ZAPANTA VALLEY, Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte (MindaNews/23 June) – Mamanwa “bakwits,” or internally displaced persons, returned to their homes in this hinterland part of Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte last Wednesday, with all the hope that government troops and communist rebels stop making their place their battleground. Three weeks after staying in makeshift tents in Surigao [...]

MAKILALA, North Cotabato (MindaNews/14 June) – At least 212 villagers, mostly women and children, from a remote area in this town evacuated to safer places after elements of the Army’s Sixth Infantry Division Reconnaissance Company (DRC) and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels traded gunfire Saturday night, belated reports said. Miriam Pangolin, one of the evacuees [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/14 June) – Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Teddy A. Casiño appealed last week to City Mayor Ernesto T. Matugas to assist the Mamanwa evacuees who have been camping for more than two weeks at a private lot in Barangay Luna here. “I am personally making an appeal. I see that that they live [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/08 June) – Facing pressure from some residents, City Mayor Ernesto Matugas assured that Mamanwas who fled their homes in a village in Kitcharao town, Agusan del Norte would only be staying temporarily in an evacuation site here. Around 150 Mamanwas arrived Tuesday last week in Barangay Luna to escape fighting between government [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/07 May) — Assistance to internally displaced persons, or bakwits, due to the armed conflict between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has reached a staggering P1.2 billion, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said. In a statement, the OPAPP said that the Department of Social [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/14 February) —  At least 96 families displaced by more than a month of armed fighting between two warring Moro clans in Barangay Nangaan in Kabacan town returned to their homes on Sunday, military reports said. Lt. Col. Domingo Gubuay, commander of the 7th Infantry Battalion, said they escorted the evacuees back to [...]

KABACAN, North Cotabato (MindaNews/10 February) — From the top of a hill, Sittie Tagigaya saw the houses in her village, Barangay Nangaan in Kabacan town, burn as the sound of the gun battle echoed along the Pulangi River last Wednesday. “The smoke was thick across the sky. It was very terrifying,” Tagigaya narrated.

MINDALANO, Salvador, Lanao del Norte (MindaNews/22 December) – Two-year old Norhanif  was a picture of serenity as he slept in a hammock fashioned out of a malong (multipurpose tube-like clothing) which his twin sister, Norhanifa, was swaying gently. The twins, children of Sinawida and Adap Cabasaran, are now sheltered in a newly-constructed all-concrete house, one [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/06 December) — Fill your hunger and ease a child’s empty stomach this holiday season. Eating at Pizza Hut and Taco Bell branches in the country will help feed the children affected by the conflict in Southwestern Mindanao, as part of the proceeds will go to the hunger relief program of the [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/05 December) – A land dispute has led to an armed clash between members of the Civilian Volunteers Organization and suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in a barangay in Pikit, North Cotabato, a police official said. Senior Insp. Elias Dandan, chief of Pikit police, said the fighting in Barangay Macabual which [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/05 December) –  The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has announced it will “interpose no objection” to the Philippine government’s request for a three-month extension of the tour of duty of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) but says it should not be extension but a “correct reckoning” of the IMT’s one-year mandate. [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/05 November) – “War profiteers” taking advantage of relief goods for internally displaced persons (IDPs) face between six and 12 years of imprisonment under House Bill 48 filed by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. The proposed “Internal Displacement Act of 2010″ also seeks to ban arbitrary displacements known as “hamletting” and [...]

DATU SALIBO, Maguindanao (MindaNews/12 October)  - Unmindful of the ankle-deep floodwaters that greeted her arrival at the Pagatin Elementary School, actress KC Concepcion yesterday led a feeding program for children here sponsored by the World Food Program (WFP). “The last time I was there, the school was not flooded yet,” she recalled, unable to hide [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/21 September) — Internally displaced persons, more popularly known as “bakwits,” will be entitled to a hundred day “guaranteed employment” in a government project every year, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles told the ARMM Peace Summit Tuesday. “We are setting up an employment guarantee program where one member of identified [...]

PAGALUNGAN, Maguindanao (MindaNews/05 September) – Around 150 evacuees who have not returned home since the “all-out war” waged by then President Joseph Estrada, have been observing Ramadan at the evacuation center of Barangay Layog for ten years now. The evacuees are from the marshy villages of this town and from the neighboring town of Pikit [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/03 September) — Displaced families from Barangay Salat in President Roxas, site of the recent armed fighting between warring Moro groups, have refused to  return home for fear they might again be caught in the crossfire. Pandita Macalimbol, one of the evacuees, said armed men, coming from both sides, are still seen in [...]