KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 April) — Talks between San Miguel Corp. and Indophil Resources NL continue for a possible full acquisition of the Australian firm which owns a third of the controlling equity at the massive Tampakan copper-gold project, the foreign company said on Friday. Richard Laufmann, Indophil Resources chief executive officer and managing director, said [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/29 April) — The two-day Bukidnon Watershed and River Basin Forum here ended Thursday with a resolution outlining at least 19 proposals and recommendations to President Benigno Aquino III to keep the balance of economy and environment in the province considered as the “headwater of six major rivers in Mindanao”. “Recognizing, that Bukidnon, [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/29 April) – Nine farm workers died and 53 others were injured in a vehicular accident in an oil palm plantation in Opol, Misamis Oriental, an incident that may have underscored the generally poor working conditions of farm workers in the country. Six of the victims died on the spot and [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/29 April) – Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) yesterday arrested four suspects, including a policeman and his wife, in separate buy-bust operations in this southern port city. PDEA Regional Director Adzhar Albani identified the arrested suspects as Police Office 3 Darwin Detuyatu, his wife Nortisa, Jayrulla Jahi, and Biron Sarabbun. [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/29 April) — The municipal council of Magpet has urged President Aquino to appeal to the government of Iran for a retrial of the case of one of their constituents who went to Iran as a tourist but ended up as a drug mule. In a resolution, the council said Ernie Guinoo Tamonde [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/28 April) – The Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels signed a joint statement at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, agreeing to meet again on June 27 to 28 for the presentation of the government’s draft peace settlement.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 Apr) – A former labor arbiter of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) was found by the Sandiganbayan guilty of extorting P20,000 from an ice plant operator in exchange for a dismissal of a case. But Amado Solamo, the accused, was given 15 days to file his motion for reconsideration to ask [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/28 April) — The total carbon stocks at the Manupali watershed in Lantapan town in Bukidnon reduced by 12.9 percent within a 17-year period, from 1990 to 2007, according to a study presented Thursday at the Bukidnon Watershed and River Basin Forum in this city. From 1,645,690.24 tons in 1990, the carbon stocks [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 Apr) – On the second day of their march for justice and land, at least 300 Bagobo K’lata lumads and farmers from sitio Kahusayan in barangay Guianga will spend the night at the Mintal Gym before they proceed to Davao City tomorrow, Friday, protesting against the encroachment of their ancestral land. The [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/23 Apr) – Descendants of the Bukidnon tribe’s Datu Mansikiabo-Datu Mampaalong in Malaybalay City have scheduled on April 30 and May 1 a “panendan” or a ritual to commemorate the historic landmark of the traditional peace agreements at the headwaters of Tagoloan River. The ritual will be held in a traditional gathering or [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/28 Apr) – There will be no welcome news of any wage increases for workers in Regions 9 and 12 on Labor Day, May 1. Despite the high prices of petroleum products and some basic commodities, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) in both regions said there will be no wage [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 Apr) – The Davao Football Association’s team blanked visiting Dipolog squad in the opening game of the Philippine Football Federation-Suzuki Under 23 (U23) National Cup All Mindanao Finals at Tionko Football Field here on Thursday. The Davao booters scored two goals in the first half of the game and another goal in [...]

KUALA LUMPUR  (MindaNews/28 April) –  The smiles on the faces of  the peace negotiators and members of the International Contact Group  as  they came out of the Penang Room of Sheraton Imperial Hotel at 6:37 p.m. Wednesday, augured well for the second formal exploratory talks under the Aquino administration, the first under a new facilitator. [...]

KUALA Lumpur  (MindaNews/27 April) –  “The Kato problem is internal to the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). Leave this problem to us,” MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal said at the start of the two-day formal exploratory talks here, the second under the Aquino administration but the 21st since the talks resumed after the war [...]

Residents of Kauswagan town, Lanao del Norte celebrate the feast of their patron saint, San Vicente Ferrer, with a fluvial festival last Monday. MindaNews / Stringer

A child grimaces in pain as a health worker administers an anti-measles vaccine shot in Kidapawan City. MindaNews photo by Geonarri Solmerano

Families and volunteers continue to dig through the mud in the hopes of finding survivors almost a week after a landslide hit the small-mining village of Panganason-B, Barangay Kingking in Pantukan town, Compostella Valley province. At least 13 miners died and rescuers are still looking for 11 more miners who are missing. MindaNews photo by by Ruby Thursday More [...]

EVACUATION Reynaldo Vasquez, 43, dismantles the roof of his ball mill shop in Sitio Panganason-B, Barangay Kingking, Pantukan, Compostela Valley Province. Local authorities have declared the village as a danger zone in the wake of the deadly landslide that killed at least 13 miners almost a week ago and ordered all residents to vacate the [...]

PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley (MindaNews/27 Apr) – The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Council (MRRDC) on Wednesday said 60 of 112 houses have been voluntarily demolished by miners while the rest are still being razed down by the demolition team and local residents.

PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley (MindaNews/27 Apr) – Five days after a landslide struck a gold mining site, 48-year-old Lolita Jostol believes that her son is still alive and may have hidden inside the tunnel after her other son survived the tragedy.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/27 Apr) – Former Bukidnon congressman Neric Acosta, who has been reported to be the next environment secretary, said the landslide in Pantukan, Compostela Valley is an eye-opener for a review on the small-scale mining operations in the country and has proposed a suspension of mining in critical areas like Diwalwal, Monkayo, Compostela [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 Apr) – The provincial government of South Cotabato is planning to embark on a massive culture of parasitoid insects that could help counter the continuing onslaught of the destructive leaf beetle or Brontispa longissima among plantation coconuts in the area. Reynaldo Legaste, South Cotabato provincial agriculturist, said they are sending a [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 Apr) – Agriculture officials in South Cotabato are bracing for another palay bumper harvest in the next three months as they expect the usual lean months in local palay production to ease off this year. Reynaldo Legaste, South Cotabato agriculture office chief, said Wednesday their monitoring showed that an estimated 18,000 [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/27 Apr) – Everyone the world over seems to be agog over the wedding on Friday of Britain’s Prince William and would-be princess Kate Middleton. Except perhaps for the people in Libya and other troubled Middle East and North African countries. Except perhaps for the tsunami victims in Japan. And except for this [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/27 April) — The peace talks between the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has a new facilitator. Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed, a former diplomat, retired director-general of the Department of National Security and secretary-general of the National Security Council has taken over the task of Datuk [...]

PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley (MindaNews/27 April) – Relatives and rescuers recovered on Tuesday five more bodies at the landslide site in Barangay Kingking here even if the local government has ordered a temporary suspension of the rescue and retrieval operations due to inclement weather, bringing to 13 the death toll of the Good Friday disaster. However, [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 April) — The body tasked to flush out criminal elements in the bailiwicks of the Moro Islamic Liberation (MILF) will start work anew in the next few days, it was gathered on Tuesday. This after the government and the MILF separately confirmed that they have already reconstituted their respective members of [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 April) – The provincial government of South Cotabato is considering the permanent closure of at least three small-scale mining sites in T’boli town due to their vulnerability to landslides and other mining-related geo-hazards. Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. said a technical team commissioned by the local government to conduct safety inspections on [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/26 April) – Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma has proposed a non-antagonistic way that the Catholic Church and other opponents of the Reproductive Health Bill may use in campaigning against the controversial measure. In a pastoral letter dated April 19 and read during the Easter Sunday masses, Ledesma said that [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 April) – The government has only one geologist assigned in Region XI, an area prone to natural disasters, Director Leo Jasareno of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said in a press conference here Monday. Jasareno said that in the last 3 years, only 86 of the country’s 160 geologists were left. [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 April) — The 255-megawatt Pulangi IV hydroelectric power plant in Maramag, Bukidnon resumed its operations around 9:30p.m. Monday after it was shut down for repairs during the Holy Week, plant manager Rudy Brioso said Tuesday. The National Power Corporation announced on April 20 the maintenance and repair of three units of the [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/26 April) — Thousands of peace advocates from different areas of southern Mindanao held rallies today in support of the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The simultaneous rallies, which included a caravan, were spearheaded by the Mindanao Peoples Caucus, Mindanao Alliance for Peace (MAP), Bangsamoro [...]

Mother and child wash their clothes in theclean flowing waters in a river in Malasila, Makilala town, NorthCotabato. MindaNews photo by Geonarri Solmerano

PANTUKAN, Compostela Valley (MindaNews/25 April) – For many miners, dying in a disaster like a landslide is better than dying from hunger even if dozens of their colleagues had been buried alive in different gold mining sites. Even the miners at the landslide area in Barangay Kingking here admitted that several tunnels had collapsed in the past but most of them went unreported. Two years ago, 27 miners were killed when a chunk of a mountain in Sitio Magapispis, Barangay Boringot of this town fell into three bunkhouses.

DAVAOCITY (MindaNews/25 April) — The site in Sitio Panganason, Barangay Kingking in Pantukan, Compostela Valley where a landslide occurred Friday has been closed to human occupancy after the local government ordered Sunday the forced relocation within 48 hours of some 30 families living in the area.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 April) – Around P54.2 billion is needed to develop new irrigation systems in Mindanao that could serve an additional 100,686 hectares of rice farms, the National Irrigation Administration said.   NIA administrator Antonio Nangel said in a statement that of Mindanao’s 959,020 hectares of irrigable land, only 368,382 hectares are served [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 April) – The South Cotabato provincial board will launch a legislative inquiry this week regarding the continuing “highly-destructive” illegal small-scale mining activities in at least two municipalities in the province. Board member Ernesto Catedral, chair of the board’s environment committee, said Monday the inquiry will mainly focus on determining the extent [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/25 April) – Abdurahman Macapaar also known as Commander Bravo, one of the three Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) field commanders declared “rogue” by the government, has sent a four-man delegation to convince Amiril Umra Kato to return to the fold of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF). Kato formed the Bangsamoro Islamic [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 April) – A group of swine producers and growers here and nearby South Cotabato province is planning to establish an offsite farm biogas plant that could later generate at least 3.5 megawatts (MW) of power for local agro-industrial facilities and communities. Emilio Escobillo Jr., chair of the South Cotabato Swine Producers [...]

  Rescue workers on Sunday carry the body of one of the miners buried at the landslide at Sitio Panganason-B in Barangay Kingking, Pantukan, Compstela Valley Province. Five were killed while 17 others remain missing after a landslide hit the gold-rush site on Friday, April 22. Mindanews Photo

GOLD-RUSH SITE An aerial photo of the miners’ shanties at Sitio Panganason in Barangay Kingking, Pantukan, Compostela Valley province. The provincial and municipal government have given the miners at least 30 days to vacate the gold-rush site since it is prone to landslides. Five persons were killed and 17 others remained missing after a landslide hit a portion of the [...]

PANTUKAN, Compostella Valley (MindaNews/24 April) — At least 30 families living near the landslide site in the small-scale gold mining area in Barangay Kingking have been given 48 hours starting Monday to relocate, as initial assessment shows another landslide could happen anytime, Local Governments Secretary Jessie Robredo told a press conference here Sunday afternoon.

RELIGIOUS TREK. Worshipers start the four-kilometer trek to the Guadalupe Shrine atop the Igbabalay Hills in Barangay Balubal in Cagayan de Oro City. Popular among Cagayan de Oro residents, worshippers have to cross the Umalag River nine times before reaching the shrine six to nine hours later. The shrine was built in May 1987. MindaNews photo by Bency Ellorin

Along the way, worshippers pray for the Stations of the Cross situated strategically along the river enroute to the shrine. MindaNews photo by Bency Ellorin

Ariel Banwag on his climb down Mt. Agad-agad. He does this almost everyday, so his family would have firewood to cook. MindaNews photo by Bobby Timonera

PAMILACAN, Bohol (MindaNews/23 April) — “Oh, you’re a psychologist!” the German girl exclaimed. “In my spare time. Not today,” I assured her, as I waved goodbye, happy to have convinced her to come see Davao some time soon. I’d found her at mid-morning, struggling with her flipflops going up the footpath that cuts through the [...]

PANTUKAN,  Compostela Valley (MindaNews/24 April) –   The death toll in Friday’s landslide rose to five as four bodies were retrieved from the landslide site Sunday. The number of missing has dropped to 17 as all four were among the 21 reported missing. As of 6 p..m. Sunday, the official count of the Municipal Disaster Risk [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 April) — Canned tuna remained the top export earner for Southwestern Mindanao last year, but the flagship product’s sales dropped by 7%, from P204 million in 2009 to $189 million in 2010, a regional export performance report of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) showed. The volume of canned tuna [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/24 April) — The Herminio Alfonso Command Front 53 of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) operating in the hinterlands of North Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces announced in a press statement that they have been holding captive two intelligence officers of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion since April 14.

MALAYBALAY CITY  (MindaNews/24 April) —  A forum organized as a follow up to the Bukidnon Environment Summit of 2008 will be held here on April 27 and 28, with President Aquino delivering the keynote address. The Bukidnon Watershed and River Basin Forum aims to assess the impact of development activities such as expansion of agricultural [...]