MANILA — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino ?Nene? Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged the Arroyo government to
work out with the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)
the holding of a tripartite meeting as soon as
possible to review the implementation of the 1996
peace agreement.
(more…)
The beauty and majesty of Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak, have a way of enchanting young people like 23-year-old Alexandrous Ian Caasi. On Maundy Thursday, hours after reaching the peak, Ian went for a swim in the mountain’s freezing but beguiling lake. Minutes later, he was dead.
By Angely Pamila M. Chi
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY — The skies were beginning to dim over Lake Venado at past five that afternoon of Maundy Thursday. Inside their tent, MJ Lapi?a and Alexandrous Ian Caasi were sipping coffee.
MANILA — Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran today said that the Commission on Elections is being bureaucratic when it justifies its refusal to investigate the allegations that the Arroyo government is funding several party-lists running in the May 14 elections by saying that no one has filed any official complaint.
Taken. Clarita Alia is hysterical as her son, Fernando, is laid to rest in Davao City today. Fernando was the fourth and last son of Alia who was killed in the last five years. “I no longer have anybody with me. They took all my children,” Alia wailed during the burial. She believes that the so-called Davao Death Squad was behind the murders of her sons, as well as countless other people, many of them minors who had trouble with the law. The extrajudicial killings, which Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has tacitly approved, are seen as the city’s way of dealing with crime. Government and tourism officials have praised the city for its low crime rate, which is ironically attributed to these killings. Duterte has likewise earned kudos for his toughness on crime and for his statements warning people that they would be killed if they commit crimes in his city. (davaotoday.com photos by Barry Ohaylan)
In an effort to save face after Communist guerrillas raided the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, the military dropped more than a dozen bombs on villages in Panabo. When the smoke cleared, only a chicken and a tukmo were found dead. But the residents were furious at the army?s ?grossly wrong and irresponsible? action that put their lives in danger.