BUKIDNON, Philippines - The long wait is finally over! Manila has granted Sumilao farmers their remaining 13 hectares of the disputed 144-hectare estate in Bukidnon province in the southern Philippines.
The turn-over ceremony came six months after they were awarded the 15 hectares of land outside the disputed 144 hectares estate of the San Miguel Corporation and another 50 hectares within the 144 hectares last April 16.
Napoleon Merida Jr.,chairman and president nof the Panaw Sumilao Multipurpose Cooperative, took the mantle of leadership of the of the embattled Sumilao farmers after the killing of their leader, Ka Rene Peñas on June 5, 2009.
Peñas was on his way home on board a motorcycle from a celebration following the successful passage of the CARPER law when he was ambushed and killed almost midnight along a secluded stretch of a village road in Bukidnon.
The 13 hectares awarded to the farmers will be part of the communal farm of the cooperative. (Bong D. Fabe)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Philippine Sumilao farmers get 13 hectares
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Stay Calm, Philippine Bishop Appeals After Attack On Catholic Church
CAGAYAN DEO ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 29, 2010) – A Philippine cleric has appealed to Catholic faithful to stay calm following a grenade attack on a church on Sunday in the restive region of Mindanao.
That attack on San Vicente Ferrer parish in the town of Kalilangan in Bukidnon province left at least 3 people wounded. Bishop Jose Araneta Cabantan of the Diocese of Malaybalay in Bukidnon also called on the faithful pray in the aftermath of the attack.
He appealed to relatives of those wounded in the attack to let law enforcement authorities solve the case and not take justice into their own hands to prevent bloodshed.
“I urged, all the faithful in Bukidnon, especially in Kalilangan, to pray and remain calm and not let this isolated incident sow tension and discord among the Christians and Muslims here,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.
The San Vicente Ferrer parish has more than 20,000 parishioners in Kalilangan, one of the more progressive towns of Bukidnon, which lies near the boundary of Lanao del Sur.
The attack on the San Vicente Ferrer church was carried out by two teenage boys riding in tandem on a motorcycle while parish priest, Father Art Paraiso, was saying mass.
The motive of the attack is still unknown, but there were reports that it could be connected to the killing of a Muslim boy who was ran over by a commuter bus owned by Rural Transit of Mindanao in the province.
Relatives of the boy were allegedly behind the recent attacks on two Rural Transit buses in Wao and Kapatagan towns in Lanao del Norte province that left at least four people dead.
The attackers, disguised as policemen, told the passengers they were only after the bus driver and his conductor, but two passengers, who turned out to be policemen, were also shot dead after they introduced themselves as officers. (Bong Fabe)
Armed men bomb Catholic church in Southern Philippines
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 29, 2010) – At least 3 people were wounded after unidentified men tossed grenades Sunday during a mass inside a Roman Catholic Church in the southern Philippines.
The attack occurred at around 8:00 a.m. while a priest, Father Art Paraiso, was saying mass in San Vicente Ferrer church in the town of Kalilangan. “Three worshippers were injured in the grenade attack,” an aide to Bishop Jose Araneta Cabantan, of the Diocese of Malaybalay, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Witnesses said two young men in motorcycle lobbed two hand grenades, but only one exploded inside the inside church. The other explosive was later recovered and detonated by the police outside the church.
“The other grenade that failed to explode was detonated by the Kalilangan policemen who were also in the church hearing the mass of Father Art Paraiso,” the bishop later told reporters.
“Policemen who were in the church helped Father Paraiso in calming the parishioners down. They then all went outside the church and Father Paraiso proceeded to say the mass outside,” he said.
The motive of the attack is still unknown, but there were reports that it could be connected to the killing of a Muslim boy who was ran over by a commuter bus owned by Rural Transit of Mindanao in the province.
Relatives of the boy were allegedly behind the recent attacks on two Rural Transit buses in Wao and Kapatagan towns in Lanao del Norte province that left at least four people dead.
The attackers, disguised as policemen, told the passengers they were only after the bus driver and his conductor, but two passengers, who turned out to be policemen, were also shot dead after they introduced themselves as officers. (Bong Fabe)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
NPA rebels kill soldier in Mindanao clash
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 26, 2010) – Communist rebels killed a government soldier in a clash Thursday in the southern Philippine province of Bukidnon, officials said.
Officials said the fighting erupted after troops ran into a group of New People’s Army rebels in the village of Santa Filomena in Quezon town.
The fighting, which lasted more than half an hour, left a still undetermined number of rebels dead and wounded, said Army Lieutenant Colonel Triumph Bagaipo, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division.
“The troops were on combat patrol towards when the firefight broke out that lasted for about 35 minutes until the terrorists withdrew. Santa Filomena is considered as a guerilla base of the local terrorist operating in the area. It is from this community that they get their much-needed logistical and financial support through extortion from sugar cane and corn growers,” he said.
Bagaipo did not say whether more soldiers were wounded in the fighting, but said troops had been ordered to track down the rebels.
It was the second fighting between security and rebel forces since Tuesday in northern Mindanao. Communist rebels also killed five army soldiers in a firefight Tuesday in the village of Fortuna in Agusan del Sur's Veruela town. The clash broke out after dozens of rebels attacked a military detachment.
The New People’s Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines which is fighting for decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Groups, Indigenous Tribes Oppose Open-pit Mining, Ranch in Mindanao
Residents of Mount Diwalwal and members of the Panalipdan and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan stage a protest Tuesday, July 13, 2010 in front of the Philippine Mining Development Corporation in Davao City in Mindanao to protest the proposed open-pit mining in gold-rich Monkayo town in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig)They gathered at the Holy Cross of Davao College where the Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples and Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao Region held a forum to forge unities in response to issues related to large-scale mining in Mount Diwalwal.
They said foreign firms often practiced destructive mining and urged Manila to implement a more responsible policy to protect the environment.
The forum was part of the activities that eventually turned into a large-scale anti-mining campaign launched in cooperation with the Nagkahiusang Katawhan sa Diwalwal and the multi-sectoral Bagong Alyansang Makabayan amidst the looming take-over of large scale mining corporations of in Monkayo.
“Aside from our continued advocacy and education campaign, this mining and environment protection forum aims to educate wide audience on the real costs and benefits of large scale and foreign mining and its deadly impact on local communities, their culture and livelihood,” said Francis Morales, Panalipdan Secretary General.
Participants also signed a manifesto of unity leading to the formation of the Panalipdan Mount Diwalwal alliance. They later assembled in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources office from where they marched to the Philippine Mining Development Corporation and held a picket to dramatize their strong opposition against the “sell-out” of Mount Diwalwal to large-scale mining corporations.
Meanwhile, a group of indigenous people in Bukidnon province belonging to the Panalsalan Dagumbaan Tribal Association slammed the issuance of a compliance certificate to a big rancher in Maramag town by the National Commission for Indigenous People Bukidnon, saying the certificate was based on an alleged fake Free and Prior Informed Consent.
The group, composed of Talaandig and Haigaonon tribes, also called for the resignation of Datu Tomme Labaon, the regional director of the NCIP, saying he was biased in favor of rancher Ernesto Villalon, a former mayor of Kibawe municipality, and was insensitive to the plight of lumads.
Datu Mahawan Alfredo Ganinay, chairman of PADATA, said Labaon refused to face them in a dialogue when they demanded the revocation of Villalon’s FPIC.
He said Labaon also refused to answer questions from members of the media who waited for him outside the NCIP office in Cagayan de Oro City. “The FPIC is a fake. The tribal leaders consulted by Villalon were not even from our place,” Ganinay said.
An FPIC is a document letter issued by a tribal group allowing a rancher to manage and develop a certain piece of land that lies within their ancestral domain.
Ganinay, 60, said that Villalon obtained his FPIC from a lumad group in Kibawe, although the 480-hectare Villalon Ranch covered by the FPIC is located in the boundaries of the villages of Panalsalan and Dagumbaan, both in the town of Maramag.
“The ranch is located in our ancestral domain. Former Mayor Villalon should have consulted us. Instead, he obtained an FPIC from a different group of lumads. This is a violation of the FPIC process under NCIP Administrative Order No. 1, Series of 2006,” Ganinay said.
He said the property is covered by their application for Community-Based Forest Management, which they filed at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in November 2007.
Ganinay and two other tribal leaders had their heads shaved Tuesday morning in front of the NCIP office to dramatize their call for the revocation of the FPIC issued to cover Villalon’s ranch. Ganinay’s group had been picketing the NCIP office since Monday and said they would continue with their protest until Labaon faces them in a dialogue. (With reports from Geo Solmerano and Becky de Asis)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
11 killed in fierce clashes in South RP
Officials said two more soldiers were wounded in the fighting that broke out in the village of Banlag in Valencia City in Bukidnon province.
“Troops engaged the New People’s Army rebels in a series of encounter that left the communists with nine dead and a still undetermined number of wounded fighters. Government troops suffered two killed-in-actions,” said Major Michele Anayron, a spokesman for the Army’s 4th Infantry Division.
He said the fighting erupted after soldiers under the 8th Infantry Battalion tracked down the rebels in the village. He said the fighting started at around 12.20 p.m. and continued sporadically later in the day.
Troops were pursuing some 60 rebels under Abelardo Navarro, he said, adding, soldiers recovered at least nine rifles left behind by gunmen.
“As of this writing, heavy exchange of fire is still continuing in the area,” Anayron said late Tuesday.
The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines which broke off peace talks with Manila in 2004 after accusing President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on several agreements and among them was the release of all political detainees being held across the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Rebels raid budget hotel in Mindanao
DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 19, 2009) – Philippine communist rebels raided a budget hotel and restaurant and seized weapons allegedly being by its owners to threaten peasants in the southern province of Bukidnon.
Isabel Santiago, a spokeswoman for the New People’s Army Herminio Alfonso Command, said rebel forces also ambushed pursuing soldiers and policemen in the village of Kipolot in Kitaotao town, but there were no reports of government casualties.
She said the rebels raided the Travelers Inn and Restaurant on Monday as a punishment for its owner, the Nietes family, for allegedly threatening peasants in the village.
“The Nietes family was disarmed as punishment for keeping high-powered firearms they used to threaten peasant civilians,” Santiago said.
“Violations of regulations on business operations inside guerrilla territories were the reasons for the punitive action on the Nietes establishment. The action was undertaken mainly to confiscate firearms, of which, one Uzi machine pistol was seized,” she added.
But the Army’s 10th Infantry Division said rebels raided the inn and robbed its owners of more than P20, 000 in cash and a pistol.
Captain Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel, an army spokesperson, said the rebels also took a civilian hostage who was later freed. “These people are terrorists who would take advantage of the weak. Troops are tracking down the NPA terrorists,” she said.
The NPA denied Manuel’s accusations and said rebels did not take any money. “As a matter of policy, the NPA do not take cash from punished targets. The allegations of are all lies,” Santiago said.
Major General Reynaldo Mapagu, commander of the 10th Infantry Division, condemned the raid. “The evil tactics employed by these terrorists show their inhuman and ungodly motives. The use of improvised explosive device as landmine and the use of civilians as human shields are clear violations of International Humanitarian law and against every conceivable moral standard worldwide. More so, robbing a fast food is pure felony.”
“We can clearly see that these local terrorists do not have any ideology at all. They are plain criminals who fester on the weak and take advantage of issues to advance their selfish motives,” he said.
He said the rebels last week also held hostage four civilians, including an 11 year-old girl, and used them as shield against government troops before they ransacked a military detachment in the village of Napungas in Davao Del Norte’s Asuncion town.
The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines which is currently negotiating peace with Manila. The rebels have been fighting the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
Friday, July 17, 2009
NPA rebels ambush troops in Mindanao
The military said the soldiers were ambushed on Thursday near the village of Fortuna village in Impasug-ong town. The attack occurred after Manila announced it was resuming stalled peace talks with the New People’s Army rebels next month.
The talks collapsed in 2004 after both sides failed to sign a peace deal that would end more than four decades of bloody fighting.
The military has repeatedly said it would crush communist insurgency before President Gloria Arroyo ends her term next year. But the NPA just laughed off the claims, saying rebel forces are winning the war in the countryside.
“The persistent prating of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that it can crush the NPA before Gloria Arroyo's term ends is nothing but mantra parroted by its lower commands to supposedly show to their master Gloria Arroyo their victories in the battlefields thereby obtaining the much sought promotions and the needed budget for more corruption.”
“The NPA has launched more or less one tactical offensive daily nationwide. Further adding up to its strength is the regime's elimination of distinction between the legal and progressive forces to that of the armed movement as all enemies of state goading the former to adapt a guerrilla-style of work to dodge the dreaded death squads of the fascist state,” the rebel group said. (Mindanao Examiner)
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Power Pylons In Mindanao Bombed
The attacks occurred before dawn Sunday in the village of Panadtalan in Bukidnon’s Maramag town, military reports said.
It said the pylons were bombed one at a time, but did not cause much damage to the transmission lines, although power was cut for several hours.
No group claimed responsibility for the twin attacks, but previous bombings in the area were largely blamed to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and New People’s Army rebels.
A few dozen pylons had been toppled over the years in the southern Philippines, where government forces are battling the rebel groups.
In July, MILF fighters also attacked a power pylon in the hinterlands of Pikit town in North Cotabato province, scene of fierce clashes between rebel and military forces. (Mindanao Examiner)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Davao-Bukidnon Road Project Continues Despite Threats Of Rebel Attacks
The rebels have threatened to disrupt the project after its contractors refused to pay revolutionary taxes.
DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and Southern Mindanao Regional Director Jerome Dela Rosa said 20 percent of the project is already completed. The road project, which is expected to be finished, next year, is included among the Super Region projects of President Gloria Arroyo.
Lt. Col. Rolando Bautista, spokesman of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said troops were deployed to protect the project from NPA attacks.
Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario said the project serves as a profound evidence of Arroyo putting a hand on the economic policies and projects she asserted in her State of the Nation Address.
The road also serves as an alternate route to the Davao-Calinan-Bukidnon and Agusan-Davao routes. It would also connect two industrial centers in the southern Philippines - Davao and Cagayan de Oro cities. (Romy Bwaga)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Dengue Fever Kills 6 In South RP
It said at least 11 towns were reported to have cases of the deadly disease.
Dr Josephine Ibalio, National Dengue Control Program coordinator in Bukidnon province, identified the areas as Valencia and Malaybalay cities, the towns of Damulog, Dangcagan, Don Carlos, Kalilangan, Maramag, Cabanglasan, Talakag, Libona, Manolo Fortich, Baungon and Quezon.
She said the dengue cases were from January to May only.
The Department of Health last week said it recorded more than 7,000 cases of dengue in the country since early this year. Last year, more than 6,800 people suffered from dengue.
Dengue is an infectious tropical disease caused by an arbovirus transmitted by mosquitoes, and characterized by high fever, rash, headache, and severe muscle and joint pain. (Ben Balce)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Grand Ma, 4 Kids Perish In Fire In Southern RP
Police said the five were not able to get of their burning room in the village of Agusan, in Manolo Fortich town at the weekend.
Arson investigators blamed faulty electrical wiring connection as the cause of the fire.
Police said neighbors tried, but failed to rescue the victims because of the fire had engulfed the whole house.
The children were aged between 5 and 10 and their parents were out of the house when the fire broke out before midnight. (Romy Bwaga)
Friday, March 02, 2007
RP Military Mounts Ops vs NPA In Troubled South
The military said soldiers were pursuing members of the New People’s Army in Malaybalay City where clashes occurred Thursday. At least 10 insurgents and two soldiers were killed in the fighting.
The soldiers were patrolling a village when they encountered the insurgents, sparking a running gun battle between the two groups. Soldiers said they recovered several automatic weapons left behind by NPA gunmen during their escape.
There were no reports of fresh fighting in the area. The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines which is fighting for the establishment of a Marxist state in the country.
Peace talks between the Arroyo government and the insurgents collapsed in 2004 after the United States included the CPP and NPA and its political arm, the National Democratic Front on its terror list on Manila’s prodding. (With a report from Juley Reyes in Manila)