Breaking News

Child-rights groups warn vs HSA’s effect on kids

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Aug 29, 2007

By COLLETTE CUIZON | Davao Today

The Philippines’s anti-terrorism law could be misused by the military, the groups said, adding that there would be constant disruptions in the lives of children because of the HSA. “Even in places where there is no actual fighting, classrooms are oftentimes transformed into evacuation centers, disrupting school classes. Children bear the trauma when their parents are illegally arrested and detained, or, in worst cases, killed.”

Angging blasts proposal to scrap juvenile-justice law

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Aug 22, 2007

By ANGELA LIBRADO-TRINIDAD

We have hoodlums in robes, we have cheats at the highest echelons of the government, we have crooks in Congress, landgrabbers and killers well-entrenched in state machineries and business, and the irony is, despite the laws available to victims, to the poorest among us, these criminals appear decent and held with high regard in our society. We see the young shoplifter, the young molester or the young drug pusher and, alas, we are immediately agitated to have them removed from our sight and from the streets!

JPEPA bad for Davao’s banana growers — Ibon

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Aug 15, 2007

Exports of Philippine-grown bananas and pineapples, most of them from the Davao region and other parts of Mindanao, may increase with the implementation of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), but it will benefit agribusiness transnational corporations and not Filipino growers, according to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation.

NPA in ComVal vows to free captured soldier

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Aug 14, 2007

The New People’s Army in Southern Mindanao, in a statement sent to the media on Monday, said it will release a soldier it captured during an ambush last Aug. 10 in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley province. The soldier, it said, will be freed because he had not committed “crimes against the people.”

‘New’ Kadayawan goes back to its tribal roots

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Aug 14, 2007

Tribal women perform during the opening ceremonies of the Kadayawan Festival last week. (davaotoday.com photo by Tyrone A. Velez) Click here for more Kadayawan pictures.

By TYRONE A. VELEZ and CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today

As the city announced a shift in the way the annual Kadayawan Festival is celebrated — that is, for one, showcasing Lumad culture and tradition not for tourism’s sake — tribal leaders remain concerned that the festivities hardly depict the struggle of Mindanao’s indigenous peoples to pursue their unique way of life and retain control of their ancestral lands, which have been encroached into by big mining companies and plantations.

Duterte gets more money to spend

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Aug 08, 2007

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s office will get the biggest chunk — 190 million — of the nearly half a billion supplemental budget, which was passed Tuesday on second reading by the City Council. Much of it (180 million) will go to his “peace and order program.” He also gets to spend an additional 10 million for doleouts to the city’s indigents. On the other hand, the City Social Services and Development Office gets 322,000 pesos.

6 killed in landslide near Diwalwal

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Aug 06, 2007

BREAKING NEWS | Six people were killed during landslides triggered by heavy rains near Mount Diwalwal in Maco, Compostela Valley province, officials said on Monday. A Reuters report quoted an official as also saying that one of the victims was a toddler and that three more people are believed to be still alive and trapped in the mud.

Moros have had it with GMA’s all-out wars

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Aug 06, 2007

COMMENTARY | By Amirah Ali Lidasan

Who committed the beheading and why did the perpetrators commit such act is a very controversial and sensitive issue that should have been responded to with discretion rather than warmongering. For weeks, it is as if every Muslim has to answer for it.