CHERYLL D. FIEL- Davao Today

Seven Sta. Cruz farmers say they’re fa...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Featured Articles, Human Rights on 03 14th, 2010 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY – A 74-year-old man, a 32-year-old mother, three farmers and two Bagobo lumads find themselves accused of the military’s trumped up charges as the government’s Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) deadline to end the four-decades of Communist insurgency nears. For opposing...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Crime & Public Safety, Davao City, Featured Articles, Top Stories on 02 28th, 2010 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY– Police and the Task Force Davao are putting up mobile checkpoints to secure the entire city against threats after the discovery of two improvised explosive devices in two separate downtown areas on Thursday, February 26. A man leaving a package at the counter...

The long trail to justice...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in * News & Features, Featured Articles, Human Rights, Top Stories on 02 22nd, 2010 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY – “Nakasabot ko unsa ilang gibati (I understand how they feel),” Cris Tony Monzon, 18-year-old son of murdered activist leader Ludenio Monzon said when he saw the families of the victims of the Ampatuan massacre. Now a member of the group Hustisya (Justice),...

‘We have prevailed despite Arroyo’s ...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in * News & Features, Insurgency, Mindanao, Top Stories on 01 13th, 2010 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today MARIHATAG, SURIGAO DEL SUR – This coastal town in northeastern Mindanao would have been as humdrum and sleepy as any ordinary day but the red letters on the railing of a bridge along the national highway broke the monotony: “Mabuhay ang ika-41 nga anibersaryo sa...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in * News & Features, Davao City, Featured Articles, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Mindanao, Philippines, Top Stories on 11 28th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY– After the mass murder that killed 57 people, 21 of them women, Moro residents in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao have remained largely silent, perhaps dumbfounded, at the extent of the atrocities. “But it does not mean that they wanted these things to...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in * News & Features, Featured Articles, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Mindanao, Top Stories on 11 24th, 2009 | 2 Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY—Election violence erupted this early right at the heart of Maguindanao, a province long wrought by political killings. Forty persons including lawyers and journalists on their way to Maguindanao’s capital town of Shariff Aguak were reportedly taken by armed men...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Top Stories on 11 9th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today As voting will be automated for the first time in 2010, the public policy watchdog Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) foresees the elections as a more difficult process than an easier one. “A lot of things that will be happening will be invisible to the...

The trial of Rodrigo Duterte...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in * News & Features, Davao City, Featured Articles, Latest Posts, Politics, Top Stories on 11 8th, 2009 | 1 Comment

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com)–Towards the end of March this year, at the start of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) public hearing on extrajudicial killings in Davao City, CHR chairperson Leila De Lima read this part of an excerpt from the davaotoday interview with...

Government’s counterinsurgency cam...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Latest Posts, Top Stories on 10 6th, 2009 | 1 Comment

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com)– The image of a soldier shooting a villager clambering upon the back of an open truck is still fresh in the minds of the Manobos when they left their homes in Barangay Diatagon in Lianga, Surigao del Sur in July this year. Though it happened...

Coming Home...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Human Rights, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 10 6th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today After one month and 13 days at the evacuation camp, the Manobo evacuees finally went home to Lianga on August 30. Aboard a convoy of 40 trucks to barangay Diatagon, the lumads left the grounds of the Diocese of Tandag that served as their evacuation camp. But barely a month...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Top Stories on 09 16th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY– Soldiers held for three hours yesterday a fact finding team in a remote village in Talaingod, a town 89 kilometers from Davao City. Twenty members of lumad support groups, including a Davao Today reporter, went inside Talaingod�s sitio Dulyan in barangay...

Lumad farmer survives slay attempt...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Human Rights, Insurgency, Latest Posts, Military, Top Stories on 08 17th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY – - A lumad farmer survived a slay attempt in Baganga town of Davao Oriental on June 26 this year. Julius Gonzales, 37, was going home with his wife to their village in Lambajon in Baganga when motorcycle-riding men, he recognized as Cafgu member, fired at...

Postscript to Cory...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in * News & Features, Breaking News, Davao City, Latest Posts, Philippines, Top Stories on 08 17th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) � Yellow ribbons hung in tricycles, jeepneys and private cars; gigantic yellow cloths rolled out in schools, malls and buildings on the day that former President Corazon Aquino was buried. While members of the Davao�s Yellow Friday Movement brought...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Human Rights, Latest Posts, Military, Top Stories on 07 5th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today Lawyer Carlos Isagani, one of the three Davao lawyers, who filed a writ of amparo against the military for including their names in the Order of Battle list. Military officers fail to appear on the first hearing.(davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan) DAVAO CITY —...

Activist doctor shot dead in Davao...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Breaking News, Extrajudicial Killings, Health, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 06 25th, 2009 | 1 Comment

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY – - -A doctor of the regional health office who headed the epidemiological research and surveillance department, the unit tasked to monitor and address the A (H1N1) flu cases, was shot dead in his car while going home last night. Dr. Rogelio �Bong� Pe�era, 46, was...

Lawyers petition for writ of amparo...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Human Rights, Latest Posts, Military, Politics, Terrorism, Top Stories on 06 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY — Three lawyers whose names were in the military Order of Battle list filed a petition for a writ of amparo at the Regional Trial Court to preempt impending threats to their lives. Davao lawyers Carlos Isagani Zarate, Lilibeth Ladaga and Angela...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Extrajudicial Killings, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Military, Top Stories on 06 14th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today BOSTON, DAVAO ORIENTAL – - – Ludenio Monzon, the latest victim of extrajudicial killing in Southern Mindanao, knew his days were numbered even days before he was killed. Like most of the activists killed before him, he received warnings and death threats. He was...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Breaking News, Extrajudicial Killings, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 04 30th, 2009 | No Comments

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY — A lumad leader was gunned down just a few meters from the town hall of Boston in Davao Oriental yesterday, bringing to 10 the total number of activist killings in the region since May last year. Ludenio Monson, a Mandaya farmer and leader of Nagkahiusang...

Leader of farmers’ group shot dead...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Breaking News, Crime & Public Safety, Davao City, Extrajudicial Killings, Human Rights, Latest Posts, Military, Top Stories on 05 15th, 2008 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today DAVAO CITY — Celso Pojas, a leader of a farmers’ group in Davao City, was shot dead this morning in front of the office of the Farmers’ Association of Davao City-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (FADC-KMP), in sitio Bugac, barangay Maa, this city. Slain...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Business, Davao Region, Environment, Latest Posts, Top Stories on 04 27th, 2008 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today DAVAO CITY — What happens to a rainforest if you take out its waterfalls? What happens to a mountain if you gouge out its rocks and soil? What happens to indigenous peoples if you take away their lands? Members of environmental groups posed these questions at a picket...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Latest Posts, Mindanao, Top Stories on 04 21st, 2008 | No Comments

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today Nepthalie Betito explains the making of a catchment for rainwater they use to water their vegetable garden in the dry summer. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel) Growing plants in the summer could be very difficult, especially for farmers in Mindanao more prone to...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Latest Posts, Media, Top Stories on 04 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today For a country in the tropics surrounded by a belt of the world’s most active volcanoes and regularly visited by typhoons, the need for stories that deal with disasters – how to avoid them and manage the risks – becomes more compelling. Unfortunately, in a...

Goodbye, Batman...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Breaking News, Davao City, Latest Posts, Press Freedom Watch on 01 1st, 2008 | No Comments

Known to Davao media as “Batman,” short for “Batang Mandaya,” (Mandaya child) Fernando Lintuan was laid to his grave on Sunday. Lintuan is the 5th journalist murdered in the country this year. He was shot dead on Christmas eve as he was leaving his radio station, DXGO, right after...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Breaking News, Davao City, Economy, Latest Posts on 12 20th, 2007 | No Comments

By Cheryll D. FielDavao Today Joel Basiao, a driver of a passenger jeepney plying Davao city’s route of barangay Puan to Magsaysay Park, said he lost as much as P200 on Thursday for joining the nationwide transport strike. But he said it was just about the same amount that jeepney drivers like him...

Will Shelter Code solve Davao’s ho...

Posted by CHERYLL D. FIEL in Breaking News, Davao City, Latest Posts, Poverty on 12 15th, 2007 | 2 Comments

By Cheryll D. FielDavao Today After nine months of grueling deliberations, the City Council has prided itself again of passing another landmark law, known as the Comprehensive Urban Shelter and Services Development Code, or the Shelter Code. Finally signed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on November 15 this year,...