Clares Jalocon, IMEM project manager, said the electricity market in Mindanao will start trial operations on August 26 with the commercial operation set on September 26, or a month-long trial period.

“We are expecting 150 to 200 megawatts (MW) to be made available to the IMEM once it starts operation as per advice by the DOE (Department of Energy),” he told reporters.

Power generating companies shall provide such supply for the interim electricity spot market in excess of their contracted volume with the distribution utilities, Jalocon added.

He noted that the supply expected to be initially sold at the IMEM does not include potential voluntary load facilities, or commercial companies with their own generator sets, which have a combined volume of 183 MW.

Jalocon said the DOE is also pushing the acquisition of diesel-fed modular generator sets by electric cooperatives as another immediate measure to address Mindanao’s power problem.

It would take three to four years to build a large power plant to solve the power problem of the island.

Romeo Montenegro, Mindanao Development Authority director for investment promotion and public affairs, said that brownouts will be back in parts of Mindanao starting August due to the scheduled preventive maintenance shutdown of power plants in the island.

“There will be supply shortage until December due to the scheduled preventive maintenance of the lone coal plant and oil-based and hydropower plants,” he said.

He said that the 208-MW Steag State Power Inc. is slated to shut down one of its two plants one after the other that would take away 104 MW at a time from the Mindanao grid.

Based on his presentation on Mindanao’s power situation, Montenegro said that the island currently gets most of its supplies from the Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants operated by the state-owned National Power Corp. at 710 MW and 445 MW at the most from diesel-fed sources when the Iligan Diesel Power Plant runs at full capacity in October.

Montenegro noted that there are immediate solutions to address the deficit in the coming months, among them the rehabilitation and uprating of the Agus and Pulangi plants by 50 to 100 MW, the Interruptible Load Program pushed by the DOE, the reopening of the 100-MW Iligan Diesel Power Plant, and the acquisition of modular generator sets by the distribution utilities.

He urged distribution utilities and the local government units not to be complacent when the area does not suffer from interruptions, noting they should take actions to ensure that the situation would be sustained in a long-term basis.

The pending start of the IMEM will come even as some issues are still being threshed out regarding the participation of the Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants in the electricity market.

“These are the issues on the billing and settlement. Although these are well-defined in the IMEM rules, there might be some problems that may crop up in the actual implementation. That is why the trial operation is very important,” said Thelma Ejercito, DOE power planning and development division chief.

Ejercito, also the DOE focal person for IMEM, said that the interim electricity market “shall augment the power supply in Mindanao and will provide correction to real-time power imbalances that will occur.”

She e-mailed MindaNews that participation in the IMEM shall be mandatory for all generation companies connected to the Mindanao grid and that the capacity shall be on top of the bilateral contracts of the generation companies and the distribution utilities in the island.

The Philippine Electricity Market Corporation, a non-stock, non-profit corporation, will operate the IMEM, which will hold office in Cagayan de Oro City.

According to its primer, IMEM “is a venue for the transparent and efficient utilization of all available capacities in the Mindanao grid to meet the supply deficiency.”

Unlike the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) operating in Luzon and Visayas, the IMEM will be a day-ahead market and will address only the supply deficiency in the Mindanao grid.

“It intends to draw out all generation capacities including embedded generators in the grid to contribute to the supply in Mindanao. Further, it also intends to draw out voluntary load customers who are willing to curtail their load to lower the demand in the system,” the primer said.

By reasonably compensating embedded generators and voluntary load customers through a price determination methodology and cost recovery methodology approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission, it is envisioned that the supply and demand situation in Mindanao will improve until the entry of new capacities in Mindanao in 2015,” it added.

The IMEM will serve as a transition to the operation of WESM in Mindanao. (Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews)

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Villegas identified the soldiers as Cpl. Emmanuel A. Quezon, Pvt. Marteniano B. Pasiagas Jr., and Privates First Class Ronald C. Gura, Bernie L. Padilla and Donato Estandia.

He said they were held at gunpoint by the NPA in Sitio Lubas in Barangay Paquibato, Davao City on their way to the market.

“The troops were in civilian attire without any firearms because they were going to the market to produce food supplies and coordinate with an NGO for the scheduled feeding program for the benefits of the community,” he added.

Villegas said a sixth soldier, 1Lt. Neven Calitan, escaped after noticing that armed men dressed as soldiers and manning a barricade in the area displayed “unusual demeanor”.

“Following his (Calitan) instinct he immediately leaped from the motorcycle and threw himself into a ravine,” he said.

The NPA has not issued any statement on the incident as of Tuesday afternoon.

The NPA, the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging an armed struggle for over four decades.

Bannered by its political umbrella, the National Democratic Front, the revolutionary group has engaged the Philippine government in on-and-off peace talks since late 1986.

In 1992, the two parties signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Under President Benigno S. Aquino III, the two parties have started talks on the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms. But the negotiation hit a snag over the demand of the NDF for the release of its “consultants” who are being detained by the Philippine government. (MindaNews)

Such is the case in the city of Cagayan de Oro. It would be difficult to find anyone anywhere who embodies the essence of impunity than its mayor: Vicente Yap Emano—a notorious scofflaw who has managed to stay in office for five consecutive terms through his mastery of
Machiavellian politics in an otherwise civilized community.

Emano has been the city’s mayor for three terms (1998-2007), slid down to vice mayor for one term (2008-2011), back to mayor again (2010-2013), then lost the recent election. Before becoming mayor, he had been governor of Misamis Oriental for three terms, and mayor of
Tagoloan municipality before that. Given his seeming invincibility throughout his career, he has appealed his recent loss and filed an election protest, but it seems unlikely that he will prevail as in the past.

But back to impunity, which he probably thinks is the same as immunity since the practical effect is the same.

Cultivating a public image as a macho strongman leader although his actions belie it, Emano is afflicted with the terrible habit of chain-smoking regardless of where he is at any time. He indulges in this uncivilized and unhealthy behavior without any qualms about its consequences, personal or public—puffing away as if it were the most natural thing for a normal human being to do. But he was a dropout in school so maybe he can be forgiven for not knowing the difference between what’s natural and what’s normal. You know, like it’s natural for an addict to indulge in an unhealthy vice, but it’s not normal for a person, especially a public official, to be an addict.

If anyone so much as criticizes him or objects to his deadly vice, he’ll just shrug and dismiss the “impertinence” in his unique, deep-throated way of speaking: “Katungod ko man manigarilyo!” It’s my right to smoke as I please!

It never occurs to him 1) that even as he asserts his “right” to smoke he pollutes and putrefies the air of whatever place or environment he happens to be in at the moment; 2) when he does it in an enclosed place, which is all the time, he is violating the law openly and encourages others to do likewise; 3) he is denying others their right to a clean, healthful environment; and, worst of all,
3) he is recklessly endangering the health of everyone within breathing or smelling distance of
him including the City Hall staff whom he treats like peasants to his Lordship.

All this makes Mayor Vicente Yap Emano, who exempts himself from the effects of any law or regulation that happens to be inconvenient personally, a walking hazard or risk to the community of which he is the chief servant.

As if to underscore his being a community hazard, the department of health recently reported that
Cagayan de Oro is the city with the highest cancer incidence today, with an alarming rise in HIV-AIDS cases.

Unfortunately, because of the sycophantic nature of the city’s governance under him—exemplified by the fawning City Council of mostly bootlicking, petty traditional politicos or
trapos, the community is left defenseless, without champions who dare question him. Its check-and-balance mechanism is dysfunctional and seriously needs fixing. No one or no ordinance can be passed to stop the Lord Mayor from sowing cancer through smoking. Nor may anyone chide him for his impunity or defiance against civilized norms.

Thus, had there been a City Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council before just recently, not only would the damage wrought by Typhoon Sendong have been mitigated or prevented, the CDRRMC could have “managed” or reduced the disastrous effects of the mayor’s deadly habit!

Who is to say that it was not his obsessive smoking in forbidden places which emboldened minors and the masses to indulge in this cancer-causing habit? Who can deny that it was his cavalier disregard of the no-smoking law that caused the rise and spiraling of impunity in an otherwise cultured community? During the 15 years that he has been in office, he openly and routinely puffed away in his office, in public buildings and parks, in meeting rooms and auditoriums, in broadcast stations during interviews, in restaurants, even in church vestibules.

But no one dared to raise the issue except for a solitary voice or two in the City Council, never enough to pass even a token resolution.

And so it goes…impunity has become the boast of a community once toasted as the city of golden friendship and opportunity. It now sports the message: Good Governance is what the mayor says it is, not what the law states it is. Good behavior is not what the law or the book says, it is the example set the mayor.

So if your idea of leadership is doing whatever you like and getting away with bad behavior, come to Cagayan de Oro, the city of defiant governance scofflaw indulgence!

But, wait, don’t write off Cagayan de Oro just yet! Unless Vicente Yap Emano succeeds in getting the Comelec to perform a miracle the city will have a new mayor after June 30, and hopefully, one with an entirely proper and ethical bent.

I was born and raised here. Please join me in welcoming the Honorable Oscar S. Moreno, mayor
-elect of the proud city of Cagayan de Oro. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Manny Valdehuesa is the president and national convenor of Gising Barangay Movement, Inc. He can be reached at valdehuesa@gmail.com.)

Senior Insp. Ronnie Cordero, chief of Tulunan police, identified one of the fatalities as Dondon Palomo, a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT) of Maybula and an employee of a banana plantation in the same area.

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The evacuees numbering 168 families came from sitios Silang, Malipayon, Saban and Purok 1 in Maybula and sitio Tuburan in New Bunawan, and have fled to the barangay centers.

Rose Abad, a resident of Saban said Palomo was one of their “war dogs,” the name for BPAT members who carry firearms to protect their village from MILF attacks. His body was recovered in Malipayon.

Also killed during the encounter was an alleged MILF member whose body was recovered in nearby Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat, reports said.

Three other MILF members were wounded during the fighting, Cordero said, citing a report from the Columbio police.

He said the clashes erupted when MILF rebels allegedly attacked the detachment of the 57th Infantry Battalion around 4pm Sunday.

The police official said the MILF fired mortars that landed near the camp of the 57th IB.

“Our government troops are on a defensive position. Since it was the MILF that first launched the attack, our soldiers had to defend their position. The soldiers saw the rebels getting nearer the detachment of the Peacekeeping Forces. So they returned fire,” said Cordero.

Palomo’s group, he said, came to help the soldiers repulse the MILF.

Armed civilians came to help the soldiers who were outnumbered, he added.

Palomo was hit in the stomach and died from severe blood loss.

Reports said the MILF rebels tried to regain position of Barko-Barko, a high ground southeast of Malipayon. (Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews)

Datu Tungko Saikol, DENR Region 12 director, said in a statement that they decided to donate the illegally-cut forest products to the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the region and process them for various uses.

He said the two agencies have earlier sent requests to the DENR-12 for the use of the seized logs and lumber as materials for classroom furniture and other purposes.

Section 2.7 of Executive Order (EO) No. 23 issued by President Benigno S. Aquino III in February 2011 provides that “DepEd shall be given priority in the use of all confiscated logs.”

EO 23 specifically declared a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in the natural and residual forests and the creation of the anti-illegal logging task force.

“DENR and DepEd have a standing memorandum of agreement, in which illegally-cut forest will be donated to them and utilized for public school fixtures,” Saikol earlier said in a press conference.

Muripaga Umpar, DENR Region 12’s technical director for forestry, said DepEd and DSWD will be issued with formal notification informing them t on the procedures of log and lumber donations from the agency.

By procedure, the DENR initially declares the seized forest products as forfeited to facilitate their donation to DepEd and other requesting agencies.

Saikol said the forest products that they will donate to DepEd and DSWD are part of the estimated 300,000 bd.ft. of illegally-cut lumber and logs that were recovered by government troops on March 17 following a series of operations at an illegal logging area in Barangay Kabulnan, Bagumbayan town in Sultan Kudarat.

He said the illegally-cut forest products, which were valued at P13.5 million, were found stockpiled in Sitio Salatan in Barangay Kabulnan and were believed to have been sawn from trees coming from the Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) area of the Silvicultural Industries, Inc. (SII).

SII is a private company which has an existing production-sharing agreement with the DENR under IFMA 022 and is obliged to protect the leased area, he said.

The official said the management of SII had sought the assistance of the DENR to stop the encroachment of illegal loggers in their IFMA area.

Saikol said the hauling of the forest products from the site is currently ongoing through the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Sultan Kudarat.

In a report, CENRO Sultan Kudarat head Jerry Dalauta noted that “a partial hauling” of the seized products was already accomplished by their office.

He cited that a total of 7,565 pieces of logs and lumbers equivalent to 140,277 bd.ft. (331cu.m.) have been so far hauled and are now stock piled at the base of the Army’s 601st Brigade in Barangay Kalandagan in Tacurong City.

Dalauta admitted that the hauling operations were delayed due to the limited hauling trucks and poor road condition at the site. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)

I have some POSITIVE readings on this latest media BROUHAHA.

ONE: the public will again be reminded that peace negotiations are not easy and a walk in the park. Let’s not forget: a generational issue, like the Bangsamoro right to self-determination, is being tackled and there are no magic wands to solve them that quick and easy. The “annexes” are still being worked out. Remember what I said before: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL”.

TWO: a good reminder too that peace making and peace-building are a CONTINUING PROCESS. The fact that peace talks spanned several presidents is proof of this. Getting it done before 2016 is the best-case scenario. But if not done, the next administration can build on the building blocks already in place. RE-INVENTING it every time a new administration comes is NOT the way to go.

THREE: it’s a reality check that government cannot just easily impose its existing legal and constitutional framework on the rebel group that took up arms precisely because they cannot get concessions within the existing regime of rules. I repeat my earlier incantation: we have to open up the Philippine constitution for this.

FOUR, the MILF to also accept the reality that government, although keen on giving concessions, must also strike a happy balance with the other sectors of the country. Other non-rebel stakeholders also expect equitable attention.

FIVE, the MILF may just be doing a “pressure tactic” short of resorting to violence, which is well and good. Also, this may serve as an opportunity for the MILF to re-solidify and re-group its splintered ranks that the recent elections caused.

FINALLY, the “deadlock” IS THE BEST TIME TO DO ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN. It gives occasion for public discussions and debate and brings up to speed the stakeholders of both sides to an early exposure and understanding of what may be contained in the final peace agreement. This is the best advocacy opportunity so the public will not be taken for a surprise when the terms of the peace package is made public. Consequently, acceptance later of the comprehensive peace package may come as a matter of course. Remember, Congress will still have to approve this and this is not easy given that the proposed law will expectedly erode or undermine the traditional political power base of those in power. Then, a “yes” vote in a plebiscite is still needed to finally entrench it.

Media is helping. But it must avoid the usual temptation to sensationalize. Peace issues must be handled with great sensitivity. We also know that negotiating publicly in the media is not the way to go. Somehow the formal talks and negotiations will have to return back to deliberative quietude behind closed doors.

So, let’s all relax, pipe down, and patiently wait for some new breakthroughs. IF BOTH SIDES ARE SINCERE IN FORGING PEACE, THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY. This is what peace negotiation is all about!
(Lawyer Jesus G. Dureza is the former Chairman of the government panel in talks with the MILF and former Presidential Peace Adviser. He is the new President-Chairman of the Philippine Press Institute, an umbrella group for provincial and national newspapers in the country.)

This is equivalent to an average of P45 million a year or slightly higher than the province’s projected tax revenues for 2013 at P44.554 million. It also expects to earn P26.885 million in “nontax revenues” from regulatory and license fees.

For 2013, Bukidnon has an internal revenue allotment (IRA) of P1.409 billion.

In 2012, according to the annual budget, the provincial government allotted about P67 million for debt servicing.

Of the total loan payments in nine years, P220.445 million or 54.38 percent went to payment for principal and P184.937 million or 45.62 percent to interest payments.

The total loan principal was P369.132 million, all from Land Bank of the Philippines. As of this year, the provincial government has a total of P148.687 million in loans.

Payment for the loan with the longest term – 15 years – will end in 2019.

P213.221 million or 57.76 percent of the loan was used to finance the Bukidnon Provincial Medical Center in Malaybalay City (P109.041 million), the Bukidnon Provincial Hospital in Maramag (P62.727 million) and another provincial hospital in Manolo Fortich (P41.453 million).

Another loan for the hospitals, P81.003 million, also from LBP, was for “hospital equipment.” The five-year loan acquired in 2008 will mature in October this year.

The province also incurred a seven-year loan of P56.9 million from LBP under the IRA Miracle 2 program.

The loan, according to an official source who asked not to be named, was obtained because of an IRA differential. The source said the Department of Budget and Management allowed Bukidnon to acquire a loan using the additional IRA released gradually as guarantee.

Another loan, P18 million, was acquired for the Talakag Water System in 2007. It will mature in 2017.

Except for the last loan, the rest was paid with an interest rate of 10 to 10.5 per cent per annum.

For next year, the report cited a total of P38.327 million due for loans with about 30 percent or P11.453 million for interest payments alone. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)

Bai Zorahayda Taha, DSWD-Region 12 director, said Monday the program has so far served a total of 213,023 “poorest of the poor” households in the area and expansions are ongoing to cover more beneficiaries in the coming months.

“We’re targeting to enlist around 1,000 more families for our next batch in the next two months,” Taha said in a statement.

DSWD-12 earlier reported that the program has served some 202,851 beneficiaries as of the end of February.

Also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, the program is being implemented by DSWD-12 in parts of Region 12 and in Marawi City in the ARMM since 2008.

Region 12 comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and North Cotabato as well as the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Cotabato, Kidapawan and Tacurong.

Taha said the agency has already released nearly P3 billion in cash grants to the program’s beneficiaries in Region 12 and in Marawi City in the last five years.

She said the released cash grants was up by around P500 million based on its total disbursements as of the end of 2012.

Taha said the program’s expansion this year focuses on families of “children in need of special protection” and other marginalized sectors in the area.

In Region 12, she said its beneficiaries presently include families of members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

4Ps is a poverty reduction and social development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to “poorest of the poor” households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14 years.

The program provides beneficiaries cash grants of P500 a month for health and nutrition expenses and P300 a month per child for educational expenses. A household with three qualified children could get P1,400 monthly.

Taha said based on the results of a recent evaluation conducted by the World Bank, which provides financial support to the program, the 4Ps has remained on track in terms of meeting its goals of “keeping children healthy and in school.”

“The World Bank’s findings showed that children of 4Ps beneficiaries are enrolling and attending schools and have improved health conditions due to regular visits to health stations,” she said.

She said pregnant mothers that were covered by the program have been also getting proper care. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)

But what precisely are these grievances and injustices? Who committed them and why? What sort of justice is needed? And, what is the best way to deal with the past in order to strengthen coexistence and prevent further confrontation, to promote a more trusted, accountable and democratic governance system?

The four universal core pillars in the process of dealing with the past are: truth, justice, reparation and guarantees for non-recurrence. But there is no recipe on how to frame the approach, and each country makes its own choices, based on the developments during the conflict as well as the local cultural values and expectations. There is now a wealth of international examples that can inform decisions that have to be taken in the Philippines.

Truth

South Africa decided to focus on truth-telling as a way for healing the wounds and opening space for national reconciliation. With the moral authority of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who acted as chair, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission encouraged victims to share their experiences during the apartheid regime. At the same time the Commission encouraged perpetrators to voluntarily confess their responsibilities. Those who were brave (or smart) enough to admit their wrong-doing were granted conditional amnesty. Those who decided to remain silent would be prosecuted through regular justice procedures.

A full Truth Commission has not been possible in deeply divided societies like Northern Ireland, essentially because the lack of cross-sector trust in an independent fact-finding mission. Fifteen years after the peace agreement the Catholic and the Protestant communities still lack a commonly accepted overall narrative on the roots, the consequences and, especially, the responsibilities of the years of confrontations, which is still hampering a stable peace.

The problem is even worse in Spain, where discussing responsibilities for atrocities committed during and after the Civil War (1936-1939) is still not possible today without huge political controversy. The current political tensions in Spain are partially a consequence of turning a blind eye to what happened during the war and the ensuing dictatorship.

Other countries have followed different approaches. People in Cambodia found acknowledgement of memory much more powerful for all aggrieved parties.

Justice

In many post-conflict situations justice and peace are presented as mutually excluding principles. Especially when justice is associated strictly with punishment of the perpetrators. As nobody can claim full innocence in any war, criminal justice is not really an incentive to give up fighting and return to normal life. No wonder one of the first agreements warring parties tend to reach is on amnesty, as it benefits both of them.

At the same time amnesty is not acceptable under international standards any more. The debate on marrying justice and peace has led to interesting questions such as what sort of justice are people expecting?

Latin American has a strong tradition on focusing on criminal justice. Countries like Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil have shown strong courage in filing legal cases against perpetrators of the dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, only a few years after their transition to democracy. These cases have triggered passionate national debates but, in the end, they have strengthened the trust in the democratic institutions, and brought hope for an inclusive future without rivalries from the past.

In Rwanda, instead, in the wake of genocide of hundreds of thousands of people, and given the absence of a strong and credible legal system, the country decided to pursue justice and reconciliation through Gacaca courts, based on traditional cultural communal law enforcement procedures. This resort to traditional systems has not been straightforward but it has been an essential step to promote coexistence.

The Rwandan case illustrates an increasing trend towards restorative justice, that is, an approach that puts more efforts in reconciling victim, perpetrator and community instead of only punishing the perpetrator. Timor Leste, Indonesia, Cambodia and other Asian conflict-affected countries have developed interesting experiences combining the formal legal system with traditional practices.

Reparation

Economic reparation to victims is hugely controversial as it is difficult to draw a line between those who can and those who cannot claim financial compensation. The Philippines has experience in the case of almost 10,000 victims who filed a class suit against Marcos in 1986, and some sort of compensation is finally ready after more than 25 years. Germany has paid huge amounts of money to victims of the Nazi regime.

Reparation can also take place though non-monetary means. Colombia approved a law to return land.to hundreds of thousands of peasants who have been forcibly displaced over the past decades.

There is also a growing trend for public apologies to provide moral compensation for victims and their descendants and to adjust the often romantic national narratives to the ugly realities of discrimination and violence. Over the past year former colonial powers, but also post-colonial governments such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia have apologized for abuses committed against their own people, usually the original inhabitants.

Non-repetition

Generally a peace agreement includes the measures for a permanent settlement of the armed conflict, including structural reforms to strengthen democracy and the whole process of normalisation of weapons and combat forces and the support to conflict-affected communities. In the frame of transitional justice this process may need vetting procedures to avoid that those persons responsible for human rights violations enjoy or maintain access to positions of power in the security, the governance or the economic sectors.

Questions and challenges for Mindanao

Coming back to Mindanao, Government, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and all other stakeholders have to discuss and agree on the best way to pursue transitional justice in the frame of the peace process, starting with the essential question: what is the purpose? How much truth, justice and reparation is needed? And, more importantly, what sort of truth, of justice and of reparation would respond to the rights and needs of victims and society? How can this process respond to the atrocities and injustice committed by all sides?

Conflict cannot be simplified as a struggle between “good” and “bad” guys: besides Christian-Moro animosities there is a history of Moro and settler abuses against indigenous peoples, as well as intra-Moro, intra-settler, and intra-indigenous violence and injustices. Maybe the most important question is: what process is best suited to respond to the full diversity of local culture, traditions and expectations instead of simply importing international procedures and assumptions?

Dealing with the past is an important but thorny issue. It can help inculcate a sense of respect for the grievances and aspirations for the other and, thereby, heal wounds and promote reconciliation. At the same time it has to respond to multiple and sometimes conflicting expectations. If not handled carefully it risks having a limited impact or even to exacerbate tensions in divided societies.

As any peacebuilding initiative, the challenge therefore is to promote a process that is inclusive and responsive to the diversity of experiences of injustice, observing lessons from elsewhere but responding to local needs and realities. The process also calls for a social consensus on the importance of dealing with the past and a clear commitment for institutional action. And, above all, it calls for acting with a spirit of generosity to promote a positive cycle to heal the wounds and leave the conflict behind. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. PeaceTalk is open to anyone who wants to share his/her views on peace in Mindanao. Kristian Herbolzheimer is Director of the Philippines programme of the Conciliation Resources, www.c-r.org)

His “proof”: Six senatorial candidates who were against the RH Law won; Risa Hontiveros, a pro-RH candidate, lost despite the effort poured into her campaign; and 86% of House members who voted against the law won. He rhetorically asked if these would not make for a Catholic vote.

Maybe, but our esteemed columnist chose to not ask if the RH Law was an issue during the campaign. To say that the candidates won or lost on the basis of their stand on this law is putting the cart before the horse. Except when pressed for their position, I never knew of particular candidates who cared to include it in their agenda, that is, if they had any serious agenda at all. Not the pro-RH, not the anti-RH.

More to the point, if there was indeed a Catholic vote, Senators Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano and Chiz Escudero would not have occupied the top spots along with first placer Grace Poe-Llamanzares, another pro-RH candidate. Strange that the columnist did not mention this fact. A possible explanation is that it’s a big slap on the Church’s “Team Buhay, Team Patay” effort, a repudiation of its purported political influence on the faithful.

He then went on to list the names of anti-RH representatives who won. Let’s name some and see if it would make sense to say that they won on the basis of their stand on the law. Note that most, if not all, of them belong to entrenched political families or dynasties.

One of them is Imelda Marcos of Ilocos Norte. She would have won regardless of her stand, that’s a no-brainer. She could even pick a quarrel with the Pope – or convert to Islam or Buddhism – and still win.

He also mentioned Lani Mercado-Revilla of Cavite and Lucy Torres-Gomez of Leyte. Their celebrity status alone is enough to assure them of victory. And they’re not short of cash too.

Many Pacquiao of Sarangani and Thelma Almario of Davao Oriental were also on the list. However, our columnist did not mention or did not know that both ran unopposed.

Tina Plaza of Agusan del Sur? The only way to beat the Plazas is to outspend them. In Agusan del Sur, like in the rest of the country, a candidate’s position on vital issues hardly makes a dent on his or her chances at the polls.

Our columnist concludes his thesis with the fact that Buhay of the Catholic group El Shaddai topped the party-list election. I would attribute Buhay’s victory to the vote of its members. Some of them could be pro-RH but voted for Buhay simply out of loyalty to Mr. Mike Velarde.

Again, I find it strange that our columnist omitted the fact that pro-RH party-list groups also made it to the House – Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Gabriela, Anakbayan, Act Teacher and Anakpawis.

Maybe a Catholic vote does exist in this county, but how significant it is remains debatable. And to argue for it by being selective in presenting facts, like our columnist just did, only gives the impression that the results of the May 13, 2013 elections have given the bishops goose bumps. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com)

Senior Inspector Elias Dandan, chief of Matalam police, identified the victim as Dr. Cynthia Alpas, head of the USM’s human resource management office.

Dandan said the victim had just alighted from her car when the assailant shot her in the back with a .45 caliber pistol.

The gunman was about to shoot her again but the presence of some bystanders prevented him from doing so.

He then boarded a motorcycle parked near the victim’s house where a companion was waiting for him, Dandan said.

The police official said Alpas’ condition was already stable after she was rushed to a hospital in Kidapawan City.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the shooting incident was related to the ongoing crisis at the USM where some groups are pressing for the ouster of its president, Dr. Jesus Derije, for alleged corruption and abuse of authority.

A day before Alpas’ shooting, the Toyota Fortuner car owned by Orlando Forro, head of USM’s Physical Plant and Services, was burned in his garage by an unidentified person with the use of gasoline.

Forro he tried to save the car but failed.

He added he is not sure if the arson was related to the protest against Derije but stressed he has not violated the rights of his personnel or of any other people while tension ran high over the issue.

Forro, who used to head the security management of USM, was reassigned as head of the physical plant and services on May 13.

In an interview, Dr. Antonio Tacardon, former vice president for student affairs, said that some security personnel of USM even supported the protests against Derije.

Tacardo said some of them were slapped with cases at the Civil Service Commission while others were charged with sedition. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)

Mr. Khamla Phimmalang, who has been fishing here since he was a little boy, would usually begin his routine at 5.00 pm and finish up the next morning, spending at least 12 hours catching fish with his nets.

“I’ve only ever used fishing nets,” he told Vientiane Times, as he straightened the tangled nylons.

Resembling a small hut, his boat was designed to shelter him from rain or cold wind while he stays on the river for hours at a time. He built a tarpaulin roof, with its posts supported by parallel floating platforms and his boat positioned in the middle.

Mr. Khamla said it was better to fish near the Thai side of the river, where the water is deep and clear, with much small and medium sized deadwood floating down the Lao side. He complained about his fishing nets getting caught up in the driftwood.

Gradual decline

Mr. Khamla said being a fisherman is the only thing he has ever done for a living, despite a gradual decline of fish over the last two decades.

“More than 20 years ago, I could catch at least 10kg of fish per day,” he said, noting that he had higher catches in April and May. “Now, my average fish catch per day is 4-5kg. But, sometimes, I don’t catch any fish at all.”

He attributed the decline of his fish catch to the presence of so many fishermen working the Mekong River.

“But, the fish volume decreases every day,” he said, adding that he has to increase fish prices to maintain his income.

He used to sell catfish weighing about 3-4kg each for 30,000 kip per kg, but now he sells them for 60,000-70,000 kip per kg.

“Most of the time, I sell my fish to other villages and markets. Sometimes, some people wait for me at the riverbank to buy fish,” he said.

Critical habitats

Deputy Director of the Living Aquatic Resource Research Centre, Dr. Sinthavong Viravong, told MindaNews the volume of fish in the Mekong has been depleted.

According to Dr. Sinthavong, the decline is mainly due to the decrease in the number of critical breeding and feeding grounds available for young fish.

He said more than a century ago, the Mekong River around Vientiane was linked to flood areas and rice fields via a small stream during the flood season.

“This link gave an opportunity for fish, especially small cyprinids, to be able to reach their breeding habitat during the spawning season,” he said.

Dr. Sinthavong said fish can produce a new generation each year, and the number they produce can cover or replace the number lost to fishing.

Since 1966, when a huge flood caused widespread damage to property in Vientiane, an embankment has been built along the Mekong River near the city to protect it against floods, he said.

“Since then, the link between flood areas, rice fields and the Mekong has diminished,” he said.

The deputy director said the increased use of modern fishing gear instead of nets and hooks had also caused fish numbers to decline.

He also said population growth and developments in the city may have caused fish to “escape the noisy environment to somewhere more suitable.”

Fish passage facility

Dr. Sinthavong said the Australian Agency for International Development was funding Laos to construct a fish passage for Mekong species in the Asean region.

He said through the passage, fish could move between the Mekong River and its tributaries or swamps, where there are suitable breeding grounds to be found.

The project is a collaboration between the National University of Laos, the Living Aquatic Resources Research Centre, National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute, and Australian partner organizations.

Growing aquaculture

Contrary to Mr. Khamla’s belief that the number of fishermen near Vientiane is growing, Dr. Sinthvong said the growing aquaculture sector has led to a decline in Mekong fishers.

“Cultured fish can replace wild fish. This might be a reason for the decrease in the number of fishers in the Mekong River around Vientiane,” he said.

Mr. Khamla said he still hopes for better things to happen in the future despite the changes he has seen in the river.

“The river is getting dirty because many people throw their food wrappers, bottles and other trash into it,” he said.

He said the government could do something to solve the problem, like cleaning up the floating wood and other waste in the water. Being a fisherman all these years has not made Mr. Khamla a wealthy man, although he said he does not worry, as he has no dependents.

“I cannot go out fishing during strong rain or wind or flood. If I am not fishing, I stay at home to sleep. I have no other business or social life, so I am still single,” he said, with a laugh.

This full-time fisherman said he can still see himself fishing the Mekong River for the next decade. (With Patithin Phetmeungphuan of Vientiane Times.)

[Lorie Ann Cascaro of MindaNews is one of the fellows of the FK Norway (Fredskorpset) exchange programme in partnership with the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists. She's currently in Laos and hosted by the Vientiane Times.]

Pangilinan told reporters after the annual stockholders’ meeting of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. that the Silangan project is on track for its targeted commercial production in 2017.

“At the moment, we’re building a decline, which is the most important step [for the mining project’s commercial operation],” said Pangilinan, who also chairs Philex.

The mining method we’ll use is block caving, an underground method similar to the Padcal project in Itogon, Benguet and not open-pit method like the Tampakan project in South Cotabato, the businessman said.

The controversial Tampakan project, which straddles the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Daval del Sur, is being hounded by the open-pit ban imposed by the South Cotabato provincial government.

Philex has a minor interest at the Tampakan project through the stake of Australian firm Indophil Resources NL. Majority of the controlling equity at the Tampakan project is owned by the merged Glencor Xstrata plc.

Last year, Philex was fined by the government with at least P1 billion after Padcal’s tailings pond leaked.

Pangilinan said the total cost to bring the Silangan project into commercial operation would amount to US$1 billion.

Last year, Philex spent some P10 billion for exploration and development works at the Silangan project, he added.

Pangilinan noted that the ores at the Silangan project will be mined using drilling and explosives to break the rocks into smaller pieces.

The Silangan project combines the development of the Boyongan and Bayugo deposits, which comprise gold, copper and silver.

As of July 2011, the combined measured and indicated mineral resource for Boyongan is 273 million tons of 0.52 percent copper and 0.72 grams per ton (g/t) gold and, for Bayugo, 125 million tons of 0.66 percent copper and 0.66 g/t gold, a company study showed.

In February 2009, Philex consolidated its interest in Silangan project by purchasing the remaining 50 percent equity interest held by Anglo American Exploration BV and Anglo American Exploration (Philippines) Inc. for a consideration of $55 million.

The project is covered by Mineral Production Sharing Agreement 149-99-XIII and Exploration Permit XII-03.

The portal development for the Silangan project started in April 2011 while the first blast was done on Aug. 10, 2011, the company said. (Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews)

LAGUINDINGAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews/16 June) — Twenty nine passenger planes took off and landed at the new Laguindingan Airport  on Saturday but passengers complained of  traffic jam and the presence of barkers.

Mohammad Naga Rascal of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines  here said “the planes’ landing and take off operations went without a snag” but acknowledged the problems of  traffic jam and barkers soliciting passengers for taxi rides.

He said the first to land at the airport was a Cebu Pacific Airbus  from Manila which arrived at 6:05 a.m. The last plane to arrive  was also, a Cebu Pacific ATR 72-50 from Davao City, which later departed for Cebu City before 6 p.m.

In the old Lumbia airport which was equipped with navigational aids, flight frequency was 28 a day. However, on stormy days, most of the flights would be cancelled as visibility around the airport located near the mountains south of Cagayan de Oro, drops to zero.

It is this concern that made CAAP pursue the transfer from Lumbia to Laguindingan Airport which is located on a flat terrain near the shoreline in Misamis Oriental.

CAAP has implemented a “daylight operations only” — from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. — for  the operations of Laguindingan Airport because it still has no Instrument Landing System (ILS), a navigational aid for  planes.

It promised to install the ILS, VHF Omnidirectional Range Navigation (VOR); Meteorological Observing System; and Precision Lighting System (PALS) by May 2014.

Local businessmen led by the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry  (Orochamber) feared they would incur huge financial losses because a limited daylight operations will result to fewer planes landing in Laguindingan Airport.

Orochamber president Efren Uy said they estimated only 14 planes will be able to land on the 12-hour opening in Laguindingan airport.

“All of the airlines managed to squeeze more flights to handle the passenger traffic for Laguindingan. It was business that dictated them to manage their operations,” Rascal said.

The P7.8 billion airport built by Hanjin Heavy Industries and Constuction of Korea dazzled incoming and departing passengers who were used to worn-out facilities of the old Lumbia airport.

“This is definitely better than Lumbia,” said  Dr. Paulo Cabreros  who traveled all the way from Iligan City to catch his flight for Manila last Saturday.

“The terminal is very clean and very modern.  I hope they can maintain its cleanliness because I am impressed,” said Cagayan de Oro business executive Bobby Letaba who came on a Philippine Air Lines flight from Manila.

Jen Besere Ocsana, editor-in-chief of Super Balita tabloid  who also came on the same plane liked the view of Macajalar Bay when they landed at the Laguindingan airport.

“The sea was so calm. It was nice to see the sea instead of the usual view of the mountains when we land in Lumbia Airport, Ocsana said.

Cabreros and some of the passengers also pointed to some things that CAAP can improve on in the next few days.

He said the terminal is not wi-fi connected — a must if Northern Mindanao wants to attract foreign tourists.

“I know wi-fi is not important but tourists will be looking for it,” Cabreros said.

Randy Casino, 28, who works as a guide in the Cagayan de Oro white water adventure, noticed there were no trash bins at the terminal lobby and even outside the airport facility.

“They should put garbage bins because where will the people throw their trash? They might also plant trees around the facility to make this a green airport,” he said.

Going to Laguindingan Airport is a bit of a problem as the Department of Public Works and Highways in Northern Mindanao has yet to finish the widening of the highway from Cagayan de Oro.

Repairs on a half-kilometer cement road have resulted to a kilometer –long pile up of vehicles between Alubijid and Laguindingan towns.

This resulted to a 30-minute delay, much to the dismay of the passengers from Cagayan de Oro. who were used to the proximity of Lumbia Airport.

Fe Judith, a retired government employee, said they left their house in Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro City a day earlier for fear they will miss their flight to Manila on Saturday.

Judith said they rode a bus from Bulua West Terminal last Friday and spent the night at the MORESCO dormitory in Laguindingan so they could be at the airport early Saturday morning. She said they spent P250 per person for a bed at the Moresco dormitory.

Barkers, a permanent fixture in Lumbia airport, are also present in Laguindingan airport, victimizing passengers with exorbitant taxi rates.

Cabreros said he had to shell out P150 for a taxi from the highway  in Laguindingan to the airport—a distance of four kilometers.

Staff members of Xavier University Crusader student publication who were doing a story on the airport paid P500 for a taxi in Bulua, Cagayan de Oro to bring them to Laguindingan. They also paid the same rate in returning to Cagayan de Oro.

Mandangan Darimbang, regional director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board said this situation happened because many passengers are not aware that there are many buses and vans fielded to service them.

“I know this is a problem and we will really settle this problem to get rid of these barkers,” Darimban said.

Darimbang said authorized coasters and aircon vans can ask for a promo fare of P199 per  passenger for June and the regular fare of P250 effective in July.

He said a public hearing on the rates will be held in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities next month.

Darimbang said there are eight yellow-colored  coasters from the company, Super Six, that charges P250 person for their rides; ten Toyota Grandia vans of the Laguindingan Airport Express, also charging P250 ride; and vans from Magnum Express.

He said Super 5, a major bus liner plying the Cagayan de Oro and Iligan route also has aircon vans waiting at the junction of the highway to the Airport. These vans charge P25 per person for the four-kilometer ride to the airport.

One of the owners of the vans plying the route said he fears  the competition offered by the barkers and colorum taxis will affect their business.

“We have invested money to buy these vans and we paid for our routes. LTFRB should be doing something to protect us,”  the owners said. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

Many asked me when this airport first begun its operations. Some guessed that it was in the early fifties. But I came upon a written account of the World War II exploits of Col. Fidencio Laplap, liberator of Cagayan who said that after he and his guerrilla group were successful in attacking the Japanese who fully occupied Camp Evangelista in Patag, they then proceeded to Lumbia Airport where they conducted a lightning raid, destroyed several planes and other facilities. The enemy ran and joined their comrades in the poblacion and took their final stand in town where the final Battle of Cagayan happened that day of January 1945.
This airport could have existed before the onset of World War II but other sources say that it was the Japanese Imperial Army that built it. There is a small Japanese altar for the dead that was set up on the small park near the main gate leading to the terminal building. It was placed there by the kin of the soldiers who died in this area in that last war. I do not know if this park and that memorial altar will remain when the airport is closed.

As a child, I loved going with my family on a ride to the Lumbia airport to meet relatives or my father who traveled a lot. Those rides were always a visual treat to many of us. Here we would see the utter beauty of the  surrounding hills and from afar, the majestic mountains of Bukidnon. To the north is Macajalar Bay. On a clear day, you could see the outline of the mountains of Camiguin Island. There were lots of greenery and wide open spaces everywhere. Now there are billboards and houses along the way. It is ugly and it disrupts the otherwise lovely natural scenery that is so much part of our city.

My early recollection of Lumbia airport is that of a gray one story wooden building with a tall tower beside it. The gates for the arrival and departure areas were simple corridors that were not fully walled that it allowed the breeze from Mt. Balungkot in.

Between the three corridors were small open air gardens, each with colorful bougainvillea flowering plants. The gardens were enclosed with a thick hedge of greenery that bore violet flowers that we loved to pick and sip its sweet nectar. There were wooden high backed benches for both the passengers and their well wishers, usually a group consisting of family members and friends to sit. There was no pre-departure area then. When a plane lands or departs, the engines would scream and be so revved up with such force that those sitting on the corridors would turn their faces to the wall with their hair in disarray. The ladies would hold tightly to their skirts fearing that it might be raised up and expose their undies.
In those days, Philippine Airlines of PAL ruled the skies. I was told that a plane ticket to Manila on a DC-3 cost PhP15. Later, there was a night flight to Manila via a Fokker plane and it cost PhP 99 – a princely sum then.

The first Kagay-anon flight attendant is the charming Sylvia Cecilio. Her sisters, Joy and Kim soon followed her footsteps. Other local beauties became PAL FAs as we call them – Sandra Wilson, Mariles Lopez, the Fontanosa sisters, Angie Denosta, the Sontillano sisters and many more.

The only airport canteen was ran by Mrs. Chaves. It had starched white tablecloths and loud swinging doors. Governors, Mayors and other VIPs ate and spent time waiting for their plane to arrive. I remember seeing the British rock group the Zombies who sat there as they waited for their connecting flight to Davao. They were very polite though they looked weird to us for they had long shaggy hair.

The porters in Lumbia were so in demand because at that time the luggages were heavy and the big boxes that the passengers brought in had no trolleys like the ones that we have now.

These men were heavy set and strong. But what made them stay in their jobs for long was because they were unfailingly honest and polite. So it was common for families that often travel to have their own porter who was their suki. They relied on their porter even when it was just shipping some packages to Manila or Cebu for this was before the advent of the LBC and the like.

Lumbia was the scene of grand welcomes for our Presidents – the first one to arrive there by plane was Ramon Magsaysay. His predecessors usually took the Presidential Yacht when they visited Cagayan. The airport was also the scene of many victorious, joyful and at times sad events.

I remember that memorable welcome the city gave to the new Vice President of the country, Cagayan’s own Emmanuel “Maning” Pelaez. Many hoped that soon, he will be the first President to come from Mindanao. Years later, he failed to clinch the party nomination for President – it went to Ferdinand E. Marcos. But the people welcomed him with placards that told what was in their hearts – Bisag unsaon, Maning gihapon! This later became his political battle cry.

When Rene Barrientos, the adopted son of Cagayan de Oro, won the world flyweight boxing title, he was given a hero’s welcome. Local officials led by the governor met him in the airport. And who can forget that one sad day in October, 1964 when more than a hundred vehicles of all shapes and sizes along with thousands of people jammed Lumbia Airport, some even climbing to the control tower just to meet the plane carrying the body of the city’s beloved Mayor Justiniano R. Borja? To this day, no event can duplicate that nor the very long procession of cars, jeeps, buses and trucks that accompanied the hearse from the airport to the Borja residence in  downtown Cagayan.

Then there is the story of an irate father who drove his jeep at full speed in the runway chasing in vain the plane that carried his daughter who eloped with her boyfriend to Davao. And old hands in the airport still talked about Jun, a college student of Xavier University, who bravely ran in the middle to the runway, with a bouquet of roses in hand, trying to stop a plane in its tracks. It was a daring deed all in the name of love. The plane stopped and many airport officials ran towards Jun who was pleading with the pilot to open the door so he can say goodbye to his Australian girlfriend. She was leaving the country for good. The officials in trying to calm him down, pleaded to the pilot in behalf of Jun. The plane door opened, the blonde girlfriend came down. Smiles, hugs, kisses and tears as she received the roses from her lover. Then Jun was escorted back to the airport where he stood transfixed – watching the plane fly till it was a small dot in the sky. Then, he left.
Like Jun, it is hard to say goodbye to Lumbia Airport for it holds so much memories for us. It is part of our lives and a part of our history. But memories aside, I think now of many people who lived and work there most of their lives. Some of them are second generation workers in Lumbia. When this airport is closed, many will be part of the nation’s statistics of the unemployed because the government failed to prepare or aid them for this grim eventuality.

I realized that this country is not about modern structures and roads – it’s all about people and what we all become. The tragedy here is that much of the focus and the main priority of the government was on the construction of the new Laguindingan International Airport. This is a sad fact that no thought and assistance was given concerning the future of the displaced workers and the families who built their houses and lives around Lumbia Airport.

To me, what made Lumbia Airport special and memorable are the people – the friends, the workers, passengers and even the strangers. Not cement, cold steel, wood, planes and conveyor belts.  (Paulita Roa is a member of the Cagayan de Oro Historical and Cultural Commission and Deputy of the National Museum in Cagayan de Oro)

This question nags: Will Bangsamoro be entrenched before President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III steps down on June 30, 2016 as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has envisioned – not just mere entrenchment?

Sad to note, the Bangsamoro that MILF has envisioned is also imperiled by challenges from the Moro National Liberation Front and to the MNLF by one provision in the FAB and collateral documents. Their complicating implications cannot just be brushed aside.

MNLF has long challenged the propriety, validity and legality of the Government-MILF negotiation on the ground that the same Moro problem involving the same people and covering the same territory has already been resolved in the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement or Jakarta Accord. Since November 2007, the 1996 FPA has been undergoing a tripartite [OIC-GRP (GPH)-MNLF] review on questions of implementation.

What is the imponderable fact? The Philippine Government will give to MILF what it has already given to MNLF.

According to the MNLF-Misuari faction (The Philippine Star, June 13, 2013: Gov’t, MNLF resume talks), the MNLF and the government panels will meet in Malacanang on June 17 to 19 in preparation for the tripartite talks to resume in Saudi Arabia in August. The government’s commitment to the MNLF is as much alive as to the MILF. Curiously, though, there is no mention of this in the OPAPP website.

The MNLF appears conciliatory, seeing “no conflict with the framework agreement (with the MILF) because it aims to address the Bangsamoro problem in Mindanao.” In a resolution, MNLF reported, the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) “called on the government to synchronize the framework agreement forged by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to the accord with the MNLF”.

Stated simply, MNLF is challenging MILF and Government to merge their agreement with the GRP-MNLF 1996 FPA according to the OIC resolution. But the MNLF position and the OIC resolution will complicate rather and simplify the MNLF-MILF conflict and cast Bangsamoro into limbo.

First, there are no agreements to merge yet. The FAB is still an agreement in progress; the 1996 FPA is under review. Government and MILF may sign their comprehensive agreement his year. But the conclusion of the tripartite review is indefinite; the OIC has yet to settle the representation imbroglio among the MNLF factions without end in sight.

Second, should Government and MILF agree with MNLF and OIC, MILF has to hold a new negotiation with the MNLF. The FAB roadmap will have to be abandoned at Step 5 (Transcom drafts Bangsamoro Basic Law bill) and a new one drawn. When will this happen especially considering the MNLF representation imbroglio? Who and how will the MILF-MNLF negotiation be conducted?

Third, will the MILF and MNLF be able to merge their visions of Bangsamoro? And what visions? The MILF has clearly shown its vision in its negotiation with the government. The 1996 FPA does not show clearly what the MNLF vision is.

That the Aquino government is keeping alive the tripartite review of the 1996 FPA has implications that can complicate the MILF response to the MNLF challenge – if MILF takes seriously that challenge.

What is the challenge of the FAB to MNLF?

The FAB provides that “Upon promulgation and ratification of the Basic [Bangsamoro] Law …the ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao] is deemed abolished (FAB.VII.8).

The Annex on Transitional Arrangement and Modalities (I.E. Paragraph 2) is specific: The BBL “shall provide for the repeal of Republic Act 9054 and the creation of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority” that will supplant the ARMM.

The Philippine Government is not abrogating the 1996 GRP-MNLF FPA. In enacting the BBL, the Congress will only repeal RA 9054 that it enacted in 2001. But RA 9054 is the implementation the 1996 GRP-MNLF FPA which is the “full implementation” of the 1976 Tripoli Agreement. The implications are dizzying. That will render irrelevant the tripartite review of the full implementation of the FPA.

That is challenging the MNLF to question before the Supreme Court, first, the Government-MILF Comprehensive Agreement if Government and MILF would ignore or reject the OIC bid to have the Agreement merged with the 1996 GRP-MNLF FPA; or, second, the BBL once promulgated and ratified.

GPH Panel Chair Ferrer said in her “Q&A”, as well as in earlier statements, that the Aquino Government wants any agreement with MILF “legally defensible”. Is it also anticipating any eventuality of the MNLF taking the Government and MILF to court?

Call Misuari and the MNLF spoilers. However, understand them. By 2005, ten years after the signing of the FPA, they completely lost political power in the ARMM. MNLF splintered and Misuari, in particular, was pulled down from the pinnacle of fame and dashed onto the dust of ignominy – for seven years from 2001 to 2008 in detention for rebellion. Only the OIC had sustained Misuari and MNLF.

The tripartite review is their best chance to recover their lost power and glory. While the FAB is spoiling this chance, through the auspices of the OIC, MNLF will compromise to have a part of the Bangsamoro. If further spurned, can they be stopped from going to the Supreme Court to avail of their last resort even if it would mean irreparable spoilage of the Bangsamoro? (Patricio P. Diaz/MindaNews)

Datu Reynante Buklas, one of the Mamanwa chieftains told MindaNews in a phone interview that they are barricading the Adnama Mining Resources Incorporated (AMRI) in Barangay Urbiztondo where the firm operates.

Buklas said AMRI has failed to pay royalty to the tribe, which holds the ancestral domain title to the area.

He said that AMRI, which has been mining nickel ore in the area and exporting it to China, has not paid them since last year forcing them to stage the barricade.

“We are deprived of this share and we feel being abused by this mining company,” Buklas said in the vernacular.

Section 7-b of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 entitles indigenous peoples to “negotiate the terms and conditions for the exploration of natural resources in the areas for the purpose of ensuring ecological, environmental protection and the conservation measures, pursuant to national and customary laws…”

Four firms are currently operating in Claver — the Taganito Mining Corporation, Oriental Synergy Mining Corporation which is now operated by AMRI, Platinum Group Mining Company and Taganito High-Pressure Acid Leach Nickel Corporation.

The 48,678-hectare mining areas in barangays Taganito and Urbiztondo are covered by a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title.

MindaNews tried to contact AMRI officials to get their statement but no to avail.

Buklas said they will continue to barricade until their demand is met, adding more tribe members from different communities will be joining them today and tomorrow.

He said the barricade has forced the company to suspend its operations.

Lt. Col. Vincent Iringan, commander of the 30th Infantry Battalion based in Bad-as, Placer in Surigao del Norte said he was monitoring the barricade and coordinating with the Claver police station to ensure “that no violence will occur in that area.”

“My men initially talked to some datus today and they assured us that they won’t do any violence in the area,” he added. (Roel N. Catoto/MindaNews)

The ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database allows users to search for owners, officers and other parties linked to some 120,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore locales such as the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands and Singapore, the ICIJ announced in a statement. The database came from a hard disk containing 2.5 million files on secret offshore entities in more than a dozen tax havens leaked to the ICIJ last year.

BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares told PCIJ in an interview that she welcomes the public release of the database, saying it can aid the agency’s efforts to gather more leads and information that could result in tax investigations and cases.

Since she was appointed tax chief in 2010, Henares has filed 170 cases against taxpayers for failing to pay the correct tax before the Department of Justice as part of a massive clampdown against tax evasion. Tax collections in the Philippines amounted to just 12.9 percent of economic output, one of the lowest in Southeast Asia.

“We will look into it and match (the information on Philippine residents in the database) with income tax returns,” she told PCIJ. “First, what we will do simultaneously is get confirmation and data from the various governments that have control of the banks so they can provide us the information. Secondly, at the same time, we will check with the income tax returns whether the taxes they have paid support those kinds of assets.”

Not wrong per se

She stressed that opening or owning an offshore account per se is not a violation of Philippine laws because such outward investments have been allowed following the deregulation of foreign exchange markets in the 1990s.

Still, Filipinos earning money abroad, except overseas Filipino workers, are generally required to report such income when they file their tax returns in the Philippines, Henares said. Taxes paid to governments of countries where such income is earned are generally credited against taxes payable in the Philippines, she added.

Henares said the tax investigations will focus on those who have sizeable offshore investments but report no or little income in their income tax returns filed with the BIR in the Philippines.

Aside from the ICIJ interactive database, BIR will also seek information from tax authorities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, which announced a plan last month to share tax information with other countries “involving a multitude of trusts and companies holding assets on behalf of residents in jurisdictions throughout the world.”

More, more data

“The three nations have each acquired a substantial amount of data revealing extensive use of such entities organized in a number of jurisdictions including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and the Cook Islands,” said the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in a statement released last month. “The data contains both the identities of the individual owners of these entities, as well as the advisors who assisted in establishing the entity structure.”

The British tax office said the size of the data obtained by the three tax agencies was around 400 gigabytes, compared to 260 gigabytes of data obtained by the ICIJ. The data gathered by the ICIJ is more than 160 times larger than the leak of U.S. State Department documents by Wikileaks in 2010, according to ICIJ.

The information in the ICIJ’s public database contains only the names and addresses of people associated with the offshore trusts, companies, funds, and other entities. It does not include emails, memos, corporate documents, tax filings and other files from the original leak.

PCIJ has examined some of the information in the ICIJ database and found about 500 entries with Philippine addresses. The list consisted mainly of businessmen and businesswomen, but also included well-known politicians and other public officials who failed to mention or disclose their interests in offshore entities in the annual asset disclosure statements.

Not by names alone

Henares clarified, however, that BIR will not prosecute or charge people just because their names are on the list. “It does not mean that just because your name is there, you are already liable,” she said. “I cannot go to court with the information but it helps narrow down who should be investigated.”

To be sure, not all offshore accounts are used to evade or avoid taxes, and some are set up for perfectly legitimate business reasons such as legal and tax neutrality for international joint ventures. Setting up a joint venture in an offshore center does not give any undue advantage to any of the investors compared to organizing it in one of the investors’ home countries.

But offshore entities and tax havens are controversial worldwide because they are sometimes used to hide illicit wealth and income from corruption, tax evasion, and shadowy economic activities.

“Tax evasion is a central theme in the meetings British Prime Minister David Cameron will chair next week with the leaders of the G8 industrialized countries,” said the ICIJ. “In the U.S., anticorruption advocates are urging President Obama to support proposals that would require owners of shell companies in the U.S. and other countries to publicly register their holdings. “

‘Secrecy for sale’

On April 4, 2013, the Washington, DC-based ICIJ published its massive report, “Secret files expose offshores’ global impact,” which was triggered by a cache of 2.5 million files on more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts of “politicians, con men and the mega–rich the world over.”

The secret records leaked to ICIJ exposed the names behind covert companies and private trusts in 10 offshore jurisdictions, including the British Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands.

The 260 gigabytes of data covered 2.5 million files, including more than 2 million e-mails, four large databases, half a million text, PDF, spreadsheet, image, and Web files.

Many times larger than the Wikileaks files, the ICIJ data covered 122,000 offshore companies or trusts, nearly 12,000 intermediaries (agents or “introducers”), and about 130,000 records on the people and agents who run, own, benefit from or hide behind offshore companies, according to ICIJ.

To analyze and verify the data, ICIJ organized a global network of 86 journalists and media partners from 46 countries, including PCIJ for the Philippine reports.

Too, ICIJ collaborated with reporters from The Guardian and the BBC in the United Kingdom, Le Monde in France, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, The Washington Post in the United States, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

As part of the global release of the ICIJ reports, PCIJ published, on April 4-5, 2013, a two-part story on the offshore accounts of three elective officials who are required under Philippine laws to file truthful and complete Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) every year, and upon entry into and exit from public office.

Imee, Manny, JV

The PCIJ story focused on then re-electionist Ilocos Norte Gov. Maria Imelda ‘Imee’ Marcos, then senator Manuel ‘Manny’ B. Villar Jr., and then senatorial candidate Jose Victor ‘JV’ Ejercito.

Villar’s Nacionalista Party was part of the administration Team PNoy coalition led by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III’s Liberal Party.

Ejercito, on the other hand, was a candidate of the opposition coalition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) that is led by Vice President Jejomar C. Binay.

Marcos was listed as one of the beneficiaries of the Sintra Trust, formed in June 2002 in the British Virgin Islands. The other beneficiaries of the offshore account are her adult sons with estranged husband Tomas Manotoc: Ferdinand Richard Michael Marcos Manotoc, Matthew Joseph Marcos Manotoc, and Fernando Martin Marcos Manotoc.

She was also listed as a financial advisor for Sintra Trust, as well as a company in which the Sintra Trust was a beneficial shareholder called ComCentre Corporation (formed in January 2002 in the BVI and still in operation) and a “master client” for the M Trust (formed July 1997 in Labuan, Malaysia, and closed July 2009).

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has launched an investigation into Marcos’s offshore accounts, saying it is keen to find out if these might contain some of the estimated $5 billion that her father, the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos, allegedly amassed through corruption. He, too, held offshore accounts, which the Philippine government has sought to freeze.

‘Awesome’ account

The ICIJ data showed that Villar is the beneficial owner of a BVI international business corporation called Awesome Dragon Holdings Limited. It was incorporated in the BVI on July 26, 2007 while he was president of the Senate.

Villar served as Senate president from July 2006 to November 2008. He ends his second term as senator on June 30, 2013.

The ICIJ data also showed that Ejercito is a director of a BVI company called Ice Bell Properties Limited formed on July 8, 1999, when his father, Joseph ‘Erap’ Ejercito Estrada, was still president. Ejercito was then a nominee to Congress of the Kabataan ng Masang Pilipino, a party-list group affiliated with Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino.

JV Ejercito eventually declined the nomination after a tweaking of the rules that helped KAMPI qualify for a House seat proved too controversial for him. Two years later, in 2001, he became mayor of San Juan City, Erap Estrada’s political bailiwick.

Although PCIJ sent letters to Marcos, Villar, and Ejercito, only Villar made an effort to explain his involvement with an offshore account.

In a written reply to PCIJ’s questions, Villar admitted to being the “ultimate shareholder” of Awesome Dragon Holdings Limited but said it was a dormant company with a capital of just one U.S. dollar. He said it was put in place in 2007 “as a ready corporate vehicle for any strategic multinational business opportunity that may become available.”

Inactive? Not quite

“I am indicated as owner of said company because we were informed that if a company wants to incorporate as a subsidiary-company in the British Virgin Islands, said company is required to identify the natural person or persons who is/are the ultimate shareholder/s of said company.”

He wrote in reply to PCIJ’s queries: “While having a BVI company may be abused by some, there is actually nothing sinister about owning one, especially this company that was never used and has a capital of only a single dollar. This is being done by big companies worldwide.”

Villar, who is one of the country’s richest lawmakers, said Awesome Dragon Holdings Limited was not activated because he decided to focus all his entrepreneurial efforts in the Philippines. “As a businessman and eventually as a public official, I am proud to say that I invested heavily in the country economic-wise and generated employment opportunities for Filipinos,” he said.

But that was also the wise course of action to take, given the onset of the global financial crisis just a year after Villar set up his offshore corporation. Whatever opportunities abroad were available in 2007 evaporated the following year with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the stockmarket meltdown in rich Western countries.

Still, contrary to Villar’s statement, the offshore company remains “active,” based on a check made by the PCIJ on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, with the government Financial Services Commission’s Registry of Corporate Affairs in the British Virgin Islands.

To maintain its active status, annual payments of at least $2,200 are being made to the BVI government and Portcullis Trust Net Limited by or on behalf of Awesome Dragon Holdings Limited, according to documents acquired by the ICIJ. The offshore company has an authorized capital of $50,000, implying that the issued capital of only $1 can be quickly raised to as much as $50,000 if needed

JV: Sad memories

Ejercito, for his part, did not confirm or deny his directorship in Ice Bell Properties Limited. Instead, he raised questions about the timing of this story, which, he said, “is highly suspicious considering the on-going electoral campaign of which I am one of the leading contenders among the UNA senatorial candidates.”

He added that it brought back “the sad memories of 2001 when I was accused of owning a house inside the posh Forbes Park, which actually was owned by relatives of the Sultan of Brunei, and false accusations of other supposed business assets that did not belong to me.”

Ejercito wrote: “I have held high respect to (sic) the PCIJ as an institution. I hope that you will not allow yourself to fall in (sic) the manipulative efforts of desperate people in (sic) dirty politics.”

In the May 2013 elections, Ejercito ran and won as senator, landing No. 11 in the list of 12 winners. (Roel Landingin/Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism)

In a press conference Friday, Pangilinan said they are in talks with a Mindanao-based power generation company for a possible joint venture in operating a coal-fired power plant.

“We’re aware of the brownouts…. and we’d like to be part of the solution with regard to the power situation in Mindanao,” Pangilinan told reporters shortly after the annual stockholders’ meeting of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which he chairs.

Pangilinan said that the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), which he also chairs, is interested to invest in power generation in Mindanao.

He noted that Meralco, the country’s largest electric distribution utility, is willing to place its money to help Mindanao achieve stable power supply in the coming years.

There are at least two coal plant projects in Mindanao currently under construction, one in Davao City by the Aboitiz Power Corp. and the other in Maasim, Sarangani by the Sarangani Energy Corp. of the Alcantara Group.

Steag State Power, Inc. in Misamis Oriental operates the only existing coal-fired power plant in the island that has a capacity of 210 megawatts.

Pangilinan did not identify the Mindanao-based power generation company his group is talking with.

However, MindaNews was able to confirm that Pangilinan’s group is talking with the Alcantara Group.

“We have received many offers both [from] local and foreign groups who are interested in taking an equity position in our power projects and in ACR (Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc.)…And yes, the MVP group is one of them,” Alcantara said in a text message forwarded by one of his senior executives.

ACR is the publicly-listed company of the Alcantara Group of Companies while MVP is Pangilinan’s initials.

The Alcantara Group operates the 100-megawatt (MW) Western Mindanao Power Corp. in Zamboanga City, the 55-MW Southern Philippines Power Corp. in Alabel, Sarangani and the recently acquired 102-MW Mapalad Power Corp. in Iligan City. These are all fuel-fed plants.

On Saturday, Mindanao has a power supply surplus of 152 MW, according to the website of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippine.

NGCP, the private operator of the country’s power transmission system, placed the supply in the Mindanao grid at 1,373 MW with the peak load at 1,221 MW.

Months prior to the May 13 elections, several parts of Mindanao suffered daily rotating brownouts lasting up to eight hours in some areas due to the reduced generation capacity of the hydroelectric plants operated by the state-owned National Power Corp. allegedly due to the dams’ declining water level. (Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews)

Rene Gonzales, mining environment division chief of MGB Caraga said that he personally checked the dam two days after Greenstone employees discovered a crack on April 24, 2013. He, however, said that upon his arrival the company had already put earth fillings on the crack, made a containment bund wall and diverted a river path.

He said such measures were enough to mitigate the effects of a possible spill, which, he stressed, did not occur.

Romeo Daludado, geology division chief of MGB-13 said the company told him the tension crack that occurred on the dam’s slope was 250 meters long and had two meters of land displacement.

Daludado said the tailings dam, which serves as catchment of wastes from the milling processing plant is very stable now.

Greenstone Resources Corporation, a subsidiary of Australian-based miner Red5 Limited has been producing 1,250 ounces of gold per week at Siana Mines the start of commercial production on April 26, 2012.

Steve Norregaard, managing director of the mining company told MindaNews the company did rapid response project which took them five weeks to complete.

Norregaard said their company voluntarily and immediately stopped its milling and mining operations a day after the discovery of the crack and instead focused on the work of a 900-meter containment bund wall, earth fillings where the crack occurred, and a diversion of Magpayang River which was 240 meters long and 20 meters wide.

He said the work was completed early this month at a cost of US$3.5 million including the purchase of seven hectares of private lands and payment for crops.

But some residents expressed fears a spill might have escaped from the tailings dam.

Dodong Morales said they could not be sure if toxic chemicals have escaped seeped into the soil or water bodies even if they have not notice any fish kill. He said this should be monitored.

He said that while the company may have tried to contain any spill, it has to ensure that there is no seepage underneath.

Questioned

Jaybee Garganera, national coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) questioned the MGB for allowing Greenstone Resources Corporation to get permits despite its history of mine flooding and underground fire.

ATM said Siana Mines was actually an abandoned mine site previously operated by Surigao Consolidated Mining Company Inc. (Suricon) and was first opened in the 1930s.

Closed down during World War II, it was reopened in 1946, producing 4,800 kilograms of gold and 8,000 kg of silver. It was closed down again owing to mine flooding and underground fire.

The abandoned mine site was not rehabilitated until Red5 Ltd. secured a mining permit in 2002. It was granted an environmental compliance certificate in April 2009 despite a prior scheduled Final Mine Rehabilitation and Decommissioning Plan expected late May of the same year, according to ATM.

The Siana Gold Project is made up of both an open pit and an underground mine. The project, as originally designed, will deliver a minimum 849,000 ounces of gold production a year at a cash cost of under $400 per ounce over a ten-year life.

But MGB’s Gonzales refuted Garganera saying Suricon is not obliged to submit a decommissioning and mine rehabilitation plan since it is not covered by the Mining Act of 1995, having been created before the law was passed.

He said Greenstone Resources Corporation used Suricon’s old tailings dam which recently suffered a crack.

Layoff

Norregaard said the company had to lay off 274 workers, 227 of whom were locally hired, following the suspension of its operations.

“We paid half of the 13-month bonus, we gave their salary this month, we advised most of them to avail [of benefits] like sick leave so that they can be paid,” he added.

However, the company has retained 107 personnel — 11 Lumads, 74, regular employees and 22 temporary workers in their drilling site.

Norregaard said the stoppage is just temporary and they are working for a resumption of operations.

“The company has continued its discussion with our banker, Credit-Suisse, and its insurer. In particular, discussions with Credit-Suisse focus on its standstill agreement which is integral to the success of other financial initiatives,” he said.

“The company is considering various funding and other alternative to secure finance for the construction of tailings dam and for working capital for 12 months until income can be derived from the recommencement of the milling operations,” he added.

Norregaard said the company halted its operations because geotechnical experts from Australian-based GHD Engineering, Knight Piesold Consulting and Golder Associates, a consulting firm representing the Credit Suisse, cautioned that there is an unquantifiable risk in operating the tailings dam.

Tubod Mayor Cristina Hemady R. Arcillas has not issued any statement on the issue. However, she told MindaNews that she requested the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) regional office to conduct monitoring on the area.

She said her request is for the EMB to conduct samplings on the water and soil near the area to ensure the surrounding environment is safe.

“Right now I cannot comment on the issue,” the mayor said, adding her concern now is to find alternative employment for the displaced workers. (Roel N. Catoto/MindaNews)

Calling themselves the Oust Derije Movement, the protesters are accusing USM president Dr. Jesus Derije of corruption and abuse of authority.

Dr. Alemin Sencil, a leader of the group, announced the resumption of classes and normal operations in the campus in a press conference Friday in this town.

The announcement followed a two-day negotiation between Cotabato second district Rep. Nancy Catamco and some leaders of the group.

On Friday, Catamco showed the rallyists a copy Derije’s letter that he was taking a 29-day leave of absence, and a memorandum order from Commission on Higher Education Chair Patricia Licuanan designating lawyer Christopher Cabilen as officer-in-charge.

Cabilen is Catamco’s legal officer.

Catamco assured the investigation on the graft cases against Derije would continue.

In a text message to Catamco, Sencil said: “We find problem in the holding of program on Monday and inviting leaders who have been working for the resolution of the USM crisis. Because of that, we will open the gate. There would be no program. No more invited political leaders. We will just open the gates so that all people can enter and exit the USM.”

Members of the Regional Mobile Force of the Philippine National Police (PNP) based in General Santos City will be deployed in different areas inside and outside the campus.

PNP-12 regional director Chief Supt. Harold Calima said the move will ensure the safety of all people inside USM.

“We’re here to ensure the normal flow of operations inside the USM. This is our mandate,” said Calima during the press conference.

The gates at the USM have been padlocked the past six months owing to the protest against Derije. (Malu Cadelina-Manar/MindaNews)

There was no fanfare, no press conference to announce the closure of Lumbia Airport and senior officials from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) were not around to answer queries from the public and journalists.

They were busy at the new P7.8 billion Laguindingan Airport in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental where commercial flights for passengers to and from Northern Mindanao will resume at 6 a.m. on Saturday, June 15.

“Soon after the last passenger plane leaves at 10 tonight, we will be closing the gates of Lumbia Airport for good, “ CAAP air comptroller Luis Luisma said on Friday.

Trucks laden with desks and office equipment were seen leaving the the CAAP compound in Lumbia Airport en route to Laguindingan Airport.

Luisma said the first commercial plane will arrive in the new airport at 6 a.m.

MOVING OUT. A truck laden with desks and other office equipment leaves the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines compound in Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro City on Friday, June 14 en route to Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

The Department of Transportation and Communication has limited operations at the new airport at daytime  — from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. only —  because the airport does not have an Instrument Landing System (ILS).

Luisma said Laguindingan Airport is equipped with a wind cove which can be visible to pilots from miles away, radio communications and the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) which were installed on both ends of the runway.

“These are the minimum requirements to operate an airport safely,” he said.

He said planes coming to Laguindingan will still use the radar beacon of Lumbia until it is within seven miles — enough visibility to switch to a Visual Flight Rule (VFR) landing.

“The pilots will see the PAPI lights from seven miles away but until they see them, they will rely on the beacon from the Lumbia airport to guide them in,” Luisma said.

Luisma said as soon as the pilots see the PAPI lights, they will start a three-degree inclination toward the runway and land. He said the comptrollers in Laguindingan airport will guide the planes to land at this time.

“The Lumbia tower will still be operational until all the navigational aids will be installed in (Laguindingan Airport) in May 2014. Two towers in Lumbia and Laguindingan will take turns guiding the planes to the new airport and land to land safely,” he said.

CAAP has promised to install the ILS, VHF Omnidirectional Range Navigation (VOR); Meteorological Observing System; and Precision Lighting System (PALS) by May 2014.

While CAAP has apparently solved the safety issues of Laguindingan Airport, the problem of the settlers in Lumbia Airport is another matter.

Former CAAP Northern Mindanao director Artemio Garcia said he and 100 retired ATO and CAAP employees who have made a portion of Lumbia Airport their home will resist any attempt by the Philippine Air Force to demolish their houses.

Garcia and the retired CAAP employees have built their houses on a small strip of land inside the facility since Lumbia Airport expanded operations in 1955. They are joined by 80 families of porters, airline employees and security guards.

“We cannot be thrown away like dogs. We also made sacrifices in turning this airport into what it is today, “ he said.

Garcia said PAF officers have been meeting with them, insisting they vacate their houses or face demolition.

“I told them we are one in planning to resist them. They will face old, retired guys like me who do not want to leave this place we call home,” he said.

As an era of local aviation history came to a close, nostalgia about the old airport swept the social networks.

“That place will always hold a special part in my heart. I had amazing memories and I hope the new one will create the same memories to the young ones,”  Jamisola Rosalia wrote on facebook.

“Oohh I (will) really miss that airport!!” wrote another blogger.

Local historian Nanette Roa said Lumbia airport will always have a sentimental place for Cagayanons.

She said it was here where most Cagayanons had their first plane rides and experienced seeing the clouds above the skies.

“Everyone would come in their Sunday’s best when they ride the planes. Polished shoes and pretty dresses,” Roa said.|

Luisma, who has been living in Lumbia since childhood, remembered that the fare to Cebu on board a DC3 plane in the 1960s was P15 while that for Manila was P40.

“I will really miss this place. This is where I grew up, worked and had children,” saidthe 53-year old airport comptroller.

Luisma said Lumbia airport had no major plane accidents except in the 1980s when a Philippine Air Lines BAC one eleven plane skidded off the runway during heavy rain.

He said another incident was in the late 1990s when a Cebu Pacific plane was not able to stop and its nose crashed inside one of the restaurants in the airport

“Lumbia airport is lucky for Cagayan de Oro but we have outgrown it. We need a bigger airport for our needs,” Luisma said.

LAST DEPARTURE. A passenger carries a huge cargo through the departure gate of Lumbia Airport on the last day of its operation on Friday, June 14. Effective June 15, passengers will fly in and out of the new Laguindingan Airport in Laguindingan town, Misamis Oriental. Lumbia airport will be turned into an airbase of the Philippine Air Force 15th Strike Wing. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

According to local historians, the airport was built by the Americans in the 1930s.  During the second World War, the Japanese improved its runway using manual labor from Cagayanons conscripted for the jobs. A flight of Zeros warplanes  used Lumbia as staging point to attack Filipino guerrillas and ships of US allied forces.

Lumbia was not the first airport of Cagayan de Oro. The first airport was in Barangay Patag, now the present headquarters of the Army 4^thInfantry Division is located.

On a runway made of gravel and grass, DC3 planes took off from Patag with destinations to Camiguin and Cebu as well as Manila. Lumbia Airport will be turned into an airbase of the Philippine Air Force 15^th Strike Wing. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

Perhaps we should ask novelist National Artist Frankie Sionil Jose to write about our colorful political setting as the Gates of Heaven for coup plotters, Marcos stragglers, pork barrel, drunk siblings in the Senate, B-Grade actors, playboys, dynasties on all levels, and Lords of all kinds!

Traditional politics: In Mindanao, dynasticism from the Guingonas to the Dutertes and the Ampatuans is alive and well. Their message to us the sovereign people: “Everyone must recognize our family’s special claim to leadership. We have superior rights over everyone, for we are God’s gift to the people.”

How is it that in our supposedly fair and equal society we let them get away with it?

Money: How much did Manny Pacquiao invest in his own campaign, his wife’s, and his protégés? He has shown how easy it is to corrupt people—people as poor as he was only a few years ago; people as ill-informed and educationally-deficient as he is.

He has proved adept at using his money to make people swallow their pride and exchange their sovereignty for a pittance, insulting them. He has learned to manipulate people by raising their expectations about what he and his money will do for them.

Did people vote for him and his wife or for his money?

Practically everywhere, vote-buying, rampant as ever, trashed our democracy. Too many candidates, shameless and brazen, patronizing and contemptuous of honesty or integrity, mindless about damage to personal or public morality, oblivious to dishonor and indignity to self, resorted to vote-buying—and won! Is dishonesty a proper foundation for democracy? Or am I wrong?

Pork: Freely abusing and wasting the people’s money in order to manipulate and corrupt their district—the very community in which they reside—wily incumbents (traditional politicians all) once more showed how brazen man’s conscience can be. Billions worth of pork barrel projects served the selfish agenda of a few hundred politicians, using same to importune the unsuspecting, the naïve, and the impressionable into re-electing them.

And so we face once more the depressing prospect of being represented by less-than-honorable men and women whom we perforce have to address as “Honorable this” and “Honorable that.”

In more civilized societies, they are what people might refer to as BASTOS! WALANG HIYA! Or WALANG DELICADEZA!

If we are to improve the breed of the next generation of politicians, we have got to do better in our choices.

EPAL. This is a relatively new term coined in Tagalog provinces which refers to someone who seeks (and derives) glory, honor, or credit for an undeserved performance. It is an idiom flowing from the word papel or nagpapapel—inverted as “epal” (as in yosi for “sigarilyo” or erap for “pare.”) Epal means “posing only” or “fraudulently appearing to be.”

To describe someone as epal is to say he is trying to appear to be what he isn’t or to act as if he’s better than what he really is. It also refers to claiming credit for achievement that one has no right to claim—as in saying “This road (or building) was built as a gift of Congressman A.” Or a senator may put up a vanity billboard saying thank you to himself: “Thank you, Senator B, for our overpass or bridge.”

(As if the money came from their own pocket!) Epal. Shameless, pretentious, corrupt.

There are laws prohibiting such gratuitous acts and ego trips but their enforcement depends on the policy or acquiescence of the very officials that are prohibited from doing them.

So we’re in a Catch-22 position. Such effrontery ought to be firmly dealt with, and mercilessly.

It not only harms the self-respect of the community, it projects a terrible image of our character as a people. It lets the offending officials get away with deception. It allows them to benefit from false, unfounded claims of creditable performance. Impunity!

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Manny Valdehuesa is the president and national convenor of Gising Barangay Movement, Inc. He can be reached at valdehuesa@gmail.com.)

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Two media reports reveal the snag to be a source of concern. The MILF opposes the attempts of Government to have changes in the initialed document. Government says MILF “should give up” some of its demands in wealth-sharing, as well as in power-sharing, that cannot be devolved to Bangsamoro; these are hampering the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement.

Reported Luwaran.com, the MILF Central Committee on Information website (June 12, 2013: MILF to hold on to initialed annex on wealth-sharing ):

“The government had their first change of position vis-à-vis the initialed document especially on natural resources and block grant to Bangsamoro government during the 38th GPH-MILF Exploratory Talks last April 9-11.  The MILF negotiating team vehemently objected to the changes.”

Luwaran quoted Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the MILF peace panel “Except for those that are in harmony with the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), we don’t accept the changes introduced by government on wealth-sharing,” who said that “the MILF is sticking to the initialed document”.

“The second backtracking is contained in the so-called ‘notes’ recently sent to the MILF through the Malaysian facilitator, Dato Tengku Ab’ Ghafar Bin Tengku Mohamed, who visited the MILF leadership at Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindano last June 7.” Iqbal refused to divulge the content of the “notes”.

Luwaran further revealed:

(1) MILF has no plan to abandon the initialed document. Backtracking by any of the two parties is a serious drawback to the peace process.

(2) From a peace panel member: “The peace negotiation is an exercise in futility if there is no stop to this changing of positions by the government negotiating team. We are not renegotiating the initialed document,”

(3) The “notes” sent by the government to the MILF peace panel is an attempt to throw the blame on the MILF for making it appear that the ball is in our court.

(4) From Khaled Musa, deputy chair of the MILF Committee on Information: “Two changes of positions in a row within the span of two months is alarming.”

(5) Frustration on the ground is gaining momentum, as a consequence of too much unnecessary delay from government. Radical elements within the MILF are beginning to be restive and hitting the MILF and its peace panel.

(6) Three months have elapsed since the annex on wealth-sharing was initialed without clear direction for the talks. Government is sitting on it unnecessarily in the guise of due diligent study.

Luwaran did not indicate what in the “notes” from the government has made it appear “the ball is in the MILF court”. This, however, may be inferred from the press statement of Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chair of the Government peace panel.

Her statement appended to The Philippine Star report (June 13, 2013: Gov’t, MNLF resume talks) is revealing. Could this be in the “notes” of Government to MILF?

The MILF should give up some of their demands to achieve a final peace agreement under the proposed Bangsamoro government. There are provisions proposed by the MILF that the government cannot devolve to the Bangsamoro. One is the MILF proposal that the budget of the Bangsamoro government would be automatically appropriated separate from the annual general appropriations act (GAA).

The other contentious issues that hamper the early signing of the peace agreement are the provisions of power sharing where the government maintains that it cannot delegate to the Bangsamoro the handling of national defense, foreign relations, customs and tariff, and immigration.

She said obviously exhorting the MILF: “These are issues when, if you will not bend, surely we will not be able to arrive into an agreement. So, these are the challenges. So we really have to see that in the process of our aspiration we cannot have all of this.”

MILF understands Ferrer as saying “the ball is in your court”.

What are the causes for concern?

First: Behind their beautifully worded Joint Statements apparently stalk distrust and reservations with each other’s sincerity. While expressing optimism of success, they are now warning each other of the responsibility for the looming failure.

Second: As reported by Luwaran, the Annex on Wealth-Sharing was initialed by former Secretary Senen Bacani and Prof. Abhoud Syed Lingga of the government and MILF peace panels, respectively. However, during the final stage of the discussion of wealth-sharing, no less than Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and Chairman Mohagher Iqbal, chairs of the government and MILF peace panels, respectively,  led the discussion, which culminated in the initialing of the document last February 27.

This means all the provisions in the initialed documents were mutually agreed by the two Parties. For the last three months after the initialing, Government has proposed changes to which MILF has objected.  Does it mean that Ferrer had no full authority, or she exceeded her authority, to commit Government in the negotiation?

Third: In the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro [III.2], (a) defense and external security, and (b) foreign policy are among the powers reserved for the Central Government.  If, as Ferrer has said, MILF is demanding for these in their power-sharing proposal, does it mean MILF was insincere in signing the FAB?

The snag cannot be downplayed. It explains why there was no exploratory talk in May after the election as previously announced. This must explain why two weeks in June are about to pass without any announcement as to when the next exploratory talk will be. The drafting of the BBL is further set back by another month.

How much longer will the signing of the Annexes be delayed – all four, not just the wealth-sharing? Bangsamoro is imperiled! (Patricio P. Diaz/MindaNews)

Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed shuttled between Manila and Maguindanao last week but the positions of the parties remain as far apart as or even farther apart than it was in the last talks in April.

In their Joint Statement at the end of the talks in Kuala Lumpur on April 11, the panels said they would “meet again after the May 13 Philippine elections” and affirmed their commitment to “finally settle these issues soon so that all three annexes may be signed without undue delay.”

UNTIL THE NEXT TALKS. Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chair of the government peace panel and Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panel in Kuala Lumpur at the end of the round of talks in April. No date has been set for the resumption of the talks. MindaNews file photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

To complete the comprehensive peace pact that would pave the way for the creation of the  “Bangsamoro,” four annexes are supposed to be signed. These are the annexes on wealth-sharing, power-sharing, normalization and transitional arrangements and modalities.

In the FAB, both parties agreed to complete the annexes by yearend 2012.  The panels are six months behind schedule.

It has been two months since the April talks and a month after the elections.

By June 15, it will have been eight months since the October 15, 2012 signing in Malacanang of the FAB, leaving the Aquino administration only 36.5 months to set up what has been touted as its legacy project — the new autonomous political entity called “Bangsamoro” – supposedly by the time the President steps down on June 30, 2016.

GPH peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer told MindaNews on June 9 that the facilitator “arrived on Friday (June 7) and we have exchanged notes and messages on the issues related to the wealth and power sharing annexes.”

Tengku went to Maguindanao on June 6 and 7 and returned to Malaysia on June 9.

“All avenues to hasten the resolution of the difficult issues are being tapped before he full panel formal talks,” she said.

Earlier, Ferrer told MindaNews the date of the next talks would be set only “after exchange of notes and most issues are resolved.”

Only one of four annexes

Only one annex has been signed since the FAB signing: the Annex on Transitional Arrangements and Modalities on Februrary 27.  But without the three main annexes, there is nothing to transition to.

Although it was not cited in their Joint Statement on February 27, the  Annex on Wealth-Sharing was initialled that day by GPH peace panel member Senen Bacani and MILF peace panel member Abhoud Syed Lingga.

After the GPH-MILF Technical Working Group (TWG) on Wealth-Sharing submitted its report, the two panels had agreed to create a special team from the panels – headed by Bacani and Lingga – to handle wealth-sharing.  The draft annex was initialled in the presence of the peace panel chairs and members, the Malaysian facilitator and the International Contact Group.

MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal told MindaNews on June 8 that the GPH panel was “causing the delay of the talks.”

“They are backtracking from what they conceded in the initialed wealth-sharing annex,” he said.

Asked to comment on Iqbal’s statement, Ferrer told MindaNews that “wealth-sharing matters initialed at TWG level (were) based on common understanding (that they) shall be subject to review by principals.”

In a Q and A with Ferrer released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) on June 13, Ferrer’s response to the question on “where are we now” is that the exchange of notes has commenced “and through this process, we hope to come as close as possible to agreed language and return to Kuala Lumpur to be able to finalize the Annexes on Power and Wealth-sharing very soon.”

“Due diligence”

But only Ferrer appears optimistic the talks would resume “very soon.”  Iqbal remains firm the MILF will not re-negotiate the initialed Annex on Wealth-Sharing.

On April 11 in Kuala Lumpur,  Iqbal told MindaNews: “Government is not ready to sign Wealth-Sharing. MILF is very ready.”

On the same day, Ferrer told MindaNews that there were only two remaining key issues in the Annex on Power-sharing: “the allocation of the powers across the different items pertaining to transportation and communications and the concept of regional waters.”

In the Annex on Wealth-Sharing, Ferrer said, “it’s really getting the whole picture, it’s the fine-tuning and getting the sum total of all the obligations that will be committed by government.”

She said due diligence was being conducted “now that we have the sum total of taxes, block grants, subsidies, revenue shares…and government wants to be very clear about the kinds of commitments  it will be making.”

Ferrer explained that the review process takes long. “Unlike in the case of the MILF when they are focused on this thing, government is focused on many things, it has many agendas so that means in a matter that requires extensive discussion, understanding of the full implications and consensus of all branches of government that will be affected here, then that‘s a process that takes some time in the midst of all the regular governance functions, in the midst of all issues that government is facing.”

“Under review”

On June 12, Ferrer told MindaNews that the GPH proposals are now “under review by MILF.”

But the MILF apparently does not intend to review the GPH proposals because on the same day,  a report in the MILF website, luwaran.com, said the MILF “will hold on to initialled annex on wealth-sharing.”

Quoting a peace panel member whom it did not name, luwaran.com said the MILF “has no plan to abandon that document” and that “backtracking by any of the two parties is a serious drawback to the peace process.”

“The peace negotiation is an exercise in futility if there is no stop to this changing of positions by the government negotiating team,” the report said.

“We are not renegotiating the initialed document,” the report added.

The report also said that in the April talks, Iqbal said that “except for those that are in harmony with the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), we don’t accept the changes introduced by government on wealth-sharing.”

The second time GPH allegedly changed position was in the “notes” sent to the MILF through the Malaysian facilitator. The report did not say what were in the “notes” but said the initialed document was “diluted severely by the notes” from the GPH.

“Two changes of positions in a row within the span of two months is alarming,” luwaran quoted Iqbal as saying.

“Final review”

In the June 13 Q and A released by OPAPP,  Ferrer explained that “prudence” on the part of the government requires that it “undergoes a final review before the President gives his final stamp of approval.”

She repeated previous statements that the President is “committed to delivering an agreement that will allow the Bansamoro to enjoy effective and meaningful fiscal autonomy but also take into account the legal, political, and administrative constraints of the Central Government.”

Ferrer said these are the considerations “as to why Government wishes to introduce some changes to the draft annex, particularly with regard some aspects of taxation, fund transfer mechanisms, and revenue sharing.”

Ferrer did not say what these “changes” are. Iqbal would not say either.

But he told MindaNews on June 14 that there were “more changes” introduced in the notes GPH sent to them last week through the Malaysian facilitator than what the GPH presented in April, thus bringing the parties farther apart in their positions.

As early as April, the MILF had already turned down the government panel’s proposed “changes.”

MindaNews learned from sources in both panels that one of the points of disagreement is that a sharing system on natural resources in favor of the Bangsamoro government as agreed upon and initialed on February 27, is being brought down by government to 50-50 which is what Republic Act 9054, the law that amended the Organic Act creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) provides under Article IX, Section 15.

“More than 9054”

In both the power and wealth sharing TWGs, the major issue is how much more powers would be granted to the Bangsamoro than what has been granted to the ARMM under RA 9054.

In November, a month after the signing of the FAB and the last round of talks attended by then GPH peace panel chair Marvic Leonen (he was appointed Supreme Court Justice the following week),  Leonen told MindaNews that what the GPH was offering to the MILF “will be more than 9054… it cannot be less.”

Asked how much is “more,” Leonen replied that this is what the TWGs are discussing.  He defined “more” as “more that will be satisfactory to the MILF.”

Ma. Lourdes Lim,  NEDA regional director and chair of the GPH-TWG on wealth-sharing told MindaNews that the powers proposed for the Bangsamoro on wealth-sharing would be more than what RA 9054 provides. “(RA) 9054 is the minimum. That is our reference point. That’s the baseline,” she said.

On February 11, at the launching of the socio-economic project,  Sajahatra Bangsamoro, at the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute compound in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, President Aquino said, “abot-kamay  na po ang bunga ng kapayapaang kay tagal nating inaasam-asam” (The fruits of peace that we have long cherished are now within reach).

“Heartbreak Hill”

The  President likened the stage of the peace process then to the “Heartbreak Hill” of the Boston Marathon.

The President’s family lived in exile in Boston  for a couple of years during the Marcos dictatorship.

He said that on the last mile of the marathon, when the runner already sees the finish line, the terrain goes uphill but there is no stopping.

“While nearing the peak of ‘Heartbreak Hill’ there will be more intrigues, more difficult process. But our trust for each other will get us through,” the President said.

Four months later, the panels are still stuck at “Heartbreak Hill.”

It used to be that those who get past “Heartbreak Hill” are certain to reach the finish line.

On April 15,  thousands of runners who survived “Heartbreak Hill” did not  reach the finish line. Two bombs exploded just as it was  “abot-kamay.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

Gemma Rivera, DSWD Region 12 assistant director, said Friday the new classroom buildings were all completed and turned over by the agency to the beneficiaries in time for the formal opening of classes last June 3.

She said most of these classrooms were constructed in public elementary and secondary schools that were located in remote villages in the region.

Southwestern Mindanao comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.

She said the projects, which were mainly aimed at helping ease the problems on classroom shortage in the region, were implemented in 25 public schools in the provinces of Sarangani, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

The newly-completed classrooms replaced “dilapidated, overcrowded and makeshift learning facilities” of the school-beneficiaries, she said.

“The classroom-student ratio in these schools has long been over the standard ratio and that situation has denied our eager young learners with accessible quality education,” Rivera said.

In Sarangani Province, she said the project’s beneficiaries were public schools in Barangay Seven Hills, Nomoh, Kabatiol, Kablacan and Daliao in Maasim town; Pangi, New La Union, Maguling, Ticulab, and Wali in Maitum; Lagundi and Tambilil in Kiamba; and, Kibala and Banahaw in Malungon.

She said the agency spent around P22.24 million for the 14 classroom building projects in the area.

In North Cotabato, Rivera said a total of P2.94 million was released by DSWD-12 for the construction of the new classrooms in the villages of Batiocan, Palao, Abaga and Montay in Libungan town.

In Sultan Kudarat, she said they spent P8.35 million for the construction of the new classrooms in barangays Kenram, Mapantig and Kolambog in Isulan; Malegdeg in Senator Ninoy Aquino; Natividad in Columbio; and South Sepaka in Bagumbayan.

Aside from the completed projects, Rivera said the construction of additional classrooms in barangays Monteverde and Daluga in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat and in Tuanadatu in Maasim, Sarangani is presently ongoing.

She said the ongoing projects are worth around P5.95 million.

Kalahi-CIDSS stands for Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services, which forms part of the three-pronged anti-poverty convergence programs of the national government that are implemented by the DSWD.

Dubbed “Tatsulok,” the initiative includes the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps and Sustainable Livelihood Program.

Under the Kalahi-CIDSS, poor communities are capacitated to analyze their own problems, manage, plan, and implement their identified project to answer their pressing needs.

In Region 12, the project was able to help build various community infrastructure projects such as school buildings, bridges, health stations, water systems, day care centers, roads, post-harvest facilities, and other common services.

Since the project’s launching in 2003, the agency has already facilitated the construction of P143 million worth of classroom buildings in various villages in the region.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 14 June) – Health authorities in Region 12 have expressed alarm over the rising incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the region that already reached 77 confirmed cases.

Jenny Ventura, Department of Health (DOH) Region 12 health education officer, said such figure was based on the results of the initial HIV screening or tests conducted in two DOH-designated testing centers in the region as of the end of May.

Ventura said the testing centers are the Social Hygiene Clinic of the City Integrated Health Services Office (CIHSO) here and the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) in Cotabato City.

The clinic and the CRMC conducts the initial HIV screening and later submits the collected samples to the DOH STD (sexually-transmitted diseases)/AIDS Cooperative Central Laboratory in Manila for confirmatory tests.

“Our latest data showed that we already have 77 HIV cases in Region 12 and in addition to that, we have recorded 13 deaths as a result of the disease,” she said in a radio interview.

The 13 deaths were due to complications of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which is the disease caused by HIV.

She did not give further details as to where the confirmed cases, which “accumulated over the years,” came from.

Ventura said the region has no existing HIV/AIDS treatment hub but noted that the DOH has assigned the Social Hygiene Clinic here to provide treatment to patients from the area.

The clinic, which is run by CIHSO personnel, provides HIV patients with free maintenance or antiretroviral drug treatment that mainly stops the multiplication of the infected person’s viral load and eventually prevents them from further spreading the disease.

In some countries, the use of antiretroviral drugs has helped effectively lower the incidence of HIV infection to about one percent and eventually stabilized the detected cases.

Ventura urged residents, especially those who have engaged in risky sexual activities in the past, to undergo voluntary HIV testing.

“(The tests) are necessary for those who have experienced unsafe and unprotected sex with potential HIV carriers,” she said.

The Social Hygiene Clinic here earlier reported that most of the confirmed HIV/AIDS cases that were detected in the city involved male professionals in the 22 to 25 age bracket who were engaged in “risky sexual behaviors.”

They include gays, bisexuals, men who have sex with men or MSMs and others who engage in unprotected sex and with multiple partners.

To help stop the spread of the disease, Ventura added that residents should “turn to ABCD,” which is an acronym for one of the DOH’s campaign against HIV/AIDS.

It stands for “abstinence, be faithful, use condoms and don’t use drugs,” she added. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)

The seven-member wages and productivity board – with representatives from the government, the business community and the labor sector – ordered that that P10 will be added to the worker’s basic pay and another P10 as cost of living allowance (COLA).

Wage Order No. 17, signed by all members, recognized that the move is only an “adjustment” as they balanced the “needs of workers to cope with the standard of living” and “the capacity of employers … without affecting business viability.”

The board added that by January 2014, the P10 COLA will be integrated to the basic wage.

But a labor lawyer, Jay Albarece, who was elected as provincial board member of Bukidnon for another term, said the adjustment is just to align the wages with the increase in prices of goods, or what is called inflation.

He said that with inflation, P20 in 2011 is now worth only P19.98. “So the P20 increase is just enough to offset the cut in purchasing power. If we talk of increase, we only have 2 cents (from this order),” he added.

Albarece, who was one of the lawyers of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) before election as board member in 2010, said they are checking if the order can still be appealed.

“The workers should get a fair share of the progress,” he added.

The ALU-TUCP asked for an P88 across-the-board wage increase in consultations for the wage order in April.

Wage Order No. 16, issued in 2011, provided for only P17 cost of living allowance, which has already been integrated in the minimum wage.

The new wage rates in non-agriculture and agriculture areas, respectively, in Northern Mindanao will be as follows:

Wage Category I – P306 and P294 per day covering the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, and the municipalities of Tagoloan, Villanueva and Jasaan; Wage Category II – P301 and P289 per day covering the cities of Malaybalay, Valencia, Gingoog, El Salvador and Ozamiz, and the municipalities of Maramag, Quezon and Manolo Fortich; Wage Category III – P296 and P284 per day covering the cities of Oroquieta and Tangub, and the municipalities of Lugait, Opol and Mambajao; Wage Category IV – P291 and P279 per day covering all other areas not covered under the above categories.

The RTWPB said in its website that the new minimum wage of Northern Mindanao covers all types of workers in the minimum wage category in the private sector, regardless of position, designation or status of employment and irrespective of payment scheme.

The board added that the order covers workers paid on piecework, “takay”, “pakyaw” or task basis with work time of not less than eight hours or a proportionate rate of the actual hours worked.

The order also stressed on productivity-based wages.

Ben Solarte, Sarangani Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) head, issued the warning as five families in Alabel town were forced to evacuate on Wednesday afternoon after flashfloods swept anew a lowland community in the area.

He said portions of Purok Tagumpay in Barangay Poblacion of Alabel were submerged in floodwaters due to the swelling of some waterways in the area following intermittent heavy rains.

No casualties were reported but five families with a total of five dependents were evacuated to safer areas by the Alabel Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC), Solarte said.

He said the Alabel MDRRMC has provided relief goods and other necessary assistance to the affected residents.

Solarte said the heavy rains in the area on Wednesday was caused by “local thunderstorms” brought about by the rainy season, which already started earlier this week, according to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) .

“(Local thunderstorms) are not usually highlighted in advisories and forecasts (issued by PAGASA). They usually happen in the afternoon in the mountainous or upland areas and might eventually trigger flooding in the lowlands,” he said.

In its weather forecast issued on Thursday morning, PAGASA said parts of Mindanao “will have partly cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms.”

It said light to moderate winds coming from the northeast to north will prevail over Mindanao and the condition of the coastal waters along these areas will be slight to moderate.

Solarte said they have not received any report of flooding or other weather-related incidents in other areas of the province aside from the flashflood in Alabel town.

But he said there are currently several areas in the province that are considered critical due to the recorded landslide and flooding incidents in the past during the rainy season.

In Alabel town, portions of the Poblacion area and three other neighboring barangays experienced heavy flooding several times last year that affected around 100 families.

Among the areas that are considered as flood and landslide prone were some upland and coastal villages in the municipalities of Glan, Malapatan and Kiamba as well as communities near major waterways in Malungon town.

Solarte advised residents located in identified flood and landslide-prone areas to take extra precaution and closely monitor the weather and ground condition in their areas.

“Those situated in critical areas should evacuate or relocate early and not wait for any of these disasters to happen,” the official said.

Dominica Millan, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-South Cotabato provincial director, said Thursday such figure comprise about 40 percent of the 1,269 residents from various parts of Region 12 that participated in the job fair.

The activity highlighted the region’s celebration of the 115th year of the country’s independence.

The fair, which was organized by DOLE Region 12 as part of the nationally-coordinated Kalayaan job fair series, was held at the Gaisano Grand shopping mall in Koronadal City.

Millan said 1,027 job seekers registered and applied for available local jobs while 242 others sought overseas work opportunities.

She said 442 of the applicants were immediately hired for skilled and professional job placements locally and 65 for abroad.

“Those who were hired on-the-spot were already advised by their employers to immediately report for work,” she said.

The official said the total on-the-spot hires in Wednesday’s Kalayaan job fair surpassed the 411 recorded during the pre-Labor Day job fair held at the same venue in late April.

She attributed the increase to the accessibility of the venue and the holding of the event during a declared special non-working holiday.

Millan said that aside from the job fair, several attached agencies of DOLE also set their kiosks at the venue to provide advices to job seekers and other interested residents.

She said among them was the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA), which offered job seekers with alternatives regarding the appropriate skills to pursue so they can easily get hired in the next fair.

Aside from the job fair, DOLE-12 also held the 1st Regional Career Advocacy Congress that was attended by around 200 representatives and officials of local companies and industries, career guidance counselors, public employment service officers and officials of colleges and universities.

Ofelia Domingo, DOLE Region 12 director, said they mainly discussed various problems and strategic solutions to the problem on job mismatches within the region.

“The participants committed to work out some measures that will cushion or minimize the job mismatches to also help address our problem on unemployment,” she said.

DOLE-12 had been pushing for the alignment of college courses as well as technical or skills trainings offered by colleges, universities and technical-vocational institutions in the region with the needs of local industries to address the mismatch.

A study earlier conducted by the agency cited that the agribusiness and aquamarine industries were expected to be the top job destinations for skilled workers in area for the coming years as both were seen to dominate the labor market for the next 10 years.

Aside from the two industries, a surge in employment opportunities was also seen in the region’s oil palm, mining, and tourism industries.

Jenny Ventura, DOH-12 health education officer, said they currently working on some strategies to help sustain the province’s clean record in terms of the incidence of the mosquito-borne malaria and lymphatic filariasis in the last several months.

“Hopefully, we can have South Cotabato declared as malaria and filariasis-free this year,” she said in a radio interview.

A report released by DOH-12’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit showed no malaria cases were recorded in the province from January to April this year.

Region 12 posted six malaria cases during the period, with three noted in North Cotabato, two in Sarangani and one in this city.

Region 12 comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.

The DOH report said two of the malaria patients had history of travel two weeks before being diagnosed with the disease.

One traveled to Papua New Guinea while the other was working in Palawan, which has high cases of malaria, since 2000

The Integrated Provincial Health Office of South Cotabato earlier reported that four more municipalities in the province have so far not recorded recurring cases of malaria.

Dr. Rogelio Aturdido, IPHO chief, said such findings were based on the stratification of malaria cases conducted by the Global Fund’s Malaria Project, which has been helping the local government in eliminating malaria cases in the province.

From their classification as under unstable transmission status that indicates recorded strings of malaria cases in two consecutive months but less than five months, Aturdido said Koronadal City and the municipalities of Suralah, Banga and Polomolok were placed under the yellow group or areas with no malaria cases so far monitored.

In 2010, the towns of Tantangan, Norala, Tampakan, Tupi and Tboli were initially classified by Global Fund under the yellow category.

Earlier this year, the group declared four municipalities – Sto. Niño, Lake Sebu, Tupi and Tampakan – as just malaria-prone areas and so far cleared of the disease.

Since March 2012, the Integrated Provincial Health Office has not recorded a single case of malaria in Lake Sebu town.

In terms of filariasis, the IPHO recorded three cases in 2011 and posted a clean record last year.

The IPHO has been working on the total elimination of the disease in the province in the last three years through the massive administration of anti-filaria drugs.

According to the World Health Organization, filariasis is an infection caused by parasitic worms Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi or B. timori.

These parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito and develop into adult worms in the lymphatic vessels, causing severe damage and swelling (lymphoedema).

Elephantiasis (painful, disfiguring swelling of the legs and genital organs) is a classic sign of late-stage disease.

Ventura said South Cotabato is the second province in the region that has so far eliminated the disease.

In June 2011, the DOH declared North Cotabato as filariasis-free.

“Right now, our efforts are focused on making Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces as filariasis-free so we could make the same declaration for the entire region,” she added.

Today, as the country celebrates its 115th anniversary of its independence, we, from the Mindanao PeaceWeavers (MPW), call on our leaders and fellow citizens to commemorate this milestone buttressed with lessons and insights from the peace imperatives of our continuing quest for nation-building as we ponder on the following:

Close to eight months have passed since the much celebrated signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) by the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).  In the afterglow of this accomplishment, detailing the next steps has again challenged both panels to reaffirm their resolve and redouble their efforts in now jointly defining the right path for peace and development of the Bangsamoro.

On the outside looking in with continuing and keen anticipation, civil society has applauded the positive developments and pronouncements that have followed since that historic day. The first meeting in March of the 15-member Transition Commission (TransCom) tasked to draft the Bangsamoro Basic Law is proving a seminal moment in the ongoing peace process. The reassurances coming from both parties that the Sabah imbroglio in April with Malaysia would have no bearing on the talks helped calm growing concerns to the contrary. The ongoing socioeconomic Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program, with P600 million already earmarked in added support, is a concrete indicator of translating the peace dividends this early.  Other interim agreements (i.e. Annex on Transitional Arrangement and Modalities, Third Party Monitoring Team, Independent Commission on Policing) as products of consensus-building to buttress and safeguard the stages of the talks, have all remained important and contributory to the overall peace-building process.

But we are also reminded that these are all but elements of the overarching peace architecture that  the GPH and MILF mutually envision from the outset and allowed the Bangsamoros, Filipinos, and the world to dream as possible.  We must also be reminded that before any of these ideals become plausible, it remains paramount for the key parties involved to ensure that such a politically-negotiated settlement is made legally-binding and mutually-sealed in the form of a comprehensive agreement. Only then can we comfortably say that we are now headed towards an actual resolution of the Bangsamoro question.

We, the Mindanao PeaceWeavers (MPW), remain cognizant of efforts of spoilers and other negative elements hard at work at crashing the peace process as the talks approach the end stages. MPW sees these stages as the crucial period for all of us to guard and protect the gains of the peace process. We at MPW, appeal to the principals of the peace negotiations, H.E. Benigno Simeon Aquino III and Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, together with their cohorts in the negotiating panels of both GPH and MILF, along with the rest of the friends of the peace process, to hold fast and heed the following concerns:

• We respectfully invoke Pres. Aquino’s avowed social contract with the Filipino people, and we fully resonate and support that this be fulfilled with a final comprehensive agreement consensually signed the soonest. (Section 14 on Peace & Order… “From a disjointed, short-sighted Mindanao policy that merely reacts to events and incidents to one that seeks a broadly supported just peace and will redress decades of neglect of the Moro and other peoples of Mindanao”).

• We humbly urge both the GPH and MILF peace panels to make public an interim update that will concretely clarify the status of the talks specifically on the Annexes of the FAB. Invoking the principle of subsidiarity, we politely remind the peace actors of their accountability to disabuse the public on the status and the substantive consensus already reached vis-a-vis the overall peace plan. Such measures will address counterproductive conjectures and speculations due to prolonged silence and lack of real-time information at this critical juncture of the talks. The case in point is how the seeming overly extended review period on the substantive proposals for consensus on the Annexes by government have created unnecessary tension which eventually can erode trust and support. Already there are rumblings on the ground that need to be doused with decisive positive action.

• We appeal to the newly elected officials in the Senate and Congress to set as one of their urgent public agenda the legislation process of the Bangsamoro Basic Law as they convene themselves as the 16th Congress.  We request our esteemed legislators to stay the course and deliver the policy changes the Bangsamoro and Mindanao crucially needs.  Whereas the nation has given you the mandate – we humbly ask you to translate this legacy into peace dividends ushering in the dawn of the Bangsamoro.

• Lastly, we are hopeful that President Aquino will mark his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 2013 with another historic milestone akin to a “coming of age” process of his own people in the Muslim region – the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement for the Bangsamoro.

Though the years, MPW’s active citizenship mantra has been directed towards influencing an inclusive and transparent peace process. We believe that both the GPH and MILF remain committed to the task at hand.  MPW also believes that as conditions evolve, particularly during this crucial transitional stage, we gently appeal to both panels on the following bare essentials: share more information with the public and not only to their respective partisans, broaden the consensus ground through continuing dialogue, and mutually translate confidence-building measures to preserve the climate of trust in the negotiations.

As history has long proven, knowledge is the most empowering investment any movement may bequeath its supporters, and for the ongoing peace process, that support is needed now towards the full realization of the Bangsamoro self-governance.

Para sa isang mapayapa at malayang Pilipinas :

Itaguyod ang usaping pangkapayapaan!

Suportahan ang sariling pagpasiya ng Bangsamoro!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Bangsamoro!

###

LYNDEE A. PRIETO
Initiatives for International Dialogue

ang huyuhoy sa hangin
bugnaw ug hilabihan ka presko
ah, panahon sa romantiko

apan time pa
ngano ba
naglagiting pa gihapon
ang ka-udtohon
daw paguron
ang kaugmaon

pero salamat na lang
kay halos kada hapon
mobundak ang ulan intawon
hayahay ra gihapon
ang paga-bation

dili lang unta palabian
aron baha dili motungha
igo-igo lang
pangpa-tubig sa basakan

goodbye dry season
balik-balik sunod
tuig puhon.

Aboard a chartered Gulfstream aircraft, President Benigno Aquino III and his entourage landed Tuesday at the airport for its inaugural flight, “ending the debate” on its safety and paving the way for the start of commercial operations.

“This will be the gateway to Northern Mindanao and is one of our finest airports,” Aquino told the guests and public officials who gathered at the airport to watch the inaugural flight.

Aquino later led officials in inspecting the facilities of the 7, 184-square meter airport terminal building, which is expected to cater to 1.6 million passengers a year.

“Ito ang magpalago sa turismo dito sa Northern Mindanao (This will be a boon to tourism in Northern Mindanao),” Aquino said.

The President brushed aside the safety issues raised by the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Orochamber), which opposed the airport’s opening due to lack of modern navigational equipment like the Instrument Landing System (ILS).

“Laguindingan, even without the navigational aids, is safer than Lumbia airport,” Aquino said.

Aquino noted that the old Lumbia airport is located near the mountains south of Cagayan de Oro while Laguindingan sits on a flat terrain near the seashore, an ideal location for airports.

The issue on safety has dogged the opening of the airport ever since Aquino ordered its opening on April 15, which was eventually changed to June 15.

“It is now the responsibility of the government. They are opening the airport, they must face the consequence if something happens,” Orochamber president Efren Uy said.

Uy said the business sector was concerned on the safety of the passengers upon learning that Laguindingan Airport will be opened without navigational aids that would help airplanes land safely.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has promised that the ILS; VHF Omnidirectional Range Navigation (VOR); Meteorological Observing System (MOS); Precision Approach Lighting system (PALS); and Precision Approach Path Indicators (PAPI) will be installed by May 2014.

“We hope the government will hasten the installation for the sake of the safety [of passengers],” Uy said.

Uy said that due to lack of navigational devices, planes would be allowed to use the airport only from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily for safety reasons.

He said this will limit the arrival and departure of airplanes from the present 28 flights a day in Lumbia airport to only 14 flights a day at Laguindingan.

“The reduction of daily flights will result to tremendous losses on the business sector,“ Uy said.

He estimated that losses in marine and cut-flower products alone will reach P250 million by the time the operations of the airport will be fully normalized next year upon the installation of the navigational devices.

Aside from marine and cut-flower products, Uy said the flight reduction will have serious effects on the white water rafting adventure along Cagayan de Oro River, a major tourism attraction in Cagayan de Oro City.

“We are hoping the operations will be fully normalized as soon as possible so the effects will be minimized,” Uy said.

The Orochamber has pushed for the postponement of the opening of Laguindingan Airport until next year after all the navigational equipment shall be installed.

But the pleas from the business chamber were not heeded by the Aquino administration, which wants to de-clog air traffic at the Manila airport.

Among the plans to de-clog the Manila airport was to transfer the civilian cargo operations to Sangley military airbase in Cavite where the Philippine Air Force 15th Strike Wing is based.

The Philippine Air Force 15th Strike Wing, which has 30 to 40 combat planes, will in turn transfer its operations to Lumbia airport.

Mohammad Naga Rascal, CAAP Northern Mindanao director, said PAF personnel will immediately close the perimeter gates of Lumbia airport to protect its facilities right after commercial passenger operations will cease at 10 p.m. on June 14.

Paul Nigel Villarete, Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority manager, allayed the fears of local traders and the public that the lack of navigational aids will affect the safety of plane landings and takeoffs.

“Mactan-Cebu airport, which is the second busiest airport [in the country], do not have an Instrument Landing System (ILS) since 2010. Yet we are open 24 hours a day without an ILS,” Villarete said.

He said Mactan-Cebu airport, which caters 240 flights a day, got only its ILS just a month ago.

“An ILS is a very important navigational aid but it does not mean that we do not open an airport because it lacks such system. Many airports in the world are operating without an ILS,” Villarete said.

Villarete said that Laguindingan’s single runway of 2,100 meters x 45 meters can accommodate up to four plane landings and take-offs in an hour.

He said the runway is capable of accommodating Airbus 300 to 320, the common passenger aircrafts of Philippine airline companies.

“These companies will surely deploy more aircrafts here if they see there is a demand. No company will miss that kind of opportunity. Business will dictate the frequency of the aircrafts,” Villarete said.

The planning of Laguindingan Airport was started in 1991 by the Louis Berger Group, which conducted the study entitled “Cagayan-Iligan Corridor Airport Feasibility Study and Master Plan.”

The South Korean Export and Import Bank provided most of the P7.8 billion loan to construct the airport. A budget of US13.36 million (around P570 million at current exchange rate) was provided for navigational equipment. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

Reyes said that while the province does not yet consider the dengue situation as an outbreak, health workers have already alerted the “dengue brigades” throughout the province in preparation for the big tasks ahead.

He cited population congestion as among the contributors to the rising dengue cases in the area along with climate change and environmental conditions.

Reyes said they will give premium on prevention and will ask the community brigade volunteers to destroy mosquito breeding grounds rather than the province depending or resorting to fogging.

“(The latter) is expensive and if not carried out well could be not as effective,” he added.

The Department of Health (DOH) in Bukidnon said that at least 183 cases were recorded across the province from January to May 2013. Four children out of the 183 cases have died due to dengue fever in the same period last year.

Engr. Florissa Adviento, PHO environmental and occupational health services chief, said the dengue alert level among rural health units has been raised to “urgent and priority.”

Adviento said that PHO personnel will hold a meeting on June 17 to put together a “collective action” to combat dengue, a mosquito-borne disease.

Romy Sulit, field operations officer of DOH-Bukidnon mosquito-borne disease control program, said that since 2003, dengue has been observed to have followed a “two- to three-year pattern” in the surge of number of cases.

In 2003, there were a total of 17 deaths due to dengue out of the 818 cases reported in the province. In 2004, it went down to less than 300 cases. In 2005, it surged to 1,437 cases with 19 deaths, records showed.

The number of cases then went down in 2006 only to increase to 1,449 cases with 14 deaths in 2007.

In 2008, Bukidnon saw the lowest number of cases since 2003 at 122 cases with two deaths. But in 2009, it bounced to 705 cases with 10 deaths.

Dengue cases were supposed to go down in 2010 given the “two-year down pattern,” Sulit said.

That year, however, saw the dengue cases soar to 1,643 with 31 deaths, the highest registered in almost a decade in the province.

In 2011, the cases went down only to go up to 563 in 2012 with 14 deaths.

“We expect the cases to soar this year, that’s why we are extra-prepared and careful,” Sulit said.

The DOH cited that “the two-year pattern of high dengue occurrence has been observed because of different strains of dengue.” (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)

“UPLB will exhaust all possible legal options to reverse the earlier [CA] decision,” UPLB Chancellor Dr. Rex Victor Cruz said in a notice emailed on Wednesday.

The state university said that it “stands by its previous statement that the field trials were responsibly and safely undertaken together with scientific organizations and partner state universities in compliance with the biosafety requirements and guidelines approved by the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines and the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture.”

The notice, which was issued last June 10, has been posted at UPLB’s campus in Los Baños, Laguna.

UPLB said it hopes that the CA will have better appreciation of the scientific evidences on the safety of the field trials which, according to the school, were designed in conformity with internationally accepted standards.

“The university believes that in re-evaluating the arguments, proper attention should be directed to the details of the experiments that will clearly show that the health and environment concerns were properly addressed in the design and implementation of these activities and thus there is no compelling reason to stop further field trials,” the notice said.

Kabacan in North Cotabato was among the seven sites across the country chosen for the multi-location trial of Bt Talong, a variety resistant to the fruit-and-shoot borer.

Bt Talong’s field trial in the town commenced March last year within a confined experimental site inside the University of Southern Mindanao.

Davao City was also part of the multi-location trials but the city government ordered a stop to the then ongoing experiment in 2011 at the UP Mindanao campus reportedly due to lack of coordination by the proponent.

In its notice, the UPLB said that “the university has always been and will always uphold the safe and responsible use of modern biotechnology for the attainment of food security and a sustainable and safe environment.

It added that the research on Bt talong field trials, which already concluded in August 2012, “had been safely conducted and generated scientific data that are very valuable in the further development of this technology.”

Last May 24, Greenpeace welcomed the ruling issued by the CA that granted a ‘Writ of Kalikasan’ to stop the field trials of Bt eggplant.

In its decision, the court ordered the respondents to “permanently cease and desist from further conducting Bt talong field trials” and “protect, preserve, rehabilitate and restore the environment in accordance with the foregoing judgment of the court,” Greenpeace said in a press release.

“We commend the Court of Appeals for living up to its constitutionally-mandated role as protector of constitutional rights,” said Daniel Ocampo, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner.

“This landmark decision reflects that there are indeed flaws and lapses in the current regulatory process for genetically modified organisms such as Bt eggplant which exposes our environment and health to unknown long-term consequences and does not establish their safety in any way,” Ocampo said.

The Writ of Kalikasan is a legal remedy under the new rules of procedure for environmental cases. (Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews)

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio delivers her last State of the City Address on Tuesday, June 11 at the Sangguniang Panglungsod building. Duterte, the first female mayor of the city, will end her three-year term on June 30. MindaNews Photo by Ruby Thursday More

Duterte, who spoke to reporters an hour before she delivered her last SOCA, noted that another important accomplishment of her administration was regaining last year the Presidential Award for the “Most Child-Friendly City” for highly-urbanized city category.

She said it was the third time the city won the award after 13 long years. The city was a recipient of the award for two consecutive years from 1998 to 1999.

Delivering her SOCA speech for about an hour, Duterte admitted facing difficult challenges during her term like flooding, waste management and resettlement of informal settlers from dangerous areas.

In her 12-page SOCA, the mayor initially bared the bad news for the city.

Duterte said she would have wanted to start the mass transit system plan, which would address the future problems of transportation in the city.

“We recognize that movement of goods and people is of primordial importance in commerce and industry,” said the mayor, who was wearing a floral lime green jusi barong.

The other bad news for the city government was that it failed to construct a tenement housing project because it is “too expensive” at a cost of P64 million, she added.

Duterte suggested for the city government to come up with a structural design that can be financed under the national government’s socialized housing program.

Moreover, the outgoing mayor said that the city government can’t put up the waste-to-energy facility for “lack of material time.”

“However, we already started with the 16th City Council approving our initial agreements with two private corporations. This project will maximize our investment in the sanitary landfill and extend its period of use,” she said.

Child-friendly city

Duterte said winning the “Most Child-Friendly City” is the one that every Dabawenyo should be proud of because “this gives priority to the heirs of our city.”

“It was a bittersweet triumph as we waited 13 years to once again claim this prestigious honor,” she noted.

The mayor said it was a challenge to change the perception of how the city government treats minors, especially those who are in conflict with law.

Duterte thanked the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, saying it was him who encouraged her to do something about the children who are involved in criminal activities.

The mayor stressed they have completed the upgrading of the Paginhawaan Drop-in Center for Street Children and formed the Quick Response Team for Children’s Concerns.

“These [initiatives] will accommodate children needing temporary shelter and provide them with a safer residential facility. This will allow our City Social Services Development Office (CSSDO) to hold the children before they are released back to their families,” Duterte said.

She added that another facility, comprising the first of several buildings, has been completed—referring to it as the Davao City Children’s Village at Barangay Bago Oshiro, Tugbok district, for children at risk and children in conflict with the law.

Duterte said she would like to seek the permission of the city council to name the first building in the facility after Robredo.

The most difficult problems

In the earlier press briefing, the mayor explained that addressing the three most difficult problems she underscored in her SOCA—the mass transit system, the housing project and the waste-to-energy facility— would entail so much resources of the city government.

”Kung i-invest namo tanan ang kwarta sa city, mapabayaan nato ang uban. So kinihanglan hinay-hinay ang pag-invest and kihinanglan may master plan (If we invest all the money of the city, other [services] would suffer. We need to invest slowly and there should be a master plan),” Duterte pointed out.

While she cited that there are 15 priority flooded-areas, she said the city government at the start of her term allocated P96 million to address the flooding problem.

The city government has so far spent P57 million for nine areas, adding that the allocation should be continued for the remaining areas.

Recently, heavy rains turned some of the city’s streets into virtual river, making it difficult for commuters and motorists to navigate the road due to floodwaters.

Clogged drainage systems have been blamed for the flooding in the downtown area.

Continuation

Duterte, who did not seek reelection in the May 13 election, told reporters she would want to see the next administration continue her administration’s success on agriculture, ICT and tourism.

Her father, Rodrigo, will be back as the city mayor after serving as her vice mayor for a single term as well.

In her final SOCA, the mayor recalled that in her first SOCA, she identified those three focus areas as the city’s priority industry sectors.

One of the highlights in the tourism sector was the launching of the “Life is Here” campaign.

“We saw an unprecedented 29.21% increase in weekly flights to Davao City from various destinations in the country as compared to that of 2011. We saw the tourism arrival data hit the one million mark, from 744,274 in 2011 to 1,075,000 in 2012,” the mayor reported.

Duterte added that the number of licensed tourism establishments posted a growth in 2012 with a total of 1,284 registered with the City Tourism Operations Office, a 10.12 percent increase from the 1,166 recorded licensed establishments in 2011.

The Sustainable Agro-Forestry for Rural Upland Communities (SARUC) program of the City Agriculturist’s Office has already produced 896,583 seedlings at the Malagos Central Nursery and 45 other barangay-based nurseries, she also disclosed.

“We strongly supported initiatives in the promotion of organic farming by producing organic fertilizers and pesticides in the Malagos nursery in order to reduce the farmers’ production cost and minimize the use of harmful chemicals in the local agriculture industry,” Duterte added.

The city government approved in February 2010 an ordinance promoting organic agriculture.

Citing the gains in ICT, the mayor disclosed that the city is now home to 90 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies.

Back to private practice

Asked by reporters if she would seek any local positions in the next elections, Duterte said she has not yet considered it.

By July 1, she will be holding office in a law firm along with her husband, Mans Carpio.

Duterte also told reporters that she will not accept any appointed position in the next administration, noting “the law disallows it because the appointing authority is her father.”

She said she is open to helping civil society organizations working for the welfare of the children. (Keith Bacongco/ MindaNews)

“BT,” the younger of two children of government employees, was one of the 47 recorded cases of dengue here.

The Department of Health (DOH) in Bukidnon said that at least 183 cases were recorded across the province from January to May 2013.

Romy Sulit, field operations officer of the DOH-Bukidnon mosquito-borne disease control program, said that dengue fever killed four residents so far this year.

For the same period last year, he added that 32 dengue cases were recorded, with only one death.

The sharp increase in dengue cases in the province was expected, Sulit said, citing the so-called “three-year pattern of dengue that has been observed to be true in the province since 2003.”

He clarified that the number of cases accounted only those who were admitted and who passed through proper dengue diagnosis in both public and private hospitals in the province.

The four deaths were recorded each in Malaybalay City and the towns of Don Carlos, Kadingilan, and Damulog, where “BT’s” parents suspected the child to have been infected during a visit last May. He died on May 6.

Aside from the 47 cases in this city, the DOH reported a total of 55 cases in Valencia City, 36 in Don Carlos, 19 in Kadingilan, 18 in Damulog, three each in Maramag and Quezon, and a case each in Sumilao and Talakag.

Sulit said the “BT’s” case was lately detected. He advised parents to immediately have their children tested if they have on-and-off fever, as delayed dengue detection could be deadly.

Sulit stressed that prevention is still the best resort even as he noted that June is usually the peak of dengue transmission in the province.

The deaths in Bukidnon, he added, is alarming and warrant the conduct of fogging operation for the massive elimination of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

Sulit said the marching order for them, however, is to purse house-to-house search and destroy operations around the province.

“But others rely only on the DOH to do it even when they can do it,” he added. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)

The new store will make available to the city residents and agro-industrial businesses its range of savings, loans, investment and cash management products, to name a few.

EastWest Bank branches are called “stores” because these serve the financial needs of customers with a complete line of products such as savings, loans, debit and prepaid cards, credit cards and investment products. They act as one-stop shops for the convenience of customers.

“We continue to expand our network of stores nationwide and are indeed glad to be here in Koronadal City to serve the needs of our customers,” said EastWest Bank president & CEO Antonio C. Moncupa Jr. “Our goal in growing our store network is to reach customers not only in the metropolis but all throughout the country, including the Mindanao region.

“The area being a center of commerce and trade in the province, we want to help its people and businesses to efficiently manage their savings and funds. We believe that when an area has a flourishing business environment, it translates to more job creation, which in turn improves the quality of people’s welfare,” Moncupa said.

EastWest Bank Retail Banking Group head and EVP Gerardo Susmerano commented: “The success of our Koronadal store is due to the support of our clientele. Last year, we opened 123 stores, bringing our total network to 245, more than double the number of stores we opened in 2011. We are envisioning to further expand our total network to 350 to make banking truly convenient for our customers.”

Koronadal is South Cotabato’s agro-industrial center and acts as catalyst for development particularly in the second district of the province. The city boasts of agri-based resources and offers a favorable climate for more investments.

EastWest Bank opened its doors to the public on August 1, 1994. The Bank is a subsidiary of the Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC), the publicly listed holding company of the Filinvest Group that evolved from a consumer business founded by Andrew L. Gotianun, Sr. in 1955.

FDC is one of the country’s premier conglomerates, with business interests in real estate, banking, sugar, hospitality and tourism, and power-generation. Through the years, EastWest Bank has successfully capitalized on the financial strength and synergy from the business organizations under the Filinvest Group. As it continues to register strong business performance, EastWest Bank remains committed in making good things happen for its clients. (Press Release)

Then small bowls of raw bean sprouts and suki, a sauce made of ground peanuts and garlic cooked in oil with a dash of chili powder, arrived before I finally got my noodle soup.

It was my first day after arriving in Vientiane a month ago. My colleagues from the Vientiane Times, Pou and Samly, took me to a popular noodle restaurant here.

I needed a heavy meal at the time, but eating those raw vegetables piqued my appetite. I already knew though that Lao people eat raw vegetables, either with noodle soup or any dish. Despite my strong desire to try everything they eat here, it was totally different when you’re about to actually do it.

Lao people eat raw vegetables and leaves that we don’t usually eat in the Philippines, or at least in Davao City.

They wrap dumplings with wild betel leaves aside from cabbage and lettuce. They eat raw morning glory, string beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, dragon-bone beans and young leaves from mango trees.

Some people also eat bergamot leaves, which are often cooked with fried meat or insects. Most Lao dishes contain raw garlic, along with other seasonings.

The first time that I ate them, I was worried that my stomach couldn’t digest all those raw vegetables. I grew up thinking that meat and vegetables have to be cooked for good digestion and to kill the bacteria with the heat.

Eating my first raw vegetables with a supposed “delicious” noodle meal was nostalgic—I felt like my mother was staring at me when I was a kid, chiding, “Eat your vegetables!”

As they say, “There’s always a first time.” But, after a month, I have been craving for raw vegetables every meal everyday. They really taste so good, especially if dipped in a variety of sauces or mixed as salads.

I learned from reading online and health tips from friends in the medical field that eating raw vegetables allows one to consume more nutrients. They said cooking the vegetables destroys vital nutrients and kills enzymes that aid digestion.

Most vegetables that Lao people eat without cooking contain folic acid (vitamin B9), which is an important nutrient to prevent many types of cancer, fetal deformities, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression, among other mental conditions.

Dr. Somchine Singharaj, head of Food and Drug Division of Vientiane Health Department, said folate, the form of folic acid in food, is essential for the brain and nervous system to function properly as it is needed for cellular growth and regeneration.

The health expert said uncooked vegetables contain higher amounts of folic acid and antioxidants, including lycopene, beta-carotene, and vitamins C and E.

Many varieties of tropical fruits that are also rich in antioxidants and folic acid are sold in the streets here at reasonable prices.

As a city girl, I badly need detoxification from the processed and junk foods I eat almost every single day for lack of time and creativity. Surely, I will need much folic acid!

But, Singharaj said, you cannot get all the folic acid you need from food alone. If you badly lack folic acid and other nutrients, it is important to seek your doctor’s advice. But you may still want to experience Lao food while you can.

You will not only regain your sense of wellbeing while enjoying a calm and stress-free life in the countryside, but will also restore or reinforce your good health and youthfulness.

With the way people here eat their vegetables, Laos is indeed “a place for healing.”

(Lorie Ann Cascaro of MindaNews is a fellow of the FK Norway (Fredskorpset) exchange programme in partnership with the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists. She’s currently in Laos and hosted by the Vientiane Times.)