Editorial: The eyes of the barangay

IT shouldn’t have taken a public on-air haranguing before Barangay 23-C chairman Amilbangsa Manding acted against illegal drugs in his area in Mini-Forest.

But because he didn’t do anything to stop the flourishing nocturnal business there, then he fully deserved what he got. Manding was not just the barangay chairman, he lives right where the action is; thus there is no doubt he got word about all the goings-on. His is an urban slum where talk travels far and wide, it’s impossible that he didn’t know anything.

Valle: It’s not only a show of force

WHEN it comes to creativity, women never really run out of ways to do things. It’s good to know that more and more among our kabaro are finally taking upon themselves to be heard, to participate in activities that matter most to our protection and humanity’s survival.

We know that men “will always be men”, meaning, because of the bad influences in our society, patriarchy is here to stay, and the “opposite sex” will always have the tendency to think highly of themselves. I know we cannot generalize, as more and more laudable men have come to recognize the importance of women’s participation in all undertakings especially when it comes to pursuing genuine peace and development.

Maglana: Minding Mindanao’s chasms, checkpoints and chokepoints

DAVAO City recently had the double distinction of hosting two key events: the 2013 Philippines Development Forum (PDF) and the first Mindanao Development Forum (MDF).

The February 4-5, 2013 PDF was the tenth forum and the second to be held in Davao City -- the very first PDF in 2005 was in Davao, too. It is the “primary mechanism of the Government for facilitating substantive policy dialogue among stakeholders on the country’s development agenda” and a “process for developing consensus and generating commitments among different stakeholders toward critical actionable items of the Government’s reform agenda” (www.pdf.ph). The PDF is co-chaired by the Department of Finance and the World Bank.

Editorial: Renewed war vs illegal drugs

THE City Government of Davao's campaign against illegal drugs has been intensified anew, best illustrated when the metropolis' top policeman and a village chief walked side-by-side in scouring every nook and cranny of two barangays teeming with drug dealers and users.

It was a welcome sight for the people of Davao City longing to see government authorities minimize, if not totally eradicate, the illegal drugs menace pestering our society.

Oledan: Loose assumption

IT'S not enough that they encroached on the national territory and destroyed the protected marine area of Tubbataha reef, but they also continue to dump sewage wastes in our waters.

And as the United States Navy minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef and damaged the protected marine area, nothing is also expected in the waste dumping incident by US Navy contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia in Subic Bay in October last year.

Millan: The man with the iron fists

THERE is no longer any way for the people to try to avoid knowing about the alarming rise of crimes. They are all over the news.

There is no longer any way, likewise, for the government to dismiss or to ignore this fact of crimes involving firearms being committed despite the ongoing imposition of a gun ban.

Editorial: Of FOI heroes and heels

A MACABRE murder it was. The victim, the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, lay forlorn in the last nine session days of Congress in the last three weeks, until finally it died.

Estremera: Calibrating emotions

A YEAR ago yesterday, hundreds of Cebuanos ran all the way to their elevated areas far, far away from downtown Cebu, because of fear of a tsunami.

Imagine, leaving your office, running through R. Castillo Street in Agdao, and up the slopes along Mamay Road where people used to watch airplanes lang. For what? For a tsunami that just might hit Howland and Bak. I don’t know where that is. Go, Google it yourself.

Oledan: Twisted

LAWMAKERS have cited some contending issues on the Freedom of Information Bill.

Editorial: As expected, Mindanao is at the tailend

PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino III arrived an hour and a half late for his speech at the Philippine Development Forum held at the Marco Polo Hotel.

Oledan: Total recall

UNFORTUNATELY, existing laws allow it.

The Commission on Elections cannot go after politicians who are indirectly campaigning by appearing on television, radio and other forms of advertisements. Not until the official campaign period begins on February 12 for senatorial and party list bets and March 29 for candidates to local positions.

Editorial: Davao's art scene

DAVAO is fast growing, and with it comes the challenge for its art community to come alive. A city without art is a city without soul that is how it is and how it should be.

Lee: Offending religious feelings

I READ in the news that a famous tour guide in Manila was recently convicted for the crime of Offending Religious Feelings.

This stemmed from an incident where the tour guide went into a famous church in Manila and brandished a sign which said "Damaso," in order to advocate for the Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill) and to protest the Catholic Church's involvement in government affairs.

Hidalgo: Total ban - is it possible?

TTAL ban is bannered in the daily news concerning issues as logging, mining, smoking, liquors, weapons as guns, gambling, narcotics and drugs, human trafficking and sex slave crimes, prostitution, child labor age requirements, traffic laws restrictions. During election seasons, these are prohibited. Electioneering outside the time limits set for it, "epals", political dynasties, private armies. There are bans on treasure hunting, fishing of outsiders inside our territorial waters, land reclamation, and quarrying.

Valle: The Labyrinth

AT A glance, the drawing board of the Framework Agreement inked between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was welcomed by us, Mindanaoans, as if it is already the most awaited solution to our Moro brothers and sisters as well as our woes in Mindanao.

But before we jump up and down with glee and declare to one and all that at last, peace has come upon us, let us pause and examine what really is the Framework Agreement and what it means not only to our Moro brothers and sisters, but also to all of us living in this beleaguered but still beautiful island we call home in Mindanao. And then only can we truly say that indeed, Peace is still possible and can really materialize and exist after all today, in our generation.

Mendoza: Awareness in social media

DIRECTOR'S Cut: "I am your team leader and you are my teammates; together, let us work as a team." -- DepEd 11 Regional Director Gloria D. Benigno, CESO IV.

IT is timely that the theme of this year's National Schools Press Conference is "Campus Journalism: Championing the Ethics in Social Media." It reminds campus journalists and even ordinary students, teachers and the general public of their responsibility over the right of self-expression. It reminds them of their duty to be aware of what they post in their walls and tweet to their followers.

Estremera: Hobbies, full-time jobs, and the cycle of life

FULL-TIME jobs are not called that for nothing. Thus, having a full-time job becomes a challenge to sustain all other interests you may have, whether related or unrelated, like maintaining a blog, maintaining a journal, writing the stories you really want to write, and yes, hobbies.

Custodio: Just do it!

MORE often than not, we are our worst critics. I can most certainly assure you that I am mine. It makes sense to be so because in truth, we know ourselves best. We know what are capable of doing and what we would rather watch other people do simply because we know that we would suck at such an activity.

But here is the thing. What if we want to do something that we’ve never done before? Obviously, we have no concrete basis in terms of capability and probably success based on actual fact. So what now? Try or just watch others do it?

Dacawi: When Cayat couldn’t hold his drink

(We yield to some former shot glassmates’ request for a retelling of one man’s woes with the spirit of the colonial law that once governed Native Americans and Igorots alike. This retelling is a tribute to the visionary Igorot lawyer Sinai Carino Hamada, the founder of the oldest existing Baguio weekly –the venerable Baguio Midland Courier. - RD)

IT MUST have been terribly cold this season 76 years ago for Cayat to have tried to go for the old reliable: a shot of gin and, if warranted, another. For literally holding his drink, the fellow with one name was booked and brought before the justice of the peace. The court found him guilty and meted out a five-peso fine or imprisonment in case of inability to pay.

Editorial: Congratulation SPC!

SAN Pedro College (SPC) ranks eighth in the country for nursing and they even produced eight topnotchers in the December 2012 nursing licensure examinations. We cannot let such a feat go without a round of applause for us.

As a community, we take pride in the achievements of our people and the institutions that bear the mark of being Dabawenyo, and San Pedro College is among them.

Maglana: Ganoon lang ‘yun?!

FILIPINOS woke up on January 17, 2013 to news of an environmental accident at the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Marine Park off Palawan in the Sulu Sea.

The 1,300-ton, 68-meter-long USS Guardian struck a reef on the northwestern part of the Tubbataha's South Atoll and caused damage to a conservatively estimated area of 1,000 square meters. Interaksyon.com likened the size of the damaged area to that covered by two basketball courts.

Valle: Maximum tolerance

IT WOULD seem that politicians never really learn their lessons. By the looks of it, they are making the same mistakes over and over again. They might have missed life’s lectures during Martial law days, when Marcos’ despotic rule got the better of him and kept him in a box forever. Or they might be thinking that they can just make “monkey business” without getting caught, more sooner than later!

That is why, instead of addressing legitimate calls for redress from aggrieved citizens of this Republic, they go ahead, go after and bully people whom they have suspected to be behind the complaints. As if it will make complaints go away like a pestering toothache! Really, truly foolhardy, these politicians have so little nothing between their ears!

Millan: Gangster squad

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) cannot perform all of its functions all of the time. This is not a biased opinion. This is the truth. This is not a calculated guess. This is a fact. This is not an attack meant to demean or to damage or to destroy. This is acknowledged, at the very least, by the law.

Ledesma: NGOs and their razzmatazz

VICE Mayor Digong Duterte is correct when he rebuked non-government organizations in their claims that what caused the massive destructions was on account of illegal logging and mining and abetting human settlements along the river banks.

Estremera: Between disbelief and suspended belief

THOUGHTS are running wild inside me about the conviction of Carlos Celdran, the theater artist cum innovative tour operator, who chided the Padre Damasos of the Catholic Church when the Padre Damasos were taking the tack of vilifying, with mouths frothing, those who are pushing for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill.

Tacio: Divorce: To be or not to be

ON HEARING that House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has a plant to enact a divorce bill in the next Congress, retired Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani said it was “not a good development” for the country.

The divorce bill “might bring the country to the moral brink,” said Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who led the opposition to the reproductive health (RH) bill in the House.

Editorial: With a grain of salt

TO take something with a grain of salt means to accept whatever it is with skepticism. That is what we have been doing about statements by politicians, from congressmen up to the President with regards the Freedom of Information Bill.

The other day, Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat Jr., one of the authors of the FOI bill, said it will need “something short of a miracle” for the House of Representatives to pass this given the time left before they go on recess.

Covington: Rant-free

I LIKED fellow scribbler Jun Ledesma's notion the other day of there being an Island of Amnesia. Jun was debating whether it was the repository of some DPWH heavy gear promised to Davao long ago which never arrived (No Jun, it's probably on 'loan' somewhere digging out private swimming pools or constructing politician's mansions).

Ledesma: The long bridge across Bincungan

SOME people are visionaries. Some are simply focused on the present. I have always believed though that we homo sapiens have this unique gift that adds to our distinction from the lesser creatures. This was to be so because our divine Master wants us to have dominion over the rest of his creations.

Editorial: Shedding light

THE Liwanag World Festival on Creativity and Sustainability opens today at the Philippine Women's College of Davao. What is it?