Difference between revisions of "General Santos City News November 2011"

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General Santos City News November 2011 (view source)

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Investors and stockholders of SEC were in Maasim Friday to lead the groundbreaking ceremonies of the power plant project which is estimated to cost a total of US$450 million or P19.4 billion. (Edwin G. Espejo/MindaNews)
Investors and stockholders of SEC were in Maasim Friday to lead the groundbreaking ceremonies of the power plant project which is estimated to cost a total of US$450 million or P19.4 billion. (Edwin G. Espejo/MindaNews)


==Groundbreaking set for Conal’s $450M coal-fired power plant==
*Source: http://durianpost.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/groundbreaking-set-for-conals-450m-coal-fired-power-plant/
* November 25, 2011
:by  ROGER M. BALANZA
General Santos City — Conal Holdings Corporation has announced groundbreaking rites for the 200MW coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the $450 million power plant is scheduled on November 25, said Joseph Nocos, vice president of the Alcantara Group’s Conal Holdings.
This is a step to making the project a reality, said Nocos in a press briefing on the project that would be implemented by sister company Sarangani Energy Corp.
Nocos told mediamen based in this city that the construction of the first 100MW phase of the project would be completed in 36 months, with the second 100MW following after 12 months of the completion of the first phase.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued Conal an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) in 2009.
The project was opposed by the Catholic Church and environmental groups including Greenpeace, which is monitoring coal-fired power plant projects in Mindanao.
==Pacquiao reveals talks ongoing with Floyd's camp==
*Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/sports/11/24/11/pacquiao-reveals-talks-ongoing-floyds-camp
*11/24/2011 6:07 PM
:by  abs-cbnnews.com
Manny Pacquiao disclosed he has already sent his adviser Michael Koncz to begin the negotiation for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. Pacquiao made the announcement following his homecoming in General Santos City. ANC Top Story, November 24,
==2 years after, 8-yr-old girl still cries for her mama==
*Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/98767/2-years-after-8-yr-old-girl-still-cries-for-her-mama
*2:43 am | Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
:by  Aquiles Z. Zonio
Inquirer Mindanao
GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Mention her mother’s name and 8-year-old Rhully Mae Montano Shulla quickly breaks into tears.
“She can’t sleep alone. She must constantly be in the company of others. She can’t be left alone,” her grandmother, Nanay Maura, said.
Rhully Mae is the youngest of two children of Marife “Neneng” Montano, publisher of Saksi News, who was among at least 32 journalists and media workers slaughtered in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009. They were accompanying the wife and other relatives of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu in filing his candidacy for governor against the ruling Ampatuan family.
Two years after the massacre, the children of the victims continue to suffer from trauma and financial woes.
Nanay Maura, 65, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Rhully Mae had been showing disturbing behavior since losing her single mother. Aside from her fear of being all by herself, the child has become somewhat forgetful, her grandmother said.
“She would arrive home without her bag. Often, it is left either in the tricycle or in school,” Nanay Maura said.
Rhully Mae would always call her mother, the grandmother said. Barely three days before Neneng’s second death anniversary, the child kept asking “Where’s my mama? When will she come home?”
Her performance in school has also been affected. According to Nanay Maura, the school principal had advised her to seek professional help.
“The problem is we don’t have money. Meanwhile, I always encourage her to go out and play with her friends or peers,” the grandmother said.
Rhully Mae and her elder brother, Jether, 18, are recipients of scholarship grants from the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). She receives P1,000 so she can enroll and P500 in monthly allowance.
Jether, a first year accountancy student at a private school in General Santos City, gets P1,500 per semester during enrollment and P3,000 monthly allowance.
“We miss our bonding time. Going out to the mall, dining together and buying toys, clothes, etc.,” he said as he recounted the happy times he and his sister had with their mother. He described his mother as hardworking, someone who would do everything to provide what they need.
“Jether was a spoiled brat during his boyhood. But he has changed a lot since he became a teenager, all because of Neneng’s patience and love for him,” Nanay Maura said.
The grandmother said she had lost not only her daughter in the massacre, but also “my own livelihood.” She used to work and stay in the farm at Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat province to augment Neneng’s income.
“We helped one another to provide the needs of her children. Now, I am left alone to face the difficult tasks of rearing and providing their basic needs,” she said.
Nanay Maura said she needed financial support for the schooling of two children and their survival.
Where’s Jergin?
Another massacre victim and single mother, Gina dela Cruz of Gensan Focus left behind five children—aged 18, 11, 10, 7 and 2 years—in the care of her mother, Nanay Nancy, 65. Three of the children are scholars of the NUJP and Bantay Bata 163.
Often, Nanay Nancy said they would eat just once a day because of financial problems since her daughter’s death. But the children have learned to live with it and nobody is complaining, she said.
The eldest child, Jergin, now 18 and also a single mother, was compelled to work “part-time as majorette instructress during the day and a promo girl of a liquor brand at a disco bar in the evening,” she said.
But Nanay Nancy, who is busy with household chores and taking care of the other children, is worried if Jergin really works at Horton’s Disco Bar on North Osmeña Street.
On their own
John Elliver “Janjan” Cablitas, 18, said the death of his mother, Marites, publisher of Gensan Focus, was a big loss to the family. “She left behind a deep and aching void no one can ever fill,” he said.
When Marites was still alive, everything—breakfast, uniforms, etc.—were ready when her children woke up in the morning, said Janjan, a second year student taking up BS Marine Transportation. He and his elder brother, Mark Elliver, 19, are scholars of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ).
Their mother was the one doing all the housework, Janjan said. Now, they have to do it by themselves, he said, as their father, a policeman, is always on duty.
“We miss the times when we were together. I will never forget when she was still alive it was a real party during our birthday. Now, during birthdays we prepare just ‘pancit,’ and, sometimes, none at all,” he said.
Motivation
The support given by the Inquirer motivates and inspires Ma. Alexandra “Polay” Morales, 12, to study hard. She is the eldest daughter of slain Gensan Focus sales agent, Rosell Morales.
Polay dreams of becoming a lawyer someday “to help my family overcome poverty and to help victims of injustice find justice for themselves.”
Right now, she said, she is developing her reading habit. “I heard that you have to read a lot when taking up a law course. So as early as now, I want to develop my reading habit,” she said in the vernacular.
“She needs to develop self-confidence. She’s  shy,” said her mother, Grace.
After the massacre, Grace noticed that Polay would usually sulk in a corner and cry. “Before, I was worried. She was not saying anything. She would just cry and cry,” she said.
Polay said she was close to her father. “He helped us do our assignments, brought us to and fetched us from school and, during his free time, we went out together to eat and buy toys,” she said.
Since his death, the family’s finances have turned from bad to worse and the children are not getting the proper nutrition needed for their age.
Appeal for help
In Bacolod City, the sister of massacre victim, Bart Maravilla of Bombo Radyo, who was from Negros Occidental, is appealing for help for his children.
Teresita Maravilla, who lives in the city’s Barangay (village) 6, said she had been taking care of four of her brother’s children—Colleen, 16, Jashen, 15, Josh, 11, and Jinx Cyrus, 7. She said she was buying and selling scrap iron for a living.
Teresita said the youngest child, John Clarence, 5, had been living with her other brother in Cadiz City.
Another journalist from the province, Henry Araneta, a correspondent of radio dzRH, was among the massacre victims. With a report from Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas
==UN team seeks continuous humanitarian aid for Mindanao==
*Source: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2011/11/22/un-team-seeks-continuous-humanitarian-aid-for-mindanao/
*Tuesday| November 22, 2011
:by Bong S. Sarmiento
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 November) –The United Nations (UN) has sent a team to the Philippines for a five-day mission on how best to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by armed conflict and natural disasters.
Catherine Bragg, UN deputy emergency relief coordinator, and her team were in Cotabato City Sunday until Monday for field visits on the humanitarian efforts and meetings with government officials and other foreign aid agencies working in Southwestern Mindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
She flew in to the country on Saturday and was slated to meet with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa noontime Wednesday following a meeting with the diplomatic community to ask for support to humanitarian action in Mindanao, according to her schedule of activities furnished to MindaNews.
“At least 698,000 people continue to require humanitarian aid in central Mindanao. This includes those displaced, people who have returned home or resettled elsewhere, as well as other vulnerable groups in need of assistance,” she said in a statement.
UN humanitarian agencies and partners have this year appealed for $33.3 million to fund relief operations in Mindanao. Key gaps remain in health, food security, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, protection monitoring and rehabilitation of basic social infrastructure.
In 2008, following the botched signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), war broke anew between government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces largely affecting communities in Maguindanao, Lanao and North Cotabato provinces.
The MOA-AD, which would have given the MILF wider political and economic power, was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Bragg will also discuss with government officials how the international humanitarian community can best provide coordinated support to complement the country’s response to natural disasters.
She was slated to meet with Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Undersecretary Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
“The Philippines is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries. The people of the Philippines live with the constant threat of typhoons, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions,” said Bragg.
“The international community is here to support the government in providing the quickest and most effective response in times of crisis,” she added.
Accompanying Bragg were her Special Assistant Yannick Martin, and Philippines Desk Officer Alf Blikberg. (Bong Sarmiento/MindaNews)
==Tuna capital, General Santos City==
*Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/image/nation/regions/11/21/11/tuna-capital-general-santos-city
*11/21/2011 7:38 PM
:by  Rem Zamora for abs-cbnNEWS.com
Workers at the fish port of General Santos City in Mindanao process the catch in the early morning. The city remains to be the tuna capital of the Philippines despite the dwindling catch due to stricter regulations on fishing in international waters.
==GMA in Maguindanao Hole==
*Source: http://www.mindanews.com/mindaviews/2011/11/20/gma-in-maguindanao-hole/
*Sunday| November 20, 2011
:by  Mindanews
GENERAL SANTOS CITY, November 19 – Immediate Past President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fell into the Maguindanao hole in late afternoon of November 18. Never did she have an iota of thought four years ago that she was digging a hole to swallow her ingloriously shortly after basking in power. Never did she think that hole would feature in a drama where she would end up either a heroine or a villain.
Fortunately for the beleaguered Aquino III government, the Maguindanao hole turned up as its ace against the Supreme Court TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) issued to void the WLO (Watch List Order) of the Department of Justice preventing Arroyo from flying out of the country for medical reasons.  The government fears that once the Arroyos are out of the country they would not return to face the criminal cases yet to be filed against them.
The drama started in the evening of November 15. At past noon that day, the Supreme Court issued the TRO which the Arroyos obviously had known earlier to be in their favor. They already had plane reservations for Singapore and Hongkong. Within hours of the issuance of the TRO they were ready with the P2-million bond and another legal requirement.
DOJ prevented the Arroyos from leaving at the risk of contempt of court and a constitutional crisis. DOJ and the Palace defied the TRO on procedural grounds – it had not been served to the Justice Department and it was issued before the hearing of oral arguments scheduled on November 22. Obviously to remedy this, the Supreme Court heard en banc DOJ’s motion to lift the TRO and other new petitions on November 18.
DOJ while hoping for the best, prepared for the worst. While the en banc hearing was going on at the Supreme Court, the government filed in court the “electoral sabotage case” against GMA, then Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, and Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol, et al.  The Supreme Court had said that it granted the TRO since there was no pending criminal case against the Arroyos.
As expected, the TRO was sustained with the same 8-5 vote that issued it – the eight all Arroyo appointees. However, RTC 112 of Pasay City, to which the election case had been raffled, issued the warrant of arrest immediately. The warrant was served to Arroyo at the St. Luke’s Hospital before the Arroyos could leave for their 5:30 flight to Singapore. GMA will be under hospital or house arrest.
RTC 112 must also have issued a DHO (Departure Hold Order) against GMA as prayed for by the prosecution. The Supreme Court TRO does not cover a lower court DHO. DOJ immediately petitioned the Court to lift its TRO since an arrest warrant had already been served to Arroyo. While Arroyo’s lawyers said they would ask the Supreme Court to restrain the filing of the electoral sabotage case that will be another story and it will take time to unravel.
The “electoral sabotage case” is the Maguindanao hole. That stemmed from the alleged order of Arroyo to rig the 2007 senatorial election in Maguindanao to give the Arroyo coalition Team Unity a 12-0 win – the eventual result despite the protests filed with the Commission on Elections. The case materialized after Andal’s provincial administrator and Bedol exposed how the rigging allegedly took place.
As a consequence of the exposé, Senator Miguel Zubiri, the 12th winning TU candidate, resigned to give way to Aquilino Pimentel III, who had challenged his (Zubiri’s) election at the Comelec and the Senate Electoral Tribunal. Pimentel filed the electoral sabotage complaint following the exposé and his installation in the Senate.
The electoral sabotage case is nonbailable. Because of her present health condition, Arroyo will not be detained in a regular detention cell; however, she will be under either hospital or house arrest.  Will her lawyers be able to obtain relief for her from the Supreme Court?
But while she is in Maguindanao hole, more criminal cases – corruption, plunder, etc. – will be filed against her and her husband.  One or two are in the “pipeline”. Even if her lawyers can get her out of the Maguindanao hole, more holes will be in her way.
GMA’s falling into the holes she has dug will have serious national political and legal consequences. She has triggered the confrontation of the Malacanang and the Supreme Court which actually started with her midnight appointment of Justice Renato Corona as Chief Justice. Some of the President’s allies have tagged the Court as an obstacle in the President’s tuwid na daan (straight road) program; the Arroyo loyalists are accusing the President of “vindictiveness” and of persecuting the Arroyos.
Abangan ang marami pang susunod habang nasa Mindanao hole si GMA.  (Patricio P. Diaz, General Santos City).




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But most of all, he also needs to clean the house of hangers-on, sycophants, freeloaders and opportunists.
But most of all, he also needs to clean the house of hangers-on, sycophants, freeloaders and opportunists.
Because like it or not, these will be the same people who will eventually destroy the house that Pacquiao built. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Edwin G. Espejo writes for asiancorrespondent.com.)
Because like it or not, these will be the same people who will eventually destroy the house that Pacquiao built. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Edwin G. Espejo writes for asiancorrespondent.com.)


==Newspaper executive killed in General Santos City==
==Newspaper executive killed in General Santos City==
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