Author: DAVAO TODAY

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Huge Market for Veggies in Mindanao

By Prix Banzon
Philippine Information Agency

DAVAO CITY — There?s a huge market for vegetables in Mindanao and yet farmers produce the product for the Luzon area.

This was the observation made by Dante Sarraga, Jr., executive vice president of the Philippine Vegetable Industry Development Board during the Club 888 Forum at The Marco Polo Hotel yesterday.

Sarraga said if the vegetable produce are marketed within Mindanao, farmers will earn more instead of the products shipped to Manila where the transport time run up to 52 hours and have to l wait for 70 days to get paid.

?If transaction is done here mas madali kasi kaliwaan lang yan, you deliver the product and get paid immediately,? he said.

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MILF Talks in KL End in Deadlock

By Keith Bacongco
davaotoday.com

COTABATO CITY ? The peace talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is now deadlocked as both parties failed to iron out some “consensus points” during the exploratory talks last week in Kuala Lumpur.

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, in an interview, said the recent two-day exploratory talks ended without any breakthroughs.

“We were not able to finish it. We failed to agree on some consensus points. But is still moving forward and still on track,? Iqbal said. ?September this year still remains as a target of the signing of final peace agreement.”

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In Siocon, Subanens Continue Struggle Vs Canadian Mining Firm

Related story
Subanen supporters of TVI ask critics to ?leave us alone?; company says mining brought benefits to community

Contributed photo
Bishop Jose Manguiran of Dipolog leads the re-consecration of Mt. Canatuan

SIOCON, Zamboanga del Norte — For two years, timuay (tribal chief) Jose Anoy has not been able to set foot in his home. Home is Mt. Canatuan, the most sacred place for the 2,000 Subanen people, which has been encroached into by the mining firm Canada?s Toronto Ventures Inc (TVI) since 1994.

Anoy said that the TVI has prevented him from returning home because he refused to give consent for the company to mine 508 hectares located in the Subanen?s sacred land.

?The company offered me money before, and shares in their profits,? he recalled. ?Accepting this could have been easy, but being a timuay, I remained firm for the sake of the Subanen.?

His stand forced the company to lay it hard on Anoy — driving him away from his own home. Since then, TVI has taken over Mt. Canatuan, barricading the area with three checkpoints.

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Arroyo Scored for ?Buying? Signatures in Cha-Cha Drive; DILG, Comelec Wash Hands

Arroyo administration accused of “again committing massive fraud and deception on a nationwide scale?

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? Days after the synchronized barangay (village) assemblies that launched the so-called nationwide ?people?s initiative? aimed at changing the Constitution, critics and progressive groups lambasted the government Monday for allegedly using money and other inducements to railroad the process even as officials denied that the assemblies had anything to do with the government?s campaign to amend the charter.

?Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seems to be running out of schemes to cling to power so that she buys the ?people?s initiative? with rice and a few hundred bucks,? Ariel Casilao, acting secretary-general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Southern Mindanao said in a statement on Monday.

Casilao was referring to reports that money and rice were given in exchange for signatures supporting constitutional amendments that would, among others, lead to shift to a parliamentary form of government.

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Iron-Willed ‘Political Butterflies’ Still Flutter

By Bejay C. Absin
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? The gathering gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ?political butterfly.?

Because they were all there ? women political luminaries, some of whom hadn?t met in a long while, many of them still possessed by the fire of political dissent ? and because butterflies were everywhere: on their nametags, lapels, chests, arms, wrists, even fingers.

The forum, at the Ateneo de Davao University, was called ?Free Our Sisters! Free Ourselves!? and specifically targeted the political repression prevalent nowadays. It was organized by Gabriela Women?s Party, Bathaluman Crisis Center and the Gabriela Network of Professionals. The host committee was led by Rosena Sanches and Bing Sobrevega-Chan, two of the cities most respected women professionals.

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