HIGH DEMAND. Sixty seven-year old Porferio Rivera carves a tombstone at the Davao Catholic Cemetery (also known as Wireless Cemetery) on Saturday morning, October 30. There is a high demand for new and retouched tombstones during All Souls Day and All Saints Day (Nov. 1 and 2). During these days, Catholics visit and offer flowers, [...]

HANOI, Vietnam  (MindaNews/30 October) — Southeast Asia has adopted a master plan that would further link up key growth areas such as expansion of the Philippines’Roll on/Roll off (Ro-Ro) system into the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) and pave the way for the region’s full development as a major market and production base in the [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/30 October) —  A police officer who led the arrest of two suspects in the bloody bus bombing in North Cotabato denied allegations they tortured the suspects during interrogation last week but said he will submit to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for a “full-blown investigation” of alleged manhandling and other human [...]

HANOI, Vietnam (MindaNews/30 October) —  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is rolling out some US $1 billion in technical assistance for priority infrastructure projects in the eastern Southeast Asian sub-region within the next two years. Arjun Goswami, advisor and chief of ADB’s regional cooperation and integration group, said the project covers the construction and improvement [...]

FINGER PAINTING. Teban Rivera,16, applies paint on a tombstone at the Davao Catholic Cemetery (also known as Wireless Cemetery) on Saturday morning where thousands are expected to visit their loved ones on All Souls Day (Nov. 1) and All Saints Day (Nov. 2). MindaNews Photo by Keith Bacongco

By Anabelle Ragsag and Cy Rago CAIRO (MindaNews/30 October) — Homesickness is perhaps not as bad as it used to be, given the benefits provided by the internet to get in touch with loved ones and friends.   For the Pinoy diaspora activists among us, there is also the net to whip up involvement on issues [...]

A vendor prepares flowers on Saturday morning as thousands are expected to visit their loved ones at the Davao Catholic Cemetery (also known as Wireless Cemetery) just two days before the All Souls Day. MindaNews Photo by Keith Bacongco

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 October)—Police in Southwestern Mindanao have strengthened security measures in preparation of next week’s observance of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, a top police official today said. Chief Supt. Gil C. Meneses, Southwestern Mindanao police director, said their intelligence unit is closely working with the military to prevent possible attacks. He [...]

HANOI, Vietnam (MindaNews/29 October) – Southeast Asia has agreed to pool its resources in developing further the region’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to help fast-track the ongoing integration of the 10-nation regional bloc’s economies. Heads of states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday issued the commitment following a dialogue with [...]

HANOI, Vietnam (MindaNews/29 October) — President Benigno S. Aquino III has endorsed the proposed revival of the People’s Economic Councils or PECs across the country to generate more economic activities and perk up the development of micro and small enterprises. Jose Concepcion Jr., chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Advisory Council-Philippines [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 October) — Top defense and security officials of the Federal Republic of Nepal were in Davao City this week to take part in an informal mutual learning activity with representatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and civil society groups. Facilitated by The Asia Foundation, the visit aimed to enable the [...]

READY FOR SALE. Workers pack chrysanthemums in one of the flower farms in Baguio District, Davao City. With All Saints and All Souls days coming, demand for these flowers is rising in the city which also supplies flowers to Metro Manila. Mindanews Photo by Keith Bacongco

SORTING. A worker sorts chrysanthemums in one of the flower farms in Baguio District, Davao City. With All Saints and All Souls days coming, demand for these flowers is rising in the city which also supplies flowers to Metro Manila.  Mindanews Photo by Ruby Thursday More

MUMS. A worker hauls chrysanthemums in one of the flower farms in Baguio District, Davao City. With All Saints and All Souls days coming, demand for these flowers is rising in the city which also supplies flowers to Metro Manila.  Mindanews Photo by Ruby Thursday More

SMOKIN’! Noel Cabangon performs at People’s Park in Davao City during the 3rd Sining Pambansa Festival Wednesday evening. MindaNews photo by Toto Lozano

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/28 Oct) – Close to four months after the Department of Agriculture started investigating the controversial P30-million National Irrigation Administration’s Bio-Organic Fertilizer Subsidy Project in Northern Mindanao, no results have been released so far. Lawyer Charissa Kay Alvarez, legal officer of the regional office of the Department of Agriculture, told MindaNews [...]

HANOI, Vietnam (MindaNews/28 Oct) – Business leaders in Southeast Asia are planning to develop trade and investment centers across the region to help facilitate the smooth flow of capital and various products and services among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within the 10-nation regional bloc. In a dialogue with the heads of states of the [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 October) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch has asked the Aquino administration to protect a whistleblower-soldier who will testify tomorrow (October 29)  on the  murder ten years ago of six young men in Trento, Agusan del Sur, allegedly by soldiers. In a press statement issued today, HRW, said former Sgt. Esequias [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 Oct) — Ten participants from the town of Esperanza in Agusan del Sur finished the Grassroots Documentation and Reporting Training organized by the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center (MNICC) while 12 more are attending the same program in Lianga, Surigao del Sur starting Friday (Oct. 29). The training for Esperanza participants [...]

A worker harvests Gerbera in one of the flower farms in Baguio District, Davao City. With All Saints and All Souls days coming, demand for these flowers is rising in the city which also supplies flowers to Metro Manila.  Mindanews Photo by Keith Bacongco

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/ 27 Oct) – Six officers from the North Cotabato Provincial Police Office were commended by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo today for the quick resolution of the Rural Transit bus bombing last week that killed 11 people and injured many others. The awardees were led by Supt. Alex Tagum who heads the Investigation [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 Oct) — The country’s largest women alliance has given the Aquino government a failing mark for leaving out Mindanao and women’s issues from its priority agenda. Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan said there was no mention about Mindanao and about women in President Aquino’s state-of-the-nation address and in his new administration’s priority agenda. [...]

ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat (MindaNews/26 October) – Along this capital town’s four-lane highway stands Sultan Kudarat’s new capitol, a white-painted, Middle Eastern-inspired structure highlighted by a tower-like section with an obelisk-shaped roofing. Two men in civvies armed with long firearms guarded the entrance to the compound. They appeared rather relaxed and accommodating as our vehicle asked [...]

SOLAR POWER. An engineer from the Cagayan de Oro Power and Electric Light Company inspects the one-megawatt solar powered plant in Barangay Indahag, Cagayan de Oro City. Constructed in 2004, the two-hectare facility is the only and renewable energy facility in the Philippines. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

RARIN’ TO VOTE. Women queue outside a polling place in Datu Salibo town in Maguindanao to wait for their turn to vote in Monday’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. Mindanews photo by H. Marcos C. Mordeno

BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/26 October) – Vote-buying dominated the conduct of Monday’s Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in parts of the Caraga Region. Killings, massive vote-buying, intimidation and “hoarding” of voters on the eve of election day were reported in some areas of Agusan del Sur, Surigao City, Surigao del Norte, Agusan del Norte, Surigao [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/26 October) – In Barangay Indahag of this port city, one can see row upon row of solar panels tilted towards the skies, drawing electricity from an inexhaustible source of energy: the sun. The first solar photovoltaic power plant in the Philippines, the facility uses some 6,480 solar panels to draw [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 October)—Construction of the 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani will start in the first quarter of next year to offset the projected power shortage in Mindanao by 2014, an official of the Alcantara-led Conal Holdings Corp. announced in a press briefing over the weekend. will start construction of its $450-million [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 October)—Members of the T’boli tribe in Kiamba, Sarangani are expecting to earn more from producing abaca (Textilis musa) now that they have received assistance from a World Bank-funded project implemented by the Department of Agriculture. The Lumads (indigenous peoples) who belong to the Kapate Abaca Farmers Association got the assistance under [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/26 October) – Armed men believed to be supporters of defeated candidates in Monday’s elections burned two school buildings in a village in Pikit, North Cotabato, around 1:30 a.m. today, police reports said. Senior Insp. Elias Dandan, chief of Pikit police, said at least five classrooms of two school buildings inside the Gocotan [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/25 October) — The election registrar of Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat has declared a failure of election in Barangay Udtong after a group of armed men attacked the school where polling took place. Chief Insp. Eugene Malilin, chief of the Lambayong police, said the voters scampered for safety upon hearing the gunshots. [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 October)—In addition to the usual complaints of missing names and the names of the dead appearing on the voters’ list, an election official said the new “modus operandi” of “impersonating” other voters surfaced in today’s conduct of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. Election officer Danilo Cullo said the scheme involves using the [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/25 October) – Election materials for Bukidnon’s two cities and 20 municipalities arrived late. Not only that, they were delivered via a commercial hauler truck carrying cosmetic products for Watson Store at SM City in Davao. A truck aide said they were only told of their additional cargo by noon of Sunday. The [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/25 October) — Despite delays in the delivery of election paraphernalia to the 797 clustered precincts of the city, start of voting was already 100 percent as of 12 noon today. Last to accept votes were the polling centers at the City Central Elementary School which houses the precincts of poblacion [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/25 October) – Voters in this city trooped early to the polling precincts to cast their votes for today’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, only to find out that the official ballots and other election paraphernalia had not arrived yet, a scenario repeated in Gingoog City and in the neighboring island [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/25 October) — Vice mayor Alexander Tomawis of Barira, Maguindanao was held under restricted custody by elements of the 603rd Infantry Brigade after allegedly commandeering election paraphernalia for his town and Buldon, where his wife is the mayor. Before noon on Sunday, Army troops from the brigade had received complaints of Tomawis’ alleged [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 October) – Five barangays in Pikit, North Cotabato requested the holding of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataang elections at the poblacion after the reported sightings of heavily armed men in their areas, police said. Chief Insp. Jomar Alexis A. Yap, Region 12 police command spokesperson, told MindaNews over the phone that they were [...]

MORNING SUN. Members of the Board of Election Tellers (BET) prepare election paraphernalia at Koronadal Central Elementary School-I, Koronadal City just before voters troop to their precincts to elect their Barangay and Sanguniang Kabataan officials. MindaNews photo by Toto Lozano/AKP Images

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/24 Oct) — Teachers queueing for election paraphernalia from the City Treasurer’s Office here went home dismayed late Sunday afternoon upon hearing that election supplies from the Commission on Elections in Manila have not yet arrived as of 4 p.m. Sunday, with some officials fearing the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections here will [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/24 Oct) — The proxy war of big politicians is on as the voters troop to the city’s polling centers Monday. In the biggest barangays in the city, losing candidates in the May 2010 elections are reclaiming their barangay chairmanship against candidates supported by the city’s political kingpin. The Barangay Carmen [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/24 Oct) – A village chair and residents of a Moro-dominated village in President Roxas town in North Cotabato province have sought transfer of the venue of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections on Monday for fear that another armed fighting might erupt due to intense political rivalries. Magaluna Ampatuan, chairman of [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/24 Oct) – Authorities in North Cotabato are set to file on Tuesday at the Provincial Prosecution Office here multiple murder and frustrated murder charges against three suspected bombers they arrested a day after a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) went off along the highway in Matalam town in North Cotabato that killed [...]

11 MONTHS LATER. Journalists in various parts of  the country lit candles or staged rallies on October 23, the 11th month after the Ampatuan massacre that left 58 persons dead, 32 of them from the media. In Quezon City, Manila-based journalists lit candles along Morato. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 October) –  Relatives of the victims of the Ampatuan Massacre and their lawyer are calling on President Aquino and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to initiate moves to speed up the process in delivering justice to the victims. “I hope I can still find justice before I die,” said Juliet Ibardo, mother [...]

KALASUNGAY, Malaybalay City (MindaNews/23 October) –  Since the start of the campaign period on October 14, Marla Belican has been giving away 11-gram sachets of toothpaste to voters. A photocopied picture of her with her name and position aspired for is taped on both sides of the pack. In a plain shirt, old pair of [...]

11 MONTHS LATER. Journalists in various parts of  the country lit candles or staged rallies on October 23, the 11th month after the Ampatuan massacre that left 58 persons dead, 32 of them from the media. In Quezon City, Manila-based journalists lit candles along Morato. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

NEVADA (MindaNews/23 October) — When I went home to Davao, I brought with me the book “Eat, Pray, Love.” I thought I should read it since a movie was being made based on the book. The fact that it was also featured in two episodes of the Oprah Winfrey Show, made me curious about it [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 October) –  The Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms (C-CARE) , the group that has been monitoring the conduct of the local, regional and national elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) since the ARMM elections in August 2005 will be fielding monitors in Monday’s election for barangay and Sangguniang [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/23 October) — Communist guerillas operating in North Cotabato admitted having burned the boom spray truck of the Sumifru Corporation, owner of one of the biggest banana plantations in Southwestern Mindanao (Region 12) last Tuesday. In a press statement issued today, Isabel Santiago, spokesperson of the Herminio Alfonso Command of Front 53 of [...]

RARE BUT RELIABLE. Like a scene from the pre-computer era, these vintage typewriters are still being used by encoders who earn P15 per page  at the makeshift stalls near a university in Davao City. Mindanews Photo by Keith Bacongco