Cotabato City News January 2012

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Faster Mindanao rural electrification program seen with P1.31-B budget

by (PNA)

LAP/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 31 (PNA) - Here's one good news for Mindanaons.

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) has announced that President Benigno Aquino III has approved the release of P1.31 billion for rural electrification in Mindanao.

The announcement was made during the 1st Mindanao Congress of the Advocates for Renewable Energy and Rural Electrification and Development (MinCARED) organized by the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives (AMRECO).

National Electrification Administrator, who graced the congress in Cagayan de Oro Ctiy, said that the program shall benefit 100 barangays and 1,320 sitios in the island-region.

Bueno said said the government will provide the distribution system including the supply of kilowatt-meter to beneficiaries.

As NEA counterpart, Bueno said the beneficiaries from the sitios will receive P2,500.00 subsidy, saying the amount is enough for the beneficiaries to buy two bulbs and two outlets as well as installation fees.

As start-up, Bueno said the beneficiaries are expected to have difficulties paying the materials and installation fees so the subsidy was necessary.

The monthly bill of an average P75 at the minimum will be shouldered by the consumers.

“The new lines shall be turned over to electric cooperatives in the long run”, she said.

The Department of Energy (DOE) reported that as of November 2011, in terms of barangay electrification, Mindanao is already 99.84 percent connected.

The rural electrification program is hoped to generate jobs and stimulate small businesses in the country side which are among the priorities of President Aquino’s social contract with the Filipino people.

The move was welcomed by the Amreco. But expressed concern over the rotating brownout as a result of load curtailment by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, claiming it is a big blow to power consumers.

Mindanao is now confronted with “red alert” status since the start of the year as a result of supply shortfall by 100 MW which prompted South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (Socoteco II) to implement 45 minutes to one hour rotating brownouts within its franchise area: the whole of Sarangani, Polomolok and Tupi in South Cotabato.

“Power consumption in Mindanao has been steadily increasing at an average annual growth rate of 4.7 percent from 2002-2009,” MinDA Secretary Luwalhati Antonino said.

Speaking before the power industry key players, Antonino said that in the second quarter of 2010, the average and peaking capabilities of the hydro power plants at 982 MW dropped to 771 MW and 860 MW respectively, resulting in 4-6 hours of daily brownouts in several areas during that year.

Antonino stressed that the demand would increase by an average of 4.6 percent annually over the next 10 years.

“To meet and sustain this demand, at least 1,000MW new capacities must be installed over the next decade and still another 1,500MW from 2021 to 2030,” she said.

Antonino said that there is a need to ensure a dependable power supply in Mindanao and install a reliable power generation system that maximizes renewable energy and efficient distribution mechanism.

The Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan (Mindanao 2020) being pursued by MinDA has pointed to diversification as a recognized strategic move to cushion the impacts of power supply shortfalls.

“However, this must veer more towards increased use of clean, renewable and indigenous sources of power to minimize costs attendant to importation, foreign exchange risks, and environmental impacts”, Antonino added.

She said that MinDA will continue to do its share of making the necessary representation before the national government in collaboration with Mindanao LGUs, private sector and industry stakeholders.

MinDA aims to accelerate the socio-economic growth of the island-region by increasing its trade and investments, encouraging private enterprise and advancing efforts towards peace and development.






Dep Ed Regional Secretary starts reforms in DepEd-ARMM

by PIA Press Release


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 30, (PIA) -- The newly appointed head of the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao DepEd-ARMM) vows to push needed reforms in support of OIC-regional governor Mujiv Hataman's reform agenda for the region. Atty. Jamar Kulayan who was recently appointed by Hataman as DepEd-ARMM regional secretary assured to pursue reforms to address and resolve the perennial problems hounding the agency in order to improve the quality of education in the region. Kulayan said initial steps being undertaken are the inventory of teachers and school buildings, review of their qualifications, and compulsory preparation of lesson plan, among others. “Hindi sila gumagawa kundi bumibili ng lesson plan at ang danger diyan hindi tugma sa school curriculum, dahilan upang makumpromiso ang kalidad ng pagtuturo so we are pursuing a uniform lesson plan,” ( They (teachers) buy ready made lesson plans instead of preparing it. The danger in this is that it does not conform to the curriculum set thus comprising the quality of teaching, so we are pursuing a uniform lesson plan), Kulayan said. Kulayan said, he will issue guidelines and schedule for the submission of requirements including the Daily Time Record to avoid unnecessary delay in the release of salaries assuring regular open dialogue with school officials and teachers in a bid to improve and enhance implementation of DepEd’s programs and services in the autonomous region. (pbchangco/PIA Cotabato City)

Dep Ed Regional Secretary starts reforms in DepEd-ARMM

by PIA Press Release


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 30, (PIA) -- The newly appointed head of the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao DepEd-ARMM) vows to push needed reforms in support of OIC-regional governor Mujiv Hataman's reform agenda for the region. Atty. Jamar Kulayan who was recently appointed by Hataman as DepEd-ARMM regional secretary assured to pursue reforms to address and resolve the perennial problems hounding the agency in order to improve the quality of education in the region. Kulayan said initial steps being undertaken are the inventory of teachers and school buildings, review of their qualifications, and compulsory preparation of lesson plan, among others. “Hindi sila gumagawa kundi bumibili ng lesson plan at ang danger diyan hindi tugma sa school curriculum, dahilan upang makumpromiso ang kalidad ng pagtuturo so we are pursuing a uniform lesson plan,” ( They (teachers) buy ready made lesson plans instead of preparing it. The danger in this is that it does not conform to the curriculum set thus comprising the quality of teaching, so we are pursuing a uniform lesson plan), Kulayan said. Kulayan said, he will issue guidelines and schedule for the submission of requirements including the Daily Time Record to avoid unnecessary delay in the release of salaries assuring regular open dialogue with school officials and teachers in a bid to improve and enhance implementation of DepEd’s programs and services in the autonomous region. (pbchangco/PIA Cotabato City)

Conjoined twins born in Cotabato City

by (PNA)

scs/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 29 (PNA) – A Muslim mother is seeking help from generous individuals after she gave birth to conjoined twin girls in a private hospital here on Friday.

Raida Kamaong, a resident of this city and wife of a tricycle driver, said they do not have enough money for the medication of the twins born via Caesarian operations at the Cotabato Medical Specialist Hospital.

"We appeal for help, we want the twins to survive," the mother said in her hospital bed on Saturday.

Doctors and nurses at the hospital said the twins, both underweight, were joined in their chests but have separate genitals. They have been named Nurhiwa and Nurkidz.

The mother said she has no idea whatsoever that she would deliver conjoined twins. She recalled her ultrasound months back showed she was bearing twins but not a conjoined one.

Both girls are still in the neo-intensive care unit of the hospital and under close watch by their attending physicians.

Local media people and observers were barred from visiting the twins as it may endanger their lives.

Kamaong is seeking the help of big media networks to help them bring the twins to Manila for further medication.

She also appealed to local residents for any monetary help so she can save the lives of the two girls.

Cotabato City peace and order deteriorating, city dad says

by (PNA)

scs/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 28 (PNA) - The peace and order situation in this city has been deteriorating and is very alarming, a city councilor has said.

Just as Councilor Froilan Melendrez raised the alarm during the City Council's regular session, another shooting incident occurred that left a couple dead Saturday morning.

The man and his wife were heading for home at about 5 a.m. from the city market on board a motorcycle when gunmen riding in tandem on a separate motorcycle fired at them, using caliber .45 pistol, according to Councilor Sukarno Sema.

The ambush happened in Sema's Barangay Rosary Heights 9. He said the husband and wife victims were regularly passing by his village from the city market to their home in Barangay Rosary Heights 8.

Cotabato City Police Director Senior Supt. Danilo Reyes said initial investigation showed the shooting was triggered by personal grudge.

Councilor Melendrez said it was only after the January 10 ambush of Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema that officials realized there were at least one shooting incident every four days in the city in 2010.

He noted that Senior Superintendent Reyes told City Council members that there were 85 murder cases in the city the past 12 months.

Reyes told local officials that some of these cases were considered solved.

Aside from 85 killings in the city, there were more than dozen cases of improvised explosive device explosions.

Melendrez said aside from murder, there were cases of homicide that occurred even in broad daylight.

Chua Yu Beng, president of the city’s Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said the series of shooting incidents and the recent attempt on the life of Vice Mayor Sema, who also chairs the Moro National Liberation Front, had sent an impression that ordinary residents are no longer safe here.

Mayor Japal Guiani Jr., in a statement, said efforts are being undertaken by the city peace and order council which he chairs to prevent crimes which he believed were mostly triggered by “rido” (family feud) or personal grudges.

Sema was heading for home from a session of the City Council when one of two men riding tandem on a motorcycle opened fire at his 4x4 vehicle with a customized M-16 assault rifle fitted with silencer.

He was hit in his lower jaw, hospitalized for six days in Davao City, and subsequently reported for work last Tuesday.

Police have named one of the two suspects as Zermin Abdullah, a career service employee of the Office on Southern Cultural Communities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

A Marine battalion is augmenting security forces in the city since last year.

Warring MILF factions observe ceasefire

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Leaders of two feuding Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) factions locked in a bloody land row agreed to a ceasefire and allow third party mediation to peacefully resolve their misunderstandings.

The two MILF commanders, Gani Saligan and Noah Manwang, announced over Catholic stations dxND and dxMS, that they are now amenable to an amicable settlement of their clan war, sparked by a dispute over demarcations separating their “lands”.

Both commanders said they will let emissaries of the MILF’s ceasefire committee and local officials in North Cotabato’s Mlang town to initiate measures to stave off renewed confrontations to prevent the perennial dislocation of innocent villagers.

The groups of Saligan and Manwang were squabbling for control of strategic patches of agricultural lands in the adjoining Barangays Rangaban and Dugong, both in Mlang, an interior town in the second district of North Cotabato.

The two groups figured in a running firefight in Barangay Dugong last week, forcing dozens of innocent families to evacuate to safer areas as they tried to overcome each other using assault rifles and B-40 anti-tank rockets.

The MILF’s ceasefire committee has been trying to reconcile Saligan and Manwang for more than a year now.

The North Cotabato police and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division warned last week to intervene and deploy peacekeeping contingents in Mlang to prevent either sides from getting close to the populated areas.

More than 20 combatants from both sides have been killed while 16 others were wounded as they clashed in one encounter after another in the past three years.

The chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, Major Gen. Ariel Bernardo, has recommended the participation of representatives from the environment and agrarian reform departments in helping resolve the land conflict between Saligan and Manwang.





DOH-ARMM to start rehab work on PRO-ARMM hospital

by PIA Press Release


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 26 (PIA) - Three years after the official request was made in 2009, rehabilitation of the hospital inside the Police Regional Office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-ARMM) will finally start in February, Dr. Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Health-ARMM, announced yesterday. Sinolinding said, DOH-ARMM and PRO-ARMM have signed a memorandum of agreement for the rehabilitation, upgrading and expansion of the hospital inside the police camp at Parang, Maguindanao. This is being funded under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the Department of Health. With the initial funding of P10 million, rehabilation work will include face-lifting, upgrading of equipment as well as construction of additional structures to convert the health facility into a 29-bed and second level hospital when completed, Sinolinding said. Through partnership, Sinolinding said, rehabilitation and upgrading of government hospitals and health facilities in different areas is part of the agency‘s efforts aimed at improving access to basic healthcare and medical services throughout the country. “As part of our efforts to access improved health care and medical services sa ating mga kababayan sa rehiyon, nakikipagtulungan tayo sa PNP para sa rehabilitasyon, ma-upgrade iyung equipment at paslidad ng ospital at kung kinakailangan ay madagdagan ng ibang structure upang magiging 29-bed at second level ito na nasa loob ng PRO-ARMM sa bayan ng Parang,” Sinolinding said. Sinolinding said, the MOA stipulates that the hospital will not only be open to the members of the PNP and their immediate family and dependents but would also cater and give priority to the medical and health care needs of civilians especially the indigents. (pbchangco/PIA Cotabato City)






Probe on police link on Sema ambush sought

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Moro National Liberation Front wanted a probe on the rumored link between a police officer arrested in Sultan Kudarat for drug trafficking and the slain gunman that ambushed the vice-mayor here last Jan. 10.

The policeman, identified as PO1 Morshed Manibpel, was intercepted by operatives of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police and is now detained at Isulan police detention facility.

The suspect, assigned in Cotabato City, belong to the Maritime Police Command in Region 12.

Manibpel was to bring about half a kilo of Shabu to a contact in Tacurong City when intelligence operatives of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police, led by Senior Inspector Ryan Lim, managed to track him.

Manibpel and the slain assailant of Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema are both from Talitay, a town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The driver of the motorcycle used in the botched ambush of Sema, initially identified only as Morbe, also reportedly hailed from the same municipality, according to Abdul Sahrin, spokesman of the MNLF.

Sema, chairman of the most dominant of at least three factions in the MNLF, was on his way home after presiding over a session of the city council when Abdullah, armed with an M-16 assault rifle fitted with a noise suppressor, and his cohort overtook the vice-mayor’s vehicle and opened fire.

The security escort of Sema, who was hit in his jaw, managed to return fire, killing Abdullah, who was wearing a Kevlar bullet proof vest.

Local officials in Maguindanao said the Sultan Kudarat provincial police should look into circulating text messages that Manibpel was a protector of Abdullah.

Abdullah was a career service employee of the Office of Southern Cultural Communities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The policemen who arrested Manibpel and his companion, Nazrulah Pamanay, also recovered from both of them an M-16 assault rifle, two caliber .45 pistols and fragmentation grenades.

Sahrin said investigators have to determine the possible “connection” between Manibpel and Abdullah as insinuated by text messages circulating since his arrest in Isulan town.

Ceasefire committee foresees peaceful 2012

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The joint ceasefire committee is certain of a peaceful 2012 in areas covered by all preliminary security agreements meant to prevent hostilities while peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are ongoing.

This after the chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee, Major Gen. Ariel Bernardo, said he and his counterpart in the MILF, Said Shiek, and his immediate consultant Von Al-Haq agreed to meet often to discuss “pro-active” measures to prevent undue rebel-military hostilities in flashpoint areas.

Bernardo said there has been no major military-MILF engagement in Central Mindanao, the main hub of the rebel group’s revolutionary activities, since last year.

In 16 months, the regional offices of the Philippine National Police listed only more than 20 domestic and internal encounters that only involve rival groups in the MILF.

The incident mostly sparked by land disputes, in the provinces of North Cotabato, Maguidanao, Lanao del Sur, and Sultan Kudarat.

The MILF’s ceasefire committee has resolved more than a dozen clan wars involving rebel commanders of big guerilla groups with the help of local officials and various non-government organizations.

“The coordination between the government and MILF’s ceasefire committees has been getting stronger these days and so both sides look forward to peaceful days ahead in the coming months,” Bernardo said.

He added the activation of the so-called Local Monitoring Teams, which are comprised of representatives from local sectors and municipal officials, in far-flung towns has effectively bolstered the enforcement of the ceasefire in areas rocked by hostilities in the past.

“The LMTs are composed of representatives from local government units, religious communities and NGOs that can easily reach out to far-flung areas to peacefully resolve domestic security problems,” Bernardo said.






Sema's camp to file charges vs ambusher, mastermind

by (PNA)

LAP/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 23 (PNA) - Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema who survived a daylight ambush on January 10 said he will file frustrated murder charges against the brains behind the attempt on his life and work for the litigation of the case outside this city.

The camp of Sema has in possession of a vital witness who volunteered to show up and identify the mastermind.

The suspect, a 49-year-old man, said he personally knew the slain suspect - Zermin Abdull, and his immediate superior. He refused to talk further to reporters in a brief interview, but said he would tell all in proper forum.

Senior Supt. Robert Kiunisala, head of the special investigation task group formed by PNP Director Gen. Nicanor Bartolome to investigate the high profile crime, said the probe body is still gathering pieces of evidence before filing the case in court.

"We have so far talked and taken affidavits from at least 10 people," Kiunisala said.

Speaking to reporters, Sema, who also chairs a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front, said he will return to work on Tuesday, January 24 to show he is fine.

He said he will preside the regular session of the Cotabato City Sangguniang Panglungsod.

Sema, former city mayor before he ran and won the vice mayorship of Cotabato City, said he has battery of lawyers from Manila who will help him prosecute the case.

Sema, 64, was on board a Mitsubishi Montero with two escorts and a driver on January 10 as he rushed home for his Manila flight.

Along Gonzalo Javier Street, about 200 meters from his home, two men riding in tandem on a motorbike opened fire on him. He was seated at the front seat.

He suffered gunshot wounds in his lower jaw and right shoulder but was declared “out of danger” by physicians at the Notre Dame Hospital. On the same day, he was airlifted to Davao City for further medication and returned home four days later.

Kiunisala said the investigation is focused on the alleged triggerman named Zermin Abdullah, an employee of the Office of Southern Cultural Communities, an agency in the Muslim Mindanao Autonomous Region.

He was wounded when Sema's escorts returned fire but expired two hours later at the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center.

Police recovered Abdullah a bulletproof vest, a baby Armalite rifle with silencer and identification cards.

Sema said they have strong evidence against the mastermind but his family and supporters, especially the MNLF, were told to allow the law to take its course.

Sema refused to even provide hint as to the mastermind behind the attempt on his life but said it will be made public once the case is filed in court.

Police capture Abu Sayyaf militant in Basilan

by XINHUA


COTABATO CITY: Security forces said on Saturday that they had captured an al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militant in the country’s restive south.

Sonny Bakim Barahim, also known as Abu Ismael, was arrested by government troops in the city of Isabela in Basilan province, said Chief Supt. Bienvenido Latag, the police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Barahim, a member of the militant group Abu Sayyaf, is wanted for his alleged involvement in a series of abductions in the area.

Basilan is a known bailiwick of the Muslim group, which has perpetrated a number of high-profile kidnappings, bombings and beheadings since its formation in the 1990s.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines estimates that the Abu Sayyaf, which has links with external terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, has less than 400 members.

The Muslim group is currently holding hostage 53-year-old Australian Warren Richard Rodwell, who was abducted on December 5 from his house in Green Meadows Subdivision, Upper Pangi village in Basilan’s Ipil town.

DA props up seaweed production

by ALI G. MACABALANG


COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The government is allocating as much as P200 million to prop up seaweed production in its bid to wipe out raw seaweed imports in 18 months time, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

The bulk of the country’s seaweed production, though raw, comes from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (ARMM’s) component island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi but the volume is still insufficient as Filipino industries usually import from 80,000 to 100,000 metric tons (MTs) of raw seaweeds annually, mostly from Indonesia, according to reported statistics.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the government is launching a “more aggressive program” on seaweeds farming in strategic areas including ARMM provinces as it seeks to offset imports.

Eliminating raw seaweed imports “is a major focus of the DA which is why we want to roll out an aggressive seaweed farming program,” Alcala told reporters during a briefing on the 82nd anniversary of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) held in Manila on Wednesday.

The stated-funded seaweed farming has been jumpstarted in Palawan and the provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi will follow, Alcala said.

ARMM governor Hataman on the way out

by JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL


COTABATO CITY: The leadership of OIC Governor Mujiv Hataman in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is uncertain according to a former director-general of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), while a former ARMM regional governor said he got information that Hataman might be replaced as caretaker of the autonomous region due to the legal controversy pending at the Supreme Court (SC).

But Hataman vowed to stay in office and will not abandon his post not unless President Benigno Aquino 3rd tells him to step down.

In a statement furnished by email to The Manila Times, Cielito Habito, former NEDA director general disclosed that he has been tapped as one of the several volunteers on pro bono or free of professional fee acting as economic adviser to Hataman.

However, Habito gave a hint of encountering difficulties in planning and executing reform measures in the regional government as the High Tribunal still has to resolve the pending legal controversy on the constitutionality of R.A. 10153 that postponed the ARMM election and authorized President Aquino to appoint an officer-in-charge (OIC).

“I have actually been tapped to be one of several volunteer (pro bono) advisers to Gov. Mujiv Hataman,” said Habito, who is also a professor of economics and director of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Center for Economic Research and Development.

Habito said he “will have a meeting with him (Hataman) next week to plan ahead.”

He shared some of the legal minds’ confusion over questions of legitimacy of President Aquino’s naming of Hataman and other officers-in-charge in ARMM.

“I too am apprehensive about the continuing uncertainty of the situation in ARMM due to the pending action of the SC,” the former NEDA chief admitted.

He added though: “The best one can do under the circumstances is not (to) let the judicial delays paralyze the government in dealing with the urgent needs of the ARMM for governance reform and general initiatives for development.”

“I am keenly watching and waiting for developments on this (legal dispute pending SC), Habito said.

In a related development, a former ARMM regional governor who begged not to divulge his identity said that he got information though unverified that Hataman would be replaced by January 25 this year.

It can be recalled that the SC in November last year in an en banc vote of 8-7 upheld the constitutionality of R.A. 10153, the law enacted in June that year synchronizing the 2011 ARMM elections to 2013 and authorizing the President to appoint OICs in the region for roughly 20 months.

However group of petitioners including House Minority Leader Rep. Edcel Lagman, election lawyer Romy Macalintal and former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. filed motions for reconsideration, which the High Tribunal has yet to decide upon.

As this developed, Macalintal and Pimentel filed supplementary motions questioning the Dec. 22, 2012 takeover of Hataman and OIC-Vice Governor Bainon Karon as well as their appointment earlier that month.

In his petition, Pimentel deplored the takeover as an “demeaning the judicial courtesy,” a government tenet discouraging execution of actions on issues pending decision by the court.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Nash Maulana of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information quoted Hataman in reaction to the report that he would be replaced anytime by the President.

According to Maulana, Hataman said: “We will abide by the law until the President tells me to move out.”

Hataman said he will continue discharging his function as OIC-governor lest he would be found abandoning his post that is tantamount to dereliction of duty.

“I will continue my functions as OIC regional governor. It is because the conflict on the matter is between the executive and judiciary. In my case “si PNoy ang nag-appoint sa akin. Sa kaniya ako direktang responsable at sa mga mamamayan ng ARMM,” Hataman emphasized.

Village watchmen seized 1.5-kilo marijuana

by (PNA)

RMA/LAM/NYP/


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 19 (PNA) -- Alert village watchmen of Barangay Poblacion 7 here seized on Thursday some 1.5 kilos of dried marijuana items up for sale to prospective users here.

Acting on a tip, village chair Solaiman Adtong said they chanced upon the banca delivering the illegal stuff along Punol Islet situated along Rio Grande de Mindanao River around 5:30 a.m. but failed to catch anybody as the drug couriers immediately jumped into the water upon seeing them.

“The (drug) couriers vanished in the water after swimming to various directions,” Adtong said.

He said the same tip they received identified the receiver of the marijuana delivery as a certain Onay Guiana, a resident in the islet, who also managed to elude arrest.

The total haul, which has an estimated street value of P25,000, comprised a bagful of marijuana plants weighing 1 kilo, 21 stems of marijuana leaves wrapped in old newspaper and 90 small plastic sachets of marijuana ready for disposal.

Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. said the marijuana plants could have come from the remote upland areas of nearby Maguindanao province.

He said the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had long been monitoring the peripheries of Matanog, Barira and Upi towns in the province to find marijuana plantations.

Cotabato Marines in full alert vs assassins

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Marine Battalion Landing Team 7 (MBLT-7) here has been on full alert for a week now following a spate of bombings and attacks by suspected hired killers, including the January 10 ambush of Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema. Major Jessie Cervo, deputy commander of MBLT-7, told Catholic station dxMS here they have intensified the visibility of Marine combatants in strategic spots vulnerable to criminal attacks. Cervo, however, said they still need the support of local residents by providing them information on any activity of suspicious individuals or groups for the Marines to promptly check on them. Maguindanao First District Representative Bai Sandra Sema has been in ranting on the lack support by local security authorities to her spouse, Vice Mayor Sema, from the time he was rushed to the hospital after he was wounded in an ambush near their residence until he was airlifted to a hospital in Davao City the same day. “We did not feel any support whatsoever. It was the 6th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army that filled the void and extended a helping hand,” Mrs. Sema told reporters. Mrs. Sema said the mayor of Davao City, Sarah Duterte, and her fellow legislators in the area’s congressional districts have worked out the deployment of policemen in the surroundings of the hospital where the vice mayor is being treated for his bullet wound in the right jaw. Vice Mayor Sema, who is also chairman of the most dominant of several factions in the Moro National Liberation Front, was on his way home from a session in the city council which he chairs when his ambushers, clad in Kevlar bulletproof vests and armed with customized M-16 assault rifles fitted with noise suppressors, opened fire at his vehicle. Vice Mayor Sema’s two security escorts managed to jump out of their vehicle and engage the ambushers in the brief firefight, killing one of them, Zermin Abdullah, a career service employee of the Office of Southern Cultural Communities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, in a long distance telephone interview with Catholic station dxMS here Monday, said investigators have already gathered vital pieces of evidence from the crime scene and from the possession of Abdullah, who hails from Talitay town in Maguindanao. “I am appealing to people in Cotabato City to remain sober and to just let investigators finish their work of determining who masterminded the ambush of Vice Mayor Sema,” Robredo said. Mrs. Sema said her friends in the local business community have complained of a sudden decline in the city’s trading climate as a consequence of the ambush of the vice mayor. Robredo has appealed to the city’s Muslim and Christian residents not to speculate on the attempt on the vice mayor’s life. Robredo said he is optimistic investigators, led Senior Supt. Robert Kiunisala, who is the deputy director for operations of the Region 12 police in Gen. Santos City, could soon identify the real brains in the ambush of Sema.

Experts to spearhead dialogue on Mindanao peace process

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Three foreign experts in politics and governance are to jointly preside over a dialogue with stakeholders in the southern peace process on January 25.

The three conflict resolution specialists – Katia Papagianni, Francesc Vendrell, and Nureidin Satti – are to come and talk on “power sharing” and their views on the 14-year peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The event will be spearheaded through the efforts of David Gorman, mediation advisor of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD).

The CHD, first recognized as a Swiss peace advocacy foundation in 1999, is a member of the International Contact Group, a pool of foreign organizations and humanitarian outfits that helped the fragile government-MILF talks.

Lawyer Anwar Malang, chairman of the CHD-funded Mindanao Think Tank, said the three foreigners are to also to meet with members of the MILF’s central committee and its chief negotiator, Muhaquer Iqbal.

Iqbal said they look forward a cordial and fruitful discussion with the three peace activists.

Oblate missionary Eliseo Mercado, Jr., director of the foreign-assisted Institute for Autonomy and Governance, said the dialogues the three peace activists are to preside over will enlighten their local counterparts on the importance of power sharing, particularly in politics and governance, in promoting lasting peace in the south.

Mercado, whose peace-building projects are bankrolled by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, said officials of the Moro National Liberation Front must also be invited to the dialogues.

The MNLF signed a peace pact with the government on September 2, 1996, an accord now undergoing a tripartite review involving its broker, the Organization of Islamic Conference, due to misunderstandings on the implementation of some of its sensitive provisions.

“That activity would be separate from their engagement with the MILF,” said Malang, who is the executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The CHD, in a statement, said Papagianni is in charge of its mediation support program. She is involved in political transitions in the initial implementation of peace agreements; and crafting of constitutions.

Papagianni participated extensively in peace initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Iraq.

Vendrell was with the United Nations for 34years, where he had participated in conflict mediation efforts and socio-economic projects in Afganistan, East Timor, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Azerbajian, Armenia and parts of Central America.

Satti, on the other hand, is the current director of the National Library of Sudan. He was once special representative of the United Nations to Burundi, and subsequently, held key positions in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Hataman vows massive tree planting in ARMM

by zambotimes.com


COTABATO CITY — In an effort to address the continued threat of natural disasters in the island, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Department of Natural Resources (DENR) have joined hands to ensure full implementation of the National Greening Program in the region. Acting ARMM Regional Governor Mujib Hataman and DENR Secretary Ramon Paje signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the financial assistance amounting to P49.6 million. With the funds ready, massive reforestation activities in the ARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi are expected to take place very soon, he said. Hataman said the fund will be used to reforest more than 2,500 hectares of denuded and deforested areas in the region's five provinces. During the signing ceremonies in Gen. Santos City, Paje said DENR Manila will also provide technical assistance to the ARMM in the implementation of the greening program. When President Aquino assumed office in 2010, the DENR in cooperation with other government agencies, has launched the greening program aimed at restoring the balding forest cover throughout the country. The National Greening Program (NGP) has envisions to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 billion hectares by 2016. "The program will have impact on the region’s social and economic challenges toward an effective and improved ecological governance," Paje said. According to Hataman, the NGP is considered as "major tool to address illegal logging in the region." Accompanying the NGP is the alternative livelihood to forest-based communities where they would no longer resort to "carabao logging" to earn a living but would find income through planting and harvesting the fruits, not cut the trees they have planted. Hataman said highland communities in the region will be the priority in the NGP to prevent them from resorting to illegal practices for survival. He vowed to fully implement the program and urged the more than four million inhabitants of ARMM to help the regional government in monitoring the project implementation to ensure funds will not go to others' pockets. Hataman's first official order when he assumed office last month was the cancellation of all logging permits issued in ARMM and a complete ban on all logging activities, especially in Lanao del Sur where forest have been erased leading to flash floods that hit Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro City. (PNA)

Cotabato Appeal

by Ali Macabalang


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Local business and peace development stakeholders want the Aquino government to lift the state of emergency declared in Maguindanao and this city by the past regime after the November 23, 2009, massacre of 58 people including 32 journalists in Ampatuan town, claiming that such declaration is already “irrelevant” and has failed to abate rising criminalities here.

“It’s high time the government lift the state of emergency, which we found irrelevant and a failure in the prevention of crimes in its coverage areas of Maguindanao and Cotabato City.

2 vendors injured in Cotabato City explosion

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – An explosion ripped through a residential area here Thursday night, slightly wounding two vendors in a roadside flea market near the scene of the explosion.

Investigators said the improvised explosive went off just meters away from the house of Telesforo Cisneros, chairman of Barangay Rosary Heights here.

Investigators said no one saw who planted the bomb at the concrete wall of Cisneros’ residential compound.

Two vendors tending makeshift stalls near Cis-neros’ house sustained superficial wounds in the explosion and both went home after receiving first aid.

Cisneros said he is clueless on the real motive behind the bombing, adding that he has no known enemies that would attempt to kill or scare him.

The bomb was fashioned from live mortar projectiles rigged with a battery-operated blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone.

The bombing near Cis-neros’ house was the fifth in his barangay in the past three months.

The incident was preceded by the prompt deactivation by local Army ordnance operatives of two 60-mm mortar rounds found along a diversion road near the public cemetery here not far from the Rosary Heights police precinct.

Police still have no solid clues on who could have left the two mortar projectiles along the road.

2 wounded in bomb attack in Cotabato City

by Mindanao Examiner


COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 13, 2012) – An improvised bomb exploded in the southern Philippines and wounding two civilians in the troubled region, police and military said Friday.

Army spokesman, Major Sergio Macarandan, said the device went off at around 6.25 p.m. on Thursday in Cotabato City. “Recovered in the crime scene were fragments of 81mm mortar bomb, disintegrated parts of a cell phone and leaflets with markings BIM-BYM,” he said, referring to the shadowy groups Bangsamoro Independence Movement and Bangsamoro Youth Movement.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the both BIM and BYM were largely blamed for the spate of bombings in the city since last year.

Macarandan said one person was wounded in the bombing, but police claimed two civilians were wounded in the attack. The bomb was placed outside a refrigeration shop in the village called Rosary Heights.

On Wednesday, authorities also disarmed two bombs in Cotabato, a day after the city’s deputy mayor Muslimen Sema was shot and wounded in a daring attack by two gunmen who were also killed by the politician’s bodyguards.

Sema was in his car heading home from his office when the gunmen, wearing body armor, attacked the vehicle. No group claimed responsibility for the failed assassination, but police said the assailants were employees of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Cotabato City, once tagged by the United States as a “doormat” for terrorists in the southern Philippines, is one of the most dangerous places in Mindanao with killings occurring almost every day and had been a target of terror attacks in recent years.

Slain attacker of Cotabato City vice mayor was ARMM employee

by ALI G. MACABALANG


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – One of the gunmen who ambushed City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema Thursday noon here but died later of wounds caused by retaliatory bullets from security escorts of the official, was an organic government worker, it was learned yesterday. The slain gunman named by police as Zermin Abdulla was employed on permanent status in the Office of Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as Development Management Officer (DMO) I, according to his career record furnished by the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG). The record showed that the suspect used Zermin Abdulla as an employment name and Saidamin Sula as his identity as resident of Talitay, an infant town in Maguindanao whose political leaders had figured in violent incidents before, during and after the 2010 local elections. As DMO I, Abdulla was “doing fieldworks on assisting solving rido (family feuds) and implementing local mechanisms of the Philhealth program among IPs (indigenous peoples) communities in Maguindanao, OSCC-ARMM Director Fatima Kanakan said in a statement supplied by the ORG. While employed with the OSCC, Abdulla had been residing in Barangay Rozary Heights 5 here, the ORG record showed. The ORG statement said regional caretaker-governor Mujiv Hataman has directed investigators of the ARMM police and internal security intelligence forces to assist the city authorities in a full investigation of the slay attempt on Vice Mayor Sema. The profile of the slain gunman surfaced after Malacañang alongside national and local officials strongly condemned the ambush, which Maguindanao First District (including this city) Bai Rep. Sandra Sinsuat described as indicative of a “breakdown of law and order” here. Sema is recuperating from a wound in the neck at a tightly guarded hospital here. He and his lawmaker-wife called for sobriety on their relatives and supporters, urging to “allow the law to take its right course in the investigation” of the incident.

Police foil bombing attempt in Cotabato

by (PNA)

DCT/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 11 (PNA) -– Police authorities here foiled another attempt by lawless elements to set off a powerful bomb Wednesday morning. Civilians manning traffic flow at a diversion road as a source of living noticed a suspicious carton box left unattended beside the public cemetery at past 10 a.m., according to Senior Supt. Danny Reyes, city police director. Aware of the danger of what he discovered, the man who refused to be named, alerted the police station which is about 50 meters away from where he found the box. "I checked on it and found mortars, so I ran away and went directly to the police office," the man said. Reyes said the IED was fashioned from two 60 mm mortars with battery-operated timer as timing device. Bomb experts decided to detonate the explosive about an hour after it was discovered. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing attempt but the IED was similar to other improvised bombs found and exploded in the city and its environs since last year. The discovery of an IED came a day after Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema was ambushed along Gonzalo Javier Street. On Monday, Central Mindanao has been placed on high alert amid reports of a bomb plot by militant groups, accoding to Director Felicisimo Khu, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation (DIPO) for Western Mindanao. Citing intelligence reports, Khu said the Bangsamoro Freedom Movement, led by Basit Usman was behind the bomb plot. Usman, Jemaah Islamiyah bombing expert, has been linked to spate of bomb attacks in Central Minda­nao last year. Khu said Usman's group had initially planned the bombing for Christmas Day but due to alert status and presence of lawmen in target areas the plan was probably called off. But at the start of the year, Khu said the police received another intelligence report of the plot to be carried out on January 5 or 6 in South Cotabato. Khu said because of the security alert, two IEDs were found and defused by police and military bomb experts. One was found in a roadside in Tantangan, South Cotabato and another near a commercial building in Gen. Santos City. Khu urged civilians to help the police in preventing bombings in the region by maintaining vigilance in their communities.

Cotabato City vice mayor wounded in ambush

by (PNA)

LAP/FFC/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 10 (PNA) – Two heavily armed men waylaid and wounded Tuesday Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema while he was on his way home in Barangay Rosary Heights 7, police said.

The two suspects were arrested but remained unidentified.

Senior Supt. Danny Reyes, Cotabato City police director, said Sema was on board his vehicle with his escorts when two men waiting at the roadside opened fire using M-16 Armalite rifles at about 11:40 a.m. along Gonzalo Javier Street.

Doctors at the Notre Dame Hospital where he was rushed declared him out of danger.

Councilor Willie Bueno, the vice mayor's ally at the Sangguniang Panglungsod, said Sema, who is also the chair of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), sustained a bullet wounded in his neck.

"The bullets went through and through," Bueno said.

Bueno said Sema was out of danger and gestured the thumbs up sign to supporters who came to see him at the hospital.

Reyes could not say at the moment who was the brain behind the ambush despite the suspects' arrest.

"They are undergoing questioning," Reyes said.

Bueno said Sema was presiding the sessions of the City Council when he received a phone call.

"He asked me to preside the session in his behalf since he was leaving for an important matter," Bueno said.

"Later we heard news that he was ambushed," Bueno said.

Fire razes journalist house in Cotabato

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines –- It seems the Year of the Water Dragon does not bring enough good fortune for Mindanao media community. Esmael Sali, anchor of the morning public affairs program of Catholic station dxMS here, lost his entire house to a conflagration four days after gunmen shot dead in Gen. Santos City local newspaper publisher GenSan journalist Christopher Guarin. “I was only able to save my seven-month child, everything, all our belongings billowed up in smoke,” Sali said in between sobs. The city’s fire marshall, Adam Guiamad, said they are still investigating on the cause of the fire that razed Sali’s house in Campo Muslim, a residential area here. For superstitious folks here, 2012, or the Year of the Water Dragon for the Chinese, may not be one filled with good tidings for members of the Fourth Estate in the South. Six journalists in the neighboring cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, among them Philippine Star correspondent Jigger Jerusalem, were displaced last month, the advent of the Year of the Water Dragon, when flashfloods, carrying logs cut by illegal loggers in Lanao del Sur, ravaged their villages. Sali, a Muslim, said he only believes in the Islamic teaching that everything in this world happens with the permissiveness of Allah and that he has no way but accept his fate. The local chapter of the National Union of Journalist has allocated an initial P5,000 cash assistance for Sali to be drawn from its local thrust fund.






OPAPP, MILF hope for signing of peace deal in 2012

by (PNA)

scs/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 7 (PNA) - With the start of the new year, the opportunities for peace remain positive for both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Office of the Presidential Advisr on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles took note of this as she addressed the employees of the OPAPP on their first working day of the year. “Let 2012 be the year for peace,” Secretary Deles said in a statement released here. “The year 2011 was a roller coaster. We were up many times and we were also down and under many times – but the solution is to always not allow ourselves to stay down,” she said. The MILF also expressed optimism a peace deal would be signed this year, the 11th year since the GPH-MILF peace process began. Deles emphasized that the work of peace is not going to be easy. Challenges await peace builders both on the negotiating table and on the ground, she said. "We must persevere because the work that we do is not just for us; it’s for the country. Maybe one of the things to be grateful for, to have experienced all of the trials and all of the challenges last year, is that we know exactly what we’re facing this year,” Deles stated. “We should be ready to be facing challenges, to be facing problems," she added. Von Al Haq, the MILF spokesperson, said the MILF is more than hopeful a peace agreement that is acceptable to all Mindanaons will be signed this year. "We have been hoping for that for so long because we believed that the only way to attain peace in our homeland is through peaceful means," Al Haq said. Deles also stressed the importance of partnerships. “One thing we learned last year and practiced is that peace is not just the work of OPAPP. If we thought it was just our work, we know we would not be able to do it alone. We should also be able to rely on our peace partners.” Deles said President Benigno S. Aquino III is determined to forge a peace deal within his term and if possible during the first part of 2012. "We remain hopeful and we remain optimistic a deal that will bring genuine peace in the south is achieved," Deles said. “Let 2012 be the year for peace in our hearts and in the entire country,” Deles said.

Anti-logging task force shuts down 7 sawmills

by JULMUNNIR I. JANNARAL


COTABATO CITY: Elements of the newly reinforced Task Force Ranao have shutdown seven sawmills in the municipality of Kapai in Lanao del Sur over the weekend.

ARMM OIC Governor Mujiv Hataman announced this new development on Thursday as he vowed to engage an “all-out war” against illegal logging that is believed to be rampant in Lanao del Sur by issuing total log ban directives.

The task force, headed by the Philippine Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade under the command of Col. Daniel Lucero, has also confiscated around 25 truckloads of cut logs during the operation.

According to Hataman, the Task Force Ranao has recommended the filing of appropriate legal charges against some barangay (village) officials believed to be involved in logging operation in the municipality of Kapai.

Hataman reiterated his earlier pronouncement of not sparing anyone found to have culpability in the widespread illegal logging in the province, blamed by environmentalists to have exacerbated the flood that devastated Iligan City.

An initial report released by Task Force Sendong, a special taskforce created by the regional government to investigate the matter, points to VicMar Development Corp., a Makati City-based company, as the largest logging operator in the province since 1975.

There are reports though still have to be confirmed suggested that influential individuals to be behind the company, enabling it to proceed with its logging operation despite the imposition of a total log ban in the region by the two past regional governors of the ARMM.

Aside from the total log ban that was imposed by Hataman, he also issued a moratorium on the issuance of private land timber permit so as not to provide loggers room to evade or circumvent the law.

ARMM eyeing 'big impact' projects

by ALI G. MACABALANG


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Foreign institutions helping the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governance should give more focus on economy-enhancing activities based on agro-industry potentials to achieve more life-changing impact on the ARMM’s majority marginalized populace.

ARMM officer-in-charge (OIC)-Governor Mujiv Hataman pointed this out in a media forum here Wednesday when asked about his administration’s policy towards ongoing multi-billion-peso interventions in the region of foreign agencies of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Australia, and the financial institutions of the World Bank (WB), and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Unlike his predecessor ARMM acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Adiong, who conducted a brainstorming forum with foreign donor-agencies several days upon assuming office on December 14, 2009, Hataman said he would sit down with officials of the international community upon the creation of his pool of planners to be tasked to design a comprehensive package on economic-building mechanisms.

Hataman said he would organize “anytime next week” a local network of planners he wanted to craft “big impact” programs and projects based on the ARMM’s great potentials in agro-industry.

He said that after the formulation of the economy-boosting plan, he would then bring it to a meeting within his first 100 days in office with Philippine-based officials of foreign donor-agencies as a reference in his desired paradigm shift in the receipt of assistance from the international community.

At the Tapatan sa ARMM media forum here Wednesday, Hataman acknowledged the trailblazing intervention of foreign institutions in the autonomous region’s concerns on bureaucracy enhancement by JICA, education and health by UN agencies, and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and peace and security by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The World Bank has expanded last year its services in the ARMM with additional $30 million financing on small-scale community-based infrastructure projects, JICA extended its assistance period to four more years in capability-building and education infrastructures, and the AusAID granted last year a P3.9 billion aid for the region’s education and health concerns in six years, records showed.

But in his analysis, Hataman said that while the current mode of foreign interventions bring about some betterment in the region, the empowerment of the ARMM’s majority poor sector in agriculture remains a dream.

He expressed hope that the foreign donor-agencies would take cognizance of the untapped potentials of agro-industry in the region as manifested in the vast track of fertile lands and aquatic resources dismally tapped.

Hataman particularly underscored the need for intervention in the receding ecology and water level of Lake Lanao, a major source of hydro-electricity and cultural heritage in Mindanao, and the vast tracks of alienable and disposable lands in Maguindanao, so with the under-tapped marine and aquatic resources of the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.

North Cotabato town boosts communication to address disasters, crimes

by (PNA)

LAP/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 4 (PNA) - To help reduce criminality and make the local government prompt in responding to crimes and natural calamities, the local government of Makilala town in North Cotabato has distributed communications facilities to all 38 villages.

Makilala Mayor Rudy Caoagdan said 18 new quarter-wave radio antennas in remote and hard to reach villages were distributed at the start of 2012 so that communications would be faster and effective.

Caoagdan said he is boosting communication network in all the 38 barangays of Makilala for faster response to incidents of natural disaster, criminality, and others like request for medical emergency assistance.

In August last year, 96 handheld radios, five base-radios and one repeater were purchased for the same purpose.

All 38 barangays have handheld radios, including the key personnel in the local government offices.

He said municipality is undertaking intensive campaign against crime, particularly illegal drugs trade.

Makilala sits at the foot of the country's highest peak and is prone to natural calamities.

"We are intensifying our drive to protect the environment, this is my top priority," he told reporters.

Second is how to contain crimes and rebellion.

"How can we implement development projects when we have peace and order problem coupled with environmental problems," Caoagdan, who is in his second year as town chief executive, said.

Makilala is a second class municipality with a population of about 70,000 people.

Its greatest asset is its abundance in natural resources with forest cover of as high as 79 percent thus it has plenty of hot and cold springs and a very rich eco-tourism which is yet to get maximum utilization.

Investments in ARMM undisturbed amid conflict

by John Unson


COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Armed conflicts may have destabilized some areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but investors still poured around P1.7 billion worth of ventures in the area from January to October in 2011.

Records from the office of lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the ARMM’s Board of Investment, indicated that the biggest chunk of the total investments generated in 2011 was the capital input from the EA Trilink Corporation, a regional telecommunications outfit based in Marawi City.

Operating on a franchise issued by the 24-seat ARMM Regional Assembly, the telecommunications firm has initially poured P1.5 billion for its project in the ARMM.

In the third quarter of 2011, Matling Industrial and Commercial Corporation in Malabang, Lanao del Sur invested P23 million for a biomass power plant for its multi-million cassava starch factory.

Another big agricultural firm, the Agumil Philippines, spent P132.3 million for a modern palm oil mill in Buluan, Maguindanao, home to hundreds of hectares of African palm oil trees.

Mastura said investors’ confidence in the ARMM could be partly attributed to the continuing effort of the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to pursue and negotiated settlement of the peace and security issues besetting the Moro-dominated areas in the South.

Mastura said he is certain the newly-appointed officer-in-charge of ARMM, Mujiv Hataman, will focus on measures that can sustain the improvements in the local business atmosphere.

Businessman Pete Marquez, a senior member of the Metro Kutawato Chamber of Commerce, said they fully support Hataman and the Aquino administration's agenda of introducing reforms in the ARMM.

“Reforms in the regional bureaucracy will also usher in improvements in the region’s economy,” Marquez said.

Marquez said Hataman must put only hardworking and qualified people at the ARMM’s trade and investment department to show the business communities that he and his principal, President Aquino, are keen on fostering economic stability in the ARMM.

Hataman, who assumed as OIC-governor only last December 22, is still to appoint his trade secretary.






Govt drive vs. firecracker injuries successful, say health, police authorities

by (PNA)

DCT/NYP/EOF


COTABATO CITY, Jan. 2 (PNA) -– Health and police authorities here announced the success of a government drive to reduce if not totally eradicate the number of firecracker related injuries during the New Year’s revelry.

In Cotabato City, Dr. Marlow Ninal, city health chief, said his office has recorded more than 60 percent reduction in the number of firecracker related injuries when the city welcomed 2012.

“We only have three persons injured by firecracker before the New Year ushered,” Ninal said, adding that the previous year there were nine firecracker victims.

“I can say we succeeded in reminding our revelers to avoid firecracker and instead use “torotot” and other non-harmful things that produce sounds,” Ninal said. On Dec. 24, two persons were hurt while exploding firecracker.

In Maguindanao, Dr. Tahir Sulaik, Maguindanao provincial health chief, said the provincial health office has recorded a zero casualty or firecracker related injuries during the celebration.

“We are happy to announce that the government’s campaign against the use of firecrackers had been successful, we have firecracker explosions but as compared to last year, we noted very minimal explosions,” Sulaik said.

But a soldier of the 45th Infantry Battalion was hit by stray bullet in his shoulder while inside a military base.

“We are both happy and sad,” Ninal described the city’s celebration of the New Year. “While we are happy only few were hurt and nobody was hit by stray bullets, still there were city residents who fired their guns during the revelry.”

Senior Supt. Danny Reyes, Cotabato City police director, said a live rifle grenade was found at a roadside along Raja Tabunaway boulevard shortly before 12 midnight Saturday.

It was properly defused by Army and police bomb experts. In North Cotabato’s first district which is composed of five towns, health and police authorities reported no firecracker related injuries.

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