ISTAMBAY SA MINDANAO

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

Eagles of hope

The Philippine Eagle Foundation has announced its plan to release two new eagles into the wild of Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park in January 2009.

This is despite the death of a Philippine Eagle named “Kagsabua” (unity) in July 2007, which it released just months earlier.

“What happened to Kagsabua is not a stumbling block,” a PEF official said in this report at MindaNews.com.

Inihanay sa:Bukidnon, Environment, Eyeing Ahead, Freedom, Governance, Life in the Plateau, Lumads and Mindanao, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Peace Process, Philippines

Life in the Plateau

Thanks to all who sent messages to my Kamuyot bag.

Ma’am Prix (and to all who are unfamiliar with it), Kamuyot is Bukidnon’s version of the tinalak. It’s made of sinamay from abaca fiber, from plantations scattered in Bukidnon’s rugged terrain. Of course, its woven mostly by indigenous women who sell it to buyers from the lowlands.

It’s a business beginning to die –unless the government and the lumad communities could save it together against fiber plant diseases haunting even planters in our beloved Davao City.

I’m in for some updates from the Bukidnon plateau. Read the rest of this entry »

Inihanay sa:Blogging and Bukidnon, Eyeing Ahead, Freedom, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Mindanao's communities, Monologues

Zubiri bats for bigger Mindanao budget

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/16 Jul) — Senator-elect Juan Miguel Zubiri took his oath here Monday morning in front of thousands of spectators mostly government employees and students in homecourt ceremonies two days after he was proclaimed the 12th winner of the senatorial elections Saturday.

Zubiri becomes the third candidate from the administration’s Team Unity in the winning circle, after senators Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo.

He pledge to make Mindanawons proud of his representation as the first senator from the province of Bukidnon, saying his priority is public service and not politics. Read the rest of this entry »

Inihanay sa:Agriculture, BIMP - EAGA, Bukidnon, Business, Crime, Davao, Economy, Elections 2007, Elections in Mindanao, Environment, Every Day Mindanao, Eyeing Ahead, Fisheries Industry in Mindanao, Food in Mindanao, Governance, Health, Malaybalay City, Mindanao, Peace Process, Philippines, Politics, Safety, Security

Eyeing ahead: On climbing Mt. Apo after Lake Venado accident

“Maybe all climbers must first undergo the ritual by our tribal elders in order to avoid similar incidents in the mountain,” chieftain Datu Simeon Serrano said as tribal elders living in the foot of the majestic Mount Apo have suggested that all mountain climbers must first undergo the traditional “pamaas,” an indigenous ritual, before they will be allowed to climb the country’s highest peak. Serrano believe that Ian Caasi, 23, a mountaineer from Davao City who drowned in the mountain’s Lake Venado on Maundy Thursday, was taken by their god “Apo Sandawa” as sacrifice. The chieftain of Sitio Sayaban of Barangay Ilomavis here, said Mount Apo is considered sacred by their ancestors and home to various spirits that govern nature. (MindaNews/ 9 April 2007)

Inihanay sa:Eyeing Ahead

Eyeing ahead

“We hope your profession will help uplift the condition of the Moro ummah particularly those innocently and unjustly incarcerated behind bars in different jails nationwide on the pretext of preventing terrorism.

Let us help ease the pain of our brothers and sisters who are languishing in jails,” said Baibonn Sangid, chairperson of the Manila-based Young Moro Professionals Network (YMPN). She has challenged Muslim passers of the 2006 bar examinations to serve their fellow Muslims especially those who are ‘unjustly’ imprisoned as suspected terrorists. (MindaNews, 07 April 2007)

Inihanay sa:Eyeing Ahead

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

More Photos

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Blogging from Bukidnon in Mindanao, Philippines