On that early morning of May 15 this year, Celso Pojas, 45, was sipping a cup of coffee inside the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (KMP) office in Bugac, Maa when he got up, told a colleague he had to buy few cigarette sticks and went outside.
Nobody had an inkling it was to be their last time to talk to him.
As the secretary- general of Farmers’s Association of Davao City (FADC), Pojas was preparing to go to Compostela town as part of the support groups to attend to hundreds of Lumads, who were fleeing their homes in Monkayo and Compostela because of military operations there.
Somewhere in Bankerohan, in a compound still shady with trees, three-week-old Vermon Autan sleeps soundly on a mat in the bottom bunk of the dormitory-type room that he shares with his parents and four other siblings. The place is not his home.
Members of the media hold a picket in front of the Davao Prisons and Penal Farm, formerly known as Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol), to protest the continued illegal detention of Alexander “Lex” Adonis. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
As rice prices in Mindanao start to soar this week, consumer lines in NFA outlets are getting longer. In Bankerohan public market, the wait can start as early as one in the morning just to be included in the first 500 persons allowed to buy NFA rice in the store for the day. The first 375 consumers can buy maximum of two kilos each of Vietnam variety which costs 18.25 pesos per kilo and Thailand variety of NFA rice which cost 25 pesos per kilo. The remaining 125 consumers is left to buy a maximum of two kilos of the Vietnam rice variety, which consumers consider not as good as Thailand rice. Although consumers wait for long hours, the distribution ends as early as 9 A.M.. Those who cannot avail will have to go back the next day. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
Concerned organizations and individuals form an alliance called Exodus for Justice and Peace to call for a stop of the militarization in the countryside and for the return of hundreds of Lumads displaced from their communities. The alliance also seeks justice for the death of tribal chieftain Dominador Diarog, peasant leader Celso Pojas and other victims of human rights violations. Photo shows Exodus’s members signing a statement of unity calling attention to the daily needs of victims, including health and medical services, psychosocial therapy sessions for women and children, legal services, moral support, among others. (davaotoday.com photo by Jonald Mahinay)
Almost Done. An aerial view of the new Governor Generoso Bridge 1, showing the almost-finished structure that will take the place of the old bridge which collapsed in April last year. Officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways assured the new bridge will be opened next month, just in time for the start of classes. (Contributed photo by Joseph Garcia/City Information Office)
In one of the rice stalls on Bangoy street, Banay-banay rice sells at forty-two pesos per kilo while the 7-tonner variety sells at thirty nine pesos per kilo. Consumers were alarmed when commercial rice prices went as high as forty pesos per kilo in a week’s time. n a press conference on May 30, Department of Agriculture XI Regional Director Rogelio Chio notes a ten peso increase in the price of rice from last week’s average of 34-peso per kilo. He also cites reports that rice prices in Malalag, Davao del Sur, even went up as high as fifty pesos per kilo. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
The jailed broadcaster has already secured a May 26 court order for his provisional release after he posted bail for another libel case filed against him by TV personality Jeanette Lomanta-Leuterio.
