By Bong S. Sarmiento on March 10 2013 9:14 pm
LAKE SEBU, South Cotabato (MindaNews/10 March) — A paradise lost. Seventy-five year old Sindoy Cuyan recalls how as a young T’boli girl, swimming in Lake Sebu was “pure fun,” its… »
By Edwin G. Espejo on December 12 2012 3:42 pm
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/12 December) – Typhoon Pablo may have spared residents here from its wrath and fury when it swatted across large areas in eastern Mindanao. But the pain… »
By Bong S. Sarmiento on November 12 2012 2:57 pm
Last of two parts TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato (MindaNews/12 Nov) —Potentially the largest foreign direct investment in the Philippines, the $5.9 billion Tampakan mining project faces two major challenges: the ban… »
By Bong S. Sarmiento on November 11 2012 8:21 pm
1st of two parts TAMPAKAN, South Cotabato (MindaNews/11 Nov) — How huge is the proposed open pit mine that will gouge out a mountain here to extract 17.9 million ounces… »
By Vanessa L. Almeda on September 20 2012 8:35 am
CARMEN, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews/19 September) – Fr. Raymond Ambray, spokesperson of Caraga Watch, an environment watchdog composed of various churches and sectoral groups, said they found an unlikely ally in the Surigao Development Corporation (Sudecor).
By Vanessa L. Almeda on September 17 2012 10:08 pm
CARMEN, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews/17 September) — The Aquino administration’s total log ban is endangering, instead of protecting, the remaining forest cover in the six towns of Surigao del Sur, as illegal logging activities have intensified at such an alarming scale, a church-led group here said.
By Bong S. Sarmiento on July 20 2012 7:45 am
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 July) – It was not the first time American soldiers were seen taking part in actual security activities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or… »
By Bong S. Sarmiento on July 19 2012 6:34 am
2nd of three parts GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/17 July) – A trail of abuses on the one hand, and on the other, a string of humanitarian services such as the… »
By Bong S. Sarmiento on July 18 2012 6:55 am
MAASIM, Sarangani (MindaNews/16 July) — From afar, the steel facility looks like a cellular phone tower but it is not. It is called the Coast Watch Station (CWS), a facility… »
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 26 2012 8:05 am
Among the first to file petitions before the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the VFA were the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, the Philippine Constitution Association, and Senators Teofisto Guingona Jr., Raul Roco and Sergio Osmena III.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 24 2012 9:46 pm
2nd of three parts Singapore solution On 13 September 1991, the Philippine Senate, voting 12-11, rejected the renewal of the Military Bases Agreement. Nationalists called it a most glorious moment… »
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 24 2012 7:05 am
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/23 April) – In October 2010, President Benigno S. Aquino III declared he would seek a review of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, especially the provisions on the custody of US servicemen facing criminal charges. His statement came amid tensions with China over the disputed Spratly Islands, in the West Philippine Sea.
By Malou Mangahas / PCIJ on March 16 2012 7:38 am
AMID the rampant misdeclaration or underdeclaration of their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) by senior public officials lies a prettier, often overlooked, picture: the few good men and women in high and low positions who follow the law most diligently and truthfully.
By Malou Mangahas / PCIJ on March 15 2012 8:06 am
WHATEVER THE outcome of the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, a once-ignored piece of document seems to be getting the attention it deserves at last. The question, however, is whether or not the general public’s increased familiarity with the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth or SALN would finally shame public servants into taking it seriously and accomplishing it beyond token compliance.
By Mindanews on March 15 2012 8:03 am
A House of secrets By Karol Ilagan Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism SINCE the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona began two months ago, members of the House… »
By Contributor on March 15 2012 8:02 am
BELOW is an account of PCIJ’s recent correspondences with Office of the Secretary-General, Legal Affairs Department, and the Records Management Service of the House of Representatives, as well as the… »
By Mindanews on February 23 2012 7:24 am
Women’s rights and migrant advocates in South Korea say complaints of domestic abuse are not uncommon here, and the story of Cathy Deocades is no exception.
By Mindanews on February 22 2012 5:52 am
GONGJU, South Korea – Two and a half hours south of Seoul by land lies the farming village of Tapgok-ri, a remote part of the city of Gongju. Here, in the middle of nowhere, is where Cathy Deocades lived. It is nothing like the glittery and glamorous world shown in Korean dramas and K-Pop music videos, which are increasingly popular among Filipino women.
By Edwin G. Espejo on February 7 2012 7:01 am
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/06 Feb) — With the Philippine seas south of Mindanao already over fished, local tuna producers have looked beyond the country’s fishing grounds for their operations. In the 1990s, local tuna producers began opening up fishing operations in Indonesia and in Papua New Guinea. By the turn of the millennium, several Filipino companies had already put up canning plants in these countries known for their rich tuna fishing grounds.
By Edwin G. Espejo on February 6 2012 9:22 am
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/05 February) — The two-year ban has impacted the volume of landing of tuna at the General Santos City fishing port complex.
By Edwin G. Espejo on February 5 2012 9:04 am
Cracks are beginning to appear in one of Mindanao’s premier foreign currency earning industries as the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission gears up for its critical meet in March that could impact tuna production and its future in the region. While the government and key tuna producers are calling for the lifting of the two-year ban on tuna fishing in two pockets of seas in the Western Pacific area, some individual tuna producers say a total ban will bode well for local tuna producers in the long term.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on December 31 2011 11:21 pm
Last of two parts MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/31 December) – Weather bureau PAGASA issued storm signal number 2 for “Sendong”. In the Philippines, however, most people only become restless when storm… »
By Keith Bacongco on December 3 2011 11:27 pm
MARAMAG, Bukidnon (MindaNews/03 December) – Gonzalo Pinuti held his hammer tight as he detached the barbed wire from a fence of a former cattle ranch amid the blistering heat of the sun. With help from a fellow farmer, it took him about five minutes to detach the barbed wires and put down three wooden posts and let his colleagues enter the ranch with carpentry tools, round timber and tents for their temporary shelter.
By Ed Lingao / PCIJ on November 23 2011 10:21 pm
JUST A few weeks after the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre, where 58 people including 32 journalists were executed in a remote barangay in Ampatuan town, officials of the Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were surprised to receive a deluge of applications for gun amnesty from one particular province in Mindanao.
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on November 9 2011 10:57 pm
COTABAO CITY (MindaNews/09 November) – Months before the hysteria over the P5-million fund for the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute (BLMI), lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, Executive Secretary of the Autonomous Region… »
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on November 9 2011 8:06 am
COTABAO CITY (Mindanews/08 November) – Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin may not have intended the contrast but after a soldier asked about the P5 million fund for the Bangsamoro Leadership and… »
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on November 8 2011 5:20 am
A P5 million check the Philippine government gave the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute (BLMI) in August became headline news two months later — specifically a week after the October 18 clash between the military and the MILF in Al-Barka, Basilan –- but with a spin: that the check was given by President Aquino to MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim in Japan; that the amount “may have been used” or “might be used” by the MILF to buy guns and ammunition that would be used against the military; and that the amount was not P5 million but P5 billion.
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on September 12 2011 6:03 am
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/10 September) – “Learn lessons from our mistakes,” Parouk Hussin, the Foreign Affairs chief of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who became the second and last MNLF official who served as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said five years ago when asked what advice he would give the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which was then nearing an impasse in the peace negotiations.
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on September 10 2011 11:20 am
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/09 September) – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is 21 years old but the“autonomous region” set-up or “experiment” as many refer to it, including Malacanang, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has been existing for the last 32 years, spanning six administrations..
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on September 9 2011 6:44 am
nd of a series COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/08 September) – The supposed grant of autonomy by the first Aquino administration to what would be the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)… »
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on September 8 2011 7:28 am
COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/07 September) – When President Benigno Simeon Aquino III met with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim in Japan on August 4 to talk peace, he did what his mother did 25 years ago: meet with rebel leader Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in his homeland in Sulu, to talk peace. Aquino the son would have wanted to meet with Murad anywhere, even in his camp in Darapanan, Maguindanao.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on July 15 2011 7:01 am
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/14 July) – Elito Guinoay, a Higaonon Lumad living in Sitio Lantud, barangay Sagaran in Talakag, Bukidnon, is one of the buffer zone residents who availed of livelihood funds for abaca production. A traditional crop, he said abaca helps in conservation because it thrives best in cool, shaded areas and so the farmer would do well not to cut the trees [around his farm].
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on July 13 2011 7:34 am
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/12 July) – Until the 1980s, the country’s natural resource protection regime had relied heavily on law enforcement. Forest protection in particular made use of forest rangers as the front line of defense against illegal logging and violations done by holders of Timber License Agreements. The ranger system proved to be a failure though, leaving the forests to the tender mercies of loggers many of whom were also politicians.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on July 11 2011 8:20 pm
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/11 July) – In 1992-1993, American biologist Dr. Lawrence Heaney made a survey of faunal species in Mt. Kitanglad Range, a natural park in Northwestern Bukidnon. He recorded at least 16 species out of the list of endemic birds in Mindanao which can be found in the mountain range (area: 47,270 hectares).
By Edwin G. Espejo on June 1 2011 12:30 am
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—The General Santos District Hospital (GSDH) here was not the only hospital that was investigated by Philhealth for fraudulent claims. Tertiary hospitals such as the AFP Medical Center, St. Luke’s Hospital, Philippine Orthopedic Hospital, University of Sto. Tomas Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center, Cardinal Santos medical Center, Medical City, and National Kidney and Transplant Institute have been investigated at one point or another for alleged Philhealth fraud.
By Edwin G. Espejo on May 31 2011 6:30 am
MANILA, Philippines—For many years you’ve been paying your Philhealth dues, and so has your company. But that money may have been misused to finance bankrupt hospitals and fatten doctors’ salaries. As early as four years ago, a scandal hit the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., which confirmed allegations that some private hospitals and doctors have been defrauding the state-run health insurer.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 25 2011 6:08 am
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/24 April) — Aside from forestry laws and the National Integrated Protected Areas Act, there are other policies at the local and national levels that seek to preserve the country’s remaining forestlands. With the onset of climate change and its adverse impacts, there has since emerged a stronger demand for a serious implementation of these policies.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 24 2011 6:25 am
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/23 April) — In their watershed management and development plans, the local government units having jurisdiction over Mt. Pantaron, Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan identified environment-related problems affecting the water bodies and forestland/uplands. For water bodies, the leading problem is decrease in water quality caused by pollution and contamination, and for forestlands and/or uplands, deforestation and denudation and the attendant loss in biodiversity. Deforestation has further led to soil erosion and siltation of water bodies.
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 23 2011 5:00 am
( Third of five parts) At the national level, implementation of the protected area system has suffered from a major deficiency: lack or absence of budget. Mt. Kitanglad and Mt.… »
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 22 2011 6:31 am
Laws relating to biodiversity conservation had been enacted in the Philippines as early as the American colonial period. It was only in 1992, however, that it acquired strong legal framework… »
By H. Marcos C. Mordeno on April 21 2011 7:19 am
Bukidnon lies in the central part of Mindanao. Categorized as a first class province, it has 20 municipalities and two component cities and is divided into three congressional districts. As a landlocked area, it plays a crucial role as a physical artery that facilitates economic and other exchanges between the northern and southern regions of Mindanao, aided in large part by the improved condition of roads leading to Davao City and Cotabato provinces.
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on April 7 2011 5:37 am
(Questions the Bishops and Business execs asked of the MILF peace panel) Last of six parts: Will conflict take a backseat? DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 April) – Much of the wealth… »
By Mindanews on April 6 2011 6:53 am
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 April) – “We are a national franchisee operator for our trucks. In other words, we are franchised to operate anywhere in the Philippines. Our trucks operate from Luzon to Mindanao.What happens to our franchise when there is the Bangsamoro area … how will a grant of national franchise affect our operations?,” Gabriel Atega, vice-president of Ansuico Incorporated, asked the peace panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
By Mindanews on April 5 2011 7:17 am
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/04 April) – If the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity of the ill-fated Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain of 2008 was perceived “very nebulous” by the majority, as Datu Michael Mastura, senior peace panel member himself acknowledged in the consultation with Mindanao’s business sector last March 31, and the proposed “Bangsamoro sub-state” is still a mystery to many, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) apparently needs to simplify its terms to communicate apparently needs to simplify its terms to communicate its proposed “asymmetrical relationsihp” with the Philippine government.
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on April 3 2011 8:02 pm
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 April) — On the issue of territory, Cotabato Arcbishop Orlando Quevedo asked the panel: “You and I know that Christians vehemently objected to that portion which was beyond Category A (of the botched 2008 Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain or MOA-AD) and especially people from Zamboanga, Davao and North Cotabato were vehement in their objections and yet I still find those very disputable contentious things in the draft. For historical reasons I can understand the MILF position but for the feasible and viable acceptance of this, for those who were vehemently opposed to this especially people from Manila, Zambonaga, Davao and North Cotabao, why should it still be there? For practical purposes, why should it still be there and risk again non-acceptance?”
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on April 3 2011 8:32 am
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 April) – Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo noted that the proposed territory of the proposed “Bangsamoro sub-state” of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) covers areas that are presently the subject of the implementation of the agreement between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and government; and that it is also the present territory of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on April 2 2011 7:37 am
What is this “Bangsamoro sub-state” the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is proposing? What is its composition? Who will lead it? What happens to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao? Are you speaking for the entire Bangsamoro people? What about the Moro National Liberation Front? What about the practice of religion? What happens to our national franchise in a “Bangsamoro sub-state”? How do you deal with constitutional issues?
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on March 24 2011 8:21 am
LINEK, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao (MindaNews/23 March) – “Pagdating namin dito, maraming bangkay. Ang kamalig sa palengke sa Dimapatoy, puno ng bangkay. Ang mosque sa Mompong puno ng bangkay. Yung kalsada dyan, puno ng bangkay.”
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on March 21 2011 3:02 pm
LINEK, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao (MindaNews/21 March 2011) — President Aquino wants a review of the country’s preparedness in dealing with earthquakes and tsunamis and the Senate wants a probe on the same matter, even as an apparently forgotten report on the “Moro Gulf Tsunami of 17 August 1976” written 33 years ago, had recommended simple but doable preparations on what to do and where to go, should a tsunami strike again.
By Carolyn O. Arguillas on March 21 2011 2:30 pm
“After the earthquake, we went outside the house and heard a strange sound. My father said it was the wind. But the coconut fronds were not moving. A niece said it sounded like water. Two huge waves came rushing in. It was so fast. I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was on the side of the mountain.”
