Headlines, Bylines and Datelines

By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

October 14, 2008–Local officials from Mindanao Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision declaring as unconstitutional the memorandum of agreement that would have given Muslim rebels control over an expanded territory in the south.

Interviewed by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak, the most vocal critics of the MOA on ancestral domain said the tribunal’s ruling should be a lesson to the government to be more careful and transparent the next time it negotiates with the Muslim separatist groups.

By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that the deal forged by the national government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was unconstitutional. The signing of the MOA-AD in Malaysia was cancelled last August 5 after the court issued a temporary restraining order, based on a complaint filed by local officials in Mindanao whose areas were covered by the agreement.

Petitioners said the deal was tantamount to the creation of a separate state in Mindanao. Under the agreement, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and territories that would vote for inclusion in the Moro homeland through a plebiscite would form the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). The agreement would also empower the BJE to establish its own courts and police and the power to independently deal with foreign governments.

“We are very elated and pleased,” Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, one of the petitioners, told us. Six Muslim barangays in Zamboanga’s Sacol Islands were included in the proposed BJE.

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August 1, 1989: The Republic Act No. 6734 or the Organic Act of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is signed into law by then President Corazon C. Aquino.

November 17, 1989: A plebiscite is conducted in the proposed areas of ARMM (13 provinces and nine cities) to determine if the residents want to be part of the region. Plebiscite was held in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Davao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Palawan, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur and in the cities of Dapitan, Dipolog, Cotabato, General Santos, Iligan, Marawi, Pagadian, Puerto Princesa, and Zamboanga. Only four provinces—Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur—choose to join the region.

February 12, 1990: Election for the newly-created region is held. Zacaria Candao and Benjamin Loong win as the region’s governor and vice governor, respectively.

March 25, 1993: Election is held for the 2nd time. Liningding Pangandaman and Nabil Tan are proclaimed winners for the gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial posts.
September 9, 1996: Election is held for the 3rd time. Nur Misuari and Guimid Matalam are elected as governor and vice-governor, respectively.

Research by Jesus Llanto and Fharhana Abdurahim.

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By Jesus Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

April 29, 2008- The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) registered the highest population growth rate among the country’s 17 regions, according to the latest census, and the government attributes this to evacuees who are returning because of “better economic opportunities and [a] relatively peaceful situation.”

Results of the 2007 National Census showed that the ARMM registered the highest annual growth rate of 5.46 percent among the regions. This is more than two times the national annual growth rate of 2.04 percent.

Tomas Osias, executive director of the Commission on Population (POPCOM), said that the high annual population growth rate in ARMM pushed the national growth rate to 2.04 percent.

“If ARMM’s growth is not that high, the national annual population growth rate could have reached 1. 9 percent only,” Osias told Newsbreak.

Population in the ARMM increased by 1.3 million during the last seven years—from 2.803 million in May 2000 to 4.12 million in August 1, 2007. ARMM is composed of six provinces: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Shariff Kabunsuan, and Basilan (excluding Isabela City) and Marawi City. It has been a hotbed of Muslim secessionist movements.

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Given the possibility of a food crisis, everybody’s looking toward Mindanao, the supposed food basket of the Philippines. But how far is the island from that status?

A recent assessment of government projects in Mindanao, made by the Presidential Management Staff and the Mindanao Economic and Development Council (MEDCO), showed that only three of the 27 high-priority projects considered critical in transforming Mindanao into the country’s main food producer have been completed.

MEDCO coordinates development and peace projects in Mindanao and serves as the official and permanent Philippine Coordinating Office for the Brunei Darussalam Indonesia Malaysia the Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

MEDCO chair Virgilio Leyretana discussed with Newsbreak’s Jesus Llanto the many factors in the slow growth of the super region—among them the lack of crucial infrastructure, the very limited employment opportunities, and the region’s dependence on foreign donor agencies. Excerpts:

How is the Mindanao economy doing?

For the last five years, we have been a resilient economy despite the intermittent disturbances in the peace and order. We performed 5.2 percent in 2006 .We even beat the Visayas [at 4.9 percent].

What is the main driver of growth?

It is still agriculture, but since 2006 [the] services [sector] has been picking up because of the growth of the ICT (information and communications technology) and BPO (business process outsourcing).

Are the Mindanaoans benefiting from this growth?

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This interview is part of the Mindanao Online Reporting Project in Mindanao funded by the Australian Embassy.

Public Trust Media Group, publisher of Newsbreak, and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), are inviting interested students to apply for limited slots in the Journalism Internship Program for Mindanao Students that will run from May 1 to 31, 2008.

Three incoming senior or senior-level students of mass communication, journalism, or related courses in any college or university in Mindanao will be chosen to receive training on journalistic research, field reporting, and newsroom management under the award-winning staff of Newsbreak.

The program, which will be conducted mostly in Metro Manila and partly in Mindanao, will also give interns the chance to get published in Newsbreak Online (www.newsbreak.com.ph), in the news website of broadcast network ABS-CBN which Newsbreak is managing (www.abs-cbnNEWS.com), and in Newsbreak’s upcoming special issue on Mindanao that AusAID is also funding.

The program will provide two-way air fare, accommodations, and daily allowances to the interns for the duration of their stay in Manila.

The applicant should submit by email his or her resumé that includes three (3) references with complete contact details, a recent photo, two sample articles (either published or submitted in any journalism course), and a 600-word essay discussing what issues he or she considers most pressing in his or her locality or in Mindanao as a whole, and how journalism can help address them.

The applicant is also required to submit a cover letter stating what issues or sectors he or she is most interested in, and a recommendation letter from the dean, department head, or internship adviser.

Applications should be received by Newsbreak, through assistant managing editor Miriam Grace Go, at email address gigigo_newsbreak@yahoo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by April 10, 2008. Successful applicants will be notified by April 18.

By Jesus F. Llanto

Mindanao has remained the poorest of the three island groups in the Philippines in nearly a decade, and the government’s anti-poverty agency is blaming it on the war and the lack of basic infrastructure in parts of the South.

ByJesus F. Llanto, Researcher

Budgets for education, health, peace and order to be reduced by as much as 40 percent.

City governments in Mindanao are set to cut down on basic services and contractual employees to cope with the unexpected decrease in their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share this year.
Cities nationwide were expecting huge increases in their IRA this year, and thus programmed their expenditures based on those amounts. However, the national government–upon Congress’s initiative and the President’s approval–created 16 cities in 2007 that didn’t meet the requirements set by law. This slashed the old cities’ expected IRA increase by tens of millions each.
Earlier, existing cities launched a series of protest actions by threatening to halt operations or withholding tax remittances and government insurance payments.

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