Politics

City Council Demands Due Process for ?Batasan 5,? Beltran

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? The City Council approved on Tuesday a resolution supporting the plea by Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla to Malaca?ang requesting due process for the so-called ?Batasan 5.?

Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, the proponent of the resolution, said it was just right for Capalla to do what he did. ?We would always ask for due process to take its own course, regardless of who the subjects are,? Dayanghirang said.

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In Makilala, Unsolved Deaths Haunt Villagers

Three armed men whose faces were covered with bonnets and shawls entered the house at around one in the morning. ?They awakened us by pointing their flashlights to our faces,? Gabi, an 18-year-old resident, said. The intruders wore what looked like military boots. ?They were searching for somebody,? she said. ?When they saw Jay, they dragged him outside the house.?

contributed photo
Members of the fact-finding team led by Karapatan on their way to the house of Salvador Dante Jr., a murder victim in Makilala, North Cotabato. (Contributed photo)

By Marilou Aguirre
davaotoday.com

MAKILALA, North Cotabato ? The sound of gunshots sent Marcelo Heruela looking for his friend Salvador Dante Jr., who had left his house minutes earlier.

?Some of my neighbors told me that the gunshots sounded like these came from near his house,? Heruela, a 37-year-old ?skylab? (passenger motorcycle) driver said.

Along with some neighbors, Heruela searched the road leading to Dante?s house. About 50 meters from the house, they saw Dante, slumped in the grass, dead.

The Feb. 3 killing of Dante, a 40-year-old peasant and ?skylab? driver from sitio (hamlet) Conception, barangay (village) Kisante, this town, remains a puzzle to both his family and neighbors.

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ComVal Farmers Decry Harassment, Burning of Houses

By BJ Absin
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? Farmers in Mabini town, Compostela Valley province, have accused the military of burning their houses and of harassing them afterward, allegedly for their failure to provide information on the communist New People?s Army.

Four farmers — Benjamin diola, Gabriel Ugapan, Dionesio Granada and Montano Anoda ? from sitio (hamlet) Darot, barangay (village) Libudon in Mabini town complained last week to the human-rights group Karapatan that elements of the 28th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army razed their houses and belongings during military operations on March 9.

Karapatan photo
This is what remained of one of the houses burned down allegedly by elements of the military. (Contributed photo)

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Arroyo Scored for ?Buying? Signatures in Cha-Cha Drive; DILG, Comelec Wash Hands

Arroyo administration accused of “again committing massive fraud and deception on a nationwide scale?

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? Days after the synchronized barangay (village) assemblies that launched the so-called nationwide ?people?s initiative? aimed at changing the Constitution, critics and progressive groups lambasted the government Monday for allegedly using money and other inducements to railroad the process even as officials denied that the assemblies had anything to do with the government?s campaign to amend the charter.

?Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seems to be running out of schemes to cling to power so that she buys the ?people?s initiative? with rice and a few hundred bucks,? Ariel Casilao, acting secretary-general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Southern Mindanao said in a statement on Monday.

Casilao was referring to reports that money and rice were given in exchange for signatures supporting constitutional amendments that would, among others, lead to shift to a parliamentary form of government.

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Iron-Willed ‘Political Butterflies’ Still Flutter

By Bejay C. Absin
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? The gathering gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ?political butterfly.?

Because they were all there ? women political luminaries, some of whom hadn?t met in a long while, many of them still possessed by the fire of political dissent ? and because butterflies were everywhere: on their nametags, lapels, chests, arms, wrists, even fingers.

The forum, at the Ateneo de Davao University, was called ?Free Our Sisters! Free Ourselves!? and specifically targeted the political repression prevalent nowadays. It was organized by Gabriela Women?s Party, Bathaluman Crisis Center and the Gabriela Network of Professionals. The host committee was led by Rosena Sanches and Bing Sobrevega-Chan, two of the cities most respected women professionals.

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