No rice shortage in Bukidnon?

Measuring my rice has been the tease at home — something that has caused me ‘hunger’. When you are carrying heavier load than you should, you know what I mean.
I did try to eat less of it every time I remember; most of the time I failed.
So when the rice shortage news was carried in [...]

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Upward legal battle

From the office of councilor Nenita Orcullo in 2004, when it was first proposed, Davao City’s ordinance banning aerial spraying seems bound for the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeals granted the plea of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association for a 60-day temporary restraining order — stopping the city government’s ban [...]

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Grade schooler’s suicide draws attention to urban poverty

A mixture of her difficulty in coping with poverty, emotional problems, and her youthful innocence killed the 12-year-old grade schooler, a social worker said.
Grade 6 pupil Marianeth Amper, who committed suicide in the afternoon of All Souls’ Day in a room of their house in the sloping hills in Maa, has caught the national limelight [...]

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One Dabawenyo sports guru

DELAYED BLOGCAST: Last Monday I had a very long lunch with two friends, MC of the Business Mirror and blogosphere’s Mr. Clean Slate, Mo, who also writes for Manila Standard Today.
Time with Mo is time to update about sports. He breathes sporting fire in the city. Not that he is the only one I know. [...]

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Spray planes grounded

Airplanes used by banana firms to spray chemicals over plantations were grounded following the Davao City Regional Trial Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of the city’s aerial spray ban ordinance.
The judicial clearance left no more blocks to execute the ordinance passed since six months ago.
Banana growers have alerted the media of an appeal at [...]

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Legal battle over spray ban goes to higher court

The verdict is out: the court has upheld as valid and constitutional the city ordinance banning aerial spraying in plantations. In a decision dated September 22, Judge Renato Fuentes of Regional Trial Court Branch-17 junked the petition of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) questioning the constitutionality of the ordinance, the [...]

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ARMM traders: immediate peace agreement, please

The business community in conflict-affected areas are sounding off their stand: enough to conflicts, sign the peace agreement and start developing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Datu Haron Bandila, chair of the ARMM Business Council, said the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must stay focused on the peace process for an [...]

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Financial autonomy for Mindanao

Apart from moves for a bigger chunk of the national budget for the government in Mindanao, Senator Edgardo Angara is proposing that government financial institutions should put up separate and autonomous units here which could make independent decisions, especially on the government’s role to lend to small entrepreneurs.
Angara criticized major players such as Land Bank [...]

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Back to Sports in a Davao neighborhood

Today I broke free from a personal myth that I could no longer play basketball. I still can despite gaining weight and this strange feeling of distrust that I couldn’t even last a minute in the court.
We played ball early afternoon, after a hearty lunch of seafoods and grill today in a friend’s place along [...]

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Mindanao banana chip export spared from Chinese crackdown

DAVAO CITY (MIndaNews/03 August) –  Banana chips exports from Southeastern Mindanao were not included in the items confiscated in China by authorities reacting to a reported shipment of banana products from the Philippines that contained high levels of the preservative sulfur dioxide, a Department of Trade and Industry official said.
Roberto Barlis, chief of the [...]

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DA chief: LGUs should put more money on local agri

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 Jul) – Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap has called
on local government units to spend more on the agricultural
development of their areas, saying the agriculture department is
willing to back efforts by LGUs that invest in the sector.
Yap spoke at the Fifth National Grains Postproduction Conference here
today asking the private sector to help him talk [...]

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Urbanization triggers relocation of NFA warehouses

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 Jul) – Urbanization has triggered the
National Food Authority to relocate at least a tenth of its active
warehouses to actual production areas, an official of the National
Food Authority said.
NFA Administrator Jesus Navarro said they have to move the warehouses
where the current production areas are located. He said at least 30
years after the warehouses [...]

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