Difference between revisions of "Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao News November 2013"

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==GPH, MILF peace panels show solidarity with typhoon victims==
*Source:http://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/11/20/1258872/gph-milf-peace-panels-show-solidarity-typhoon-victims
*Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:00 pm
:By John Unson (philstar.com)
COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Peace brokers of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were elated with the outpouring of support from Moro communities for typhoon victims in the Visayas.
The two panels, in a joint statement, also expressed solidarity with communities affected by the deadly typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) onslaught.
“Disasters often result to the disruption of peace, the destruction of property, and the breakdown of law and order,” the GPH and MILF panels said in a communique emailed by the Mindanao Press Bureau of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
The two panels said man-made disasters, such as armed violence, also cause devastation and loss of lives.
“It is, thus, a moral responsibility for all to give maximum importance to protection of life and the right to live in a peaceful and humane society,” the two panels stated in their joint statement of sympathy with typhoon victims in the Visayas.
Typhoon Yolanda “is a reminder,” a call for unity among all people, irrespective of cultural identities and political convictions, to face boldly these hardships and work together to mitigate, if not prevent, future disasters, the two peace panels pointed out.
Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
Residents of Marawi City, meanwhile, have positively been responding to a local 'piso-piso' collection campaign by cause-oriented groups and peace advocacy outfits, said Samira Gutoc, a former sectoral representative to the 24-seat Regional Legislative Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Marawi City is a component area of ARMM, which also covers all of the city’s neighbouring towns in Lanao del Sur.
“We have been seeing Maranaws from all walks of life shell out money to help sustain the rehabilitation of typhoon-ravaged communities in the Visayas,” said Gutoc, now a full-time peace advocate involved in various humanitarian projects.
Civil society organizations in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, local officials and peace-advocacy groups jointly launched early this week the 'Oplan Tabang Visayas' in a bid to pool their relief efforts together.
The inter-agency, multi-sectoral initiative has a makeshift monetary collection center inside the campus of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City.
The administration of the university, which is Mindanao’s biggest state-run school, has also been helping push the objectives of the relief campaign forward.
Gutoc said different Moro organizations have also been collecting 'malong,' a traditional protective outfit resembling a sack with open hemlines, also used as a blanket, from Meranaw families, to be donated to displaced residents of Visayas.
Gutoc said Meranaw folks in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur are grateful to the local Catholic community, led by Fr. Chito Suganob, and the Christian members of local police units, and public school teachers, for helping in the relief efforts.
==ARMM Vice Governor leads tree planting activity in Lanao del Sur==
*Source:http://news.pia.gov.ph/index.php?article=1521384820660
*Tuesday, November 19, 2013
: (MNMElias/APB/PIA-10)
MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Nov. 19 (PIA) – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Vice Governor Haroun Alrashid A. Lucman, Jr led a tree planting activity in Mindanao State University (MSU) Main campus, Saturday, November 16.
Around 300 seedlings consisting of tanglin, igyo, white lawaan, upang, and mab’lo (fruit berry) were planted by Lucman and representatives from Lanao del Sur Police Office, 103rd Infantry Brigade, students, and youth groups in the one-hectare Demo Farm of MSU College of Forestry and Environmental Science.
Melvin U. Disomimba, faculty of the MSU College of Forestry and Environmental Science, expressed appreciation to the regional vice governor for choosing the demo farm as the area of the tree planting activity.
“Only few were able to conduct this kind of activity here but with the initiative of the regional vice governor, we realized now that we have partners in the advocacy of promoting and protecting the environment,” he said.
The tree planting activity was part of the ECOWATCH program of the vice governor launched recently here to promote awareness on the protection of Lake Lanao and the environment.
==Volunteers from Kidapawan collect garbage for 'Yolanda' victims==
*Source:http://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/11/18/1258144/volunteers-kidapawan-collect-garbage-yolanda-victims
*Monday, November 18, 2013 12:48 pm
:By John Unson (philstar.com)
COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Combined Moro and Christian medics and rehabilitation experts from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have treated 2,457 injured typhoon victims in Tolosa, Leyte in the continuing relief missions that started Saturday.
Physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., ARMM’s regional health secretary, said the patients they have treated initially were among thousands injured when super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) ravaged Eastern Visayas almost two weeks ago.
“They are in a very pitiful situation. Some of them have already been given food rations and are still asking for more. They are very hungry,” said Sinolinding, one of the Moro physicians dispatched last week to Leyte by the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART).
Sinolinding said the patients suffered cuts, bruises and fractures due to the wrath of the super typhoon.
The HEART, which is operating under the joint ministerial control of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia, had also shipped to Leyte last week thousands of food packs comprised of canned sardines, instant noodles, and rice, and some 10 tons of non-food relief supplies.
HEART volunteers from different agencies under Hataman’s office have still been packing relief supplies -- to be shipped to the Visayas this week -- in a makeshift supply depot at the 32-hectare ARMM compound in Cotabato City.
Another team of predominantly Moro relief workers, the Maguindanao provincial government’s “Bangon Visayas Team,” has also been extending relief support since Saturday to residents of Tacloban City and Leyte’s adjoining Basey and Guiawan towns.
ARMM Assemblyman Khadafeh Mangudadatu, younger sibling of Maguindanao’s governor, Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, said they have distributed seven tons of frozen Tilapia to the typhoon victims, harvested by Moro fishermen from Lake Buluan in the province.
Mangudadatu said the medical personnel from Maguindanao also brought with them P8.4 million worth of medicine for various ailments supplied by the provincial governor’s office.
“The 18,000 food packs we brought to Leyte have been distributed to the calamity-stricken barangays assigned to us by the national government,” the regional lawmaker said.
He described the situation now of the typhoon victims as “so miserable.” He urged Mindanao's Muslim and Christian folks to continue providing support needed to hasten the recovery of the displaced residents of Leyte and surrounding provinces.
“Since we in Mindanao have already started helping them, let us continue with our charitable efforts as long as we can,” said Mangudadatu, now in his third term as representative of the second district of Maguindanao to the ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Legislative Assembly, touted as “Little Congress” of the autonomous region.
:Wastes turned into typhoon aid
A group of residents in Kidapawan City have been collecting since last week recyclable wastes from the 40 barangays in the area to be sold to buyers as a unique way of raising money needed to help sustain relief works for displaced communities in the Visayas.
Joey Recimilla of the Dekada ’80, a group of graduates from the Catholic-run Notre Dame of Kidapawan for Boys and Girls, said they have been collecting scrap metals, bottles, newspapers and recyclable plastics, which they will sell in bulk.
“It’s easier to raise money this way. The local communities have willingly been helping us push this campaign forward,” he said.
The Dekada ’80 already raised more than P10,000 from the initial proceeds of the project, according to Recimilla.
“We believe it’s not the volume of relief supplies or amount of money that can be extended to the typhoon victims that will matter most. It’s the sincerity of the gesture that will count. We are doing this in the spirit of cooperation and Filipino `bayanihan' spirit," Recimilla said.
The North Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), the power utility serving all North Cotabato's 17 towns and Kidapawan City, dispatched on Monday a team of engineers and electricians to help restore supply of electricity to Eastern Samar and Tacloban City.
The spokesman of Cotelco, Vincent Baguio, said their ten-member team had left for the Visayas bringing with them tools and basic portable machinery they need for their operation.
“This is our support to the relief efforts of the Philippine Electric Cooperatives, under the auspices of the National Electrification Administration,” Baguio said.
==Freed Indian trader vows to help police identify captors, stop kidnapping for ransom ==
*Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=12&rid=587627
*Sunday, November 17, 2013
:By Edwin O. Fernandez [(PNA), CTB/NYP/EOF]
COTABATO CITY, Nov 17 (PNA) -- Freed Indian trader vowed Sunday to help authorities in identifying his abductors and help contain kidnapping cases in the city and its environs.
Speaking to reporters two days after his release Friday, Mike Khemani, owner of a chain of department stores here and in North Cotabato, said he is more than willing to extend vital information that would lead to the identification, arrest and prosecution of kidnap for ransom gangs.
Khemani was seized in front of Sugni Superstore which he owns and brought to a Maguindanao marshland on October 29. His 17-day captivity ended when he was left by his captors in a remote village in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
He told reporters that his refusal to eat may have forced his captors to abandon him afraid they will be held accountable if he dies.
"I refuse to eat with them, I only took plenty of water when I get hungry," Khemani, a vegetarian told reporters.
Khemani, 59, was freed at the swampy border of Maguindanao’s adjoining Datu Piang and Kabuntalan towns.
He recalled that there were 10 to 15 armed men surrounding him all the time and they move from one place to another every two hours.
"I heard they call each other by their first names but I can't remember them. If ever I can see them again, I can recognize them," Khemani, a civic leader and Rotarian, said.
He said he knew the places where he was kept by his captors but vowed to reveal other details before police investigators. But he was quick to add that his captors treated him well and even supplied him with medicine for his diabetes and arthritis.
Despite the kidnapping, Khemani said he will not leave Cotabato City and will continue his business operations.
Khemani stressed that no ransom was paid to his captors who earlier demanded P15 million ransom.
Another Indian businessman remained in the hands of kidnappers.
Krishan Singh Arora, 54, manager of Eversun plywood factory in Barangay Sarmiento in Parang, Maguindanao, was managing the firm when gunmen, posing as soldiers, snatched him last week.
No ransom has been raised for the release of Arora.
Cheif Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, police director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said investigators have leads that will hopefully solved the twin kidnapping cases.
==MSU student to represent ARMM in Nat'l Statistics Quiz==
*Source:http://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/11/16/1257464/msu-student-represent-armm-natl-statistics-quiz
*Saturday, November 16, 2013 4:44 pm
:By John Unson (philstar.com)
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A first year chemical engineering student of the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City will represent the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to the National Statistical Quiz to be held in Manila on December 5.
The 17-year old Traodio Acuemo II is now ARMM’s official contender to the quiz after emerging champion in the November 14 regional-level contest in Cotabato City.
The regional and national statistical quizzes are activities of the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Suod Barodi, regional director of NSO for ARMM, said Acuemo’s having topped the regional contest is the basis for him to participate, as ARMM’s entry, to the December 5 national statistical contest in Metro Manila.
Acuemo defeated seven regional finalists from different ARMM provinces in the regional contest held at the D & M Resto here.
The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.
Barodi said the nationwide contest is an annual activity of the NSO, which aims to encourage college students to become mathematicians.
Jane Rachel Martin of the Upi Agricultural School in North Upi town in Maguindanao, and Jehan Abas, also from the state-run MSU in Marawi City, bagged the second and third places, respectively, during Thursday’s regional quiz here.
The travel of Acuemo and his coach to Manila for the national contest next month will be sponsored by the NSO, according to Barodi.
He said the five top winners in the national statistical contest will receive trophies and cash prizes.
==Individuals, groups in ARMM collect relief supplies for Visayas  ==
*Source:http://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/11/15/1257045/individuals-groups-armm-collect-relief-supplies-visayas
*Friday, November 15, 2013 1:47 pm
:By John Unson (philstar.com)
COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Soldiers, policemen, nurses, construction workers, gun enthusiasts, students and media organizations have joined  local groups in gathering relief support for victims of the deadly Typhoon Yolanda.
Even ethnic Teduray residents of North Upi, a hinterland town in Maguindanao, voluntarily shelled out part of their earnings from their farms Thursday when they saw students of an Episcopalian school go around to collect donations.
A Moro broadcaster, Kakah Alih Anso, of station dxUP in North Upi, tearfully told The Star he was deeply touched when students of the St. Francis School provided him with a written summary of their more than P60,000 cash collections.
“They are innocent children yet they managed to collect that much in just one day and even wanted to have their collections announced by our station to ensure transparency in their humanitarian efforts,” an emotional Anso said.
The broadcast outfits of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation, which has five radio stations scattered across Central Mindanao, has also launched a massive relief collection drive for the victims of the super typhoon that slammed Visayas and other parts of the country last week.
An OMI missionary, Eduardo Vasquez, director of the I-Watch Productions, which documents  various issues  to promote unity  among Muslims and Christians in Mindanao, is now in Tacloban City, establishing linkages with local communities.
The Team Cotabato, a group of gun owners involved in gun safety and responsible firearm ownership advocacy, had initially collected towels, bottled water, medicines for common ailments, which were promptly turned over to the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Muslim and Christian members of Team Cotabato are still collecting relief supplies from prospective donors, according to a senior official of the group, lawyer Kirby Abdullah, who is also assistant solicitor-general of ARMM. 
Employees of the ARMM’s Social Fund Project also donated biscuits, sardines and other non-food relief supplies for the Visayas typhoon victims via the HEART, which operates under the joint supervision of Gov. Mujiv Hataman and Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza, whose office has also been gathering relief support for residents of typhoon-stricken areas, said the donations they have collected will be transported to Leyte on Sunday.
“It's heart warming to see residents of North Cotabato voluntarily give support to the people of Visayas in a manner so depictive of their oneness with the typhoon victims,” Mendoza said.
The shipment of supplies from North Cotabato will be accompanied by a 100-member medical and relief team organized by Mendoza and officials of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Representatives of the Maguindanao provincial government, led by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, have departed for Tacloban City at exactly 8:30 a.m. Friday, bringing with them relief supplies and two truckloads of frozen Tilapia harvested from Lake Buluan by Moro fishermen.
Part of the relief convoy from Maguindanao is the provincial government’s 10-ton fully air-conditioned “hospital bus,” which has modern medical equipment needed for surgeries.
Maguindanao’s relief mission to Leyte aims to disperse thousands of food packs containing rice, canned sardines, candles, matches, and assorted medicines to typhoon victims, according to Lynette Estandarte, chief provincial budget officer.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said their trained rescue and life-saving experts have been dispatched to Visayas, bringing with them relief supplies donated by soldiers.
The mayor of Kidapawan City, Joseph Evangelista, opened on Thursday the city’s public gymnasium as collection depot for relief supplies donated by local residents, among them members of ethnic highland groups.
The city government’s relief collection campaign, launched early this week, will last until next month, according to Evangelista.

Revision as of 16:34, 30 November 2013

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Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao Archived News
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Dietary supplement is a product that contains vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, enzymes, and/or other ingredients intended to supplement the diet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has special labeling requirements for dietary supplements and treats them as foods, not drugs.

Manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements and dietary ingredients are prohibited from marketing products that are adulterated or misbranded. That means that these firms are responsible for evaluating the safety and labeling of their products before marketing to ensure that they meet all the requirements of DSHEA and FDA regulations.

Wars of ancient history were about possessions, territory, power, control, family, betrayal, lover's quarrel, politics and sometimes religion.

But we are in the Modern era and supposedly more educated and enlightened .

Think about this. Don't just brush off these questions.

  • Why is RELIGION still involved in WARS? Isn't religion supposed to be about PEACE?
  • Ask yourself; What religion always campaign to have its religious laws be accepted as government laws, always involved in wars and consistently causing WARS, yet insists that it's a religion of peace?

WHY??

There are only two kinds of people who teach tolerance:
  1. The Bullies. They want you to tolerate them so they can continue to maliciously deprive you. Do not believe these bullies teaching tolerance, saying that it’s the path to prevent hatred and prejudice.
  2. The victims who are waiting for the right moment to retaliate. They can’t win yet, so they tolerate.

GPH, MILF peace panels show solidarity with typhoon victims

By John Unson (philstar.com)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Peace brokers of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were elated with the outpouring of support from Moro communities for typhoon victims in the Visayas.

The two panels, in a joint statement, also expressed solidarity with communities affected by the deadly typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) onslaught.

“Disasters often result to the disruption of peace, the destruction of property, and the breakdown of law and order,” the GPH and MILF panels said in a communique emailed by the Mindanao Press Bureau of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

The two panels said man-made disasters, such as armed violence, also cause devastation and loss of lives.

“It is, thus, a moral responsibility for all to give maximum importance to protection of life and the right to live in a peaceful and humane society,” the two panels stated in their joint statement of sympathy with typhoon victims in the Visayas.

Typhoon Yolanda “is a reminder,” a call for unity among all people, irrespective of cultural identities and political convictions, to face boldly these hardships and work together to mitigate, if not prevent, future disasters, the two peace panels pointed out. Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

Residents of Marawi City, meanwhile, have positively been responding to a local 'piso-piso' collection campaign by cause-oriented groups and peace advocacy outfits, said Samira Gutoc, a former sectoral representative to the 24-seat Regional Legislative Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Marawi City is a component area of ARMM, which also covers all of the city’s neighbouring towns in Lanao del Sur.

“We have been seeing Maranaws from all walks of life shell out money to help sustain the rehabilitation of typhoon-ravaged communities in the Visayas,” said Gutoc, now a full-time peace advocate involved in various humanitarian projects.

Civil society organizations in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, local officials and peace-advocacy groups jointly launched early this week the 'Oplan Tabang Visayas' in a bid to pool their relief efforts together.

The inter-agency, multi-sectoral initiative has a makeshift monetary collection center inside the campus of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City.

The administration of the university, which is Mindanao’s biggest state-run school, has also been helping push the objectives of the relief campaign forward.

Gutoc said different Moro organizations have also been collecting 'malong,' a traditional protective outfit resembling a sack with open hemlines, also used as a blanket, from Meranaw families, to be donated to displaced residents of Visayas.

Gutoc said Meranaw folks in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur are grateful to the local Catholic community, led by Fr. Chito Suganob, and the Christian members of local police units, and public school teachers, for helping in the relief efforts.

ARMM Vice Governor leads tree planting activity in Lanao del Sur

(MNMElias/APB/PIA-10)

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Nov. 19 (PIA) – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Vice Governor Haroun Alrashid A. Lucman, Jr led a tree planting activity in Mindanao State University (MSU) Main campus, Saturday, November 16.

Around 300 seedlings consisting of tanglin, igyo, white lawaan, upang, and mab’lo (fruit berry) were planted by Lucman and representatives from Lanao del Sur Police Office, 103rd Infantry Brigade, students, and youth groups in the one-hectare Demo Farm of MSU College of Forestry and Environmental Science.

Melvin U. Disomimba, faculty of the MSU College of Forestry and Environmental Science, expressed appreciation to the regional vice governor for choosing the demo farm as the area of the tree planting activity.

“Only few were able to conduct this kind of activity here but with the initiative of the regional vice governor, we realized now that we have partners in the advocacy of promoting and protecting the environment,” he said.

The tree planting activity was part of the ECOWATCH program of the vice governor launched recently here to promote awareness on the protection of Lake Lanao and the environment.

Volunteers from Kidapawan collect garbage for 'Yolanda' victims

By John Unson (philstar.com)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Combined Moro and Christian medics and rehabilitation experts from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have treated 2,457 injured typhoon victims in Tolosa, Leyte in the continuing relief missions that started Saturday.

Physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., ARMM’s regional health secretary, said the patients they have treated initially were among thousands injured when super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) ravaged Eastern Visayas almost two weeks ago.

“They are in a very pitiful situation. Some of them have already been given food rations and are still asking for more. They are very hungry,” said Sinolinding, one of the Moro physicians dispatched last week to Leyte by the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART).

Sinolinding said the patients suffered cuts, bruises and fractures due to the wrath of the super typhoon.

The HEART, which is operating under the joint ministerial control of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia, had also shipped to Leyte last week thousands of food packs comprised of canned sardines, instant noodles, and rice, and some 10 tons of non-food relief supplies.

HEART volunteers from different agencies under Hataman’s office have still been packing relief supplies -- to be shipped to the Visayas this week -- in a makeshift supply depot at the 32-hectare ARMM compound in Cotabato City.

Another team of predominantly Moro relief workers, the Maguindanao provincial government’s “Bangon Visayas Team,” has also been extending relief support since Saturday to residents of Tacloban City and Leyte’s adjoining Basey and Guiawan towns.

ARMM Assemblyman Khadafeh Mangudadatu, younger sibling of Maguindanao’s governor, Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, said they have distributed seven tons of frozen Tilapia to the typhoon victims, harvested by Moro fishermen from Lake Buluan in the province.

Mangudadatu said the medical personnel from Maguindanao also brought with them P8.4 million worth of medicine for various ailments supplied by the provincial governor’s office.

“The 18,000 food packs we brought to Leyte have been distributed to the calamity-stricken barangays assigned to us by the national government,” the regional lawmaker said.

He described the situation now of the typhoon victims as “so miserable.” He urged Mindanao's Muslim and Christian folks to continue providing support needed to hasten the recovery of the displaced residents of Leyte and surrounding provinces.

“Since we in Mindanao have already started helping them, let us continue with our charitable efforts as long as we can,” said Mangudadatu, now in his third term as representative of the second district of Maguindanao to the ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Legislative Assembly, touted as “Little Congress” of the autonomous region.

Wastes turned into typhoon aid

A group of residents in Kidapawan City have been collecting since last week recyclable wastes from the 40 barangays in the area to be sold to buyers as a unique way of raising money needed to help sustain relief works for displaced communities in the Visayas.

Joey Recimilla of the Dekada ’80, a group of graduates from the Catholic-run Notre Dame of Kidapawan for Boys and Girls, said they have been collecting scrap metals, bottles, newspapers and recyclable plastics, which they will sell in bulk.

“It’s easier to raise money this way. The local communities have willingly been helping us push this campaign forward,” he said.

The Dekada ’80 already raised more than P10,000 from the initial proceeds of the project, according to Recimilla.

“We believe it’s not the volume of relief supplies or amount of money that can be extended to the typhoon victims that will matter most. It’s the sincerity of the gesture that will count. We are doing this in the spirit of cooperation and Filipino `bayanihan' spirit," Recimilla said.

The North Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), the power utility serving all North Cotabato's 17 towns and Kidapawan City, dispatched on Monday a team of engineers and electricians to help restore supply of electricity to Eastern Samar and Tacloban City.

The spokesman of Cotelco, Vincent Baguio, said their ten-member team had left for the Visayas bringing with them tools and basic portable machinery they need for their operation.

“This is our support to the relief efforts of the Philippine Electric Cooperatives, under the auspices of the National Electrification Administration,” Baguio said.

Freed Indian trader vows to help police identify captors, stop kidnapping for ransom

By Edwin O. Fernandez [(PNA), CTB/NYP/EOF]

COTABATO CITY, Nov 17 (PNA) -- Freed Indian trader vowed Sunday to help authorities in identifying his abductors and help contain kidnapping cases in the city and its environs.

Speaking to reporters two days after his release Friday, Mike Khemani, owner of a chain of department stores here and in North Cotabato, said he is more than willing to extend vital information that would lead to the identification, arrest and prosecution of kidnap for ransom gangs.

Khemani was seized in front of Sugni Superstore which he owns and brought to a Maguindanao marshland on October 29. His 17-day captivity ended when he was left by his captors in a remote village in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.

He told reporters that his refusal to eat may have forced his captors to abandon him afraid they will be held accountable if he dies.

"I refuse to eat with them, I only took plenty of water when I get hungry," Khemani, a vegetarian told reporters.

Khemani, 59, was freed at the swampy border of Maguindanao’s adjoining Datu Piang and Kabuntalan towns.

He recalled that there were 10 to 15 armed men surrounding him all the time and they move from one place to another every two hours.

"I heard they call each other by their first names but I can't remember them. If ever I can see them again, I can recognize them," Khemani, a civic leader and Rotarian, said.

He said he knew the places where he was kept by his captors but vowed to reveal other details before police investigators. But he was quick to add that his captors treated him well and even supplied him with medicine for his diabetes and arthritis.

Despite the kidnapping, Khemani said he will not leave Cotabato City and will continue his business operations.

Khemani stressed that no ransom was paid to his captors who earlier demanded P15 million ransom.

Another Indian businessman remained in the hands of kidnappers.

Krishan Singh Arora, 54, manager of Eversun plywood factory in Barangay Sarmiento in Parang, Maguindanao, was managing the firm when gunmen, posing as soldiers, snatched him last week.

No ransom has been raised for the release of Arora.

Cheif Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, police director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said investigators have leads that will hopefully solved the twin kidnapping cases.

MSU student to represent ARMM in Nat'l Statistics Quiz

By John Unson (philstar.com)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A first year chemical engineering student of the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City will represent the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to the National Statistical Quiz to be held in Manila on December 5.

The 17-year old Traodio Acuemo II is now ARMM’s official contender to the quiz after emerging champion in the November 14 regional-level contest in Cotabato City.

The regional and national statistical quizzes are activities of the National Statistical Office (NSO).

Suod Barodi, regional director of NSO for ARMM, said Acuemo’s having topped the regional contest is the basis for him to participate, as ARMM’s entry, to the December 5 national statistical contest in Metro Manila.

Acuemo defeated seven regional finalists from different ARMM provinces in the regional contest held at the D & M Resto here.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

Barodi said the nationwide contest is an annual activity of the NSO, which aims to encourage college students to become mathematicians.

Jane Rachel Martin of the Upi Agricultural School in North Upi town in Maguindanao, and Jehan Abas, also from the state-run MSU in Marawi City, bagged the second and third places, respectively, during Thursday’s regional quiz here.

The travel of Acuemo and his coach to Manila for the national contest next month will be sponsored by the NSO, according to Barodi.

He said the five top winners in the national statistical contest will receive trophies and cash prizes.

Individuals, groups in ARMM collect relief supplies for Visayas

By John Unson (philstar.com)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Soldiers, policemen, nurses, construction workers, gun enthusiasts, students and media organizations have joined local groups in gathering relief support for victims of the deadly Typhoon Yolanda.

Even ethnic Teduray residents of North Upi, a hinterland town in Maguindanao, voluntarily shelled out part of their earnings from their farms Thursday when they saw students of an Episcopalian school go around to collect donations.

A Moro broadcaster, Kakah Alih Anso, of station dxUP in North Upi, tearfully told The Star he was deeply touched when students of the St. Francis School provided him with a written summary of their more than P60,000 cash collections.

“They are innocent children yet they managed to collect that much in just one day and even wanted to have their collections announced by our station to ensure transparency in their humanitarian efforts,” an emotional Anso said.

The broadcast outfits of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation, which has five radio stations scattered across Central Mindanao, has also launched a massive relief collection drive for the victims of the super typhoon that slammed Visayas and other parts of the country last week.

An OMI missionary, Eduardo Vasquez, director of the I-Watch Productions, which documents various issues to promote unity among Muslims and Christians in Mindanao, is now in Tacloban City, establishing linkages with local communities.

The Team Cotabato, a group of gun owners involved in gun safety and responsible firearm ownership advocacy, had initially collected towels, bottled water, medicines for common ailments, which were promptly turned over to the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Muslim and Christian members of Team Cotabato are still collecting relief supplies from prospective donors, according to a senior official of the group, lawyer Kirby Abdullah, who is also assistant solicitor-general of ARMM.

Employees of the ARMM’s Social Fund Project also donated biscuits, sardines and other non-food relief supplies for the Visayas typhoon victims via the HEART, which operates under the joint supervision of Gov. Mujiv Hataman and Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza, whose office has also been gathering relief support for residents of typhoon-stricken areas, said the donations they have collected will be transported to Leyte on Sunday.

“It's heart warming to see residents of North Cotabato voluntarily give support to the people of Visayas in a manner so depictive of their oneness with the typhoon victims,” Mendoza said.

The shipment of supplies from North Cotabato will be accompanied by a 100-member medical and relief team organized by Mendoza and officials of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Representatives of the Maguindanao provincial government, led by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, have departed for Tacloban City at exactly 8:30 a.m. Friday, bringing with them relief supplies and two truckloads of frozen Tilapia harvested from Lake Buluan by Moro fishermen.

Part of the relief convoy from Maguindanao is the provincial government’s 10-ton fully air-conditioned “hospital bus,” which has modern medical equipment needed for surgeries.

Maguindanao’s relief mission to Leyte aims to disperse thousands of food packs containing rice, canned sardines, candles, matches, and assorted medicines to typhoon victims, according to Lynette Estandarte, chief provincial budget officer.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said their trained rescue and life-saving experts have been dispatched to Visayas, bringing with them relief supplies donated by soldiers.

The mayor of Kidapawan City, Joseph Evangelista, opened on Thursday the city’s public gymnasium as collection depot for relief supplies donated by local residents, among them members of ethnic highland groups.

The city government’s relief collection campaign, launched early this week, will last until next month, according to Evangelista.

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