COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 13 August 2026) — Six ships. I kept returning to that number when I read Monday’s report from the Strait of Hormuz. Before this war, around 130 to 140 vessels crossed that narrow waterway every day.
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 12 August 2026) — Sometimes the economy does not announce trouble with one dramatic headline. Instead, the headlines arrive separately. GDP growth slows to 2.3 percent. Unemployment rises to 4.9 percent. Investment contracts. Foreign direct investment
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / August 10) – September 14 is getting closer. You can feel it even without looking at the calendar. Posters have multiplied. Political colors have returned to roadsides. Names are being repeated in conversations where, a few
This year’s Kadayawan sa Dabaw features a unique ultimate attraction. It’s not the durian, it’s not Indak-Indak. It’s Inday Sara in full green bloom. Mas bagsik pa sa duryan, mas blooming pa sa waling-waling, mas bula-bula pa kaysa sa indak-indak. This
Long known as the “Food Basket of the Philippines”, Mindanao produces a vast majority of the nation’s high-value crops, fruits, and corn. However, post-harvest losses and complex supply chains have historically affected both local farmers’ incomes and national food prices.
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 09 August 2026) — The Pulangi has watched over Mindanao for centuries. It carries our red silt toward the open sea. Money, much like water, leaves a trace somewhere. Fifteen Boxes and a Missing Trail In Manila this
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 09 August 2026) — I pulled an old publication from my files the other day. The pages have begun to show their age. The photographs belong unmistakably to another era. The typography alone takes you back. But
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 8 August 2026) – Every election promises a new beginning. Well, at least according to the banners. Judging from the posters one sees all over the region nowadays, things have changed. Drive through any of the
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 7 August 2026) – Every State of the Nation Address (SONA) is part legislative report, part carefully choreographed theater. In his latest address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presented a sleek portrait of national progress—highlighting anti-corruption raids,
(Opening statement of Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Peace Implementing Panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front during the 38th meeting of the panels at the Acacia Hotel in Davao City on 4 August 2026. This was the first meeting since
(Opening statement of Presidential Peace Adviser Mel Senen Sarmiento, concurrent chair of the government’s Peace Implementing Panel at the 38th meeting of the panels at the Acacia Hotel in Davao City on 4 August 2026. This was the first meeting since December
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 5 August 2026) — For a few precious hours last week, the country stopped worrying about the price of rice. We stopped calculating whether the salary would reach the next payday, whether the electricity bill could
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 4 August 2026) — Six ships. That was how many reportedly passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. In ordinary times, the number would have been more than a hundred. Six vessels crossing a narrow
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / August 3) – And in all my years inside classrooms, I am aware that the blackboard is almost never as innocent-looking as it appears. A teacher cites a date, a name, maybe a definition. Students copy.
On Day Ten of the impeachment trial, Representative Leila de Lima rose to open the funds case. The court cut her short, and that troubled me. I write this from Mindanao, watching closely. Sara Duterte rose from Davao City politics.
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 02 August 2026) — Every President delivers six State of the Nation Addresses. Only one usually matters most. The fifth. It is the last opportunity to launch major reforms before politics overtakes governance and the next presidential
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews /1 August 2026) — Back in 1990, a group of theater performers from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) came to Malaybalay for a youth workshop. At the end of the workshop, the young participants performed a
MindaNews / 31 July 2026 – We went from SONA on Monday to learning new words the rest of the week, from “unusual and suspicious” to Pax Silica. Isn’t that unusual? It was unusual for a SONA to make us feel
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 30 July 2026) — Since June 2023, I have been part of a group of educators seeking to make peace education more meaningful in our classrooms and institutions. We first came together during two capacity-building sessions,
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 29 July 2026) — The State of the Nation Address has ended. The applause has faded. The social media debates continue. Supporters celebrate. Critics criticize. Politicians return to their respective camps. But for ordinary Filipino families,
After going through the courtroom drama that is the impeachment, the Dutertes rallying supporters in a world tour, Mindanawans surviving earthquakes and floods, who still wants to watch PBBM’s SONA? Unless he makes true of the bente pesos bigas, gives
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 27 July 2026) — I missed last Thursday’s Ateneo University Press launch in BGC of Deeper Ground, Darker Shadows: The Making of a Mindanao Rebel, the memoir of Eddie L. Quitoriano that Ateneo University Press has
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 26 July 2026) – Every morning, a modern city performs a small act of magic. We place our garbage outside. A truck arrives. The bags disappear. By breakfast, the street is clean. We rarely ask where
Mindanao is undergoing a profound economic transformation. However, realizing the island’s full economic potential relies heavily on further enhancing its business competitiveness. Central to this transformation are two critical catalysts: the strategic interventions of Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) and the
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 24 July 2026) – The seventh day of the impeachment trial belonged to the money trail. The prosecution wanted Sara Duterte’s financial records. They asked for bank, BIR, and AMLC documents. These papers stretched all the
MindaNews / 24 July 2026 — Sa ating kagalang-galang na Senador Robinhood: Paumanhin po. Diba sa pelikula, may bida, kontrabida, yan ang script.Pero, paano maging bida ang kontrabida, paano na yung bida? Nagkamali ako. Yan pala ang branding mo.Anti-hero. Bad
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 22 July 2026) — Every Wednesday, I ask the same question after reading the week’s business headlines: So what now? This week, five major stories appeared almost simultaneously. At first glance, these seem unrelated. They are
TAGUIG CITY(MindaNews/20 July 2026)– The World Bank’s warning is blunt: waste is no longer just a sanitation problem. It is now a climate problem, a public finance problem, a flooding problem, a plastics problem, and a test of whether cities
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 19 July 2026) – Five years ago, July 19, 2021, thirty Lumad students marched in graduation. The Bantayog ng mga Bayani hosted their ceremony. Their Bakwit School at UP Diliman had endured. Eleven finished Grade 12
MindaNews / 19 July 2026 – There are things we dread to see in the impeachment trial in the past two weeks. Lawyers raising objections for five minutes straight. Lawyers spend one hour studying typo errors on a document. Senator siblings
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 18 July 2026) — The Tuwaang, I had confirmed recently, is a Kidapawan Epic. For the uninitiated, the Tuwaang is the epic of the Monuvu people, who live around the western to northwestern foothills of Mt.
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 17 July 2026) – Vice President Sara Duterte skipped three more trial days. The impeachment trial finished its second week. Mindanao’s fingerprints were all over the proceedings. The star witness directs the NBI in Bangsamoro. The
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 16 July 2026) – Don’t begrudge Senator Robinhood Padilla for declaring during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte that he is a communist. Being a communist or socialist doesn’t necessarily mean supporting or participating
The structural defect that stalled the peace process for over a year is finally cured. With a government panel chair who can commit, the two panels have no more excuse to wait—and no time to lose before September. To Secretary
There is a vast, ocean-wide chasm between performative bravado and lived courage. This chasm was laid bare during the Senate impeachment proceedings of Vice President Sara Duterte. Under the bright lights of the chamber, Senator Robin Padilla casually declared, “Komunista
(Cardinal Orlando B. Quevedo’s acceptance speech at the Harmony in Diversity Award rites in Jakarta on 15 July 2026. Quevedo is the inaugural recipient of the award launched in August last year. Organizers received “more than 70 nominations” from across
(Presented at the 2nd President Benigno Simeon Aquino III Memorial Lecture on Leadership and Democratic Governance on 18 June 2026 at the Ateneo de Manila University. The work for peace continues with the resumption of meetings of the Peace Implementing Panels
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 15 July 2026) — Most Filipinos will never meet a foreign investor. They will never attend an investment forum in Singapore or Tokyo. They will never read the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Foreign Direct Investment statistics.
DOHA, Qatar (MindaNews / 13 July 2026) — Yesterday, after my morning shift ended at 3 p.m., I went straight home. Upon arriving, I immediately freshened up and prepared myself before taking an Uber to the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 12 July 2026) — The impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte opened on July 6, marking the first time a sitting Vice President has faced an impeachment trial in Philippine history. Duterte did not attend
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 12 July 2026) — There is a Duterte impeachment story that dominates front pages across Metro Manila — corruption, confidential funds, a Vice President dodging accountability. Travel south, to the region that has always been her
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 12 July 2026) — We like to explain expensive vegetables in the simplest possible way. A typhoon came. Fertilizer became costly. Traders manipulated supply. The road was bad. The farmer planted too little, or too much, or
Here’s our attempt to recap VP Sara’s impeachment trial week number 1. No bloodbath happened as VP Sara wanted. The public, DDS included, suffered from nosebleed because of the many legal words, most especially “objection.” “Objection” was uttered 25 times
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 10 July 2026) — As the expression goes… “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” The language coming out of our state agencies is shifting, and on paper, it sounds beautiful. Recently, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 10 July 2026) – When does a funeral cease to be a funeral? When does a coffin become a constitution? When do tears become political theory? Forgive the questions. But in moments like this, the usual categories are
CONVICTUS(Reimagining Invictus, SWOH version) Out of the machinery that shields me,Black as lies peddled page to page,I thank whatever political and economic interests align withMy family’s dynastic rage. In scenes full of drama bordering on the comedicI threatened, cursed, and
ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews /08 July 2026) — The current struggles of the Muslim Ummah, particularly in the Philippines, reveal a critical erosion of moral fortitude rooted in a fractured relationship with our oaths. Qur’an 5:89 invites us to behold the
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews/8 July 2026)– On paper, the Philippine economy appears to be doing many things right. Economic growth remains among the strongest in Southeast Asia. Inflation has eased considerably from its painful highs. Unemployment is relatively low. More tourists
[Valedictory speech delivered during graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2026 of the University of the Philippines Mindanao on July 7, 2026 by Allizah Keziah Manulat (BA Communication and Media Arts), Summa Cum Laude, Class Valedictorian. Manulat is recipient of
(Opening statement of the Defense delivered by Lead Defense Counsel Sheila C. Sison, on Day 1 of the VP Sara Duterte impeachment trial at the Senate on 6 July 2026) Your honors, fellow Filipinos, Good afternoon. As we begin today
