By GINGGING AVELLANOSA- VALLE Davao Today Relief assistance for people displaced by the fighting between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Maguindanao has come to a halt after the massacre that killed 58 people, 32 of them journalists, in the town of Ampatuan on November 23 last...

BUYING SCRAPS. A homeless kid waits for a customer to buy scrap metals, remnants from demolished houses at Purok 7 in Jasa, Sasa Km. 13 in this city. (davaotoday.com photo by Jose...

Arroyo: Core of RP problems by Patricio P. Diaz/MindaNews GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / June 26)� �The President herself should not become so inutile as a controversial and unfocused leader to the extent of being seen as the core of our problems,� former President Fidel V. Ramos remarked while...

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE Davao Today Alan Codizar�s family noticed the smell after two months inside their house in Catalunan Grande, a village about five kilometers from downtown Davao. �We thought it was the dog,� recalled Codizar�s wife Lourdes, �So, we moved the doghouse somewhere else but still the smell...

(Position paper on Balikatan’s take-over of mass housing) The Kalipunay ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) commiserates with the thousands of housing creditors in the city whose housing units are now subject to demand letters and foreclosure by the Balikatan Housing Finance Inc. There is no one to...

The militant Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) condemned the Arroyo government for allowing the onerous mega-sale of 14 billion pesos worth of some 53,000 low cost housing units nationwide to the private Balikatan Housing Finance, Inc. The sale smacks of capitalist greed at the expense of thousands...

SHANTIES. A giant billboard stands obtrusively against the shanties along the riverbank of Davao River. About one third of Filipinos are living below the poverty line, their condition worsened by rising inflation, which registered a 17-year high last month. The National Statistical Coordination Board...

“Terrorism in Mindanao is state-initiated, therefore, it follows that poverty in Mindanao is also caused by the Arroyo government.” This was the statement of Gabriela women’s party representative Luzviminda Ilagan, following President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s claim during the state...

By GRACE S. UDDIN | Davao Today DAVAO CITY–It would have been cheaper for government to source rice in the domestic market instead of importing rice abroad if there had been enough supply of rice in the country, according to the leader of the National Food Authority Employees Association (NFAEA). ...

By DAVAO TODAY Davao Today asks people on the streets about what they expect from the President’s state of the nation address on Monday, and in return, got a wish list of what people think government should do to alleviate their plight. What do you think the government should address in her state of...

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY–Filipinos ended up paying more, instead of benefiting from, the Official Development Assistance (ODAs) that rich donor countries pour into the country each year, according to an analyst from the think tank Ibon Philippines. Sonny Africa, research head of...

By GRACE S. UDDIN | Davao Today Davao City– Militant groups were dismayed over President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s move to strengthen her political party amidst the growing demands for more affordable food, lower prices of oil from the people. The groups of Bayan, Kadamay, Gabriela, Transmision...

By MARILOU M. AGUIRRE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY — Davao city Mayor Rodrigo Duterte defended the revised Local Development Plan for Children (LDPC) against questions raised by the Catholic Church on its reproductive health and safe pregnancy program. “God’s policy is antiquated and it...

By MARILOU M. AGUIRRE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY — Beatriz Gaspar, 62, said he has a son in Manila who has 10 children to feed, including a 15-year-old, the eldest. His family consumes five kilos of rice a day. “I am now asking him to return to Davao with his family because life is less...

Teresita Edir, a pushcart vendor in Agdao market, and her children join a recent march organized by urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) demanding for the ouster of President Arroyo. Edir complains that her earnings could hardly buy a kilo of rice from the National Food Authority...

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY — Pencils and notebooks made in Germany and Switzerland, durable umbrellas, raincoats as big as blankets because European sizes are almost twice as big as average Filipino sizes, used toys curiously making their way to the lumad communities in...

Mac Unday,13, pounds on a steel bar, protruding out of a cement post he finds in an abandoned lot on E. Jacinto Extension. If he succeeds in taking it out, the steel bar will sell at P11 per kilo in a junk shop. Mac has seven siblings. His mother, a laundrywoman, and his father, a housepainter, hardly earn...

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,...

Two more provinces in Davao Region have been covered in the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (AMHP). National Nutrition Council Regional Coordinator Teresa Ungson in an interview said Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte provinces are now included among the provinces where hunger is a...

By Cheryll D. FielDavao Today The suicide of the 12-year-old girl has moved a pastor to paint; a child�s advocacy group volunteer to write verses, and government and civil society group to press the government for more attention to children�s rights. The night after he heard about the girl�s death from the...

The “festering” problem of child labor in the Philippines and in the Davao areas is one of the results of the failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, according to child advocates and peasant groups. ...

Lawyers of Bayan Muna and the Genuine Opposition wanted the special canvassing to be declared illegal after discovering the irregularities in the certificates of canvass. They also questioned the nature of the special board and the manner it was created. ...

MANILA — In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of world population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas. By 2030, this is expected to reach almost 5 billion. The population of towns and cities in developing countries is set to double in the space of a generation. Poor...

MANILA — Positive attitude, enthusiasm, and perseverance are the driving factors that made Domingo Mondragon, a “Tindahan Natin” outlet owner, Angel Narito, proprietor of Argie�s Bakery and Mini Grocery, and Rodolfa Tongco, a buy-and-sell agent, succeed in building their own businesses...

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat Vol. VII, No. 18, June 10-16, 2007 MANILA — It appears that not only opposition senatorial candidates and progressive party-list groups were the victims of electoral fraud and violence in the ARMM. Even Nur Misuari, founder and leader of the Moro National...