Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed to help the Davao broadcaster jailed for libel now that a full blown war has erupted between him and close administration ally Congressman Prospero Nograles over what people perceive as the first salvo of their fight for the 2010 elections.
Representative Luzviminda Ilagan survived the blast that rocked the House of Representatives shortly after the session adjourned Tuesday night. Ilagan was reportedly bleeding due to shrapnel injuries when brought to Malvar hospital. She was declared in stable condition a few hours later. Ilagan was hurt in her right thigh and legs; and part of her hair also got burned.
The youth earlier reported missing after he was held in a checkpoint of Task Force Davao in barangay Malabog surfaced when the Regional Trial Court (RTC) served the writ of amparo to militiamen on Tuesday. But Bebelita Bustamante, the mother, said she still feels uneasy because the militiamen holding his son still refused to release him.
“Roel Sembrano never took my side to [sic] the allegations that he want only broadcasted [sic] over the radio. His pronouncements on radio were all brazen lies and intrigues. People in Compostela valley and in Compostela municipality in particular are aware that Sembrano is not a broadcaster that [sic] reports objective truths, issues and events, but a media practtiioner who is under the wings, [sic] caprices and influences of some local politicians, immoral and corrupt, who are all out to destroy my refutation [sic] as a civil servant and critique [sic] of excesses of other politicians.” — Neri Barte, board member, Compostela Valley Province
The journalists trooped to the office of the Mindanao Ombudsman as Sembrano filed a criminal case of grave coercion, grave threats, physical injury, and an administrative case of grave abuse of authority against against the Compostela Valley provincial board member Neri Barte, who allegedly attacked him inside the announcer’s booth at around 6:15 a.m. of October 23.
On the night of October 27, 22-year-old Luisito Bustamante and his friends and younger sister Libby were on their way to Malabog to distribute handbills for the approaching barangay elections when they were accosted at a checkpoint by elements of the Task Force Davao. Bustamante was held and has not been found since.
Gladys Adonis, the wife of jailed Davao Alexander “Lex” Adonis, said her husband has been admitted to the prison hospital in early October.
She said Adonis, an anchorman of Bombo Radio-Davao sentenced to four and a half years in prison early this year, had been feeling utterly “abandoned and depressed,” and is thinking of ending his life.
Datu Guibang Apoga, the chieftain of the Ata-Manobo tribe in the hinterlands of Talaingod, has been in hiding for a decade now.
The workers and their families held a silent picket in front of the Panabo City Council to solicit support. They were retrenched after DITFI-Dole Stanfilco arbitrarily announced closure on Oct. 8. But no help came from any of the councilors, prompting the workers to go back to the picket line at the entrance of the container yard. There, soldiers confronted them.
