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GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 Feb) – Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, the boxing idol, should not be questioned for “graduating” from high school, an occasion that Education Secretary Lesli Lapus celebrated as a media event honoring someone of national importance.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 Feb) – No bold statements can hide the fact: The extrajudicial killings are a nut too tough for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her advisers, and her police and military generals to crack. Their words are too remote from reality.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 Feb) --  On the invitation of the Arroyo government, teams from the European Union and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights are here to look into the unabated extrajudicial killings. 

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / January 12) – With exception of geologists, very few, if any, are aware that continents have been, are, and will ever be in continuous motion - the dance of continents?

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/17 February) -- A Moro party-list group accused the government of keeping the country’s human rights situation under wraps and of “finding ways to stop the human rights victims from presenting their case to the United Nations.”

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / February 16) – The Journalist’s Code of Ethics, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently, was adopted by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines during its founding on July 30, 1988. As a covenant, all NUJP members are bound to it under the pain of expulsion.

(First of a Series)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/8 Feb) – At no time other than today do the Filipinos need a Third Force to free them from the grip of politicians in power and politicians in opposition whose only reason for being is for the first, survival, and for the second, revival.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/7 Feb) – In the morning after, we hear more from the horses’ mouths. MNLF Ustadz Habier Malik’s 50-hour hostage taking of Undersecretary Ramon Santos and Marine Brig. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino obtained more than an assurance that the Jeddah tripartite conference would be held March 17 and 18.

Undersecretary Ramon Santos, Brig. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino and their group were held by Ustadz Habier Malik against their will in order to obtain from the government and the Organization of Islamic Conference a definite date of the tripartite conference to review the implementation of the 1996 GRP-MILF Peace Agreement. Not taken hostage?

1^st of two parts

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 Jan) – It’s election time. Madness is on the rise! Both in the national and the local scenes.

GENERAL SANT0S CITY (MindaNews/31 January) --  After waiting for six years, labor breathed a sigh of hope only to be dashed, shortly after, against rock-hard oppositions. Last December the House of Representatives passed the P125-wage increase bill. But Malacañang frowned and brandished the presidential veto. 

(First of Two Articles)

 
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 Jan) – It’s election time. Madness is on the rise! Both in the national and the local scenes.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 Jan) – Browsing is a rewarding pastime. Books, newspapers, magazines and on-line items have much to keep the mind active and to make life, as the cliché goes, “worth living”. An active mind is the key to long life.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / January 19) – Two months after the House of Representatives had passed House Bill 4701, the English as Medium of Instruction Act, co-author Rep. Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur blamed the poor state of English proficiency among Filipinos today to the bilingual policy which he called policy of linguistic juggling.

Peñaplata, Samal Island (MindaNews) – A sea cow, locally known as "dugong" was found dead in Talikod Island here early Friday, and believed to have choked when trapped in the fish nets around the area, fishery management officials said.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – House Bill 345 proposing a P125-wage increase over a three-year period starting this year speaks a lot of how our legislators – the representatives of the people – regard the labor sector.  Are they just to these poorer members of their constituencies?

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/4 Jan) – In allowing the transfer, without court order, of US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith from the Makati City jail to the American Embassy at midnight last December 29, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sacrificed Philippine sovereignty to the Visiting Forces Agreement.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 October) -- Councilors here used the regular session's privilege hour today to criticize groups for insulting them with a "Kalabasa (Squash)  Award" last week.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 September) -- The city government here is convening around 140 tribal leaders from its five major indigenous groups to draw out issues, concerns and their support for environmental protection, Councilor Leo Avila, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/September 8) -- Church and community groups in remote Cateel town in Davao Oriental want Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes to ban logging in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley provinces, citing unchecked activities of illegal loggers.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 August) -- Local officials in the municipality of Glan in Sarangani province raised a howl after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) released a vessel laden with suspected illegal logs earlier seized by Maritime police, the Sarangani provincial information office (PIO) reported.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 August) – Banana firms should not threaten the city government that they will move out of if an ordinance banning aerial spraying is passed, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said.

Special Report
3rd of four parts
The period between 2000 and 2001 was turbulent for Mount Kitanglad. It was during this time that Migketay Saway openly challenged the authority of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and PAMB  (Protected Aeras Management Bureau) as park managers. The only instance perhaps that he sounded cooperative was sometime in February 2000, during a Senate public hearing on the protected area bill. Quite unexpectedly, he expressed no opposition to the bill despite the fact that it would strengthen PAMB authority.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/August 25) – Filipino-owned petroleum distributor, Flying V, said it was optimistic that Congress would soon pass the bill on the use of biodiesel and help speed up the use of the renewable and environmentally-clean source of energy.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/21 August) – The Philippine Coast Guard has the capability to respond to maritime accidents around Mindanao but not to major oil spills of the Guimaras-type, the coast guard's top official for Southeastern Mindanao said.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / August 18) -- Mindanao's government and civic groups should begin planning on how to manage water resource to prevent conflicts arising from it, a Unesco hydrology official said on Thursday.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/17 August) -- An international mining company based in the United Kingdom has signed an option agreement to acquire 95% shares of a coal development project in the hinterlands of South Cotabato. Crew Gold Corp. signed the option agreement recently with Daguma Agro Minerals, Inc. through its 100%-owned subsidiary Crew Minerals AS. The project, located in Lake Sebu town, is opposed by residents of Barangay Ned, a village affected by the venture, as reflected in a manifesto.