Six days after one of the country's biggest fire this year leveled off an islet here, the city government announced that the informal settlers - or squatter families - would still be allowed to return but only after rehabilitation works would have ensured good access roads and safer electrical lines in the area.
The human rights group Karapatan here has blamed the deployment of several Philippine Army battalions in the Davao Region for evacuation and complaints of alleged harassment of villagers in the hinterlands.
The New People’s Army (NPA) announced Sunday they are intensifying their total log ban campaign in Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte and Agusan del Sur, starting with the capture of a “protector” of big loggers—a soldier belonging to the 72nd Infantry Battalion.
"Assuming I will be president and things are status quo; there will still be Congress and Civil Service, the Human Rights (Commission) and Ombudsman. Now with this Congress, you have to beg and make horse-deals with them. You'll be wasting your money paying me for six years where I can not make any meaningful change. I would just curse my way for six years," Duterte said.
"It is what the police said, and what the deputy mayor (in the barangay) said. They wanted to keep this quiet. But this is a public issue; it may not be the whole truth but it has to come out," Duterte said.