Davao natives win fight over ancestral domain rights

Matigsalogs forms council to manage ancestral domain
By ROGER M. BALANZA

The Matigsalog tribe of Marilog District in Davao City has formed a tribal council of elders to manage a 72,000-hectare ancestral domain recently carved out of a title issued to indigenous people of Kitaotao, Bukidnon.
Tribal leader Datu Ernisto Salumay said his tribe [...]

Karapatan slammed for ‘using’ tribal people in propaganda

Tribal leaders in Davao City yesterday scored militant groups using indigenous people to advance causes other than the plight of the lumads.
Datu Ruben Labawan and Datu Martion Dumacan cited the case of several members of the Matigsalog in Compostela Valley who fled to Davao City reportedly to avoid being caught in the [...]

Running away from a war: The children of Compostela Valley

PRIZED POSSESSION.  A young child, displaced by military-rebel clashes in Compostela Valley in Southhern Philippines, holds a chicken as if his life depends on it, at an evacuation center in Davao City. Hundreds of farmers mostly indigenous peoples have fled Compostela Valley as government troopers lock in sporadic battles with the communist New People’s Army.

Governor Uy slams human rights group Karapatan; farmer leader shot dead

By ROGER M. BALANZA

LAND NOT BULLETS. This is the message on the hat of farmer leader Celso Pojas during the peasant month press conference in October last year. Celso Pojas, former secretary-general of the Farmers’ Association of Davao City and spokesman of the KMP in Southern Mindanao, was gunned down today, the first militant leader [...]

Duterte all the way for Pastor Quiboloy

Rody: I will stand by Pastor Quiboloy
By ROGER M. BALANZA

“He will be my friend until kingdom come….whether he goes to hell or heaven.”
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte dished out this statement as Pastor Apollo Quiboloy is linked to the killing of a tribal leader last week, allegedly for refusing to sell his two-hectare farm [...]

Task Force Davao: We are not Quiboloy ‘private army’

Pastor paying salaries of miltiary-trained militiamen

The former commanding officer of Task Force Davao has denied the military contingent is a “private army” of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, adding troopers and militiamen assigned to the pastor and his Prayer Mountain in Tamayong, Calinan district are covered by a memorandum of agreement.
If they are used [...]

TRIBAL LEADER SLAMMED FOR LUMAD RECRUITMENT VS. COMMUNIST REBELS

CHRISTIANS FEAR SEIZURE OF PROPERTY IN ANCESTRAL DOMAIN
A municipal mayor in Compostela Valley wants a tribal leader from Davao City investigated for reportedly organizing indigenous people in the province to rise up against the New People’s Army.
Laac mayor Rey Navarro said he would ask Governor Arturo Uy and the National Commission [...]

DUTERTE SHIELDS PASTOR QUIBOLOY VS. RAP IN TRIBAL LEADER’S SLAY

By ROGER M. BALANZA

Vehement denials yesterday met accusation by the New People’s Army that Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and military troopers were behind last week’s killing of Datu Dominador Darog, with Mayor Rodrigo vouching the pastor could not order the dastardly act.
A military officer commanding an Army battalion spearheading the counter-insurgency campaign in [...]

Duterte lectures nat’l govt on idle lands

Rody tells govt to give Marilog to farmers

With thousands of idle unproductive government lands in Marilog and other farflung areas in the city, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday urged the national government to distribute them to farmers to spur agricultural productivity.
If they cannot be given to the farmers, Duterte also suggested they [...]

NCIP officer gunned down

A lone gunman pumped three bullets killing on the spot an official of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Koronadal City in Sultan Kudarat on Wednesday noon.
Rafaelito Handoc was shot dead a day before he was to preside a multi-sectoral meeting on mining problems in the province.
Handoc is the chief of the technical [...]