DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/09 April) – Authorities have formed a task force that will investigate the killing Sunday night of a barangay chair in this city. Senior Insp. Jessie Jay Francia, station commander of Calinan Police Precinct, said Task Force Layao is headed by Supt. Dario Gunabe, deputy chief for administration. Aldion Narciso Layao, the village [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/15 March) – Another rape victim has filed a complaint before the City Prosecutor’s Office here against a suspect who is facing two other charges of rape, police said. Police identified the suspect as Gene L. Diaz, 38, from Barangay Violeta here, but he reportedly belongs to a prominent family in neighboring Valencia [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/13 January) – Eleven agents of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) assigned in Kabacan, North Cotabato have been charged for conducting unauthorized traffic inspection in neighboring Matalam town. North Cotabato Governor Lala Talinio-Mendoza today filed before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office  complaints of usurpation of authority and official functions against 11 deputized agents of [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/06 September) — A series of motorcycle thefts involving only the Honda XRM model has stirred fear in South Cotabato as the still unidentified culprits did not just take the vehicles but also shot the owners dead. The spate of XRM motorcycle thefts where the victims were killed started in this city in [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/09 June) – Two of the three kidnap victims were freed an hour after gunmen abducted them Wednesday in Lanao del Norte, a military official disclosed Thursday. Freed were engineer Boyet Alumbro and Edgar Gomez who along with another companion identified as Alexander Lim were abducted around 9 a.m. Wednesday in Barangay Samboron, [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/19 May) – Charges will be filed against the suspects in the daylight robbery last week on the Osmeña Branch of Banco de Oro here, Cogon police station commander Senior Insp. Buenaventura Reyes said on Tuesday. Local police have identified the alleged robbers through CCTV footage as belonging to the dreaded [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/10 April) — A grocery owner abducted here on April 1 was freed early Sunday morning in Barangay Balanaken, Datu Piang, Maguindanao. Jinkee Lim Yap, 38, was freed by her abductors at around 2:30 a.m. to Cotabato City officials led by City Administrator Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, a report from the Eastern Mindanao Command said. [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/23 February)—An American national was reported missing and believed kidnapped by unknown persons but police and military authorities said they were baffled by the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Milton Taylor was reportedly last seen on January 11 at Lamar Inn in Cagayan de Oro City in the company of some friends. Bobby Quijano [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/13 Feb) –  The Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) has identified four suspects behind the attempt to kill a village chief who is very vocal in his opposition to small-scale mining activities in his area. ZCPO director Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo said Sunday that they forwarded to the prosecutor’s office a case [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/06 February) – Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) backed by policemen arrested seven persons, including an alleged member of a drug syndicate, in separate buy-bust operations in the region, PDEA regional director Adzhar Albani announced on Friday. Albani said four of the suspects, including the alleged syndicate member, were arrested [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY  (MindaNews/05 February) – Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema has denied allegations he was behind the January 8 kidnapping of a Filipino-Chinese trader there. The victim, 54-year-old Adin Yu, owner of the city’s oldest hardware store, was snatched January 8 at the parking area of the Estosan Hotel. He and his wife had [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/04 February)— Former Cotabato City mayor and now Vice Mayor Muslimin G. Sema and a councilor are allegedly involved in the series of kidnappings in the locality, the regional Philippine National Police command based here said on Friday. Chief Supt. Gil Meneses, Southwestern Mindanao police director, said they had requested the inclusion [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/3 Feb) – Local legislators here were shocked of the city’s crime volume that almost doubled from 2009 to 2010. According to the report of Supt. Erwin Bayani O. Meneses, the city’s police chief, submitted to the city council last week, total crime cases rose to 1,639 in 2010 from 853 cases the [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/31 January) – A security guard was killed, another was seriously hurt, and a bystander was hit when robbers pulled a heist and fled with some P500,000 from bank employees at a busy intersection here midmorning today, the first such incident in this city. Police Officer 3 Warren Coñales, Malaybalay City Police Office [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews) — After one of their colleagues was killed in a highway robbery Saturday night in Pikit town in North Cotabato, journalists in North Cotabato urged authorities to curb the rash of highway robberies that have victimized a number of commuters. Romeo Benjumai, who wrote for the Fiscalizer, a weekly newspaper based in [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/30 January) – Unidentified armed men pulled off a robbery hold-up along the highway in Pikit, North Cotabato, killing the driver and a passenger of a commercial van at around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. Sr. Insp. Elias Dandan, chief of Pikit police, identified the slain victims as Johnny Cadungog, van driver; and [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) – Shoddy investigation work and even questionable actions of the police have spoiled and contaminated the pieces of evidence in the kidnapping of a Surigao City banker two years ago, an investigator who took part in the early part of the probe said. Police Officer 2 Nomer Isidro Sabacan of the [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/22 January) — A barangay chairman who is said to be vocal against the illegal small-scale mining activities in his village was reported to be in critical condition after he was shot early Friday. City police director Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo said the incident took place shortly after 6 a.m. Friday in [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/20 January) – Sixteen inmates bolted the city jail through the river behind it at midnight but one was arrested by village guards an hour later. Inmates from Cell 3 at the second floor of the building sawed off the iron bars of a window that could fit only one person and climbed [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 January) – A working student who had filed seven counts of rape against a detained suspect was shot dead last Sunday in Davao City. Authorities suspected that Rosemelyn Recote was gunned down in order to silence her. Recote, a first year college working student had filed seven cases in 2009 against Enrique [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/16 January) – The ban on public utility vehicles (PUVs) with tinted windows is on. Starting Monday, January 17, the Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board will apprehend drivers of PUVs with tinted windows, “as a proactive and preventive measure” to avert criminal activities. Benjamin Go, regional director of the agency said the [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/15 January) — – A female village chair was shot dead by one of her councilors following a heated altercation during a barangay council session in Dimoloc, Malita, Davao del Sur at around 3 p.m. Friday. Killed was Clara Ballota, 45, chair of Barangay Dimoloc in Malita. She suffered two gunshot wounds on [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/13 Jan) – Government anti-drug agents in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao have seized more than P6 million worth of illegal drugs in 548 anti-drug operations that they launched in the region in 2010. Intelligence Officer 3 Arce Adam, deputy director for administration of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region12, said Thursday their [...]

TUBOD, Lanao del Norte (MindaNews/12 Jan) – A businessman and his aide died when four still unidentified armed men barged into his residence in the municipality of Sultan Naga Dimaporo in Lanao del Norte Tuesday evening, police reports said. Senior Supt. Orlando Benias, provincial police director, identified the fatalities as Danilo Yanoc, 50, of the [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/11 Jan) – Police operatives arrested at least seven suspected members of an alleged kidnap-for-ransom gang while they were reportedly plotting a kidnapping operation here Monday afternoon. Supt. Rolly Octavio, deputy city police director for operations, said Tuesday the suspects were separately nabbed Monday while they were about to enter the city [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/10 January) — An official of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was gunned down at the lobby of a hotel here at around 7 a.m. Monday but following a city-wide radio alert, police nabbed five suspects, including a policeman. Killed was Abdulhamin Bandahala, a resident [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/10 January) — The Communist New People’s Army (NPA) said the barangay captain killed on January 8 in an NPA attack in Barangay Datu Danwata, Malita Davao del Sur tried to fight back. Dencio Madrigal, the spokesperson of the NPA’s Valentin Palamine regional command, said in a statement e-mailed to the media that [...]

COTABATO CITY  (MindaNews/10 January) – Kidnappers who seized a businessman at gunpoint Saturday night at the roadside parking area of the city’s premier hotel are demanding “some amount” for his freedom, Police Senior Supt. Willie Dangane, City Police Director, said. This, as the Crisis Management Committee was convened Sunday to find ways to secure the [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/10 January) —  At least 12 bandits operating in the tri-boundaries of South Cotabato, Sarangani and Davao del Sur  surrendered over the weekend to police and local officials in Malungon town in Sarangani. Malungon Mayor Reynaldo Constantino said Monday the bandits voluntarily surrendered and laid down their firearms in response to an [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/08 January) – Two security guards of fruit giant Del Monte Philippines were killed in an ambush Tuesday by suspected New People’s Army rebels along the highway in Impasugong, Bukidnon. Tito Yecyec, team leader and Ronilo Madrid died before reaching the Bethel Baptist Hospital in Malaybalay City. Two others, Antonio Alambatin and Warlito [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/07 January) – Unidentified armed men stormed a remote village in Tantangan town in South Cotabato around midnight Thursday and burned at least four houses and a hauling truck in the area.

Tantangan Mayor Arnold Garingo said the heavily armed attackers went around the central portion of Sitio Tanting in Barangay Poblacion shortly before midnight and fired several shots on some houses before setting four of them on fire.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 January) — The City Prosecution Office indicted an electrician, whose pistol was linked to eight incidents of summary killings in the city, for the death of a 42-year-old man in Barangay Sto. Nino, Tugbok District on Aug. 20, 2010. Prosecutor Joseph Mamburam charged alias Jojo Putot for murder based on the complaint [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/05 January) – Police investigators in South Cotabato are closely looking at a land-related conflict as behind the daring shooting of a liaison officer of Sarangani Rep. Emmanuel Pacquiao in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Region 12 office in Koronadal City late Tuesday afternoon. Supt. Anecito Ambay, Koronadal [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/03 January) – Malaybalay Bishop Jose Araneta Cabantan centered his homily on mining and rising criminality in Bukidnon, in a mass held on New Year’s Eve at the San Isidro Cathedral here. “Mining, whether small or large scale, is a threat to the environment,” Cabantan said. Cabantan’s statement contradicted that of Bukidnon Governor [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/03 January) – Authorities in Sultan Kudarat province today filed homicide and frustrated homicide charges against the driver of a municipal mayor in Maguindanao for wounding a balut vendor and killing her son on New Year’s Eve in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat. Inspector Jojie Nicolas, chief of Isulan police, identified the suspect as Badrudin [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/30 Dec) – An Army soldier belonging to the 7th Infantry Battalion was killed and another was seriously injured after they were attacked by unidentified motorcycle-riding men while manning the checkpoint along the highway in Kabacan, North Cotabato, around 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Authorities identified the slain soldier as Cpl. Rey Osoteo and [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/28 December) – Nine persons who surrendered last week as New People’s Army rebels are actually members of an extortion gang operating in the city, police said. The “surrenderees” was led by a certain Brian Duhaylungsod, alias Ka Nilo, supposedly a leader of the Samahang Yunit Propaganda. They surrendered four high [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 December) – A blast ripped off a portion of the roof of a Catholic chapel inside Camp Asturias, the Philippine National Police camp in Jolo, Sulu at around 7:15 a.m. today (Christmas Day), injuring six parishioners in the choir area “slightly.” The chapel is located a few steps from the main gate’s [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/25 December) — Bomb experts defused on Friday an improvised explosive recovered from a bus terminal in Kabacan, North Cotabato. Athough no one was hurt, the discovery of the bomb triggered panic among passengers of the Rural Transit Bus Company. Supt. Joseph Semillano, chief of Kabacan PNP, said the improvised explosive device (IED) [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/23 December) —  Security has been tightened in Shariff Aguak town following the explosion of an improvised bomb Wednesday morning inside a culvert at the front gate of an employee of the local civil registrar. No one was hurt by the explosion but the gate was totally damaged. The improvised explosive device (IED) [...]

m21nego GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 Dec) – Local officials in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao have endorsed the immediate designation and training of at least two crisis negotiators for each of the region’s local government units (LGUs). City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custod

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/20 Dec) – Dismayed with the finding of the police’s Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) over the controversial death of Rosalyn Abadiez, family members said they are contemplating on hiring an independent investigator to find out more about the killing. Rosalyn, a nursing student at the Surigao Education Center here said to [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/18 December) – A homemade bomb reportedly thrown from a bus exploded at a mango orchard along the national highway in Carmen, North Cotabato at about 3 p.m. today. Initial reports reaching Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu, Director for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, said  the improvised explosive device (IED) may have been [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/18 Dec) – Four suspects in Thursday’s kidnapping of an eight-year old girl and the killing of her father in Pigcawayn, North Cotabato, have been charged by the police for kidnapping with murder. The four are former operatives of the Pentagon-kidnap-for ransom gang, Senior Inspector Abello Jungaya, Pigcawayan police chief, said on Friday. [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/16 December) — Kidnappers snatched early morning today a businessman’s daughter in Pigkawayan town in North Cotabato, police officials said. Chief Insp. Jomar Alexis Yap, regional Philippine National Police spokesperson, said the three unidentified kidnappers also shot dead 8-year-old victim’s father, Allan Tamayo, when he resisted them.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/16 December) — A trader was gunned down while on her way to a public market in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat past 6:00 a.m. Monday, belated police reports said. Police identified the victim as Rogelia Bengan, a resident of nearby Esperanza town, who was at the market with her husband when the [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/09 December) — Mindanao State University President Dr. Macapado Abaton Muslim has started negotiations for the release of two students who were kidnapped Tuesday inside the school campus in Marawi City, the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Communication Command Post in Manila today said. Inset map courtesy of WikipediaArchie Baricuatro, an agricultural engineering [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/08 December) – Army and police personnel in Sarangani province allegedly seized several rifle and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) in a raid Tuesday on a house owned by a suspected Moro rebel who had been charged in connection with the daring attack in Maasim town more than two years ago that left two [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 December) –The widow of a slain anti-mining activist said that if the government could not go after her husband’s killers, she would consider stopping the Tampakan gold-copper mining project enough justice for her husband. ”If the mining operation of Xstrata be stopped, I would consider that the first step in the quest [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/05 December) – Complaints of sexual abuse and harassment were filed last week before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in this city against the publisher of two local dailies. Bobby Goking, president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club said they have met with the complainants and decided to back [...]