DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 November) – After weeks of delay, the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team  (IMT) will finally conduct this week its probe on last month’s incidents in Al-barka, Basilan and Paoay, Zamboanga Sibugay. The team will look into the complaints of ceasefire violations filed by both the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 November) –  Is Ustadz Amiril Umra Kato dead or alive?” This was the same question asked eight years ago of Ustadz Salamat Hashim, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Hashim, the first chair of the MILF, a breakaway group from the Moro National Liberation Front, passed away on July 13, [...]

Tuna fish are lined up for weighing before they are sold to buyers at the Fish Port Complex in Barangay Tambler, General Santos City last Nov. 21, 2011. MindaNews photo by Erwin Mascarinas

Students view the “Mindanao from A to Z” photo exhibit held at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro Last Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. The exhibit, which will run until Nov. 30, features 50 pictures from the photo book “Mindanao into the 21st Century: a Photographic Journey” published by the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center. [...]

Athletes attempt to shoot a ring into a pole during one of the fun games in the 2011 Run Rio regional series held in Cagayan de Oro City Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. MindaNews photo by Jasper Llanderal

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/29 November) — The provincial government of Sarangani has launched an investigation into the dumping over the weekend of an estimated 20 tons of decaying skipjack and bonito tuna in Sarangani Bay. Rolando D. Tuballes, chief of the Sarangani Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, said the dead fishes were discovered floating starting [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 November) – Close to 50 percent of the supplemental budget the city council approved on Monday will go the Pasko Fiesta next month, which includes cash incentives for City Hall and barangay employees. The city council approved P360.165 million as supplemental budget. Of this amount, P156.760 million or 43.5 percent was allotted [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/29 November) — After weeks of sending feelers to individuals who could possibly offer a link to the New People’s Army rebels so she can talk to them about “what their problems really are,” Surigao del Norte Gov. Sol F. Matugas finally found an answer to her prayers. “Thank God, here’s the person [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/29 November) – Resigned senator Juan Miguel Zubiri today maintained he took no part in the alleged cheating in the 2007 senatorial elections. “Once again my detractors launched a demolition job against me. I would like to categorically say that all those statements are lies and are out to destroy all the goodwill [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/29 November) – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is eyeing some policy and systems changes in the national government’s conditional cash transfer program in a bid to enhance its planned expansion next year to more impoverished areas of the country, especially in Mindanao. Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/29 November)–The 4th Infantry Division said they are willing to secure shooting survivor DXIF-Radyo Bombo commentator Michael James “Dacoycoy” Licuanan in their camp’s hospital while the latter is not yet enrolled in the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection and Social Benefits Program. Licuanan was shot by two motorcycle-riding assailants on Thursday [...]

“Common word between you and us: Love of God and Love of Neighbor” – the theme of this year’s Mindanao Week of Peace originated from a famous letter written by 138 Muslim religious leaders and scholars from all over the world on October 13, 2007. They addressed the letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other [...]

Glory Bee : ( puts down the newspaper) Oh my gosh, they’re going to get me. I won’t let them.
Mickey Mouse: Oh honey, they can’t get you. We have everything prepared before you left. You had midnight appointees.

FORMER Maguindanao Governor Andal Salibo Ampatuan Sr. is, as far as his statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) are concerned, a simple farmer. His son Zaldy, formerly the regional governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), has no other source of income, apart from the pawnshop owned by his wife Johaira. [...]

UNLESS THE Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) moves faster than usual, the clan implicated in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre might soon retake control of what by all accounts is a scandalously vast estate of money and mansions, and wheels and weapons it had acquired while governing over a dirt-poor province.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/28 November)—Armed men struck anew at the remote mines development site of Sagittarius Mines Inc., forcing the foreign-backed company to temporarily suspend exploration activities in the area, officials said on Monday. John Arnaldo, Sagittarius Mines corporate communications manager, said around 20 armed men raided a company drilling site in Sitio Tukay Mal, Barangay [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/28 November) — Organized criminologists yesterday said the failure of law enforcers to bring to justice the attackers of a former local broadcaster in 2009 encouraged the commission of a similar crime last Thursday, this time against dxIF-Bombo Radyo chief of reporters Michael James Licuanan. The Professional Criminologists Association of the [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/28 November) — Emissaries from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were dispatched to Tulunan town in North Cotabato to settle the land dispute between one of its commanders and a former commander in the area, a MILF official said. MILF spokesperson Von Al-Haq said their central committee has sent agents to convince Commander [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 November) — Coffee production in the country decreased by 7.40 percent in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year due to land conversion and continuous rains in the second quarter that hit most coffee-producing areas especially in Mindanao. Jennifer Remoquillo, officer-in-charge of high value crops [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/28 November) — There is a need to conduct a geologic study in Bukidnon to confirm if there is an active fault cutting through it following the 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Valencia City and the rest of the province this month, Desiderio Cabanlit, officer in charge of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/28 November) – Police authorities are looking for three persons who could help them shed light on Sunday night’s bombing incident in a budget hotel in this city. The blast, which killed three persons and injured 27 others, took place around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. It also destroyed one of the two two-storey buildings [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/28 November) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is working for the inclusion before yearend of around 65,000 more families from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and other parts of Mindanao in the national government’s conditional cash transfer program. Soliman Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the agency [...]

Road repair in Bukidnon.

Investigators sift through the debris of the bomb at the second floor of the Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga City late Sunday afternoon. The blast killed three persons and injured 27 others. It also ignited a fire that engulfed the two-story budget hotel. MindaNews photo

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/28 November) – Three persons, including a Marine soldier, were killed while 23 others, mostly guests to a wedding Monday, were wounded in a bomb explosion in a budget hotel here  Sunday night. The blast at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday destroyed one of the two buildings of  the Atilano Pension House in Barangay [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY  (MindaNews/27 November) — It’s all systems go for the  controversial Alcantara-led coal power plant project in a world-class diving spot in nearby Maasim, Sarangani, with groundbreaking rites held last Friday. Tomas I. Alcantara, chair and president of Alsons Consolidated Resources (ACR), led the groundbreaking rites for the $450 million coal-fired power plant, [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/27 Nov) – Members of the Mamanwa tribe in Agusan del Norte and some parts of Surigao del Norte  appealed to the city government to implement the law mandating local government units to provide a seat for Lumad representation in local councils. The Mamanwas under the Certificate of Ancestral Domain (CADT) claim of [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/27 November) –  Members of the Caraga Council for Peace and Development)  are calling for the disarming of private armies of local politicians and the strict enforcement of the law against illegal arms trade, as they noted that proliferation of guns and private armies are causing “unpeace” in Mindanao. Gumamac Diron, assistant regional [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/27 Nov) — Reports about Ustadz Amiril Umra Kato’s death have been spreading since Friday, the latest saying he died Saturday night in Toril, Davao City but as of  6 p.m. Sunday, the Mayor’s Office in Davao City, the Philippine National Police and the Eastern Mindanao Command and barangay officials in Toril could [...]

Barrio. Sala. Enters Saling Saling : Lucio baya, nagpunay naman lang og hinuktok.Mura gyu’g namatyan. Lucio : Gisayangan gyud ko ‘ling. Dako kaayo ko’g alkanse. Saling: Saba diha, para tres mil.Ibaylo na nimo sa imong kinabuhi. Lucio : Gi-rahan ra ka atung kwartaha? Unya, ang akong kahago-pag-andam sa mga papeles, ang pamasahe, ang gastos pagkaon,’wa [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 Nov) — For the last two weeks, reports in the media about what happened in Al-barka, Basilan on October 18 have been crowded out by the Arroyo super sensational events. The International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the government and MILF ceasefire mechanisms have yet to begin their investigation on Al-barka. But [...]

FREED. An Army soldier helps Korean national Wu Seok Bung into a waiting ambulance that will bring him to a hospital in Iligan City late Saturday afternoon, Nov. 26. Korean nationals Wu Seok-Bung) and Kim Nam Du were freed by their kidnappers in Barangay Kalimudan, Salvador town in Lanao del Norte Saturday. The fate of [...]

Mall goers view pictures of the exhibit “Mindanao from A to Z” at the event center in SM in Davao City that opened today, November 26. The exhibit of the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center will be on display until the end of the month. A similar photo exhibit is on display at Xavier [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/26 November) — The peace panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will meet in the first week of December for the resumption of talks that was stalled after the MILF rejected the government’s counter-proposal for peace in Mindanao. Jun Mantawil, head of secretariat of the MILF panel confirmed the [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/26 November) — Electricity costs went up by at least P0.31 per kilowatt hour for November following the disruption of power supply early in the month as shown in the latest billings released by the South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (Socoteco II) this week. Socoteco II institutional services manager Geronimo Desesto said [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/26 November) — Journalists and media workers here will take to the streets again on Monday to denounce the shooting of Bombo Radyo anchor and chief of reporters Michael James “Dacoycoy” Licuanan and to pressure the city government into putting an end to what they called the rising culture of impunity [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/25 November) — The breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters denied reports that their leader Ustadz Ameril Umra Kato had passed away this morning, a few days after he reportedly became bedridden due to a stroke last Wednesday. “He is still recovering from poor health from but we can assure you he is alive,” [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/25 November) — Just a day after the commemoration of the International Day to End Impunity, two motorcycle-riding men shot and critically wounded a local radio station anchor and chief of reporters, on his way home after his program. Michael James “Dacoycoy” Licuanan, anchor of Bombo Radyo Cagayan de Oro’s Zona [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/25 November) — A reporter of TV network ABS-CBN in Butuan City said there’s a plot to kill him after he reported on illegal logging involving a businessman in the city, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. NUJP, in a statement Thursday, quoted Rodge Cultura, a field reporter of [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/25 November) – Two persons were killed in an ambush early today in Barangay Dologon, Maramag, Bukidnon, according to a report from DXDB, a Catholic-run radio station based in Malaybalay. DXDB reporter Jun Sapanghari said the ambush took place at 12:45 dawn. The victims, a man and a woman, were aboard a black [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/25 November) — Personnel from the City Fire Department confiscated on Thursday some 500 liters of special gasoline being sold along the highway from at least 10 small outlets here. The gasoline was placed in at least 34 containers, according to City fire marshal Darwin Custodio. Of the 34 containers, 23 were aboard [...]

Korean national Choi In Soo, 53, one of the three Koreans who were kidnapped last month, is given medical care in one of the hospitals in Iligan City on Friday, November 25, 2011. Soo managed to escape from their abductors in Madamba town, Lanao del Sur last night. Her two other Korean companions including their [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/25 November) — Breakaway Moro rebel leader Ameril Umra Kato suffered a mild stroke after a long trek with his men in the hinterlands of Maguindanao on Wednesday, a military official said. 6th Division commander Brig. Gen. Ray Ardo said they received intelligence reports that the renegade rebel leader is now ailing due [...]

An “Integrity Pledge” is being passed around in Zamboanga City, urging business leaders to help stop corruption. In a letter, Pedro Rufo N. Soliven, chair of the Zamboanga City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc. urged members to support the anti- corruption movement dubbed “Integrity Initiative.” “We are endorsing this initiative by inviting you [...]

IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay (MindaNews/24 November) –  Hundreds of residents here took to the streets early Thursday morning to “walk for peace” on the first day of the Mindanao Week of Peace. At the town plaza, students from different schools, representatives of various religious groups — Christians and Muslims, workers in the government and the private [...]

IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay (MindaNews/24 November) —  Members of the Zamboanga Sibugay Media Club (ZSMC) and campus journalists in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay gathered at the town’s plaza Wednesday to join the nation in commemorating the second anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre. The group lit candles, tied black cloth on their arms and wore black shirts to [...]

YUMMY. A combination of delicacies on a platter is a traditional welcome treat for visitors in every home in Batu-batu, Panglima Sugala,Tawi-tawi. MindaNews photo by Amiel Mark Cagayan

MOVE THAT BODY. The entire stretch in Divisoria, Cagayan de Oro City is turned into an exercise area every monring. “Move that body,” the message on the shirts of some of the women says in this photo taken on November 21. MindaNews photo by Jasper Llanderal

Christopher Thornley, Ambassador of Canada to the Philippines, today issued the following statement regarding the second anniversary of the Maguindinao massacre: “In commemoration of the second anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre Canada stands with the Filipino people in the call for the rule of law to prevail and for those responsible to be brought to [...]

Some 2,000 students, journalists, priests, ulama, nuns and soldiers marched in Cagayan de Oro City to commemorate the second anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre, and mark the first International Day to End Impunity and the opening of the Mindanao Week of Peace, early morning Wednesday. Carrying placards, streamers and tarpaulins, delegates marched from Rodelsa Circle [...]