A radio commentator in Kidapawan City has reported receiving threatening calls on Monday, June 27,2011, from a caller who identified herself as the mother of a murder suspect  arrested by police Sunday, June 26, for murder. The caller, who called the radio station Monday morning while broadcaster Abner Francisco was anchoring his daily radio program [...]

THE MORNING AFTER. Vehicles swept away by the floods in Bangkal, Davao City. MindaNews photo by GG Bueno

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/29 June) –  The worst ever in terms of loss of lives. Twenty-five persons were killed, 15 of them children, while 15 others remain missing as of 5 p.m. Wednesday  as flashfloods struck at least five barangays here from late Tuesday night to early Wednesday morning. “In terms of damage to property, this [...]

LA PAZ, Agusan del Sur  (MindaNews/29 June) — Some 200 Manobo tribesmen from different areas in Mindanao gathered here Thursday to grace the tribal installation of a female supreme leader of the tribe — a first in this part of Mindanao. Bae Merlyn “Hawodon Cugbahan” Tagleong Coguit, daughter of the legendary Tagleong, was officially installed [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/29 June) — Stiffer penalty will be meted out against Surigao City vendors caught selling spoiled fish. Juanita P. Cabaña, market supervisor at the Surigao Public Market, said they are proposing to increase from P200 to P1,000 from the penalty for vendors violating a market health and sanitation ordinance, while repeat offenders will [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 June) — Intelligence monitoring has been heightened to thwart a possible bomb attack here following the discovery of an abandoned motorcycle at the back of the old city hall,  a police official said on Wednesday. Inspector Rolly Oranza, intelligence chief of the city police office, said in a radio interview that based [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 June) –  The government peace panel is expected to hand over its proposed peace settlement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) when the two panels meet again on August 2 to 4. This was the decision reached by representatives of both panels who met in executive session in Kuala Lumpur on [...]

BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/28 June) — Electric consumers have opted to register the Agusan del Norte Electric Cooperative with the Cooperative Development Authority in a referendum held in 15 various districts here Sunday. Aneco became the first electric cooperative that opted to be listed under the CDA, a move that would entitle it to congressional allocations, [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/28 June) — The local Catholic Church won’t ease up its campaign against the Tampakan copper-gold mining project of foreign-backed Sagittarius Mines, Inc. despite the company’s economic contribution as contained in its sustainability report set to be launched Wednesday in Davao City. “Our opposition against SMI’s open-pit method is non-negotiable,” said Fr. Romeo [...]

VALENCIA CITY (MindaNews/28 June) — The Central Mindanao University board of regents will create a “high level task force” that would continue looking for a peaceful solution to the lingering land conflict with three farmers groups that have merged as the Buffalo-Tamaraw-Limus Association. In her letter to the BTL dated June 22 and mailed to [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 June) – Local officials and residents here are targeting to plant at least 100,000 trees in various parts of the city on Wednesday as they aim to break the Guinness world record for the most number of trees planted simultaneously. City Mayor Peter Miguel said Tuesday more than 24,000 volunteers have already [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 June) – The government’s policy on mining and other extractive industries contradicts its avowed concern for the environment and threatens its commitment to mitigate the impact of climate change, an environment nongovernment organization said. Worse, said Catherine Abon, training coordinator of the Center for Environmental Concerns Philippines, “it’s the people who are [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/28 June) — A group has found a way to help reduce the volume of water hyacinths in rivers and thus mitigate flooding by making them into handmade paper materials, but another problem has cropped up – the lack of market for these products. The Kids for Peace Foundation said the handmade paper [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/28 June) – Schoolchildren in Cotabato City and several other towns in Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces whose families were displaced by the floods since last month are now attending alternative classes in evacuation centers, the Department of Education in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao announced. Dr. Isabelita Borres, DepEd Region [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/28 June) – At least 15 alleged New People’s Army rebels turned bandits operating in the mountains of Glan town in Sarangani province have surrendered to government authorities following a series of negotiations mediated by local officials in the area. Chief Supt. Benjardi Mantele, acting Region 12 police director, said Tuesday the [...]

A habal-habal carries a load of chicharon or crackling pork along the highway in Magsaysay town in Misamis Oriental. MindaNews Photo by Erwin Mascarinas

MALAYBALAY CITY (28 June) – Now that Hubert Jeffrey Webb and company can no longer be charged for the rape-slay of members of the Vizconde family owing to the principle of double jeopardy, the National Bureau of Investigation has come out with a damning finding: Webb did not leave the country before or on the [...]

DAVAO CITY (28 June) — Unnerving. I am not referring to those near-death incidents which are related to the metaphysical realm.  What I am talking about are the ones that are real, those which involve guns and knives. I have had numerous brushes with such incidents.  The last time happened more than two years ago.  [...]

RETURN TO PPI –I attended the 2-day annual conference of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) in Manila last week. It was a sentimental “return” to an organization which I wanted to serve many years ago. It got aborted 40 years ago! PPI, a non-stock, non-profit print media organization was founded in 1964 with journalists and [...]

Market inspectors check on the freshness of the fish at the public market of Surigao City. MindaNews photo by Roel Catoto

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – The government peace panel has deferred submission of its peace settlement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). No explanation on the deferment, however, was mentioned in the press release issued by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) from Kuala Lumpur where  the government and [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/27 June) — Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato City has urged for continuing unity and donations to ease the plight of tens of thousands of flood victims in Cotabato City. In an appeal written in Filipino and printed June 25 in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate-owned The Mindanao Cross weekly, the religious leader [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – People living in low-lying and coastal areas should begin moving out now in anticipation of the likely impact of climate change, an official warned alluding to the projected rise in sea levels once polar ice melts as a result of higher atmospheric temperatures due to the phenomenon called global warming. [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews) – Anakpawis Party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano has filed a resolution asking the House of Representatives to investigate the Central Mindanao University in Musuan, Maramag, Bukidnon for the dispersal of farmers that had camped out near the university’s main gate to protest their impending eviction from CMU’s farmlands. CMU security guards reportedly attacked [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – At least 500 villages in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao are considered at high risk to severe flooding and landslides when the ongoing rainy season intensifies in the coming weeks, a government geologist warned over the weekend. Engr. Jaime Flores, chief geologist of the Department of Environment and Natural [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – Water hyacinths that were said to have worsened the flood in Cotabato City last week and drifted to Illana Bay have damaged some 800 hectares of seaweed farm off Parang town in Maguindanao. According to the Presidential Task Force on Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation and Development, the damage has affected [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed a former town mayor of Sulu and critically injured his wife in this city, a top police official disclosed Monday. Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo, Zamboanga City Police Office director, said the incident took place around 8:15 a.m. Monday in front of the public cemetery [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – Police authorities in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao tightened security in various key areas in the region following the recovery of two improvised bombs at a police checkpoint in Sultan Kudarat province Monday morning. Chief Supt. Benjardi Mantele, Region 12 police director, said the explosives were intercepted aboard a [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 June) – Two persons were injured when a huge fire broke out early Monday at a portion of the public market of T’boli town in South Cotabato. Chief Insp. Edzrapel Dilawangan, South Cotabato provincial fire marshal, said an entire block where the market’s old building was located was razed to the [...]

Former North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Pinol, the MILF’s Eid Kabalu, Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte at the lobby cafe of the Marco Polo hotel in Davao. Contributed Photo

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 June) –  Eid Kabalu, who was reported to have been fired but who claimed to have resigned from his post as chief of civil-military relations and spokesperson of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), confirmed he met two weeks ago with former North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Pinol and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 June) – Small-scale gold mining in a hinterland district in San Fernando, Bukidnon has been fetching around a round a  million peso a day but since it is illegal, neither the barangay nor the municipal or provincial government, is earning from it, a  report from the Bukidnon Environment and Natural Resources Office [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/26 June) – The mass of water hyacinths that built up under the Delta Bridge due to rains since the third week of May, is gone. As of 7 a.m. Sunday, the estimated 20-hectare islet of water hyacinths has been cleared, Lt. Gregorio Jose, spokesperson of the 603rd Infantry Brigade said, quoting reports [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/26 June) – Mayor Celso Lobregat on Saturday declared 24 acacia trees as century and heritage trees to generate consciousness and participation among residents to preserve and protect trees. Lobregat  issued Executive Order No. CL 406-2011 highlighting the observance of “Arbor Day na Ciudad de Zamboanga” and the declaration’s basis is City Ordinance [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 June)  – For most readers, the word kaingin may evoke images of forests being wantonly cut down and burned for agriculture. Nothing can be farther from the truth if one cares to examine the original concept of kaingin as practiced by the Lumads or indigenous peoples. It just happened that all we [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) will take part in the “ARMM governance reforms” of the Aquino administration when it appoints a caretaker administration to govern the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from noon of September 30, 2011 to June 30, 2013, the Philippine government and MNLF agreed in a [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/25 June) —  The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has dismissed its civil-military affairs chief, Eid Kabalu, for allegedly violating its Code of Conduct, MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar said. Jaafar said Kabalu, without clearance from the MILF,  met with President Aquino’s allies — former North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Pinol [...]

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao (MindaNews/25 June) – PDP-Laban candidates Datu Pax Mangudadatu and President Aquino’s aunt, Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, opened their campaign for governor and vice-governor in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)  with a  “leaders’ forum” in Cojuangco’s house here Friday night. “The COMELEC hasn’t issued new guidelines, so it would not hurt [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/25 June) —  It may be an all’s well that ends well scenario as the health facilities for the poor of the Committee of German Doctors here and in Bukidnon will reopen on Monday after security issues resulting in an extortion try were resolved. Dr. Dietmar Schug, country director of the [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/25 June) – Two persons were killed while 14 others were wounded in a fire that triggered the explosion of a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tank  in a popular restaurant in Isabela City, Basilan early Saturday evening, a military official said. . Col. Alex Macario, Special Operations Task Force-Basilan (SOTF-B) commander, said the [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 June) — The Department of Labor and Employment in Southwestern Mindanao will extend financial assistance to a hundred flood victims in Cotabato City, Ma. Gloria Tango, DOLE regional director, said. But the chosen beneficiaries should work for one month declogging drainage systems in 25 barangays in the city, she said. “The regional [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/25 June) – Government troops arrested on Thursday an Abu Sayyaf  member who was involved in two kidnapping cases in the island province of Basilan, Col. Alex Macario, Special Operations Task Force-Basilan (SOTF-B) commander, said. Macario said the suspect was arrested at around 3 p.m. Thursday in Lamitan City, Basilan. He did not [...]

WATER HYACINTHS. Getting rid of the water hyacinths that have formed an islet under the Delta Bridge in the boundary of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and Cotabato City requires more than two watermaster dredgers and a modular barge, or bamboo poles used by soldiers, firemen and volunteers afternoon of June 21. Sultan Kudarat Mayor Tocao Mastura [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/24 June)— The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Southwestern Mindanao or Region 12 needs more volunteers to help the rising number of flood victims in Cotabato City, officials said on Friday Zorahayda Taha, DSWD Region 12 director, placed the number of flood-affected families inside evacuation centers at 9,077 families or [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/24 June) – Zamboanga port manager Leonilo Miole of the Philippine Ports Authority disclosed that there are at least 30 wharves operating illegally in this city. Miole, team leader of Task Force Pantalan, made the announcement after the task force completed the inventory of all government and private wharves here. He said most [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/24 June) – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Region 10 arrested a lawyer, a dentist, and two other suspects in a drug buy-bust operation Wednesday in neighboring Valencia City. PDEA agents arrested lawyer Winston Intong mid-afternoon Wednesday in his office in Purok 11, Valencia City. Intong, a lawyer since 1995, resides in Malaybalay City [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/24 June) – Without a permanent job for years, 49-year old Romeo N. Manalo was hoping to finally land an employment when he heard that an organization was building a farming training center in their barangay more than four years ago. Manalo’s dream, however, never materialized since the organization could not accommodate many [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 June) — With no funds yet for major construction works, Davao City will have to prioritize the removal of silt and wastes from canals to improve its drainage capacity, officials said. “This is what we will prioritize while we still have no definite budget,” Roberto Alabado III, acting chief of the City [...]

OLD RUINS. One of the oldest Catholic churches in Mindanao once stood in this place in Barangay Banza, Butuan City, built by the Recollect friars in 1625. Its belfry is now enveloped by the balete tree. The new structure beside the tree only serves as marker. MindaNews photo by Roel N. Catoto

Police officers stand guard at the gate of the Committee of German Doctors Hospital as an extortion letter demanding P5 million from the German volunteers expires today (June 22). MindaNews photo by BenCyrus G. Ellorin | Read Story