GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/4 Jan) – In allowing the transfer, without court order, of US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith from the Makati City jail to the American Embassy at midnight last December 29, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sacrificed Philippine sovereignty to the Visiting Forces Agreement.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/02 January) — Maguindanao has the fastest town-birth rate in Mindanao – or, perhaps, in the entire Philippines. In 1995, it only had 18 municipalities. By the end of 2006, the 18 had multiplied to 33 with the province itself splitting to two, its daughter named Shariff Kabunsuan.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 October) — Councilors here used the regular session's privilege hour today to criticize groups for insulting them with a "Kalabasa (Squash) Award" last week.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 September) — The city government here is convening around 140 tribal leaders from its five major indigenous groups to draw out issues, concerns and their support for environmental protection, Councilor Leo Avila, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/September 8) — Church and community groups in remote Cateel town in Davao Oriental want Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes to ban logging in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley provinces, citing unchecked activities of illegal loggers.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) — Local officials in the municipality of Glan in Sarangani province raised a howl after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) released a vessel laden with suspected illegal logs earlier seized by Maritime police, the Sarangani provincial information office (PIO) reported.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 August) – Banana firms should not threaten the city government that they will move out of if an ordinance banning aerial spraying is passed, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said.
Special Report
3rd of four parts
The period between 2000 and 2001 was turbulent for Mount Kitanglad. It was during this time that Migketay Saway openly challenged the authority of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and PAMB (Protected Aeras Management Bureau) as park managers. The only instance perhaps that he sounded cooperative was sometime in February 2000, during a Senate public hearing on the protected area bill. Quite unexpectedly, he expressed no opposition to the bill despite the fact that it would strengthen PAMB authority.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/August 25) – Filipino-owned petroleum distributor, Flying V, said it was optimistic that Congress would soon pass the bill on the use of biodiesel and help speed up the use of the renewable and environmentally-clean source of energy.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 August) — The public hearing Wednesday afternoon
on a proposed ordinance banning the use of aerial spray by agricultural
plantations here turned out to be a showdown of sorts between experts,
alleged victims, supporters and opponents of the proposal.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 August) – An official at the National Food
Authority brushed aside speculations that the price of palay offered by
commercial traders might drop by as much as P5 per kilo by September during
which palay harvests are expected to peak. NFA regional director Ernesto Macasinag assured that the farm gate price of palay will drop by “only one peso per kilo” in the commercial market.
BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/24 August) – Some 160,000 persons in the Caraga
Region will join the nationwide tree planting activity on Friday dubbed
Green Philippine Highways and organized by the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources. Benjamin T. Tumaliuan, DENR regional executive director, said the participants will form a “human chain” along the both sides of the highways
from Barangay Lipata in Surigao City down to Alegria town in Surigao del
Norte, and RTR town in Agusan del Norte to Barangay de Oro in Butuan City to
Trento town in Agusan del Sur.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/21 August) – The Philippine Coast Guard has the capability to respond to maritime accidents around Mindanao but not to major oil spills of the Guimaras-type, the coast guard's top official for Southeastern Mindanao said.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / August 18) — Mindanao's government and civic groups should begin planning on how to manage water resource to prevent conflicts arising from it, a Unesco hydrology official said on Thursday.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/17 August) — An international mining company based in the United Kingdom has signed an option agreement to acquire 95% shares of a coal development project in the hinterlands of South Cotabato. Crew Gold Corp. signed the option agreement recently with Daguma Agro Minerals, Inc. through its 100%-owned subsidiary Crew Minerals AS. The project, located in Lake Sebu town, is opposed by residents of Barangay Ned, a village affected by the venture, as reflected in a manifesto.
KAPATAGAN, Lanao del Norte (MindaNews/16 August) — A rescue team recovered Tuesday the body of a three-year old boy who was reported missing at the height of the flashflood in Lapinig, Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte.
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/16 August) – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Region1-10 has asked the Regional Development Council to endorse its proposal for the proclamation of Mount Inayawan Range in Nunungan, Lanao del Norte as a protected area in the category of natural park.
KAPATAGAN, Lanao del Norte (MindaNews/14 Aug) — Landslides triggered by last weekend's heavy rains killed at least six people, buried eight villages in Lanao del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, and swept a bus.
BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/14 Aug) — A Catholic bishop here condemned last week's violent dispersal by government authorities of a peaceful protest-rally opposing the ongoing mining operations in a remote fishing village in Tubay, Agusan del Sur.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/13 August) — Residents of a remote village in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato have asked government to stop coal exploration activities by two companies there for fear these would destroy their livelihood.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/14 August) — Barangay officials should activate their local disaster coordinating councils (DCCs) for quick and coordinated responses as big waves continue to batter coastal communities in the Davao Gulf, an official of the Office of Civil Defense said.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 August) — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) launched Tuesday the "Green Philippine Highways,” urging all sectors around the country to plant trees along the country's three major highways on August 25.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 July) — The provincial government deployed a team of policemen today to go after illegal miners in T’boli, South Cotabato, warning them they would face administrative charges if operators of sluice mining method, popularly known in the area as banlas, continue with their illegal activity.
KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/21 July) — Development planners of the Allah Valley in two Cotabato provinces will try to draw best practices in watershed and environmental management from a Bukidnon town and a coastal project in the Davao Gulf.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/02 June) – This sleepy but scenic interior town of South Cotabato sits on tons and tons of gold that have remained untapped, a government geologist announced.
The deposit is estimated at four million metric tons but “much of the gold deposits in T’boli is waiting to be excavated despite the rush of small scale miners in the area for a long time now,” said Jaime Flores, chief of the geosciences division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao).
Last of two parts BUD DAJO, Patikul, Sulu (MindaNews/17 October) — February 2004. At the opening of the Philippine Center for Photojournalism’s “Tanaw Mindanaw” photo exhibit at SM City in Davao, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte stands then sits and stares in
1st of two parts BUD DAJO, Patikul, Sulu (MindaNews/15 October) – History books refer to it as the “Battle of Bud Dajo” although it was more appropriately referred to by critics as a massacre of 600 men, women and children
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/13 March 2005) — Clarita Alia’s youngest son, Fernando, 12, does not live with her anymore. She sent him away, afraid he would end up like his siblings Richard, Christopher and Bobby, who were summarily executed in 2001
