Crime & Public Safety

Murder of Peasant Leader Elicits Condemnation of Gov?t, CARP

DAVAO CITY ? The assassination on Monday of a peasant leader in Panabo demonstrates once again the campaign of repression against agrarian-reform activists and reformists, cause-oriented and human-rights groups said on Wednesday.

Enrico Cabanit, secretary-general of the Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (Unorka), a peasant organization that has been campaigning for agrarian-reform in Davao del Norte, was gunned down on April 24 at a public market.

His daughter, Daffodil, was in critical condition after she, too, was shot by the bonnet-wearing assassin.

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?Commander Dante? Surrenders

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By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? ?Commander Dante,? the most wanted man in this city who have been blamed for terrorizing residents in Paquibato District the past months, is now in the hands of the authorities.

Police identified ?Commander Dante? as Dante Lumuyod, a 38-year-old resident of Gumitan, a village in Paquibato.

Lumuyod was presented to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte Monday afternoon after he surrendered to the police and the military last Saturday in Paquibato, a hinterland district of the city, known for being the battleground between the military and the communist New People?s Army.

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Who Needs the Death Penalty?

Commentary: Hackles by Carlos H. CondeI dare speculate that the Catholic Church used the Hello Garci scandal to wangle concessions from the embattled president, such as the commutation of all death sentences. Because had the Church, as an institution, spoke out against her and called on the public to topple her, Arroyo wouldn?t have lasted in Malacanang this long.

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Deconstructing Duterte: What?s Real, What?s Rhetoric?

Click here to view more pictures of the Feb. 24 rally Duterte attended.News Analysis


With his charismatic and no-nonsense persona, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has succeeded in pleasing everybody. Why then is he risking his support from the progressive sector and from critics of the Arroyo administration by openly endorsing charter change?


By Marilou N. Aguirre
and Carlos H. Conde

DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) ?When Rodrigo Duterte, the feisty mayor of this city, lashed out against the United States some years back for floating the idea of holding a joint U.S.-Philippine military exercise in his city, activists praised him for having the courage to stand up to Uncle Sam.

More recently, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo decreed that protest marches were a threat to national security, Duterte went the opposite route, essentially telling leftists here not to mind the president.

Duterte, in other words, can be an activist?s greatest ally — which is why, to many of them, he can be a vexing problem.

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