchor Rosales said.
Rosales said arming the barangay tanods will be allowed in “selective and controlled” areas, as recommended by the peace and order council.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/06 August) – The City Council on Wednesday granted
Mayor Fernando Miguel the authority to purchase a lot where the regional offices of national line agencies will be built.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/05 August) – Reacting to the fresh wave of military offensive in Sulu against suspected elements of the Jemaah Islamiyah, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. today challenged military authorities to present “credible proof” that the Indonesian-based group was in the island province and not make the alleged presence of the Indonesian-based group an excuse for “continued warfare in Mindanao.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 August) – They arrested him without warrant Thursday night allegedly because he was a “bombmaking expert” but freed him to the custody of his lawyer Friday night with this condition: “to be produced if further needed.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 August) – Gabriela-Davao City has expressed dismay over the court’s junking of a sexual harassment case filed by a public school teacher against her former thesis adviser.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 4 August) – Mindanao's six regional development councils have come up with around P215 billion worth of projects for Mindanao, according to a presentation Friday by Misamis Occidental Gov. Loreto Leo Ocampo on the “'Mindanao super region.”
TheP214.690 billion worth of projects will become the government's investment program for Mindanao from 2007-2010, Ocampo told MindaNews.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews /August 3) – The vast number of unemployed Moro residents in the country will have new opportunities at employment once giant food companies adapt the Muslims’ halal practices in food production.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/3 Aug) — Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered stricter rules on buying and selling high-powered guns to "reasonably limit" ownership and bring within "acceptable level" the number of gun holders in the city. 

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/3 Aug) — A group of Korean investors are planning to put up a 100-door apartment in the uptown area of this city as more and more of their nationals are coming over to settle for good. Mayor Vicente Y. Emano, as quoted by the Philippine Information Agency, said he is scheduled to meet with the 70 Korean investors to discuss the planned apartment. Emano said that the Korean businessmen are spending billions of pesos for their real estate projects, like the construction of luxurious apartments and villas near the Korean and Filipino-owned Hotel Koresco at the Pueblo de Oro Township.

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/3 Aug) — This city has become the recipient of a computer literacy program jointly undertaken by the local government unit, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and a Canadian non-governmental organization. The program includes the donation of 15 computers intended mainly for out of school youths and those with disabilities, according to the Philippine Information Agency. “The government’s tie-up with international partners who help the less privileged has in a way helped our city become one of the recipients, and we are fortunate enough to have been installed with an Information Technology Computer Literacy Center,” said Mayor Lawrence Ll. Cruz. Highlighting the inauguration was the signing of a memorandum of agreement of the three-year project. The City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) Office is doing the work for the LGU. The Canadian group helping out is the Engineers Without Borders-Sharing Community Access Locally and Abroad (EWB-SCALA).

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/2 Aug) — Sixteen elementary schools and four high schools in Southeastern Mindanao are piloting a first of a kind curriculum specially developed for indigenous peoples, said Norma Gonos, executive director of the Institute for Indigenous Peoples Education (IIPE). 

ALABEL, Sarangani (MindaNews/2 Aug) — The Lumad representative to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiating panel claimed that those who attended the two-day Indigenous People's Summit in Bukidnon last July 23 to 24 did not represent the entire Lumads of Mindanao. He said he believes "the government was behind the said gathering."

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/2 Aug) — The provincial government of South Cotabato plans to institutionalize the disaster management councils of the province's 189 barangays in a bid to further strengthen its disaster response and mitigation systems.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (Mindaews/2 Aug) — Cebu Pacific is eyeing more expansion in Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao) after it opened its Cotabato City-Manila flight three weeks ago. 

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/2 Aug) — At least 30 families were rendered homeless when a flashflood hit 12 barangays of Balingasag and Lagonglong towns in Misamis Oriental early dawn Wednesday, according to Gov. Oscar Moreno.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/2 Aug) — Government-owned marketing firm National Agribusiness Corporation (Nabcor) is planning to establish a modern corn post harvest processing and trading facility in South Cotabato in a bid to help improve the production and marketing of corn products in the area.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 August) —  The ceasefire committees of the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have ordered a probe on the alleged takeover by the MILF of the base camp and minesite of a chromite mining firm in Banay-banay, Davao Oriental on July 21.09:20:50

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNew/01 August)  – Mayor Lawrence Cruz with meet with Moro leader Abulkhayr Alonto in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday (August 2) to discuss what can be done to resolve the conflict that has displaced some 205 Higaonon families  from a remote barangay in the city since the last week of June.

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/01 August) – Body parts of a purok vice president and a security guard were found in a vacant lot in Barangay Sugud, Sultan Naga Dimaporo (SND) in Lanao del Norte near the boundary of Tukuran in Zamboanga del Sur last Monday.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 July) — Soon, they can fight for their ancestral domain with lawyers from their own tribe.
The Talaandig tribe in Lantapan, Bukidnon has sent two of its sons to Law school at Xavier University in neighboring Cagayan de Oro City. They are the first Talaandig law students.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 July) — Students who want to take the exam for admission into the University of the Philippines (UP) but did not meet the July 15 deadline, have up to Friday, August 4, to submit requirements.

COTABATO CITY  (MindaNews/31 July) — He is among those “wanted” for the June 23 bombing incident in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao that killed four of  Governor Andal Ampatuan’s men. He denied having anything to do with the bombing in a radio interview on July 5. Hours later, his wife was gunned down in the city’s downtown area. 

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/30 July) — From August to December this year, more than 200 volunteer teachers in North Cotabato will receive P3,000 or an increase of P1,500 in monthly honorarium.

KIDAPAWAN CITY—Five persons were reported to have died from dengue while 380 others were treated at the provincial hospital in the first two quarters this year but the assistant provincial health office said there is no outbreak of the disease.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / July 28) — The University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) is ready to face charges for the death of a 16-year old student who caught fire onstage during a campus beauty pageant on July 20, USeP president Julieta Ortiz told a press conference Friday. 

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / July 28) – A village chairperson in Carmen, North Cotabato escaped death Thursday when an assassin’s bullet wounded him on his head but not fatally.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 July) – A monthly newspaper supplement focusing on the Moro will be launched Friday.
"The Moro Times,” a collaboration of Manila Times and the Philippine Council for Islamic and Democracy  will devote six pages to “foster better understanding between Muslims and Christians,” PCID chair and editor-in-chief Amina Rasul-Bernardo, wrote.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 July) — Minimum wage earners in Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao) will receive additional daily pay ranging from six to eleven pesos starting August 6, Joel Gonzales, secretary of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, said.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 July) — Southwestern Mindanao’s Regional Development Council (RDC) will lobby for a significant share of the national government’s investments for its flagship agri-business development program in Mindanao.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 July) — Moro leaders here have unanimously expressed their support to the government in its drive against terrorism, lawlessness and anarchy in the South Cotabato-Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat-General Santos area.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/26 July) — Magpet, North Cotabato will sponsor a jobs fair during its 43^rd foundation celebration in August.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 July) — China is looking at potential "multibillion" investments in Mindanao, including $3 billion in mining in the next five years once cooperation is formalized in the region, Chinese ambassador Li Jinjun told reporters Tuesday. Li identified "huge business opportunities" for Mindanao in tourism, agriculture, fisheries, mining and infrastructure after Sec. Jesus Dureza, of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo), and other trade and investment officials briefed him on Mindanao's peace process, the BIMP-East Asia Growth Area, and investment opportunities in Davao City and Mindanao. Li said many Chinese investors have eyed investments here but are just waiting for developments because they were worried about the "little and incorrect information" they know about Mindanao. He said China is concerned about the peace processes in Mindanao and said they are happy to see progress in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 July) — The provincial government of South Cotabato will offer for public auction at least 23 real properties of residents who failed to pay their taxes over the last five years. Provincial Treasurer Alegria Beltran said the scheduled public auction on August 4 at the provincial capitol compound will be the first ever set by the local government since such mandate came out 15 years ago with the passage of Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code. The "civil remedies for collection of revenues" was provided for by Chapter 4 of RA 7160.Beltran said they initially planned to hold a public auction last year but they decided to defer it for another year due to appeals from some property owners.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 July) — Police authorities urged local government units (LGUs) in South Cotabato and in neighboring areas to designate public parking areas or convergence zones for various vehicles to ensure their protection against various carnapping syndicates reportedly operating in the area. Supt. Efren Saliganan, acting South Cotabato police director, issued the proposal to local peace and order councils of the province's 10 towns and lone city as he admitted that the number of vehicle theft, especially involving motorcycles, has increased over the last six months. Saliganan, who assumed his post only last month, called a command conference Monday to specifically discuss and set strategies to effectively curb the "alarming" carnapping cases in the province.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 July) — The University of the Philippines in Mindanao is holding roundtable discussions to explore the creation of a multi-agency task force or network to focus on health disasters and emergencies in Mindanao. The discussions, scheduled on July 31 at the Royal Mandaya Hotel here, would gather local government and non-government officials from the cities of Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato and General Santos. The forum aims to "facilitate exchange of views and share experiences on health disasters and emergencies and its impact on human populations and the environment," the UP-Min information office said.

BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/24 July) — A police station commander and an undetermined number of passengers were trapped inside buses for an hour inside when 100 suspected communist rebels set up a road block in broad daylight today in Barangay Bahi, some five kilometers west of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 July) – At least 12 of 83 paragraphs of the President’s State of the Nation Address talked about Mindanao compared with last year’s two out of 40, but this year’s SONA was greeted with more jeers than cheers.

DAVAO C ITY (MindaNews/24 July) — Impressed by "Davao's safety, security and cleanliness," visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Jinjun said he will introduce the city not only to more Chinese investors but also to tourists.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 July) — The government hopes to finally launch by next year the proposed joint naval patrols with Malaysia and Indonesia in a bid to strengthen the security within the booming Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 July) – The Armed Forces will uphold the primacy of the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and try to avoid incidents like what happened in Maguindanao recently, newly-installed Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., said.
"Trust us, we will be the last to want war there or anywhere,” he told MindaNews in a telephone interview Sunday morning. 

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/23 July) – For reporters who doubt the military’s
battle reports, particularly the number of soldiers killed or wounded, Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison is offering a piece of advice: “Check once in a while with the Government Service Insurance System and other official records the insurance claims of soldiers and police for death and injury in the battlefield.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 July) –  The Southern Command (Southcom), the largest military command outside the national capital, will be divided into “two unified commands,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Friday at the turnover of command of the Armed Forces chief of staff from General Generoso Senga to Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr.