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.

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.