Election 2007: Nearly 500 Villages in Davao Region Vulnerable to Violence
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Meanwhile, Comval’s provincial director Police Senior Supt. Superintendent Nestor Quinsay has asked the Comelec to declare the province an area of concern. He based his request on intelligence reports of the PNP Regional Office and the Armed Forces of the Philippines which noted the presence of “serious armed threats” in the area.
“There have been sightings of armed NPAs (New People’s Army) in almost all areas in the province,” he said in a phone interview.
Citing series of recent arms encounter of government forces with the armed rebel group, Quinsay the arms threat has been there even in the past elections.
In presenting its request, The PNP Provincial Command said it wanted force augmentation from the Armed Forces of the Philippines “especially in far-flung areas,” Quinsay explained.
COMELEC provincial election officer Atty. Gay A Enumerables in a separate interview had found relevance to such request noting presence of armed insurgents in the area and the threats they pose to peace and order.
“Indeed there are also a lot of far-flung places in the province and the police are undermanned. They want the military to handle those far-flung places” she added.
COMELEC Regional Director Remlane Tambuang confirmed such PNP request which he said he submitted to the national office just last week.
He withheld his assessment and recommendation regarding it but he agreed it has significance. “It is being concurred by the COMELEC provincial office and we taking cognizance of it.”
However, COMELEC Commission Romeo Brawner has yet to receive such request.
In an interview, he vowed to take immediate action on the request being the COMELEC in-charge for the Davao Region.
“I will take action on it then submit it to the COMELEC en-banc for consideration,” he said.
Brawner was in Davao City yesterday gracing the seminar-workshop of COMELEC election officers in Davao Region.
Brawner said Abra is so far the only province declared as an area of immediate concern while Nueva Ecija is being considered by COMELEC to be placed under the same. (PIA XI/Jeanevive Duron-Abangan ,RG Alama, Mai Gevera) davaotoday.com
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April 19th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Why does this website deliver negative news almost all the time? It’s not that I don’t want to hear bad news about Davao, but jeez, does it have to be bad news 90% of the time? Couldn’t the website take a more balanced view?
The way I see it, DavaoToday doesn’t truly portray what Davao really is today.
April 19th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
davao today is a news website. if you want positive news all the time, go read your favorite mags like FHM, sports illustrated, good housekeeping, playgirl. if you can’t take the negative news, then keep off the site. simple. better yet, if you can’t take the shit that’s happening in the philippines (because, in case you haven’t noticed, our country is in deep shit), then leave. then again, i bet you are already enjoying the comforts of the US or europe.
April 21st, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Chuck, you are right, I am not in the Philippines right now: I am in Australia. However, I am here on a scholarship for Davao City. My name is Mark Maglana and I have been assigned here for one year to learn about how to best design the technology entrepreneurship education program of my beloved city. After my research here, I will return to Davao City and hopefully be able to significantly effect a positive change there.
Chuck, the tone of your comment provides hints on the type of person that you are. But I am still hopeful that you do not really think/talk that way off-line and that this tone of yours was only fueled by the anonymity that the Internet provides. I don’t completely blame you though, it happens to every Internet user every now and then.
Chuck, I never said I can’t take the negative news and neither did I say I want only the good news all the time. My comment above clearly stated that, as a reader and, effectively, as a customer of this website, I would like for it to deliver a balanced view of my city. I find it odd that you would think a news website should only deliver bad news. News encompasses both good and bad and I believe both types are present in Davao City just as any other city. Furthermore, both types are worthy of being presented in any news website and not just in magazines that you listed below. I find it odd that you would think otherwise.
The Philippines is like a very very sick person right now. But like a person trying to get better, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to tell him the bad news AS WELL AS the good news about any progress that he is making, however small that progress may be? A little motivation goes a long way. You can probably attest to that.
Don’t think that just because a person wants to hear of the good news that he’s being unpatriotic, Chuck. On the contrary, the person who only wants to hear of the bad news would be more unpatriotic…or perhaps will have the stronger tendency to become unpatriotic in the long run if that’s all the he or she will hear. Give that a bit of a think before you start typing your response. Also, please try to sound more like a grown-up when you reply. Your last one was totally unclassy and puts any civilized man to shame.
God bless you, Chuck.
April 21st, 2007 at 7:04 pm
don’t patronize me, mark. i won’t debate you about patriotism or the good news or the bad news. i will just point out something: dig deep in the site. i did. and i don’t think it is as unbalanced as you make it out to be. if anything, compared to the mainstream press that carry only news from the government and from mainstream sources, davao today seems, at least to me, the most balanced of them all.
granting, for the sake of argument, that davao today is biased toward critical news — that, i would like to think, is its mandate. it is an alternative media outlet. if you noticed, it carries items from marginalized sectors that mainstream papers like the inquirer or your favorite davao papers don’t even bother to print. in that sense, davao today balances the utterly mainstream and uncritical coverage of events of the mainstream press. in that sense, it serves a good purpose to us all. by castigating it for printing critical news, you are in effect telling davao today to just live with the status quo.
having said that, name one davao paper or media outlet that depicts the “real” davao city? and what exactly is the real davao city, mark? is it just the beach? the mall? the durian? is it just the pretty decorative orchids on its streets?
and if davao today does not carry critical news — the news of its dispossessed, the victims of abuses and neglect — who would?
the problem with you is that you reacted instinctively to only one story on the site that got your goat. have you checked out the travel and leisure section, for instance? before you disparage an entity like davao today, be sure of your facts. and be sure where you stand. don’t think that just because you’re lucky enough to live in australia, everybody thinks like you do.
since you mentioned patriotism, i dunno mark. you chose to live what i can imagine as a comfortable life in australia, perhaps because you’ve grown tired of the philippines. (poor me, i’m stuck in matina.) don’t delude yourself in thinking that just because you’re spending one year in davao city for that entrepreneur thing you said you’re doing you’re more patriotic than the rest of us. the problem with you people who make good abroad is that when you come home and find our place in disarray, you think we’ve not been working as hard as you do. that somehow gives you the moral right to be arrogant to the rest of us.
April 21st, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Chuck, you are right. I didn’t realize until late that I did not get my facts straight and that I really was just shooting from the hip with my comments about Davao Today. Perhaps it was my love for my city that blinded me, or something else. Nevertheless, I cannot make any excuses. I was being ignorant and I apologize to the people behind Davao Today.
But you will have to get your facts straight as well, Chuck. It appears you are being blinded by you anger towards my first (and perhaps second) comment. I do not live here in Australia. I live in Davao, but I’m studying in Australia for one year. After studying here in Australia, I will be coming home to Davao to work my ass off for the improvement of our entrepreneurship education program there. Furthermore, I do not live a comfortable life here in Australia at all. I have just enough to get me through the year. I can work part-time but decided not to because I’d like to get the most out of the university I’m in so that I have a lot to give when I come home. I don’t at all think that I’m being more patriotic than anyone else (I don’t even know why you would think that I do), but I’d like to think that what I’m doing is patriotic enough, wouldn’t you?