Moro children in Barangay Patadon, Kidapawan City show support for the MOA-AD as a caravan passes along the national highway on 18 March 2009. MindaNews photo by RUBY THURSDAY MOREIn March 2009, the Commission on Human Rights conducts an investigation into the rise of summary executions in Davao City victimizing suspected criminals, many of them alleged drug pushers. By then, at least 800 persons had been summarily executed in the city since 1998 by a band referred to as the “Davao Death Squad.” MindaNews photo by GLOCELITO C. JAYMAMeanwhile, human rights groups in Davao City protest the killings not only of petty criminals but also of political activists, peasant and labor leaders. MindaNews photo by TOTO LOZANOChildren in full costume perform the “sagayan,” a Meranaw war dance, during a parade in downtown Marawi City in April 2009. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERAThe New People’s army in Mindanao claimed in 2009 to have captured in separate encounters seven government soldiers, including 1Lt Vicente Cammayo, company commander of the 11th Special Forces Company. They were freed after negotiations on June 5. MindaNews photo by RUBY THURSDAY MOREFifty-eight persons were killed in a remote area in the municipality of Ampatuan in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009 in what is considered as the worst pre-election violence in the country. Thirty-two of the victims were media workers who accompanied the convoy of relatives bound for the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu. The latter was challenging his former allies, the Ampatuans, by running for governor of Maguindanao. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDOLaw enforcers unearth a huge cache of firearms and ammunitions not far from the Ampatuan mansions in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao on 11 December 2009, days after the infamous Ampatuan Massacre. Several more were unearthed in neighboring areas. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDOBalangay replicas depart from Davao City en route to Davao del Sur on 19 April 2010. The Balangay Expedition, composed mostly of the Philippine Everest Team, retraced the routes of ancient sea-faring Filipinos in their travels in many parts of Asia using only the wooden boat. A number of balangay were excavated in Butuan in the 1970s, one of them traced to the year 320 A.D. after carbon-dating. MindaNews photo by RENE B. LUMAWAGResidents of South Cotabato stage a protest against mining on 10 June 2010 as they hailed the passage a day earlier of the provincial government’s Environment Code banning open-pit mining. A foreign mining firm has been eyeing to extract huge amounts of gold and copper deposits in the municipality of Tampakan and neighboring areas using open-pit mining. MindaNews photo by TOTO LOZANO
