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.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/22 July) — Sixty percent of establishments in Southeastern Mindanao do not comply with the country's accessibility law, according to figures from the Regional Council for the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities (RCWPD) that monitored 817 buildings from April to June 2006.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/22 July) – The Asian Human Rights Commission has
expressed some misgivings over the practice of the Philippine police to consider a case ‘solved’ once it reaches the prosecutor.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 21 July) – The newly designated officer-in-charge of the city's Police Command here has ordered the eight members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to return to barracks.
MALAPATAN, Sarangani (MindaNews/20 July) — Sarangani Gov. Miguel Rene A. Dominguez and local authorities lauded the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for its efforts in causing the arrest last week of a fugitive suspected in the rape of a 9-year-old girl from the municipality of Glan in this province. “We are grateful for the effort of our brothers from the MILF led by Commander Bujar,” Dominguez said as he presented the rebel leader last Monday in front of local government officials, the media, military personnel, and his constituents attending the anniversary of Barangay Lun Masla here. Bujar and his team arrested Tony Peralta, reportedly responsible for the series of rape cases in Sarangani, while seeking refuge in asn MILF stronghold in the hinterlands of Barangay Sapu Masla.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/20 July) — An emerging international airline based in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) plans to expand its operations in Mindanao later this year in a bid to help facilitate the trade exchanges between the two areas. Quentin Kilian, director for Asian relations of the NT Department of the Chief Minister's Trade and Major Products Division, said that Air Frontier announced it would soon launch passenger and cargo flights between Davao City and Darwin in Australia. “The airline is targeting to launch its maiden flight via Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea before the end of the year,” Kilian told MindaNews. Darwin, considered as Australia's northern gateway, is NT's seat of government as well as trade and industrial center.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 July) — Around 15 tons of poultry products from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are being eyed as the pilot shipment to the Middle East starting in December. Romeo Serra, president of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC), told reporters Thursday that once the Philippines gets a halal certification from a Brunei accreditation body through an agreement with the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia Philippines East Asia Growth Area cooperation, it will be an all systems go for the delivery of chicken from a farm in the 123-hectare economic zone in Parang, Maguindanao to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Halal, which is a way of slaughtering farm animals in accordance with Islamic practices, involves hygienic and disease-free preparation of foods "from farm to plate."
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 July) — A joint military, police and drug enforcement initiative plans to hold a series of symposia in Davao's colleges and universities to veer students away from the “clear and present danger” of being recruited into rebel groups. Col. Eduardo del Rosario, of the Task Force Davao, announced at a press conference in his headquarters a plan to hold the information drive in at least six colleges and universities here starting in September to dissuade the students from joining the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples' Army (CPP-NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF). Among these schools are the University of Mindanao (UM), Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU), University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP), Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC), and University of Immaculate Conception (UIC).
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — The Malaysian government has extended the mission of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) in Mindanao for another 12 months to help maintain peace on the ground until a final peace accord is signed between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/19 July 19) — The Office of the Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has already set up contingency plans to help overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) trapped in the ongoing battles in Beirut, Lebanon, according to its regional office here.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — The Australian government plans to raise its investments for various development programs in the country for this year by A$10 million as part of its commitment to double its development assistance for Mindanao over the next five years.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 July) — They are going, too.
Some members of the city council here will attend the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on July 24, prompting the postponement of its last regular session this month from July 25 to Aug. 1, Vice Mayor Luis Bonguyan said.
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.
