‘Kalbaryo sa Kabus’
Members of Davao City's progressive groups, including this boy, held a protest march on Holy Thursday dubbed "Kalbaryo sa Kabus" (Calvary of the Poor) to dramatize their issues against the…
How to Bully Councilors and Get Away With It
It is the duty of the City Council to stick its nose into anything that concerns the people. Councilors should not allow one arrogant colonel to redefine what democracy mandates them to do.
DAVAO CITY ? Task Force Davao was created in 2003, in the aftermath of the bombings in this city in April of that year, solely for this purpose: to fight terrorism. Since then, however, it has metamorphosed into something else.
I?m not talking about the fact that the TFD, which is dominated by the military, has practically usurped the functions of the police, or that the ubiquitous presence of TFD troops has made the city look like a garrison. I?m talking about something far more pernicious.
In Paquibato, a `Sham’ Public Hearing on Atrocities
What was billed as the City Council’s public hearing to get Paquibato residents to talk about the atrocities in the district turned into a display of official indifference and, according to witnesses and victims, arrogance.
By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com
Photos by Barry Ohaylan
PAQUIBATO, Davao City ? Lenny Nacua wanted officials to hear what happened to her son, and perhaps get some assurance that justice wouldbe done.
So on Wednesday, April 5, Nacua mustered the courage to face the officials onstage ? city councilors, police and military officials, Lumad leaders ? during the City Council’s public hearing here on the killings and violence in Paquibato District allegedly perpetrated by a group of bandits.
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Long Afterward, War Still Devastates Filipinos
The damage caused by World War II, according to historians and sociologists, defines the modern Filipino: poor and lost, perpetually wandering the globe for economic survival, bereft of national pride, forced to suffer, to this day, the indignities of their violation.
By Carlos H. Conde
davaotoday.com
(On the occasion of National Heroes? Day on April 9, we are running this piece, which was originally published in the International Herald Tribune on August 13, 2005.)
MAPANIQUE, Pampanga — On Nov. 23, 1944, Japanese soldiers stormed through this village, burning down houses and killing all the Filipino men they could find. They then herded dozens of women to a red mansion that had been turned into a garrison.
There, the soldiers took turns violating the Filipinas; they raped a mother and her daughter at the same time in one of the many rooms.
To this day, the women of Mapanique — many of those still alive are now in their 70s — talk about their ordeal with chilling clarity.
Esperon Could Be Blessing or Curse to Arroyo
A major risk-consultancy company says Esperon, if he becomes armed forces chief of staff, ?could be a destabilizing factor in politics?
DAVAO CITY ? President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be lucky for having Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the chief of Philippine Army, by her side. But while he may be a blessing to her, he could also be a curse, according to the U.S. company Pacific Strategies and Assessments (PSA), one of the most respected risk-analysis groups in Southeast Asia with deep sources within the Philippine military.