|
|
 Davao City (17 February) – On February 14, Mayor Rey T. Uy surprises the informal home settlers of Tagum City during their assembly as Home lot certificates of RTU Grand Village IV of Barangay Apokon were awarded to 356 recipients of 536 lots available with a standard model size of 60 to 80 square meters.
The lots were designed to cater the welfare of the relocated Tagumeños from the affected areas of Barangay Poblacion (Baex Creak), Barangay West (Purok Mauswagon and Purok Malinawon), Barangay Apokon (Purok Maganda, Purok Pagaran), and Barangay Visayan Village (Purok Santol, Purok Durian, Purok Assessor, Chinese School of Purok Malinawon).
“As a father of our city, it is your welfare that I care most” says Mayor Uy as he reminded the settlers to take care of their land titles. The RTU Grand Village is a ready to use housing area to establish a community with drainage, widened roads, septic tanks prepared by the City Government of Tagum for the settlers.
Mayor Uy wishes for a peace-loving community where garbage will also be properly disposed. Even to the details of drying clothes and raising a family, the Local Chief Executive wants the village to be always presentable as it will soon become a model of housing village initiated by City Government.
SP Chair on Housing Councilor Nickel Suaybaguio Jr. cheered the crowd when he said, “patience pays off, it has been a while that we have waited for this moment to have our own home lot.” Since Mayor Uy wanted everything to be perfectly in place, the relocated lot owners waited for a while to get their land titles.
As a symbol of a united spirit between the church and state, Msgr. Ulysses Perandos did solemnize the village. Assisted by Lay Ministers, the home lots of RTU Grand Village IV was sprinkled with holy water. (Cromwell-CIO Tagum)
Davao City- The Autism Society Philippines (ASP) -Davao Chapter will conduct a seminar on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on Saturday, February 21 at DMSF-MTRC Bajada at 1-5 p.m. ASP-Davao President Eric de la Costa said the seminar is Part Two of a five-part seminar series which started last January 23 as one of the advocacy activities in the observance of Autism Consciousness Week.
De la Costa said Part Two is focused on The Early Life of Persons with ASD with topics such as: Understanding the Nature and Characteristics of ASD; Process of Psycho-Educational Assessment and Its Individualization; Appropriate Interventions and Practices; Behavior Management; Managing Children with ASD in School; Home Management and Dealing with Family; and Community Integration.
Upcoming seminars will tackle the Middle Childhood Life, the Adolescent Life and Adult Life of Persons with ASD. Resource person is Special Education specialist Nino Ricky S. Tumadiang. Tumadiang is also coordinator, teacher, consultant and program director on Special Education who has been working for nine years with Persons with ASD, Persons with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and with persons with other related developmental delays.
Seminar fee is P250 for ASP Members and P350 for non-members. Interested parties may contact ASP-Davao at 275-0051 or Ms. Mapet Cagas at 0917-9702254. (DSWD/ASP/carmelacadigalduron)
The proposal of a women’s partylist group to prescribe expiration dates on marriage contracts has drawn mixed reactions from lawmakers, with at least one senator saying the proposal is a good starting point for discussing current social issues.
“It’s a reflection of what is happening in our society,” Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said in the vernacular, apparently referring to the growing clamor from women for more rights and social freedoms.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr. for his part said he finds the idea floated by the 1-Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso (1-ABAA) as funny.
The group’s main advocacy is “to help women become economically empowered by helping them become entrepreneurs, giving them better employment, providing sources of livelihood, access to capital, and other ways to make women financially independent.”
“It’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in my life. Ibig sabihin trial lang ang marriage? (Does it mean marriage is just a trial?),” Pimentel said of the group’s novel proposal.
The issue of a marriage contract with expiration will certainly go against the majority belief that marriage is a sacred union, Pimentel added.
Aside from the Philippines being a predominantly Christian country, Pimentel pointed out that the Philippine Constitution also recognizes the family as the basic unit of society.
“It will go against the Constitutional provision that family is the basic foundation of society. Certainly the proposal will also go against majority beliefs,” Pimentel said.
Even in a country which exercises democracy, women still experience inequality, Cayetano said, although he agreed with Pimentel’s view that the family is the basic unit of society.
Cayetano, in an interview, said he sees the proposal as a good starting point for discussing social issues, but the senator said he doubts whether efforts to introduce such measure in Congress would succeed since many lawmakers are still conservative.
“Kung divorce nga hindi mapag-usapan, iyon pa kaya,” Cayetano said.
The proponents said a 10-year expiration on marriages would give couples the opportunity to review their relationship, and decide whether to continue or not with the union. By HANNAH L. TORREGOZA- Manila Bulletin
Freddie Roach could meet a boxer for the first time, shake his hand, peer into his eyes, and see the future.
In Manny Pacquiao, the renowned trainer saw the makings of a world champion, a glittering gem from an uncut, unpolished stone.
But something else escaped Roach’s ring clairvoyance: A crowning beyond the alphabet titles nobody foresaw.
“I didn’t see this coming,” said Roach, recalling the first time he worked the mitts with the boxing icon early in 2001 at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles. “I never thought he’ll be this great.”
Roach was in the same boat as everyone else.
In typical Pacquiao fashion, the former bread vendor and construction worker turned boxing superstar defied the odds, stunning the boxing world with a sixth round technical knockout of fearsome South African Lehlo Ledwaba to win the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-bantamweight title, his first.
The win began Pacquiao’s meteoric rise to the top. The world would later recognize him as the top pound-for-pound boxer, considered one of the best – if not the best – southpaw fighters in prizefighting history.
Pacquiao is the first and only boxer to win seven world titles in seven different weight classes (flyweight, super-bantamweight, featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, and welterweight), and among the few who made a lasting imprint in a sport teeming with stars and heroes.
Pacquiao, indeed, has come a long way from a struggling, skinny teenager who first fought as a pro in the mid-90s, to the electrifying sports icon who has become the face of boxing today.
The Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) is not one to deny Pacquiao his achievements, and will confer on him Athlete of the Decade honors during its traditional annual Awards Night set March 1 at the historic landmark, Manila Hotel.
Having been elevated by the country’s oldest media organization to the Hall of Fame last year, Pacquiao is no longer eligible for the coveted Athlete of the Year award, but remains a major part of the year’s top achievers’ list on account of his Hall of Fame exploits in the first 10 years of the new century. He was named Athlete of the Year five times – in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2008.
During that span, Philippine sports saw Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin score breakthrough wins in the LPGA Tour, CJ Suarez ruling bowling’s World Cup, Team Philippines winning a historic first overall championship in the Southeast Asian Games, Miguel Molina emerging as the Best Male Athlete in the SEAG for his four gold medals in swimming and Ronnie Alcano reigning as a double world champion in billiards.
MANILA, Dec. 5 — A lawmaker on Saturday said the decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to declare martial law in Maguindanao province due to the mass killing of close to 60 people, including at least two dozen journalists, was not a knee-jerking reaction.
 A soldier pulls out a body from a backhoe which also unearthed several vehicles, including a UNTV van, from a hillside grave in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. AP Lakas-Kampi-CMD (Christian, Muslim, Democrats) spokesman and Nueva Ecija Rep. Antonio Alvarez said that the President “should have declared it a long time ago as signs point to lawlessness in the area.”
“But the delay proves that it was a well-thought-of move, not precipitate, and carefully calculated,” he said.
Alvarez also allayed fears that the province would be a no-man’s land as what critics of the government are saying.
“Human rights groups have nothing to fear as this pocket martial law has an expiry date, that it will be lifted once the situation normalizes which, given the unchallenged presence of government forces in the area, would come soon,” he said.
Critics said that President Arroyo’s declaration of martial law in Maguindanao in the wake of the massacre last November 23, which allegedly involved a powerful clan in the area, sets a “most dangerous precedent” for the nation.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said that while it wants justice for the victims of the massacre, it cannot support a measure that is “both dangerous and questionable.”
On the other hand, the Black and White Movement also questioned the declaration of martial law, saying that it does not believe the massacre warrants its imposition.
“Is the government so weak that it cannot enforce the arrest of those implicated without it (martial law)?,” it said.
President Arroyo on Friday night declared martial law in Maguindanao.
In a media briefing at the New Executive Building in Malacanang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Saturday morning said the President also suspended the writ of habeas corpus as contained in Proclamation 1959 signed on Friday night.
“Condition of peace and order in Maguindanao has deteriorated to the extent that government mechanisms are not functioning, thus endangering public safety,” Ermita told the media briefing.
He added the Palace will immediately inform Congress about the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao within 48 hours justifying Proclamation 1959.
Atty. Jose Manuel Diokno of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) and a human rights lawyer, said there should be charges of rebellion as grounds for declaration of martial law.
The Constitution states that “within 48 hours from the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the President shall submit a report in person or in writing to the Congress.”
“The Congress, voting jointly, by a vote of at least a majority of all its members in regular or special session, may revoke such proclamation or suspension, which revocation shall not be set aside by the President. Upon the initiative of the President, the Congress may, in the same manner, extend such proclamation or suspension for a period to be determined by the Congress, if the invasion or rebellion shall persist and public safety requires it,” it added.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, in a television interview, said the DOJ “noticed and observed there was a rebellion in the offing” in Maguindanao.
“The local governments in the whole of Maguindanao had been removed from the legitimate authorities. Some of these local government units… had closed down. They ceased to render government services and there was a massing of heavily armed men… it was practically an overthrow of government,” said Devanadera, citing the reasons for the imposition of martial law in the province.
On the convening of both Houses of Congress, Speaker Prospero Nograles said that in this case, both Chambers of Congress “do not indicate any majority numbers with any intention to revoke the proclamation (of martial law by the President), which is only good for 60 days.”
“Both Houses of Congress will convene in joint session only for purposes of revoking but not for approving,” he said.
Besides, he said, majority of lawmakers of the House of Representatives have expressed approval with the President’s decision.
The Speaker said that he himself will author a resolution of support to the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao. By Lilybeth G. Ison (PNA)
It’s a sickening time to be a journalist in the Philippines.
At least 30 local reporters were among 57 people killed last week after being abducted and shot in the volatile south of the country, allegedly by the private army of a powerful Muslim clan that rules Maguindanao province.
 Other journalists remain in hiding in the south, amid anonymous threats being sent to local media organisations that they will also be killed if they report negatively on the Ampatuan clan that has been linked to the massacre.
The Philippines is now regarded by global media rights groups as the most dangerous place in the world to work — ahead of Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
More than 80 journalists have been killed since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001.
It’s an unacceptable number but each time a reporter dies the government ignores calls to change the culture of impunity among the powerful who carry out the murders.
The reporters killed in Maguindanao were travelling in a convoy of six vehicles with the female relatives and lawyers of a local politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, who were on their way to register him as a candidate for provincial governor in next year’s elections.
Dozens of gunmen stopped the convoy, shot everyone in the cars and buried them in prepared mass graves or dumped them on the side of a road in a remote farming region.
Mangudadatu says one member of the rival Ampatuan clan organised the killings to stop him from running for governor.
Prosecutors have given no motive yet but have charged Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a local mayor who had his eyes on the governorship, with 25 counts of murder so far.
His father, the current governor of the province and an Arroyo ally who was grooming his son to take the post, plus at least four other clan members, are likely to face charges, according to police.
Maguindanao province is part of Mindanao island, where about 150,000 people have died since the late 1970s due to an insurgency by Muslim rebels who want their own homeland.
Parts of Mindanao are lawless and no-go areas for Philippine journalists.
Kidnappings for ransom, political murders and terrorist attacks occur almost monthly.
One of the most infamous groups on Mindanao are the Abu Sayyaf, listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation.
Yet until the November 23 killings, Philippine journalists believed there were a set of unwritten rules in Mindanao.
A media badge would not protect you from the Abu Sayyaf or the most ruthless elements in Mindanao, but it should at least protect you from political feuds.
Certainly, 30 journalists travelling in a pack would not be executed, not even by the Abu Sayyaf.
“The game has changed, a media badge no longer protects you from anyone in Mindanao,” a Filipino journalist told me.
A group of media groups in the Philippines — including the National Union of Journalists, the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines and some daily newspapers — have set up a group called the “November 23 Movement, named after the date of the massacres.
The movement’s aim is to achieve justice for the victims’ relatives, and what I believe is a sadly futile effort to change the putrid mix of corruption, greed and violence in Philippine politics.
“The brutal, indiscriminate mass murder… raises the ultimate challenge of conscience,” the movement said in a statement.
“It carries the culture of impunity at work in this country to such levels of horror that, if it remains unpunished for long, can send the nation into an inexorable descent into absolute dehumanisation.
“The crime thus calls for swift justice, which can only be achieved through a credible and independent process, which in turn can only be achieved without the hand of this government — a government justly mistrusted generally and openly friendly precisely to the very members of the clan accused in the massacre.”
In this blog, journalists of global news wire AFP blog about the news they report and the challenges they face covering events from Baghdad to Beijing, the White House to Darfur. Karl Malakunas is AFP bureau chief in Manila.
|
|
21 killed in political violence in southern Philippines (Roundup)
Muslim group supports Noynoy-Mar tandem
Pacquiao claims stunning victory
24 killed as rebels, soldiers clash in Surigao del Sur
Manny Pacquiao Wins Again!
Police start building case vs kidnappers
Philippine Peso Exchange Rate
Loading ...
Recent Comments