GENERAL Santos City Mayor Pedro Acharon stood firm in his decision not to issue new franchise for public transportation this year.

"YOU don't want me to have a rest?"

KORONADAL CITY -- The South Cotabato Provincial Government is forming a technical working group (TWG) in a bid to fast-track the passage of its long-delayed environment code, an official said last wee

KORONADAL CITY -- The South Cotabato Provincial Government has allocated P178 million for a four-pronged resiliency plan in a bid to cushion the effect of the global economic crunch.

INCREASED fisheries investments from the Philippines in recent years have contributed to the overall economic growth of Papua New Guinea (PNG), a foreign official said.

A BILL creating an economic zone composing of adjacent towns in Sarangani province has gained way in both houses of Congress, a provincial executive said.

TIGHTER security measures will be implemented this week in Central Mindanao to possibly avert armed and bomb attacks in crowded facilities during the observance of the Holy Week, a top official said.

AN ALLEGED member of an extortion group preying on businessmen in south and central Mindanao was nabbed last Wednesday, police said.

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Displaced families from a war-torn village in Alamada, North Cotabato, have refused to go back home due to threats of attacks by renegade Moro rebels in the area.

SARANGANI Governor Miguel Rene Dominguez left on April 2 for a six-week study grant that will bring him to several major cities in the United States as a fellow of Eisenhower Center for American Studi

MAASIM, Sarangani -- A Sarangani-based Filipino-owned company is bent on putting up a P250-million shipbuilding facility here, touted to be the biggest in Mindanao.

THE Spanish government has provided scholarship assistance to 5,100 elementary and high school students in Zamboanga Sibugay.

ALABEL, Sarangani -- Local governments in this province, together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) and local partners, have formed a coalition to fight tuberculosis

PALIMBANG, Sultan Kudarat -- Thousands of Moro people gathered in a peaceful assembly here last March 18, urging government to stop the war and honor the territorial deal.

GENSAN Shipyard will break ground on March 24 for a new shipbuilding facility with a combined 10,000T capacity slipway.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be the invited principal sponsor.