The existing Pulangui hydroelectric power plant in Bukidnon. Mindanews Photo by Bobby Timonera

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/29 June) – Bukidnon’s new governor has underscored his support to environmental protection by pledging to increase the allocation for the Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan natural parks from P1 million to P2-3 million each. At the same time, however, he said he favors the construction of the Pulangi V hydropower dam in [...]

Bonifacio Heights Fort Bonifacio, Taguig 28 June 2010 The Editor-in-Chief MindaNews Dear Sir/Madam, This June, Sec Annabelle Abaya the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, had been recounting to the media notably to the PDI, her shocking experiences with alleged corruption within OPAPP. She had been claiming that of the P500M funds for the Social [...]

Having occupied (some say usurped) the highest post of the land, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was expected to resign to a quiet life, away from the hassles and stress of politics, treasuring in private the good moments she had – and the bad times the country had – during her presidency. That did not happen. Instead, she coveted the obscure position of representative of Pampanga’s second district, an act which critics said, betrayed her unwillingness to give up power and privilege. She would not be content with being Citizen Gloria.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 June)—Outgoing South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes marked her few remaining hours in office with an act that will likely make her overnight a heroine for the environment in the eyes of anti-mining activists. She signed the controversial Provincial Environment Code that bans the open-pit mining method. “It is one ordinance we can [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/29 June) — The management of the airport here has declared they would question in court the decision of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) awarding 87 hectares of the 599-hectare property to ancestral land claimants belonging to the B’laan tribe. Nathaniel Y. Nazareno, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines local [...]

GOV MIGS. Sarangani Governor Migs Dominguez (in green shirt and shades)  announced during the private reception after his inaugural Monday his wedding plans for December 29.  This photo taken while Dominguez was queuing outside his voting precinct in Alabel, Sarangani on May 10. Photo by Cocoy Sexcion, Sarangani Information Office

ALABEL, Sarangani (MindaNews/29 June) — Hours after he was sworn into office for his third and last term, Sarangani Gov. Miguel Rene Dominguez announced he was going to get married late this year. Before select visitors and in the presence of his parents, Dominguez confirmed reports he is tying the knot at age 33. “Yes, [...]

Here in Mindanao, native delicacies have often become “landmarks” of a place especially when you are travelling by bus. In almost every town’s terminal or bus stop, a unique delicacy is being sold that distinguishes it from the rest.

The municipal government of Lantapan has asked President-elect Benigno Aquino III to open an extension of Malacañang Palace in Mindanao within a protected area in their town. Lantapan vice mayor Ernie Devibar told MindaNews Monday that municipal officials proposed the extension of the Office of the President in Lantapan, in a resolution passed this month. The resolution was sent through Quezon Rep.Wigberto Tañada III last week.

ALABEL, Sarangani (MindaNews/28 June) — Seven-time world boxing champion Emmanuel “Pacman” D. Pacquiao is now Rep. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, having taken his oath of office as Sarangani’s lone representative to Congress at 10:15 a.m. Monday at the provincial capitol here. The 31-year old pugilist vowed to push legislation for sports advancement, better education, stronger agriculture [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY  (MindaNews/28 June) —  Reacting to the approval by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of South Cotabato of the Provincial Environment Code that bans open pit mining, John B. Arnaldo, communications officer of Sagittarius Mines Inc. was quoted by MindaNews to have said that “a local law cannot supersede a national law (Mining Law of 1995)”. [...]

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/28 June) —  About two hours after being sworn into office as the first woman mayor of this city, Sara Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio warned, in what seemed like an echo of her father’s commitment, that the city “will remain a dangerous place for criminals.” The younger Duterte said she will continue her father’s vow [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 June) –  ”I commit to being responsible for our city and the failure or success in the next three years rests solely on my shoulders,” said Sara Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio, who was sworn in as the 21st mayor of this city, the first woman mayor in its history after the flag-raising ceremonies Monday [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/28 June) —  The Sumilao farmers who have fasted and walked thousands of kilometers to get back their 144-hectare land have agreed to allow  Del Monte Philippines Inc. (DMPI) to continue using a 33-hectare portion of  the land already awarded to the farmers, until harvest time in October 2010, Napoleon Merida, Jr., chair [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 June)  – Four days before the June 30, 2010 deadline of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to “crush the communist insurgency,” the chief of the  Philippine Army’s newest, largest and most heavily-engaged division  acknowledged that  “insurgency can be solved only if we address it at its roots.” “What the President said in 2006, said [...]

DAVAO CITY – Clustered activities here are the trend these days as the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) pushes a notch higher in its austerity measures by pooling proximate participants together in a strategic venue for trainings. From January to June 2010, the Port District Office-Southern Mindanao Training Center (PDO-SoMin TC) hosted five Manpower Development (MANDEV) [...]

Inaugural Speech Sarangani Governor Miguel Rene Alcantara Dominguez 28 June 2010 Provincial Capitol Alabel, Sarangani Hon. Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, newly elected officials, my fellow co-workers, friends and guests who flew and came from far places, to my family and to all Sarangans. Good morning. Fellow elected officials; we just went through a democratic exercise [...]

The Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao will submit to Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez this week its report on the lifestyle check it did on the government officials among the Ampatuans who are presently detained for the November 23, 2009 massacre in Maguindanao that left 58 persons dead, 32 of them from the media.

“We in the military have been avoiding this topic for the longest time because we don’t know how to handle it,” Major Gen. Carlos Holganza, chief of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said at the launching Saturday of Dr. Gail Tan Ilagan’s book, “War Wounded: Combat Stress Sequelae of 10ID Soldiers.”

21st MAYOR.  Mayor-elect Sara Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio will take her oath of office after the flag ceremony Monday, June 28.  Duterte is the 21st mayor of Davao City. She is also the first woman to be elected mayor of the city her father, Rodrigo, served for 20 years as mayor (1988-1998; 2001-2010)  and three years as [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – Ten BS Architecture graduates from the University of the Philippines- Mindanao passed the recent Licensure Examination for Architecture (LEA), one of them ranking fifth among the 993 passers. The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced that 993 out of 2,004 passed the LEA held in Manila on June 11 and 13 [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY  (MindaNews/27 June) — Forest rangers of the Department of  Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) confiscated on Friday some 3,600 board feet or 8.48 cubic meters of illegally-cut logs of the Binuang tree, a naturally grown species in Barangay Buena Vida, a declared ancestral domain of the Bagobo tribe in Makilala in North Cotabato. [...]

Local constructors and real estate developers no longer need to travel to Manila to see for themselves the latest equipment and technology used in their trade as the Philippine Constructors Association, Inc. (PCA) is set to bring them here next week for the biggest construction equipment and building materials exposition in Mindanao.

A few days back, in Mawab, Compostela Valley, a detachment commander apparently lost emotional control after figuring in a domestic dispute with his wife. He took his government-issued M14 and opened fire on non-combatants, some of whom were his neighbors and some of whom were just unfortunate to have been passing by.

BANGKOK, Thailand (MindaNews/27 June) — I am writing this note here in Bangkok where I am participating in a reflection session with social activists of Thailand and drawing lessons and insights on the work of conflict transformation in Asia. Yesterday, to culminate the day’s activity, we watched the movie “Invictus” (where Nelson Mandela is played [...]

THE VIEW FROM ILIGAN. Partial lunar eclipse June 26 evening, around 8:07 p.m. from Iligan City. MindaNews photo by Bobby Timonera

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 June) – The Regional Development Council (RDC) of Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao) has appealed to South Cotabato Governor Daisy Avance-Fuentes to veto Section 22 of the Environment Code which proposes to ban open pit mining, and “its restrictive provisions as these run counter to a national law, particularly the Philippine Mining Act [...]

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/26 June) — Around 1,000 feet above the sky and flying towards Marawi City on Friday, Presidential Jesus Dureza pulled out his phone and texted a government official that he would be arriving in 30 minutes. Between the distinct “whump-whump” of the Philippine Air Force Huey chopper blades, Dureza put the phone back [...]

VALENCIA CITY (MindaNews/26 June) – The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) not only lacked the expertise to implement the fertilizer subsidy program, it also ignored the right and the capacity of the local government to do it, City Agriculturist Gerson Salvan said. Smelling a scam, the provincial board is looking into the fertilizer subsidy program. Salvan [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 June) — A karate group here has offered a three-month free martial arts training for “legitimate members of the media” to help them defend themselves against assailants. The Davao City-based based Philippine Shotokan Karatedo Association International (PSKAI) headed by President and Headmaster Ricardo Mendoza Tacay, 8th Dan Red & White belt, said [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 June) — Like her late mother, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, who will be sworn in as 15th Philippine president on June 30, will assume office burdened with great expectations from a country beset by the effects of the plundering, authoritarian-like ways of his predecessor. For the situation he is going to inherit [...]

The West often divides society along three lines namely: government, business and civil society. Whereas Islam divides it under four (4) groups namely: the traditional/political class, the rich, the religious leaders/ulama and the masses. This is where I’m coming from, this is how I view how government’s approach should be to the problems besetting the Philippines today.

AFTER THE HUNT. A Philippine Air Force gunner looks out from a Huey chopper after returning to Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro City on June 25, 2010 form a flying sortie to hunt the kidnappers of Nuraldin Yusoph, son of Elections Commissioner Elias Yusoph, in Lanao del Sur. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – China’s biggest gold producer today said it was shelving plans of acquiring the stake of Australia’s Indophil Resources NL in the massive Tampakan copper and gold project, in what is apparently a fallout from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of South Cotabato’s decision to pass the Provincial Environment Code that bans [...]

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – Nuraldin Yusoph, son of Elections Commissioner Elias Yusoph, is being held unrestrained by his kidnappers, some of whom are his relatives, somewhere in the hinterland town of Lumbayabao in Lanao del Sur, police said yesterday. Supt. Paniares Adap, Lanao del Sur police director, said police informants told them they do [...]

BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/25 June)– Delegates of non-government organizations from Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Spain’s Instituto de Promocion y Apoyo Al Desarollo (IPADE) will meet here starting Monday for the three-day first Asian regional conference on the country’s biodiversity conservation and natural resources-based livelihood programs in rural communities.. Organizers said the conference which will be [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry K. Thomas today issued a statement condemning the murder of Suwaib Upham, a key witness in the November 23, 2009 massacre of some 60 people, including 32 media workers in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao. Thomas said the murder “adds additional urgency to the need [...]

A housewife was once enticed by a neighbor who could sell “Baby’s Breath” flowers grown on her backyard. She was amazed at the earnings that can be had by tending a small flower garden.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – The prices of commercial rice here and in other parts of South Cotabato are seen to stabilize by next month with the expected start of the year’s longest palay harvest season. Reynaldo Legaste, South Cotabato provincial agriculturist, said Friday their latest field monitoring showed that the harvest season in most [...]

BARAS, Rizal (MindaNews/25 June) — Eight safety trainers including four Mindanao-based journalists yesterday graduated from a ten-day grueling course here. Coming from all over the Philippines, the graduates are expected to conduct safety training courses for fellow Filipino journalists. The course was conducted by Rowena Paraan, safety officer of the National Union of Journalists of [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – The provincial government of South Cotabato is pushing for the completion within the next three to four months of the province’s P7.7-million cluster sanitary landfill in Surallah town. Roldan Eusoya, project engineer of the Surallah Municipal Engineer’s Office, said the ongoing construction of the facility already exceeded the halfway [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – Halal foods and the pangasius catfish variety are among the local products being promoted in Yaman GenSan or Yabong Maliit na Negosyo sa General Santos, the annual business month celebration which opened Wednesday. Yaman Gensan will run until July 22 with product exhibits, entrepreneur’s training, franchise expo, jobs fair, [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25) – The Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) will conduct eliminations in five key areas in Mindanao this year. Qualifying tournaments will be held in Cagayan de Oro City, General Santos City, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Sibugay and this city. Champion basketball teams from these qualifying leagues will slug it out in the Mindanao [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – Three public schools and a day care center will benefit from the forthcoming Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC)-Regional Training School (RTS)-Davao Region Run For A Cause on July 4, 5at the Rizal Park here. Police Superintendent Eric Dampal, RTS-XI training director, said proceeds of the event will go to the [...]

HELPING HAND. Manobo children help their grandma in drying coffee beans in Sitio Balmar, Barangay Nabaliwa in Pangantucan town, Bukidnon, a village in Mount Kalatungan predominantly inhabited by Lumads. MindaNews photo by H. Marcos C. Mordeno

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/24 June) — A vital witness to the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao that claimed the lives of 58 persons, including 32 journalists, was shot dead, a lawyer for several of the victims’ families said. Lawyer Romel Bagares, of Centerlaw, said Suwaid Upham, known publicly as “Jessie,” was gunned down [...]

A convergence of peace advocates in Mindanao is set to offer a blueprint to the negotiating panels of both the government and the Moro rebels that will serve as a common peace platform.

Tourist arrivals in this resurging lakeside resort town has continued to register record figures since last year, thanks to its emerging eco-tourism attractions. Engr. Rodolfo Tuya, project manager of the Seven Falls Project Management Unit (SFPMU), said Thursday the area’s recorded visits by various domestic and foreign tourists is now nearing the

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 June) – A government-commissioned socio-economic think tank assisting the ongoing crafting of a comprehensive peace and development plan for Mindanao is targeting the completion by next month of the draft blueprint, which will mainly serve as the island’s roadmap for the next 20 years. Ella Antonio, Brain Trust Inc. (BTI) president [...]