CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 26 May) — What kind of journalists would leave their jobs as correspondents of national dailies to report stories about Mindanao based on the perspective of Mindanao people?||| |||buy xenical online with |||
We did 19 years ago, on My 25, 2001. We pooled together our meager resources to organize a cooperative to be the media platform of that dream. We provided news about Mindanao online ahead of the other national dailies, long before news pages on the internet and Facebook became in vogue.
We treaded on new grounds and along with it our sacrifices. We did not have any salaries or money to cover the news in Mindanao but a little help from our friends and believers made the difference.
Friends from the Associated Press took me as their stringer in time for the arrival of the US Green Berets in Basilan in early 2002. After the 9-11 2001 terror attacks in the United States, the US launched a global war on terror and President Bush described the Philippines as the its “second front in the global war against terrorism.”
A friend lent me his laptop so I can cover the 2003 Buliok War in Maguindanao-North Cotabato.
MindaNews reporters including myself had to fight for the right to cover major press events and military operations, arguing with government and military sources that Mindanao community journalists have the same rights as our counterparts from Manila and abroad.
Slowly we earned the respect of our sources and military leaders who admired our tenacity for truth and fairness.
But telling Mindanao stories with the heart of a Mindanawon has its rewards. We can go directly to ordinary people and let them tell their stories through us.||| |||buy atarax online with |||
