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The Philippines has Zambo Mart to help propagate the Chavacano Language.
General Santos City News October 2011
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COMMENTARY: The Kato experience: Who is to blame?
- Source: http://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2011/10/05/commentary-the-kato-experience-who-is-to-blame/
- Wednesday| October 5, 2011
- by Edwin G. Espejo
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/04 October) — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) finally handed out a decision to expel renegade leader Ameril Umra Kato from the rebel ranks more than two years after he led bloody attacks following the failed signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
Until those fateful attacks, which claimed the lives of several civilians and combatants, Kato was largely known only inside the Moro rebel ranks. He was described as a low-profile but highly respected Muslim scholar and a loyal commander and friend to MILF’s founding chair Salamat Hashim.
The Kato-led 2008 attacks were one of the bloodiest episodes of the Mindanao conflict.
These also sowed the seeds of disunity inside the MILF.
If ever, both the MILF and the Philippine government have only themselves to blame if the ongoing peace process becomes even more complicated with Kato on the outside looking in.
I have always questioned both the MILF and the Philippine military’s handling of Kato in the days immediately after the attack and in the period that followed it.
For one, the military’s branding of Kato as a “lawless MILF element” was clearly a ploy to drive a wedge between him and the central leadership of the Moro rebel group – a wedge that now nobody wants.
The ruse put the MILF in an awkward position because while it seemingly was in the moral high ground for its reaction against the ‘reactionary backlash’ of the botched MOA-AD signing, picturing Kato as a blood-soaked intransigent commander also had its flipside.
He became a rallying figure of hard core Moro rebels who want complete independence and nothing else and thus weakening the bargaining position of the MILF in the peace negotiations.
But the MILF also contributed its share in creating a headache of its own.
In October 2008, or barely two months after the hostilities broke out, before scores of members of local press, the MILF through Ghadzali Jaafar, vowed to launch an investigation and impose sanctions against Moro rebels who were found to have violated its own code of conduct.
Jaafar even promised to provide the press copies of the results of the investigations.
The MILF never did.
As it now appears, the MILF only seriously handled Kato’s status as a rebel commander when the suspended peace negotiations were resumed under the Aquino government.
By then, its position was terribly weakened and Kato’s head became the tradeoff of the peace process.
That it took the Ulama Council to finally address the Kato question only highlighted how respected a rebel commander Kato is in the MILF.
Going after him now may not be as easy as it was two or three years ago.
Like I said before, the peace process in Mindanao is better off with Kato in than out.
Now, how do you do that? (Edwin G. Espejo writes for www.asiancorrespondent.com)
3 bishops to present 100,000 anti-mining signatures to PNoy
- Source: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2011/10/03/3-bishops-to-present-100000-anti-mining-signatures-to-pnoy/
- Monday| October 3, 2011
- by Allen V. Estabillo
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/03 October) – Three Catholic bishops in Mindanao are seeking an audience with President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to directly present at least 100,000 signatures of local residents who were reportedly opposing the planned large-scale gold and copper mining project of foreign-backed mining firm Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) in the area.
Fr. Joy Peliño, Social Action Center director of the Diocese of Marbel, said Monday the bishops of the dioceses of Marbel, Kidapawan and Digos are currently arranging a possible meeting with the President to relay the people’s “strong opposition” to SMI’s mining venture in the mountainous tri-boundaries of South Cotabato, Davao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat provinces.
He said the bishops are still waiting for Malacanang’s response regarding the requested audience with the President.
The three dioceses launched last August a signature drive targeting at least 100,000 names in a bid to compel the President to stop SMI’s proposed mining activities.
“We have so far gathered around 110,000 signatures. Hopefully, the meeting (with the President) will materialize soon so we can show to him the real sentiments of the people regarding SMI’s operations,” Peliño said in a radio interview.
SMI’s Tampakan Copper-Gold Project is centered in the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Columbio in Sultan Kudarat.
The three municipalities are separately under the jurisdiction of the three Catholic dioceses.
Peliño said the “overwhelming response” by residents to their signature campaign shows that majority of the local population understands the perils posed by the mining project, which was set by the firm to commence by the year 2016.
“Most residents are now aware that the mining project only offers more risks than benefits to the people and the environment,” he said.
In a forum in Koronadal City two weeks ago, British expert Clive Wicks cited that SMI’s mining project poses serious risk to the area’s environment and food security.
Wicks, co-author of the book “Philippines: Mining or Food,” said the project “will damage agriculture, the lake downstream…and increases risk to flooding.”
The study was done by Wicks in collaboration with Robert Goodland, who worked for the World Bank Group for 23 years as senior environmental advisor.
SMI, which is controlled by global mining player Xstrata Copper, recently presented to local stakeholders the results of its commissioned Environmental Impact Assessment, a document essential in acquiring an environmental clearance certificate for the firm’s commercial operations.
The Tampakan project will cost $5.9 billion at commercial development, potentially the largest single foreign direct investment in the Philippines.
The company’s proposed mining area, which reportedly hosts the largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits in Southeast Asia, has a potential yield of 370,000 metric tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold annually.
In June last year, the provincial government of South Cotabato adopted an environmental code that includes a ban on open-pit mining, a method being considered by SMI for its proposed commercial operations.
President Aquino earlier sent a team to negotiate for the lifting of the open-pit ban but South Cotabato officials, led by Gov. Arthur Pingoy, have stood pat on their decision to implement the mining prohibition in the province. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
Army engineers to help in SouthCot projects
- Source: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2011/10/02/army-engineers-to-help-in-southcot-projects/
- Sunday| October 2, 2011
- by Allen V. Estabillo
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/1 Oct) – An engineering contingent from the Philippine Army will be deployed in South Cotabato province starting next month to assist the ongoing infrastructure and socio-economic development initiatives in the area.
Lt. Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, commander of the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao, said Friday they will assign the 512th Engineer Construction “Kaagapay” Battalion to help build roads, classrooms and other vital infrastructure in remote parts of the province.
“We’ll be deploying more troops but they will specifically be engaged in development works in coordination with the provincial government,” he said in a press conference in Koronadal City.
The assignment of the engineering battalion came after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the provincial government of South Cotabato signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Friday, transferring the lead role of the AFP’s internal security efforts to the local government.
South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. signed the agreement on behalf of the provincial government while Maj. Gen. Jorge Segovia, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, represented the AFP.
Tabaquero said they transferred the lead role of the implementation of the internal security operations or ISO to the provincial government of South Cotabato after their troops successfully cleared the area of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA).
He said the local government will now lead the internal security efforts through the implementation of socio-economic and development projects in areas that were previously influenced by the communist rebels.
“This shows that South Cotabato is already cleared of the communist insurgency and is now ready for more progress and development,” the official said.
Lt. Col. Alexis Noel Bravo, commander of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion, said earlier this week that the entire province was declared as already cleared of the NPA’s presence when he assumed as 27IB commander last May.
Such declaration was earlier made based on a report from the Joint AFP/PNP Intelligence Committee or JAPEC.
He explained that that their troops specifically dismantled the political structure and so-called “shadow government” in several villages within the province’s 10 towns and lone city that had been established by the NPA’s guerilla fronts 73 and 76.
The transfer of the ISO function to the provincial government was part of the enhanced National Internal Peace and Security Plan earlier endorsed by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.
Under the plan, local government units (LGUs) will assume the lead role in implementing the consolidation and development phase of the ISO after the completion of the clearing phase by the AFP.
Earlier this year, Tabaquero said the provinces of Camiguin and Misamis Occidental (not Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental as reported by local Army officials) signed the same agreements with the AFP.
South Cotabato is the third province in Mindanao that agreed to assume the lead role for the internal security efforts.
As an offshoot of the agreement, Pingoy said the Army’s 512th Engineering Battalion will assist the local government in completing a stalled road project that connects Barangays Ned in Lake Sebu and Upper Sepaka in Surallah town.
The construction of the road project, which was partly funded by the Asian Development Bank, was earlier stopped due to several reasons, among them the lack of equipment and the volatile peace and order situation in the area.
“The engineering battalion will fill our need for equipment and manpower. They already committed the services of their 24 Army engineers to do the work in Ned,” the governor said.
In line with this, Pingoy said the provincial government is set to sign a MOA with San Miguel Corporation (SMC), which offered to supply some P5 million worth of fuel, oil and lubricants for the heavy equipment that would be utilized for the project.
He said the provincial government will provide some allowances to the members of the Army engineering unit that will be assigned to the project.
Meantime, Segovia clarified that the transfer of the ISO’s lead role to the provincial government of South Cotabato will not cause the rumored pullout of the 27IB, which is based in Tupi town. “The 27IB is going to stay in South Cotabato,” the official stressed.
Segovia explained that they might later evaluate whether there is a need to reduce the presence of their troops in the province but such matter would depend on the results of the provincial government’s internal security efforts.
“But the 27IB, along with the 73IB in Sarangani, has been designated as standby force for our security operations in Central Mindanao so their strategic location is considered vital to our overall operations,” he added. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)