Politics

Midsayap Evacuees Remain Traumatized


Living in Fear. A Moro mother and child at a Midsayap refugee camp. (davaotoday.com photo by Boy Bagwis)

The clashes in Midsayap, North Cotababto, between government troops and MILF guerrillas may have ended but evacuees still live in fear and uncertainty. Many of them have not been able to rebuild their homes and recover the properties that, according to them, were destroyed and looted by soldiers.

By CJ Kuizon
davaotoday.com

MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato — Ten-year-old Abdullah has been having sleepless nights. Early in March, in a village in this town, government soldiers took him at the height of an armed encounter with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). That experience traumatized him deeply.

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Only 5 Out of 91 Party-List Groups from Mindanao


By Tyrone Velez
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — Of the 91 partylists vying for the 2007 elections, five are based in Mindanao. Four of them represent Moro and indigenous sectors while the other carries the causes of farmers and fisherfolk in Southern Mindanao.

The party-list system aims to ensure the representation in the House of Representatives of so-called marginalized sectors. Under Republic Act 7941, the country’s party-list law, 20 percent ? or at least 50 seats — of the membership of the Congress should be allotted to groups representing these sectors. (Read the primer on the party-list system.)

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