ISTAMBAY SA MINDANAO

"But there are many things that have not yet come to pass. As I walk the mountain trails, I am still confronted by sad images of massive poverty, landless peasants with limited tools, emaciated old people, malnourished children with bloated stomachs, houses ready to collapse and roads that are also the riverbeds," Bro. Karl Gaspar, CSsR, in "Up in the mountains, I still remember." Pages 116-117 of the book Turning Rage into Courage: Mindanao Under Martial Law Volume 1. The book was published in 2002 by Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center, the publisher of MindaNews, not only to simply remember Martial rule after 30 years but also to "take a stand, about sacrificing personal dreams, and even lives, for causes larger than ones own" during the Martial Law years.

"After a very extensive review and careful evaluation of the voluminous records submitted, arguments and complicated positions from the parties, the court cannot sustain the theory and position of the petitioners in assailing the validity and constitutionality of the subject City Ordinance," Regional Trial Court Branch 17 Judge Renato Fuentes said as quoted by a press statement of a pro-ban group on his September 22 decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Davao City government to pass the law. Three months earlier, Fuentes issued a preliminary injunction stopping the city government from implementing the law passed in March 2007. The ban came following complaints against dangers of the chemicals in spraying using airplanes to the health of the people and the environment surrounding at least 5,000 hectares of export banana plantations in Davao City. But this legal battle could extend to the Court of Appeals and up to the Supreme Court --- something to watch for a long time.