ISTAMBAY SA MINDANAO

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Walter I. Balane's Notes on Peace Processes and Development in Mindanao, Southern Philippines

Mindanao becoming dumpsite of RP’s “bad cops”

It was a routine surf for news from places where I used to live. The order is always from the latest city, then backwards. So it was from Davao, then Quezon City-Antipolo, Iloilo, and then Cagayan de Oro.

But I was stuck in cyber Iloilo, particularly at Sun Star Iloilo’s website.

The headline reads like this as of 9:55p.m. of September 17: Police prepare transfer of ‘bad’ cops to Mindanao.

Bad cops to Mindanao? Our Mindanao is the country’s dump site? Read the rest of this entry »

Inihanay sa:ARMM, Crime, Governance, Human Rights, Human Rights in Mindanao, Jobs in Mindanao, Justice, Local Governance, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Mindanao's communities, Peace Process, Philippines, Politics, Reporting Mindanao, Safety, Security

Released Philippine eagle killed in Mt. Kitanglad

Three-year-old Philippine Eagle “Kagsabua” was killed by a local airgun shooter near the village where
he was released just four months ago inside the Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park, an environment official said.

Felix Mirasol, community environment and natural resource officer, confirmed to MindaNews Wednesday that witnesses have identified the culprit described as a young man who failed to attend information
drive on the Philippine Eagle (pithecophaga jefferyi).

Mirasol is the Mt. Kitanglad Protected Area superintendent.

Kagsabua was last sighted on July 7 and was known to be missing between July 8 and 10, Mirasol said. He said a search operation was immediately launched. Read the rest of this entry »

Inihanay sa:Agriculture, Bukidnon, Crime, Environment, Every Day Mindanao, Governance, Indifgenous Peoples, Local Governance, Lumads and Mindanao, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Mindanao's communities, Philippines, Reporting Mindanao, Safety, Tourism

Muslim-Christian interfaith dialogue could be a lesson in school

Leaders and educators in Mindanao of the world’s two leading faiths should not stop educating their followers on interfaith understanding “to remove the clutters of misconception” from even among their followers.

“The effort should be vice versa, on both sides,” Aleem Jamal Munib, an official of the Davao City Madrasah Development Program, told MindaNews.

“This is very important. If we don’t talk, misconceptions would prevail, causing distrust on each other,” he said.

Among the key issues splitting mixed communities, Munib said discrimination remained on top. Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:ARMM, Crime, Davao, Education, Freedom, Governance, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Peace Process

GMA, Esperon, Razon respondents in first writ of amparo petition in Mindanao

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Armed Forces Chief of  Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Philippine National Police chief Avelino Razon and three other military officials are respondents in the first petition for writ of amparo in Mindanao.

The petition was filed by Bebelita Bustamante of Paquibato district, whose only son, 21-year old Luicito, disappeared on October 27.

The other respondents are Major General Ernesto Boa of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division based in Davao City; Lt. Col. Alexander Ambal, chief of the division’s 73rd infantry batallion in Sto. Thomas, Davao del Norte, Col. Allan Luga, commander of Task Force Davao, a certain Noli Obat and seven  John Does, or unidentified respondents.

The Karapatan human rights group, who accompanied Ms Bustamante at the Hall of Justice, said her son was reportedly taken by elements of Task Force Davao. Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:Bukidnon, Crime, Davao, Freedom, Governance, Human Rights, Human Rights in Mindanao, Justice, Mindanao, People Power, Philippines, Politics, Safety, Security

Chief Justice says writ of amparo may be filed any time, any day

Any time, any day.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno wants the public to know that any time or any day, relatives of missing persons can petition the judge for a writ of amparo, a measure intended to protect the missing person from becoming a victim of extrajudicial killings or a desaparecido (disappeared or victim of enforced disappearance).

The writ is enforceable anywhere in the country.

“We don’t compromise the life of the aggrieved party just because one feels sleepy,” Puno told members of the local judiciary, prosecutors, lawyers, the military and police officials, human rights groups and representatives from civil society at a forum at the University of Mindanao late Tuesday. Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:Crime, Davao, Freedom, Governance, Human Rights, Justice, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, People Power, Philippines, Politics

Police trainer nabbed for large-scale illegal recruitment

A police trainer was nabbed for alleged large-scale illegal recruitment during an entrapment operation by the National Bureau of Investigation last Sunday. The suspect, identified by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as Jay B. Zambrano, 31, allegedly collected a total of at least P1.3 million from the victims, lawyer Arcelito Albao, NBI agent, said. 

Albao said Zambrano is a lecturer on fingerprinting, among other subjects, at the Philippine National Police Regional Training Center and also teaches criminology at the University of Mindanao. 

Three women accused Zambrano of large scale illegal recruitment after he allegedly failed to deliver his promise to help them process and facilitate their immigrant visa applications. 

Zambrano allegedlly hired and recruited the victims, identified as Grace Cardenas, Letecia Sierra and Judith Paccial to work and become United States citizens. Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:Crime, Davao, Every Day Mindanao, Mindanao

Mindanao bloggers urged to promote peace and understanding

Online journal writers or bloggers from Mindanao were urged to go beyond writing about personal matters and instead use their internet platform to help promote peace and understanding in Mindanao.

Speaking to at least 60 bloggers at the opening ceremonies of the 1st Mindanao Bloggers’ Summit, organizers and resource speakers took turns in urging bloggers to publish entries that contribute to understanding

Oliver Robillo, head of the organizers said blogging, if done collectively, could help influence society.

“As bloggers, we are in possession of a potentially influential medium, and it is that ability that we can harness in order to impress upon the world that Mindanao is in fact a beautiful place. We know that ourselves. We know that we are of diverse, and yet somehow harmonious, cultures. We have in our midst different but fascinating traditions,” he said.

Robillo said bloggers could tell the rest of the world the real situation in Mindanao. Read the full report on MindaNews.com. Also this one by Carolyn O. Arguillas.

Inihanay sa:Blogging and Bukidnon, Blogging and Mindanao, Crime, Davao, Economy, Education, Governance, Indifgenous Peoples, Local Governance, Mindanao, Mindanao's communities, Peace Process, Philippines

Painting the school blue

The bright young eyes of eleven year old Rasmia Kasim is looking at the playground of J. Marquez Elementary School.

 

From her classroom in suburban Cotabato City, she could see children her age busy playing in the sunny afternoon.

 

After a gleeful good bye song for classmates and their teacher,

she quickly joined the sea of pupils playing in the grassy school grounds. Read the rest of this entry »

Inihanay sa:Agriculture, Crime, Economy, Education, Governance, Human Rights, Human Rights in Mindanao, Mindanao, Mindanao's communities, Peace Process, Philippines

More village dialogues pushed in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / August 10) – Mindanao bishops and Muslim scholars and the top brass of the military and the police have suggested wider dialogues in the localities to help find solutions to the triggers of violent conflict in Mindanao.

This was one of the consensus points reached in a closed-door meeting Thursday between the conveners and other leaders of the Bishops-Ulama Conference and the top brass of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). The leaders agreed to pursue dialogue down to the parishes, towns and units as the BUC and the Defense establishment agreed to set up a quarterly forum together to continue their “Dialogue on Peace.”

The dialogue at the localities was contained in a joint statement read by Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo in a late night press conference held at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao. Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.

Inihanay sa:ARMM, BIMP - EAGA, Bukidnon, Business, Crime, Davao, Economy, Education, Events, Governance, Human Rights, Human Rights in Mindanao, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Peace Process, Philippines

Festivities can’t hide sorry state of Mindanao Lumads

DAVAO CITY (Mindanews/9 Aug) – The real face of Mindanao’s indigenous peoples is  not joyous as featured in festivals like the Kadayawan, an official of a group supporting indigenous peoples in Mindanao said.

The Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP), which is doing technical and organizational support to Lumad (indigenous peoples) communities in Southern Mindanao, said land has remained their biggest problem.

The group sounded off the concern announcing the holding of protest actions in time for the Kadayawan Festival 2007 to “strike a difference” in showing the Lumads’ real situation.

Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:Agriculture, Bukidnon, Crime, Davao, Feasts in Mindanao, Governance, Human Rights, Mindanao, Philippines, Safety, Social Security

Traders score red tape along Mindanao’s highways

The government has to cut red tape along Mindanao’s highways as it is making cost of doing business more expensive, officials of the group organizing the Mindanao Trade Exposition 2007 said.
Anthony Soriano, MTE executive vice president, said some of their exhibitors, especially those who need to transport raw materials from other parts of Mindanao to their factories or work shops, have complained against bad practice of red tape along the highway via “checkpoints.” 

He said the problem has caused cost of doing business higher by at most 30 percent for food and other perishable commodities and at least 10 percent for furniture.
Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:ARMM, Agriculture, BIMP - EAGA, Bukidnon, Business, Crime, Davao, Economy, Food in Mindanao, Governance, Mindanao, Philippines, Travel and Transportation

Preventing Fr. Bossi’s I shall return

Fr. Giancarlo Bossi won’t be reassigned to Mindanao, at least not yet, the head of his missionary group said in a report posted Sunday at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines website.

Fr. Gian Battista Zanchi, superior general of the Pontifical Foreign Missions (PIME) said Bossi won’t be assigned to Mindanao even if the Italian priest, freed after a 39-day abduction, wished he would return to his pre-kidnap days in his parish in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com
.

Inihanay sa:Crime, Governance, Human Rights, Justice, Mindanao, Peace Process, People Power, Philippines, Politics, Religious, Safety, Security

Blog Events in RP

2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit

Looking Back: Mindanao Under Martial Law

"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.

Eyeing ahead: On constitutionality of ban on aerial spraying

"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.

Flickr Photos

Frozen Abiqua - 2

Vancouver under fog

Winter Solstice Sunrise

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Blogging from Bukidnon in Mindanao, Philippines