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...

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...

Davao City � A network of young leaders and entrepreneurs are seeking out more entries from Davao and Mindanao for the nationwide Creative Young Entrepreneur Award (CYEA). The Junior Chamber International � Philippines, the group that hosts the CYEA in the last three years, opens its award this year to...

DAVAO CITY — To prevent the possible spread of influenza caused by the AH1N1 virus in the region, the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is asking employers to maintain a clean work area and provide water, soap and household disinfectant in washrooms and toilets. In a recent press...

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...

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE Davao Today DAVAO CITY—The Commission on Human Rights is thinking of inviting New People�s Army (NPA) leader Kumander Parago in a public inquiry to help shed light on the abduction and killing of his daughter Rebelyn Pitao. �We considered calling him (Parago),� Leila De Lima,...

By IBON Media Unemployment data from the January 2009 Labor Force Survey confirms the country’s descent into greater joblessness due to the global crisis and accumulated domestic economic weaknesses. The figures however are a gross underestimation of joblessness in the country, which is likely to have...

By GRACE UDDIN Davao Today DAVAO CITY–The body of the daughter of a high-ranking New People’s Army commander in Southern Mindanao was found floating in an irrigation canal in Carmen town, Davao del Norte barely 24 hours after she was abducted. Covered with mud and almost without clothing in her...

By CJ Kuizon Davao Today When I hear ‘night market’, I cannot help but imagine the one in Cagayan de Oro and the one in Baguio. The Baguio night market is an everyday affair, an obvious concession to the tourists who flock that cold city all year round. A lot of night market vendors have daytime...

The coalition Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas) was appalled over the failure of the court of appeals (CA) to decide on the case that questioned the constitutionality of Davao City ordinance that banned aerial spraying in banana plantations. The CA’s branch 21, formerly branch 22, was supposed...

By GRACE S. UDDIN | Davao Today Davao City– The Communist New People’s Army released former army sergeant Jose Manero, a former Ilaga leader and brother of released priest killer Norberto Manero, after three months in captivity. The rebels, who took Manero during the May 11 raid in a Calinan...

By Davao Today Dennis Cuesta Dennis Cuesta, the program director of Radio Mindanao Network-DXMD, died at half past three this afternoon, RMN vice president for Mindanao Dodong Solis confirmed in a text message. Cuesta fought for his life at the intensive care unit of the St. Elizabeth Hospital in General...

Rep. Crispin Beltran, 1933-2008 BREAKING NEWS Rep. Crispin Beltran of the AnakPawis party-list group died this morning after falling off the roof of his house in Bulacan. Relatives said he was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced “brain dead” due to severe head injuries. He died at...

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...

The government has come up with a stronger campaign to prevent rice, the staple food of Filipinos, from being contaminated with aflatoxin. In a press conference, Dr. Anthony Sales, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) regional head of the technology transfer section, announced that he had...

By MARILOU M. AGUIRRE | Davao Today DAVAO CITY — Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president Paolo Duterte, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s eldest son, wants an identification (ID) system in place in each of the city barangays (villages). Davao has a total of 182 barangays under three...

No Fans of Bananas. Japanese pastors support their Filipino counterparts in speaking against JPEPA at the end of the five-day bilateral conference between their group, the National Christian Churches of Japan and the National Council of Churches of the Philippines. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry...

By Marilou M. Aguirre Davao Today DAVAO CITY–As if daring the groups opposed to it, vice mayor Sara Duterte said she is in favor of the hotly-debated national ID system, pronounced by the Supreme Court as “unconstitutional” in 1998, but recently revived by the Armed Forces of the...

The Kilusang Mayo Uno-Southern Mindanao region today expressed apprehension over the proposed revival of the National ID System, saying that �the measure will backtrack the hard-won victories of human rights as this fascist administration continues its hopeless witch hunt, all the while victimizing innocent...

Davao City– Gabriela today lambasted the dismissal of the rape case filed by 16-year old “Emily” against six men in July last year. In a resolution filed last January 4, the Office of the City Prosecution dismissed the case “for lack of probable cause that the crime of rape has been...

By the Asian Human Rights Commission HONGKONG — At the height of the escalating incidents of the murder of activists, there was strong condemnation, both within and outside the country that forced the government to do something to stop the killing. Now that the number of killings has declined,...

Unless government removes the 12 percent value added tax (VAT) on oil and repeal the Oil Deregulation Law, the country is facing as much as P50 per liter in gasoline prices and more than P700 in LPG retail prices by the end of the year, umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) disclosed. Simulations...

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino �Nene� Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) said he believes that Congress will back a Malaca�ang call for amending the 1987 Constitution to pave the way for the adoption of a Federal System of Government to break the prolonged impasses in the government�s peace talks with the...

Workers in Japanese corporations based in Southern Tagalog expressed opposition to the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). They deemed that their situation will get worse if JPEPA is ratified. According to a study by Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik- Southern...

Arroyo veto will cause serious political backlash As more senators echo the people’s demand to scrap the 12 percent value added tax (VAT) on oil, umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) challenged Congress to cross party lines and rush a bill that would lift the regressive tax on petroleum...