Waway Saway on videos and books on peace for children

“Iitsa, tamoka, yataki, tumbi!”  “Iitsa, tamoka,
yataki, tumbi!”

Iitsa, tamoka, yataki, tumbi! (That’s throw, catch, step and stamp!)

I thought for a while it was a line in a Kenyan song I learned from
someplace else, but the words sounded familiar even if it was belted
out in a universal beat.

Waway Saway’s song lingered in my hearing perimeter even hours after
watching a video on it, which he posted at Youtube.com.

The song was about care for the environment in which the singer urged
the listeners to throw, catch, step and stamp on one’s fear against
caring for the environment.

The video showed Gali (“fellow” or Binukid equivalent to Cebuano’s
“Bai”) perform in an international audience with fellow Talaandig
artist Balugto Necosia in a peace concert in South Korea’s tourist
favorite Naminara Island.

CBCP: No more abductions of foreign missionaries, please

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/21 July) — What happened to Italian priest Fr.
Giancarlo Bossi should not happen again as foreign missionaries are giving
great service to the people especially in Mindanao, the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines said in a statement posted on its website
Saturday.

The statement came two days after Bossi was released in what reports said
was a result of a kidnap-for-kidnap approach allegedly used by military
higher-ups. Government operatives reportedly snatched the wife and three
children of the suspected leader of the kidnappers to force them to free
their captive.

The 57-year-old Italian missionary was freed Thursday night in Sultan Naga
Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte to former mayor Hajarim Jamil of Tuburan, Basilan,
who negotiated for his release. The priest was kidnapped on June 10 in
Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

“We hope that what had happened to Fr Bossi will not happen again,” CBCP
president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said.

(Updated) Duty-free shop back in Davao City

Three years after it pulled out of Davao City, the local duty-free shop will be reopened tomorrow together with other shops at the Davao International Airport.

In March, the news was disclosed by the Department of Tourism signaling the city is receiving more tourist arrivals.

There are other shops that will also open in the airport’s arrival area. I can post more details later as they have organized a press conference after tomorrow’s opening ceremonies.

If I am not mistaken, the duty free shop at the Grand Regal Hotel was closed after the March 2003 bombing and for other reasons.

Now that it will be reopened it should signal better environment for tourists to come, and hopefully for more better things to come to the city and the rest of Mindanao.

(Updated) Fr. Eliseo Mercado named new peace panel chair to negotiate with MILF

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/16 June) – President Arroyo has named Fr. Eliseo Merado, Jr., OMI, as the new peace panel chair vice Silvestre Afable whose courtesy resignation President Arroyo has accepted.

In a press statement Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza read to MindaNews, he said Mercado’s chairmanship “will ensure a seamless transition and a continuity in the efforts to move forward the peace negotiation with the MILF.”

Read more here. Read Fr. Mercado’s piece on his acceptance here and reactions to his appointment here.

Dabawneyos lured to BIMP EAGA business portal

DAVAO CITY – “If you want to go into the export market, then this is for you!”

The challenge was posed to Davao City’s business community, including small and medium enterprises Friday as representatives from the Northern Territory (NT) Government of Australia presented the BIMP EAGA business portal ( www.bebp.org), an online tool they initiated to provide support for small scale enterprises in the BIMP-EAGA sub-region.

Quentin Kilan, director of Asian Relations of the NT Government’s Department of Chief Minister said the portal was meant for stronger trade ties among EAGA countries and Australia.

Looking Back: Samal Island on 19 April 2000

“The wreckage has been located. There were no survivors,” Air Transportation Office chief Jacinto Ortega said as an Air Philippines passenger plane crashed on Samal Island killing all 131 people on board.

The Boeing 737-200 flight number 541, which was flying from Manila to Davao, disappeared from airport radar screens shortly before the scheduled landing time.

An Air Philippines official said the plane, manufactured 22 years ago, was carrying 124 passengers – including four babies – six crew and one mechanic.

Mr Ortega said the weather was fair, the visibility was good and there were no immediate details of what caused the crash.

It was the worst aviation disaster in the country and the number 88th in the world. It will be the crash’s 7th anniversary on April 19. (News archives).

Looking Back

“No one and forgive me for saying this, no sector is genuinely interested in the survival of the Lumad. No one,” Datu Al Saliling of the Arumanen-Manobo in North Cotabato of how some researchers tend to look down on Lumads as “uneducated” when “you do not even know what is our own worldview.” “Listen to us. Find out from us,” he said.

“Patawarin n’yo kami” (Please forgive us).A public admission of guilt and a public apology to the Lumads, delivered by Prof. Leonardo Estacio, president of UGAT (Ugnayang Pang-agham Tao or Anthropological Association of the Philippines), capped the three-day 24th National Conference of antropologists in Davao City on April 10, 2002.

“I publicly would like to apologize to the Datu,” he said, as he called on his colleagues to do “a lot of self-reflection” on the manner by which they treat their objects of study. (Courtesy of MindaNews archives)