SAN FRANCISCO, Surigao del Norte (MindaNews/31 August) — Around 1,000 Mamanwas trooped to the municipal gymnasium on Friday last week to receive cash “bonus” from a mining company which they have allowed to conduct exploration activities in their barangays. The distribution of the so-called bonus to the Lumads was timed with the signing of the [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/31 August) – Malaybalay Bishop Jose A. Cabantan expressed his support for House Bill 4626 (Food for Filipinos First Act of 2011) as a safety measure for food self-sufficiency in the country. Cabantan met with Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile, author of the bill, at the bishop’s house during the congressman’s visit to Bukidnon [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/31 August) – The national government has allocated P301.92 million for the implementation of priority flood control and road projects in South Cotabato province next year. South Cotabato 2nd District Rep. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said the funds were part of the infrastructure allocation set by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/31 August) – The city government here is pushing for the forging of a sisterhood agreement with the industrial city of Valenzuela in Metro Manila in a bid to further enhance the area’s trade and investment prospects. City Mayor Peter Miguel said the local government has initiated discussions with officials of Valenzuela City [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/31 August) — City Hall has neither provided personnel nor finished the pavilion of the dilapidated building for the Office of Senior Citizens’ Affairs (Osca), a problem blamed on the “trickling” manner of disbursing funds by the city government. Alfonso Goking, president of the Cagayan de Oro Federation of Senior Citizens’ [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/31 August) –The first tranche of the government’s “Pantawid Pasada” assistance for public transportation drivers has finally arrived in Southwestern Mindanao or Region 12, a Land Transportation Office official said. Arlan Mangelen, LTO-12 director, said that 672 cards would be distributed to beneficiaries of the Public Transport Assistance Program (PTAP) in the [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/31 August) – Like a flare shot into the night sky, the historic meeting of President Benigno Aquino III and MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim in Tokyo last August 4 brightened hope for the Mindanao peace process only to dim on the 18th day to leave the Government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiators groping in the dark under the shroud of Government’s “honestly different ‘3 for 1’ proposal”.

DAKBAYAN SA DABAW (MindaNews/Agosto 31) — Dugay na ni nahitabo. Mga lima o unom na tingali ka tuig. Nagpiknik mi nila ni Betty ug Bubot sa Samal dihang giduolan mig Badjao sa among lamesa. Namaligya siyag mga alahas. Mga perlas kuno. Kini si Betty sigeg sulay og suot sa mga pulseras, singsing, kulintas, ariyos, ubp. [...]

A student releases a lighted lantern into the sky during the culmination of the Kagayhaan Festival in Cagayan de Oro City. MindaNews photo by Erwin Mascarinas

BEFORE GAME TIME. Students from Xavier University and Merry Child School shake hands before their volleyball game hosted by the former. MindaNews photo by Jasper Llanderal

Residents bring their discarded appliances, bottles and old tires to a collection center in Kidapawan City. The project dubbed “Trash to Cash” is aimed to protect the environment and prevent junk materials from becoming breeding places of dengue-carrying mosquitoes. MindaNews photo by Geonarri Solmerano

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) –  Acknowledging that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) may not agree with the approaches of government in crafting a peace settlement, government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen said they are “ready, willing and able to continue the negotiations” as he urged the MILF to “sit down with us and continue [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) – Muslims from all walks of life gathered in this city’s main mosque today for Eid’l Fitr, which marks the end of the Ramadan, where most of the faithful renewed their solidarity and hoped for genuine peace throughout the island. At least a thousand attended the Sunnah muak’kad – [...]

BEIJING (MindaNews/30 August) – The visit of Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III here is expected to renew the ties of the Philippines and China, particularly in trade, and to strike an understanding over the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) that for the past months have challenged both countries’ relations. [...]

BEIJING (MindaNews/30 August) – A horde of Filipino-Chinese businessmen have arrived with President Benigno S. Aquino III on Tuesday, a clear manifestation of the willingness of the government to boost trade and investment with China, the Philippines’ third largest trading partner. There are at least 270 Filipino-Chinese businessmen in the presidential delegation.

Among the businessmen are [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) – After months of throwing potshots, the city government finally settled the issue with local Filipino-Chinese magnate Alfredo T. Bonpin on the controversial two-hectare property at the City Boulevard. Bonpin, chairperson of the Surigao Realty Development Corporation (SRDC), the realty arm of the Surigaonon Rural Banking Corporation (SRBC), can now start [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) ­– Photojournalists and photo enthusiasts have criticized the guidelines for the coverage of the 2011 Bonok-Bonok Maradjaw Karadjaw Festival slated on September 9, which will have a screening process, the imposition of a registration fee and obliging photographers to submit pictures of the event. The City Tourism Council said it is [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/30 August) – Task Force 62 of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao (NFWM) has rescued a wooden-hull vessel in distress in the province of Tawi-Tawi, belated reports from the Philippine Navy said. Commodore Armando Guzman, NFWM commander, said the vessel loaded with 67 people, including the seven crew, was rescued Thursday 4.8 nautical [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/30 August) – The South Cotabato health office is set to distribute 2,500 ovicidal/larvicidal (O/L) mosquito trap system to fight dengue even as cases in the province showed a drop in the first seven months of the year, an official said. Dr. Rogelio Aturdido Jr., provincial health officer, said the OL mosquito trap [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) – Despite the circulation of video clips showing Lingig, Surigao del Sur Mayor Henry Dano and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel appealing to the military to suspend operations against the New People’s Army (NPA), the 4th Infantry Division said only the local crisis management committee can [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 August)  –  A new group called “Christian Convergence” met behind closed door for  three hours Monday with government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen, expressing their support for the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front but opposing “the idea of a sub-state” and the expansion of the Autonomous [...]

CLOSED DOOR. Government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen meets with non-Moro leaders led by former North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Pinol at the Marco Polo hotel in Davao City.  The meeting was held behind closed doors to allow for a “no holds barred” expression of views. Most of those who attended were politicians identified with [...]

QUEZON CIY  (MindaNews/29 August) — In the news last week was what appeared to be the troubled state of the ongoing negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).  It was reported that the MILF peace panel recommended to its Central Committee to reject the peace proposal submitted [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 August) –The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) reiterated the need to fast-track the forging of a final peace agreement to avoid the resurgence of internal cracks like the case of renegade commander Ustadz Amiril Umra Kato, a senior rebel official said on Monday. Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, also [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/29 August) – The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology personnel abducted last month by the New People’s Army in Kitaotao, Bukidnon appealed for the suspension of military operations against the rebel group in order not to delay their release, according to video clips emailed by the National Democratic Front-Southern Mindanao. In the [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 August) — The city aims to become the country’s top producer of cacao, said City Agriculture Officer Leo Avila. Avila said this can be realized if an investor from Europe pursues his plan to cultivate 10,000 hectares for coffee in the city. Davao City presently has some 1600 hectares of cacao farms. [...]

PENANG, Malaysia (MindaNews/29 August) — First of all, I claim to be no expert in the subject of Islamic governance and jurisprudence. However, the topic of Islamic State holds so much relevance and importance to ordinary Moros, like myself, who continue to be confused. Thus, I wish to offer some simple discussions. To start, I [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 August) — ‘NO SHOW’ –Last week, when the MILF decided to suddenly leave the negotiating table,  hastily packed its bags to head  back for home and  did not show up on the last day of the scheduled peace negotiations after getting the government (GPH) draft, I was not surprised at all.  In [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 August) — My mother, a teacher, wanted to make herself look glamorous for an event at school. To complete her get-up, all that she needed now were matching boots. I had just the pair.  They were covered in jet black latex-like cloth, and, last I measured, the heels were three inches high. [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Asis Perez announced that he is amenable to a transition period in the imposition of the close season for commercial fishing in the region. Perez’s statement came following a consultation Friday with the Industrial Group of Zamboanga, Inc. (IGZI) initiated by Mayor [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – The city government is preparing for a legal battle with a Manila-based contractor seven years after signing the P225-million contract to build the city’s supposedly biggest infrastructure project and four years after its scheduled completion. Mayor Ignacio Zubiri told MindaNews that the city government will either file or respond to [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – One of the painful lessons that the negotiators, stakeholders and general public learned from the dramatic fall of the MOA-Ancestral Domain, forged between the Philippine and Bangsamoro panels in Kuala Lumpur in 2008, was the need for openness and transparency in the negotiation process. Its particular, relative absence until then [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – Bukidnon Gov. Alex Calingasan has requested authority from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to develop the Capitol’s prime lot property in downtown Malaybalay City into a commercial arcade, board member Nemesio Beltran Jr. revealed. In a letter dated April 13, 2011, Calingasan requested the board to authorize him to identify a private [...]

GANGWON Province, Korea (MindaNews/28 August) – Turning wastes into a resource is quite a challenge for developing countries in Asia, said a representative from the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN Habitat). “The technology’s there, but the problem is financial. This technology needs big capital investments,” stressed Rajesh Manandhar, coordinator of the Water for Asian [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – Incessant rains spawned by southwest monsoon and further intensified by tropical storm Mina has triggered a landslide in the town of Imelda, Zamboanga del Sur, covering a 50-meter stretch of the national highway with debris. Albert Johann Jacildo, officer-in-charge of the regional office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, said [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/28 August) – Some 200 hectares of land in South Cotabato have been planted with cotton in line with the efforts to revive the local cotton industry. Reynaldo H. Legaste, South Cotabato chief agriculturist, said the Cotton Development Administration (CODA), an agency under the Department of Agriculture, and the Primatex Fibre Corp. have [...]

KORONADAL CITY  (MindaNews/27 August) — South Cotabato and portions of neighboring Sultan Kudarat suffered nearly 27 hours of power interruption starting early Friday due to technical hitches in the repair of a major transmission line connecting t he area to the Mindanao power grid. The power outage, which was implemented by the National Grid Corporation [...]

ISABELA CITY (MindaNews/27 Aug) – Human rights workers and ceasefire monitors have expressed alarm over what they said was a “rampant” arrest of persons mistaken for members of the notorious Abu Sayyaf. This, as another farmer who also serves as security escort of a former mayor of Maluso town in Basilan, was arrested inside his [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/27 August) – The government peace panel in talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will hold consultations here next month on its proposed peace settlement, Mayor Celso Lobregat announced. Lobregat said government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen reiterated and assured him that whatever proposal the panel submitted to the MILF on [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/27 August) –  The MILF earlier issued its “11 General Features of the MILF comprehensive compact proposal” and the Government, in turn, countered with its “11 Characteristics of the government proposal.” The lack of agreement is on the “means” Both papers outlined and described their solutions to the Mindanao problem. After [...]

DAKBAYAN SA DABAW (MindaNews/Agosto 27) — Naghatag kog tok sa nasodnong komperensya sa National Archives of the Philippines nga gitigayon sa Grand Men Seng niadtong Agosto 9, 2011. Ang akong topic, “Records, Democracy, and Indigenous Peoples.” Dili na man unta ko nagadawat og mga imbitasyon nga mohatag og bisan unsang tok aron makakonsentreyt kog sulat [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – A fact finding team created by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala in July 2010 found irregularities in the National Irrigation Administration’s P30-million bio-organic fertilizer subsidy program implemented in Region 10 in 2009, among them that there was only one bidder and that the organic fertilizer delivered did not comply with the [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – New People’s Army guerillas attacked the town of Medina in Misamis Oriental, some one-and-a-half hour’s ride away from this city, and practically overran the municipal police station late Thursday afternoon, police said. About 30 NPAs aboard three vans managed to slip through the Medina police’s patrol and zeroed [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao is closely monitoring the repatriation of six overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the region who are currently stranded in strife-torn areas in Syria. Abdulghani Umag, OWWA Region 12 director, said a report from the OWWA central office [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – The city government cannot allow Gaisano Mall to operate a wet market to the detriment of the meat vendors in the city’s public market, Mayor Ignacio W. Zubiri said. Zubiri told MindaNews Tuesday he declined recently the mall operator’s application to operate a wet market. He added that the mall [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – More than 500 troopers of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry “Diamond” Division will be deployed and be placed on alert to secure the celebration of the Kagay-an Festival 2011 that will peak during the city fiesta on Aug. 28. The existing force of [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – Patronage is a bane – a curse – of Muslim autonomy. It has divided Muslim leaders since Manuel L. Quezon launched Filipinization in the second decade of 1900. With one hand the Philippine Government offers autonomy to the Muslims; with the other, kills it with patronage.

MARIKINA CITY (MindaNews/26 August) – Indescribable hoopla greeted Koko Pimentel’s proclamation as a winning senator last August 11 by the Senate Electoral Tribunal. As his father, I certainly share in the euphoria that enveloped his supporters when they learned of his triumph at the Electoral Tribunal. And up to this moment as these lines are [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/26 August) — A business leader cum local official in Caraga Region is batting for the full stoppage of illegal small-scale mining operations in Surigao del Norte, and to eventually legalize them to avoid further disasters caused by such operations. Chamber of Mines for Caraga Region Inc. (CMCRI ) president Dulmar M. Raagas, [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 August)— The Department of Labor and Employment in Region 12 (DOLE-12) is trying to break the vicious cycle of rampant child labor in the mining industry, especially in small-scale operations, a top official said. Ma. Gloria A. Tango, DOLE-12 regional director, said they recently conducted a stakeholders’ forum to address the child [...]