BAGANGA, DAVAO ORIENTAL (davaotoday.com)� Even before they could open it, villagers in Baganga town of Davao Oriental are already complaining about the 24-hour shift that running the Barangay Defense System outpost will entail.
�It will disrupt our farming activities,� one villager complained to a fact-finding and medical mission team that entered the area on October 21 to 23.
�BDS members don�t have salaries. What will our family eat?� Read on
By CHERYLL FIEL
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.
By CHERYLL FIEL
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 after coming home, the soldiers are back again, recruiting them to the Task Force Gantangan, a paramilitary group to fight the government�s war against the insurgents.
By CHERYLL FIEL
Twenty members of lumad support groups, including a Davao Today reporter, went inside Talaingod�s sitio Dulyan in barangay Palma Gil to verify reports that soldiers have been occupying some houses in the village, a violation of the International Humanitarian Law that bans soldiers from civilian areas.
Photos by Barry Ohaylan, Keith Bacongco, Karlos Manlupig and CJ Kuizon Kadayawan festival, which runs from August 17 to 23,…
Vice-mayor Sara Duterte. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan) Angela Librado-Trinidad, first district councilor, hits one of the 24 gongs at…
By CJ KUIZON
In one of their stories of long ago, the Mansaka, an indigenous tribe from the provinces of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, once possessed a golden guitar, which they played when they sang their songs of longing, aspirations and victory.
WE OBJECT. This photo exhibit at Terazza Milesa building on Anda street shows the increasing number of victims of political killings in Southern Mindanao. The exhibit opens during the launching of ‘We OBject movement’ by progressive groups following the expose of the military’s order of battle this year. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
PANATA 2010. Kabataan partylist leads the launching of Panata 2010 (pledge 2010), a nationwide campaign to convince young people to register for the upcoming May elections. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
DAVAO CITY — A European Union (EU) envoy urged both the government and armed insurgent groups to look for more options to get the stalled peace negotiations back on track.
“It (peace negotiations) didn’t work, so far; so, they need to do more,” said Johan Snijckers, deputy head of contracts and finance of the European Commission delegation to the Philippines. “We think that parties have made quite some effort.”
Snijckers, who was in Davao for the culmination of the EU-funded project Action Repair, said that both parties need to get together again to see what the options are; and, if possible, explore new ones. Read on
