The Country?s Poorest
The government?s National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) has said that seven of the 10 poorest provinces are in Mindanao, with Zamboanga del Norte being the poorest.?Generally, since 1997, there has…
?Independence Day? Protesters Cry Harassment by Soldiers
By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY — Protesters from the various provinces in the region who joined the Independence Day rally today, June 12, denounced the military for harassing them and delaying them from joining their activities in the city.
Lisa Tindasan, 50, who had to bring her five-year-old grandson with her to the march because no else was going to take care of him, was in one of the vehicles held by the Task Force Davao (TFD) at the Tibungco checkpoint for more than three hours. She was with other protesters from Compostela Valley province.
Fire in the Streets
Hundreds of activists and Davaoenos took to the streets of Davao City today, June 12, to commemorate Independence Day and denounce the Arroyo administration for alleged human-rights violations, particularly the…
Labeled for Death?
For contradicting the military?s propaganda against the New People?s Army, a hard-hitting Kidapawan journalist is being vilified by the army as a communist, thus putting her life in grave danger.
By Carlos H . Conde
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY ? Malu Manar is no stranger to death threats. As a journalist who works and lives in Central Mindanao, where rebels, bandits and warlords are aplenty, she is bound to step on some toes every once in a while.
She had worked for the Catholic-ran DXND in Cotabato City since the early 1990s but moved to a sister radio station in Kidapawan City a few years ago after her family received death threats. She had been very critical of some local officials in her radio program and she believed that had something to do with the threats.
?When some men went looking for my two daughters at their school, that was it,” Manar told Reuters last year. At one point, she started disguising herself, wearing a wig and sunglasses to avoid the people stalking her.
“It was difficult and painful. It was a traumatic experience for my family. Even now, I have not really lowered my guard. I still play hide-and-seek,” she said.
But all the years she spent on the frontlines of Mindanao — reporting for DXND and filing dispatches for such newspapers as Manila Times, Today, Manila Bulletin and the online news site MindaNews ? didn?t prepare her for what happened one day in May.
In the Time of Butterflies
Women's group from Davao City trooped to the streets Monday morning to denounce the series of killings of civilians and to assert their basic rights. The march, led by Free…