2008 June- Davao Today

Davao farmers do not welcome CARP extens...

Posted by CJ KUIZON in Davao City, Davao Region, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

By CJ KUIZON | Davao Today Davao City — Farmers groups here are dismayed over the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) until December 31. In an interview, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas – southern Mindanao vice chairperson Pedro Arnado called for the scrapping of CARP...

Flood in the city...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao City, Latest Posts, Photographs on 06 20th, 2008 | 8 Comments

SOAKED. As rainy season begins, vehicles in Davao City never fail to immerse in heavy rains and floods. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan) SOAK. This portion of JP Laurel Avenue in Bajada was flooded on Thursday night, June 12, 2008. Residents in the area blamed the clogged drainage system for the...

Posted by GERMELINA A. LACORTE in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Latest Posts, Military, Mindanao, Terrorism on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered an all out offensive against the kidnappers of ABS-CBN senior reporter Ces Drilon, even as she vowed to crush the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Communist New People’s Army (NPA) during her term. “We...

Bankerohan Bridge finished at last...

Posted by BARRY OHAYLAN in Davao City, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

DONE. The new Generoso Bridge 1 is now passable for Davao folk after it collapsed last year and was rebuilt from January to June this year. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry...

Posted by GERMELINA A. LACORTE in Davao City, Davao Region, Economy, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY–The National Food Authority (NFA) is selling its special grade imported Thai rice in commercial markets here to bring down the soaring prices of rice that have gone up to as much as P52 a kilo in the previous weeks. But NFA officials only made the...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao Region, Insurgency, Latest Posts, Military on 06 20th, 2008 | 1 Comment

�Major Medel Aguilar has proven all the more how ignorant he is about the rights of indigenous peoples. His statements are condemnable as they are overwhelmingly discriminatory and disrespectful. He has no right to say these Lumads have no legitimate claims over the ancestral land which they have tended for...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao Region, Latest Posts on 06 20th, 2008 | 4 Comments

The Christians for National Liberation-southern Mindanao, an underground movement of revolutionary Christians, condemns the Task Force Davao-Apollo Quiboloy conspiracy in the killing of Datu Dominador Diarog in Manuel Guianga, Davao City. Apollo Quiboloy had obviously been pleased by the Task Force...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Business, Davao City, Latest Posts on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

Davao City-The launching of a Dutch-funded business plan making competition was held here to encourage more Mindanaoans to participate in the contest. Business in Development(BiD) Challenge 2008 is both a business plan making contest and a matchmaking mechanism that provides a forum for entrepreneurs and...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao Region, Insurgency, Latest Posts, Military on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

(A Statement on the Disarming of Another Phil. Army Detachment) The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is at it again. Every time public attention is focused on their tactical military defeats and political black eye, the officialdom of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) armed forces...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Latest Posts on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

Pakistan-The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is extremely concerned that two popular talk programs transmitted to Pakistan from Dubai-based GEO TV have been taken off the air at the request of the government of United Arab Emirates (UAE). The IFJ calls on the UAE government to explain why, and...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Latest Posts on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

China-The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the continuing restrictions on journalists reporting on the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province in May. Police have become especially vigilant in controlling reporting regarding the deaths of students at Juyuan Middle...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Latest Posts on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

Sri Lanka-The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is extremely disturbed by a new 90-day extension of a detention order against journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who has been held without charge in Sri Lanka since his arrest on March 8, 2008. Tissainayagam is being detained under the Emergency...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Inbox, Latest Posts on 06 20th, 2008 | No Comments

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed its anger at new restrictions on media as the Olympic Games approach. A foreign journalist posted in Beijing informed the IFJ that the Beijing organizing committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced in a meeting that it intended to renege...

Remembering Celso Pojas...

Posted by GRACE S. UDDIN in Davao City, Extrajudicial Killings, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 12th, 2008 | No Comments

As the spokesperson of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (KMP) in Southern Mindanao, Pojas was concerned over the plight of these Lumad farmers, still struggling for their ancestral land but ended up being displaced. By GRACE S. UDDIN | Davao Today Davao City– On that early morning of May 15 this year,...

Why they flee sitio Bermuda...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao Region, Human Rights, Insurgency, Latest Posts, Military, Top Stories on 06 12th, 2008 | 1 Comment

By CJ KUIZON | Davao Today Davao City–Somewhere in Bankerohan, in a compound still shady with trees, three-week-old Vermon Autan sleeps soundly on a mat in the bottom bunk of the dormitory-type room that he shares with his parents and four other siblings. The place is not his home. But crying only...

Caravan for press freedom...

Posted by BARRY OHAYLAN in Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 12th, 2008 | No Comments

Members of the media hold a picket in front of the Davao Prisons and Penal Farm, formerly known as Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol), to protest the continued illegal detention of Alexander “Lex” Adonis. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry...

The long wait...

Posted by BARRY OHAYLAN in Latest Posts, Photographs, Top Stories on 06 7th, 2008 | No Comments

As rice prices in Mindanao start to soar this week, consumer lines in NFA outlets are getting longer. In Bankerohan public market, the wait can start as early as one in the morning just to be included in the first 500 persons allowed to buy NFA rice in the store for the day. The first 375 consumers can buy...

‘Exodus’ calls for end to mi...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao City, Davao Region, Human Rights, Insurgency, Latest Posts, Military, Top Stories on 06 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment

Concerned organizations and individuals form an alliance called Exodus for Justice and Peace to call for a stop of the militarization in the countryside and for the return of hundreds of Lumads displaced from their communities. The alliance also seeks justice for the death of tribal chieftain Dominador...

City Hall saves up for hard times...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao City, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

By MARILOU M. AGUIRRE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY � City Hall directed its departments to tighten their belt and trim down unnecessary expenses as the country reels from the economic crisis. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 13 on May 12 directing the city to adopt austerity measures and to set...

Generoso Bridge almost finished...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao City, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

An aerial view of the new Governor Generoso Bridge 1, showing the almost-finished structure that will take the place of the old bridge which collapsed in April last year. Officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways assured the new bridge will be opened next month, just in time for the start of...

Price of rice soars in Davao...

Posted by BARRY OHAYLAN in Davao City, Economy, Latest Posts, Photographs, Top Stories on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

Rice at P40. In a press conference on May 30, Department of Agriculture XI Regional Director Rogelio Chio notes a ten peso increase in the price of rice from last week’s average of 34-peso per kilo. He also cites reports that rice prices in Malalag, Davao del Sur, even went up as high as fifty pesos...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Davao City, Latest Posts, Politics, Press Freedom Watch, Top Stories on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY—The lawyers of jailed Davao broadcaster Alexander “Lex” Adonis filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus before the Supreme Court in Manila after the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) prison ignored a Court order for the broadcaster’s...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Inbox, Latest Posts, OFWS & Migration on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

The government’s plan to make all United Arab Emirates ‘ (UAE) bound domestic workers undergo a rigid psychological test drew heavy flak from the largest overseas Filipino workers’ alliance, MIGRANTE International. Philippine authorities in the UAE led by Philippine Consul General to Dubai...

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Inbox, Latest Posts, Press Freedom Watch on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is shocked by the brutal murder of a television and radio correspondent in Jaffna on the evening of May 28. Paranirupasingam Devakumar, 36, of Vaddukoddai, Jaffna, was hacked to death in Navanthurei by unidentified attackers while returning from Jaffna town....

Posted by DAVAO TODAY in Inbox, Latest Posts, Press Freedom Watch on 06 3rd, 2008 | No Comments

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) requests that courts in the Philippines, particularly the Court of Appeals, seek to ensure that the suspects in the murder of journalist Marlene Grace Esperat face trial. According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), an IFJ...