ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/31 January) –  Improper storage of firecrackers caused Friday’s explosion and subsequent fire, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in the Task Force Pacific set up by Mayor Celso Lobregat, reported in a meeting Saturday night. At least 33 persons were injured when an estimated 60,000 pounds of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic materials went [...]

LOVEBIRDS. A vendor sells lovebirds on the side of the highway in Carmen town, Davao del Norte. Lovebirds are small, stocky versions of parrots   and are the most common birds for pets. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/30 January) – Unidentified armed men pulled off a robbery hold-up along the highway in Pikit, North Cotabato, killing the driver and a passenger of a commercial van at around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. Sr. Insp. Elias Dandan, chief of Pikit police, identified the slain victims as Johnny Cadungog, van driver; and [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/30 January) —  Camp Crame’s Senior Officer Promotion and Placement Board has received five applications for the vacated post of police provincial directorship, P/Supt. Canilo Agua Fuentes, Bukidnon Provincial Police Office deputy for crime operations, said. But Fuentes, responding to a query during an interview with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/30 January) — Instead of just playing indigenous sports as it has been the tradition in the annual Kaamulan Festival, Bukidnon’s indigenous peoples and communities will hold the province’s Tribal Olympics on March 2 to 4. The provincial government here through the Provincial Indigenous Communities Affairs Division (PICAD) in coordination with Bukidnon’s seven [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 January) –  Weekend started early for some people last Friday. Hubby and I battled traffic to get out of the city streets and head for the idyllic city of Mati, some 160 kilometers away along the eastern coast of mainland Mindanao, fronting the Pacific Ocean. Midway,  in Mabini, we stopped at the [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/30 January) –  A few days ago, civil society groups led by the local Catholic diocese staged a rally in Dipolog City to urge for the banning of strip mining in Zamboanga del Norte.  The news report revealed that the provincial government’s board is in the process of passing a law that would [...]

MINDAVIEWS PERSONAL ESSAY:  Donna Amoroso by Rufa Cagoco-Guiam Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sun on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in [...]

A resident throws a bucket of water on what  used to be their house hours after fire hit their village in Barangay 31-D along Quezon Bouevard near Piapi in Davao City. The fire struck at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, 29 January. An estimated 300 houses were razed to the ground. Mindanews Photo by Ruby Thursday [...]

DATU UNSAY, Maguindanao (MindaNews/29 January) – “Unfair treatment,”  Mayor Bai Reshal Ampatuan, wife of former mayor and principal suspect in the Ampatuan Massacre, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Jr., said of  the January 13 incident when the police disarmed her security escorts and seized their firearms. Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac, Maguindanao police chief, had earlier said six [...]

Residents mill around what used to be a community in Barangay 31-D along Quezon Bouevard near Piapi in Davao City, a few hours after fire struck the area at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, 29 January. An estimated 300 houses were razed to the ground. MindaNews photo by Ruby Thursday More DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 January) — [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY  (MindaNews/29 January) —  Damage to property caused by the explosion in a firecracker storage facility here Friday afternoon has reached around P35 million, the initial assessment of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDMC) showed. The CDCM assessment involves only the estimated worth of property damaged within the compound of businessman [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 January) —  The Department of Education (DepEd) is eyeing the Penaplata Elementary School to be the Special Education (SpEd) center to serve children with special needs in the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos). Dr. Minerva Pabros, DepED Regional SpEd coordinator and concurrent officer in charge of the DepEd-XI Bureau of Elementary, [...]

GONE. Residents mill around what used to be a community in Barangay 31-D along Quezon Bouevard near Piapi in Davao City, a few hours after fire struck the area at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, 29 January. An estimated 300 houses were razed to the ground. MindaNews photo by Keith Bacongco

FIRE FROM FIRECRACKERS Black smoke billows from a warehouse in Zamboanga City where firecrackers exploded Friday and injured two firemen and two other persons. MindaNews Photo | Read Story

BAYOG, Zamboanga del Sur (MindaNews/28 January) — Indigenous communities here have asked the local government to reveal the identities of companies that have conflicting mining claims in this town. Timuay Lucenio Manda, barangay chairperson of Conacon, raised the question after municipal officials said that aside from failing to comply with legal requirements, some companies have conflicting mining claims that cover portions of the Lumads’ 30,000-hectare ancestral domain.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 January) – Basic infrastructures, including stable power supply, topped the concerns raised by participants from the business sector during the regional consultation on the country’s development plan for the next six years, a National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) official said. Miguel Herrera, NEDA-XI Plan and Policy Formulation director, told MindaNews the [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/28 January) – Four people, including two firemen and a three-year-old girl, were wounded in an explosion at a firecracker warehouse in this southern port city. Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) spokesperson, said fire immediately broke out after the first explosion around 3:30 p.m. Friday at the warehouse owned by [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/28 January) – Citing the “alarming” crime rate and security situation in the province, the Bukidnon provincial board has asked Gov. Alex P. Calingasan to convene a peace and order summit. Board member Jay Albarece, who urged the immediate holding of the summit, has proposed too an ordinance for its institutionalization to provide [...]

BAYOG, Zamboanga del Sur (MindaNews) – Town officials here are bent on declaring the operations of various mining companies as illegal because of their arrogance, the overlapping claims of mining areas, and disrespecting elected officials by refusing to submit company records. Furthermore, they are also complaining against the security guards heavily armed with assault rifles [...]

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte (MindaNews/27 Jan) – Six people died while five others were injured when a drunk Forward truck driver rammed his vehicle into a passenger Multicab along the highway here this afternoon, police said. The force of impact threw both vehicles into the 15-meter wide canal beside the highway, causing many of [...]

PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley (MindaNews/27 Jan) – Thousands of residents, including high school students, gathered at a beach resort here to witness the amphibious military exercise that showcased the latest sea vessels of the Philippine Navy as well as the warfare capabilities of the Marines and the elite Navy Seals. Members of the Philippine Navy Seals [...]

Members of the Philippine Navy Seals show off their skills during a mock raid exercise in Pantukan town, Compostela Valley Province on Thursday. Mindanews Photo by Keith Bacongco | Read Story

A Marine from the First Marine Recon Company land on the beach in Pantukan town in Compostela Valley province on Thursday, Jan. 27. The Marines are participating in the Philippine Navy “Exercise Pagsisikap 2011.”  MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/27 Jan) – Randy Makiputin, the broadcaster who claimed he was ambushed but police and witnesses later said it was him who fired on innocent people, is back on air starting last week with his daily entertainment program on DXGT Radyo Abante, after an “indefinite suspension” in November 2010. Station manager Gordon Torres [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 Jan) – A banana exporting company is investing P300 million for its expansion in Maguindanao, hoping that peace and order in the province will be sustained. Edgar L. Bullecer, senior vice president of Unifrutti Philippines, confirmed during last Tuesday’s forum on “Maguindanao After 11.23: Building Accountability and Transparency” that the company is [...]

Rescue workers retrieve the body of road accident victims in Barangay Bincongan, Tagum City on Thursday afternoon. The Forward truck rammed the Multicab with 10 passengers, leaving six persons dead and five others injured. Mindanews Photo by Ruby Thursday More | Read Story

Forced by lack of water facilities, residents of Barangay Sibulan in Sta. Cruz town in Davao del Sur trek to Baricatan Creek to get water. Some, like this man, use horses to ferry water from the creek to their houses. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

Malls and department stores in Davao City are enjoying brisk sales of rabbit figurines and bracelets as the Chinese New Year looms next week. According to the Chinese calendar, the year of the Rabbit will celebrated this coming Feb. 3. MindaNews Photo by Keith Bacongco

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 Jan) – Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu said he is awaiting the results of the audit report that traced over P2-billion worth of questionable receipts from the previous Ampatuan administration but which remained unaccounted for. “We have tapped the provincial engineers’ office and the receipts have been sent to the Commission on [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/25 January) — “A landmark victory for indigenous peoples in Mindanao,” Bae Alma Binayao of the Manobo-Talaandig tribe, said of the Court of Appeals Mindanao decision declaring “null and void” three land titles over 3,080 hectares in the name of the Central Mindanao University, in Musuan, Maramag, Bukidnon. The declaration was made in [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 Jan) – An environmental epidemiologist has released a study showing that the consumption of Bt Brinjal – where the gene stock of the Bt Eggplant was sourced – can cause inflammation, reproductive disorders and liver damage among rats. A report, “Bt Brinjal Event EE1: The Scope and Adequacy of the GEAC Toxicological [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 Jan) – A provincial board member of Bukidnon is pushing for the split of the province’s environment body, separating those tasked to preserve the environment, and those who are in charge of those who he said are out to destroy the environment, referring to the mining industry. Board member Nemesio Beltran Jr. [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/26 Jan) – You might want to know this before  investing some money to open up a shop around here – businesses in Surigao del Norte only have a 15-percent chance of surviving. With this staggering mortality rate, it may be wise for prospective businessmen to get into the trade well-prepared, according to [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/26 Jan) – Cotabato Governor Lala Mendoza has renewed calls to deploy armed marshals inside buses plying the province to prevent a repeat of last year’s bus bombing in Matalam town and the similar recent incident in Makati City. Eleven people died in the Matalam bombing and five in Makati. “Without bus marshals, [...]

ISABELA CITY, Basilan (MindaNews/26 Jan) – The Philippine National Police has deployed two companies of combatant policemen from the various regions to Basilan to help curb criminality and pursue Abu Sayyaf bandits. Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu, chief of the police’s Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO) in Western Mindanao, said the decision for the deployment [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 January) – Honesty may be the best policy but it is not enough, Jesuit priest Albert Alejo, project leader of the Ehem anti-corruption movement, told the roundtable forum “Maguindanao after 11.23: Building public accountability and transparency.” “Honesty is not enough. That is the side of supply. We have to learn the demand side of honesty. Demand honesty, integrity,” he told the forum Tuesday morning at the Waterfront Insular Hotel attended by Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, 6th Infantry Division chief Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara, journalists, students, teachers and representatives of non-governmental organizations from Maguindanao and Davao City.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 January) – “Tao lang ako. Kung may nakikita kayong mali ko, sabihan nyo ako” (I’m just human. If I do something wrong, tell me),’ Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu told an anti-corruption forum Tuesday. He told an audience of journalists, students, teachers and representatives of non-government organizations in Maguindanao and Davao City about [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 January) – “Corruption kills,” sabi ni Fr. Albert Alejo. Yesterday, a very good man was gunned down by an assassin in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Dr. Gerry Ortega, who hosted a daily prime time radio program, was a broadcast journalist and an environmental activist, a person who dared to question the corruption behind [...]

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangundadatu (center) speaks before members of the media, NGOs, and academe during a forum  on “‘Maguindanao after 11.23: Building Accountability and Transparency” in Davao City on Tuesday. With him are  Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara, chief of the 6th Infantry Division (L) and lawyer Carlos Isagani Zarate, convenor of the Alliance Against [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 January) — Over a year after the massacre of 58 persons, 32 of them from the media, corruption continues to kill people, not only journalists, participants to  an anti-corruption forum on Tuesday, agreed. “Corruption is violence. Corruption kills,” said Fr. Albert Alejo, SJ, the project leader of Ehem Anti-Corruption Movement. ”Corruption kills [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 January) —  The Philippine National Police (PNP) has released more than 5,000 provisional permits to gun holders in Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao) who earlier availed of the government’s firearms amnesty program. Chief Insp. Romeo Galgo Jr., firearms, explosives, security agencies and guards section chief of PNP Region 12, said Tuesday they [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/25 January) — President Benigno Simeon Aquino has tasked the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to conduct a feasibility study for a an airport “more central in Mindanao so that distances to and from various areas will make more economic sense.”

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 January) — Government forces have stepped up their security operations in Columbio in Sultan Kudarat following a series of attacks allegedly staged by communist rebels there since Friday, leaving a civilian wounded. Lt. Col. Joel Alejandro Nacnac, commander of the 27th Infantry Battalion (IB), said Tuesday they deployed additional troops in several upland villages of Columbio to secure local communities and residents from further harassments by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels
reportedly led by a certain Kumander Joyjoy.

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/25 January)  A village leader here has appealed for help to ship to this city some 50 computers donated by a Rotary chapter in Australia, for distribution to three public schools here. Nancy Cortes,  a councilor of Barangay 76-A Bucana, said the International Rotary of Tasmania, Australia has agreed to donate about 50 [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — I’m glad to know that the so-called MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) Tripartite Review is going to be resumed and a meeting is set sometime next month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The review is actually an effort to revisit the 1996 peace agreement that was signed between the Philippine government, [...]

Traders haggle for the best tuna stocks at General Santos City Fish Port for shipment abroad. The tunas have been observed to shrink in size, a phenomenon blamed on overfishing. MindaNews Photo by Bong Sarmiento | Read Special Report .

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announced it would have to postpone releasing the results of its report on extrajudicial killings in the city and the possible involvement of some local officials and police as the agency still plans to conduct another set of public inquiry soon. Lawyer Alberto B. [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — Village officials in a Siargao town are up in arms over a construction located just a stone’s throw away from the seashore, which they said was spoiling the barangay’s tourism program and violated the law on easement zones. The officials of Barangay Pacifico, San Isidro town filed an environment case [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — Families displaced by the recent flashfloods in Barangay Darong, Sta. Cruz town in Davao del Sur will soon be relocated in the upland areas of the village to avert more damages and casualties in the future, the municipal mayor said. “The relocation should be made as soon as possible to [...]