CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/19 February) — The two-day Mindanao Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction and Geo-hazard Awareness ended Sunday afternoon with an eight-point Declaration urging, among others, the passage of a law establishing a “permanent, independent disaster management and risk reduction agency” and the conduct of  similar summits in Mindanao’s six regions. The three-page, [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews/18 February)–   There is “some level of complacency” in all regions in Mindanao when it comes to disaster preparedness and response because the majority view is that Mindanao is “a gifted island… is not typhoon-prone,” Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soiiman said Saturday. Typhoons and floods in Mindanao “are few and far [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/18 February) —   Talking about climate change is useless if there is no attitude change,  Senator Teoffisto Guingona said in his opening address at the Mindanao Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction and Geo-hazard Awareness. “It would be useless if we stop at merely talking about Climate Change. There is another important [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews/18 February)– Among the many lessons from the tragedy that was Sendong is that information from various government agencies dealing with the disaster should be synchronized,  Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman told the Mindanao Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction and Geo-hazard Awareness here Saturday afternoon. “We have to have a common [...]

TALKING PEACE. MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal (right) with panel member Abhoud Syed Lingga (left) and secretariat member Mike Pasigan, after Tuesday’s talks at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/15 February) – The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels have agreed to invite two consultants each when they resume talks in March but gave no hint in their Joint Statement that an agreement or agreements could be signed “within the first quarter” as targeted by government. The two [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/15 February)  —  Only women could have thought of what could be a first, worldwide, in contemporary peace-making history: a Valentine’s gift to  the peace panel of a revolutionary group. The second day of the three-day peace talks fell on a Tuesday, Valentine’s Day and just as soon as the panels sat down [...]

KUALA LUMPUR  (MindaNews/14 February) – The Philippine government and Moro Islamic Libeation Front (MILF) peace panels resumed negotiations here at the Penang Room of the Sheraton Imperial Hotel Monday, with only 47 days left to the end of  March, the government’s “within the first quarter” target to sign a peace accord. Tuesday’s continuation of the [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews) –  Pope Benedict XVI has named Archbishop Romulo Geolina Valles of Zamboanga City as the new Archbishop of Davao vice Arcbhishop Fernando Capalla who has retired. Archbishop Romulo Valles of Zamboanga (left) has just been named by Pope Benedict XVI as the new Archbishop of Davao. This file photo of the Arcbhishop [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 February) — Only eight skirmishes between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were recorded in 2011,  down from 14 in 2010, officials in the government’s ceasefire monitoring committee said. “It should have been zero.. or at least two”  last year if the incidents in [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 February) — The government’s target to be self-sufficient in rice production by 2013 is “not achievable with mining,” an environmental scientist specializing on economic development said as he claimed thousands of hectares of  ricelands would be affected if the Tampakan project of the Sagittarius Mines’ Inc., is approved. “This is possibly the most [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 January) — A Multisectoral Mineral Council (MSMC) not just the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or its Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau should decide whether or not mining should be allowed in a particular area, the consolidated alternative mining bill proposes. Gabriela partylist Rep. Luz Ilagan told the International Conference on Mining [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 January) —  The two-day International Conference on Mining in Mindanao ended Friday with calls to repeal the 1995 Mining Act, enact a pro-Filipino, pro-environment alternative mining law and declare a mining moratorium. The “Mindanao Declaration: Defending the Dignity of Life, Securing our Future” called for the “promotion of sustainable, responsible and equitable [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 January) – Contributions of the mining industry to Mindanao’s economy are meager, compared with agriculture from 2001 to 2009, Margarita “Maita” Gomez, Coordinator of Bantay Kita Action for Economic Reforms, said at the first day of the two-day International Conference of Mining on Thursday. Gomez said that based on her research culled [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 January) –  Against the backdrop of Mindanao hosting what experts refer to as “the most dangerous mines anywhere in the world” and “the biggest time bomb Mindanao has ever seen,”  participants to the International Conference of Mining in Mindanao are calling for a moratorium on mining activities. Organized by the Ateneo de [...]

(PENANG, Malaysia) – “I leave it to the courts,” Sulu Governor Sakur Tan said upon learning that human rights activist Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie’s transport to Sulu to face charges there was stopped by the Supreme Court. Tulawie, who as arrested in Davao City nearly midnight on January 13 was flown to Zamboanga City noon of  [...]

ASUNCION, Davao del Norte  (MindaNews/15 January) –  Rains brought about by wind convergence triggered floods in seven Mindanao towns and two cities over the weekend.  But learning lessons from the December tragedy in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, local government units now busy improving their disaster response and risk reduction capabilities, a number of [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/15 January) – Police and military intelligence operatives arrested early Saturday human rights defender Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie who was implicated in the May 13, 2009 bombing in Patikul, Sulu that injured 12 persons including Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan. But Tulawie, who has repeatedly denied involvement in the bombing, told reporters from his detention [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/11 January) — The government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels will meet again next month to thresh out details of  a proposed peace agreement that government hopes to forge by end of March. But government panel chair Marvic Leonen in a press statement issued by the Office of the Presidential [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/11 January)  — At least 28 books, including four journals and a collection of photos of Mindanao’s first decade under the new millennium, have been added to the Mindanao collection in 2011, bringing to  287 the number of books on Mindanao or written by Mindanawons since 2000. But while a number of books [...]

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/10 January) — The two panels are on the same page: government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen wants a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forged “within the first quarter;” MILF chair Mohagher Iqbal says they want to “finish this process as soon as possible” but both have yet to [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/09 January) – Government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen says the first quarter this year is the “golden opportunity” to craft an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as he urged his counterparts to “share with us this vision” and “attempt to craft an agreement” between today and March 2012. “The [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/9 January) – The government peace panel has named two of its consultants in the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as regular members. Dr. Hamid Barra, who has been consultant since 2010, replaces Upi Mayor Ramon Piang, a member of the panel representing Indigenous Peoples. “Being a local executive, a [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 January) —  The weather bureau has warned of widespread rains over Eastern and Southern Mindanao that may trigger flashfloods and landslides due to a low pressure area (LPA) east southeast of General Santos City. In its weather forecast issued at 5 a.m. January 2, the  Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)  [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/31 December) – Carpenter Fortunato Paradillo lost not only his house and all his belongings but also his address: Bayug Island, the village where he raised his family is gone, wiped out by the December 17 flashfloods. He also lost his 22 chickens and three pigs but 55-year old  Paradillo considers himself fortunate. [...]

MARAMAG, Bukidnon (MindaNews/31 December) —  The National Power Corporation released a total of 42 million cubic meters of water from its Pulangui IV dam on December 27 and 28 following the flash floods in Valencia City, the “highest spillage so far in Pulangui history,” plant manager Engr. Rudy Brioso said. Forty-two million cubic meters is [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 December) –  The death toll from typhoon Sendong’s “tsunami in reverse” in Northern Mindanao last week is the second highest in Mindanao in 35 years, second only to the death toll from the 1976 tsunami along the Moro Gulf. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) report as of  2 [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/25 December) – The photograph of five-year old Maykaela P. Mansueto is just one among many posted on the walls of the Capin Funeral Homes in Camague, the message above the photograph in huge fonts, all caps: “Still Missing.” It is Friday afternoon,  December 23, six days after the flash floods that killed [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 December) — OIC ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman  has ordered  a stop to the cutting of trees in Lanao del Sur as well as the transport of  logs and flitches pending an inventory of logging operations in the area. Hatamans’ order was issued during a multi-agency meeting in Marawi City morning of December [...]

 CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/25 December) —  They lost their little house by the river, they have been staying and sleeping under the flyover since Saturday,  they have no money to prepare for even the simplest Noche Buena,  but Merlyn Rejas says it is still a happy Christmas “kay buhi ming tanan” (because we’re all [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/21 December) –  Riverside barangays that bore the brunt of typhoon Sendong’s fury in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities early Saturday morning “stood no chance to the torrent, the onslaught of large volumes of  water and mud,” Neric Acosta, Presidential Adviser for Environmental Protection said as he lamented the state of deforestation [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/22 Dec) – “The position of OIC Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is not a license to lord over but to serve the people,” the President’s appointed OIC ARMM Governor, Mujiv Hataman, said in his acceptance speech Thursday morning. “We will create a new culture in the ARMM, a [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/22 December) — Newly-assumed OIC ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman is proceeding to Lanao del Sur Friday following claims by the provincial governor that “carabao logging” is to blame for the thousands of logs that rolled down into the Iligan coast as typhoon Sendong sent residents to their roofs – and their deaths — [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/22 December) —  The corpses of Sendong victims that were dumped in the city’s landfill in Cagayan de Oro City were transferred to a hangar in Lumbia airport on Wednesday upon orders of  Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo but he maintained there was “no dumping of bodies.” “Wala namang dumping of the bodies” [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY  (MindaNews/20 December) –  Looking for your mother, father, wife, husband, daughter, son, brother, sister who have been missing since Saturday’s flashfloods?  Go to the city’s dumpsite. That’s where they dumped your loved ones for you to identify and claim. At least 79 corpses – more than half of them from funeral [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/19 December) – As a journalist, I have covered so many tragedies in Mindanao: wars, floods, landslides, bombings, massacres, airplane crashes, etc.. I have cried with relatives of the dead and the missing but I was not prepared for what I saw at noon in the city’s landfill in Zayas, Barangay Carmen.

ILIGAN CITY  (MindaNews/18 December) –  “The worst ever,” 81-year old Elena Mansueto, owner of the Mansueto Funeral Homes, said of  Saturday’s flashfloods that claimed the lives of at least 194 fellow Iliganons. Mansueto has been in the funeral business since her husband opened it in 1952 but in their nearly  six decades of service, this [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/16 December) — President Aquino has appointed a new governor for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) — former Anak Mindanao party-list representative Mujiv Hataman of Basilan –  who will assume his post along with OIC vice governor Hadja Bainon Karon on Dec. 22 or 23, Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo said. [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/15 December — Twenty-one years after its birth and two years after its elected governor was detained for his alleged involvement in the massacre of 58 persons in late 2009 and his vice governor took over, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao finally has an Administrative Code. Acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong [...]

KUALA  LUMPUR (MindaNews/11 December) – First there was only one: Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, University of the Philippines professor of political science,  the lone woman in the Philippine Government (GPH)-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace negotiations, representing GPH. This week, there were three of them across the negotiating table at the Executive Boardroom of the Royale [...]

KUALA LUMPUR  (MindaNews/07 December) – The Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels will return here next month after meeting with their respective principals – President Benigno Simeon Aquino and  MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim – on the “substantive points”  to craft a mutually acceptable peace formula. The one-page six-paragraph statement was [...]

GPH PANEL. Government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen with panel member Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer (left) and Bai Yasmin Busran-Lao,  consultant on their way to lunch after a two-hour executive session with the MILF peace panel and the Malaysian facilitator at the Royale Chulan Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on December 6. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/06 December) – There is no mention of “three for one” or “Bangsamoro substate”  in the ongoing three-day peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but a new peace formula is emerging from both proposals laid down on the negotiating table. Like it was on Monday, members [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/06 December)  — While the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels are meeting here,  representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front  (MNLF) and the MILF are in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for a two-day meeting initiated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The meeting started Tuesday [...]

MILF PANEL. MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal (right) with panel members (from left to right) Datu Michael Mastura, Datu Antonio Kinoc,  Prof. Abhoud Syed Lingga and Abdullah Camlian and Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel secretariat, on their way to lunch after a two-hour executive session with the MILF peace panel and [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/05 December) –  Four months after President Aquino and Al Haj Murad Ebrahim agreed in Japan to fast-track the peace process between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and nearly four months since the negotiations were stalled by the alleged “heaven and earth” gap between the parties’ proposed peace settlement, the [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 Nov) – The Malaysian-led six-country International Monitoring Team (IMT) began Wednesday its probe on the October 19 clash between Philippine government (GPH) forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Basilan with a visit to the scene of the encounter in Sitio Bakisung, Barangay Cambug, Al-barka town and an interview with [...]

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, [...]

PIKIT, North Cotabato (MindaNews/16 November) — They all rushed here – Muslims and non-Muslims, some traveling four hours from Davao City, others from Cotabato City and neighboring areas – to pay their last respects to the softspoken, low-key but very effective justice and peace worker, Bapa Butch Gilman. In the tradition of the Muslims, Baps [...]