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Out of Beirut, Stranded in Buhangin

A Filipino-Lebanese family in Davao tries to pick up the pieces of a life torn apart by the war in Lebanon.

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — All they really want right now is for the war to stop so that they can go back home and continue life where they left off.

Anthony Ballouz, 18, and his brother, Ronald, 16, express this wish as they watch footages of downtown Beirut on television in their mother?s home in Buhangin here, where they sought refuge from the war that broke out between Israeli troops and the Hezbollah guerillas in the southern part of Lebanon.

The four Ballouz brothers were among the Filipino Lebanese children whose families have been torn apart because of the war. Their father, George Ballouz, a Lebanese businessman, had to stay behind as the three brothers were ferried out of Beirut to take a flight aboard the Jordanian Aviation plane from Syria to follow their mother and youngest brother in Davao. They were among the second batch of Filipinos arranged by the Philippine embassy to be brought to the Philippines early last week.

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CEGP: Keeping the Flames of Freedom Alive

75 years ago, a group of campus writers formed the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. It went on to become a vanguard of freedom and patriotism. Last Tuesday night, Davao-based members of the CEGP came together not just to reminisce but to keep the flames of the guild burning.

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CEGP members and alumni at the 75th anniversary bash at the Kanto Bar, Matina Town Square. (Click here for more pictures.) davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan

By Cheryll D. Fiel and Tyrone A. Velez
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — It was a special day on the calendar. They could not wait for dusk to come. All roads that night led to Kanto Bar at the Matina Town Square for these individuals who are as diverse as the roles they have assumed now.

Some of them are lawyers, teachers, government employees, NGO workers, political advisers, editors and writers of the dailies, politicians, wives, mothers, fathers, the still-proud-and-crazy-after-all-these-years punks, poets, artists and bohemians by heart.

But that evening was not about who they are, who among them are successful, who arrived in the latest car model, who married whom, who has aged. Forget about that sort of triviality. Because that Tuesday night this week, they were just this: activist-writers eternal.

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Big Chinese Mining Firms Set Eyes on Mindanao

davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan
China’s ambassador to the Philippines Li Jinjun (left) receives a briefing kit from Medco officer in charge Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana (center) and Secretary Jess Dureza during an investment briefing on Tuesday. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — Three big mining companies in China, including the largest state-owned JinChuan Group Ltd., are now aggressively pursuing talks with Philippine-based companies for possible investments in the country?s mining industry.

Li Jinjun, ambassador to the Philippines of the People?s Republic of China (PROC), said Tuesday that the JinChuan Group is seriously pursuing talks with Philnico Industrial Corporation, which used to operate the shuttered Nonoc plant in Surigao while ZTE Corporation, which is based in Shenzhen, China, is talking with members of the Filipino-Chinese community for the possibility of joint-venture arrangements in mining.

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In Davao and Mindanao, Jeers Meet Arroyo SONA

Cultural workers depict the plight of the poor. (Barry Ohaylan/davaotoday.com)
Cultural activists depict the plight of the poor during the anti-Arroyo protest in the city on Monday. (Click here to view more pictures.) davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan

In Davao City and across Mindanao, many are not happy with Arroyo?s promises.

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? Except for the brief moment when Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s name was mentioned, loud applause was hardly heard at the City Council building where city employees watched on a widescreen President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s sixth State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday afternoon.

Business leaders, when sought for comment right after the president’s speech, appeared not so pleased either. In her speech, Arroyo said her administration now has the money to finance government projects.

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