Volume VI, No. 212
Website: www.mindanaodailynews.com
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Tuesday
P15.00
February 14, 2017
NPA declares ceasefire due to quake -
full story on page 2
Praying woman. Merlina
Busano, utility worker of Surigao city hall, with arms reaching out seems to be calling the heavens to stop the recurring aftershocks that caused them to panic at the City Auditorium while waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrival. Photo by Chris V. Panganiban for Mindanao Daily
MINDANAO DAILY T H E P U RV E YO R O F T R U T H , J U S T I C E , A N D D E V E LO P M E N T
Quake death toll rises to 7 Strong aftershock before Duterte’s arrival panics Surigaonons
By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN Contributing Editor
SURIGAO City--The magnitude-6.7 quake that struck Surigao del late Friday night, affected at least 28 barangays here, damaging an airport and other buildings, along with at least 1,000 houses. At least eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured.
By Roel Catoto of MindaNews
SURIGAO City--The Death toll due to the magnitude 6.7 earthquake late evening Friday rose to seven while those injured likewise rose to 120, according to the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC). This as the Sangguniang Panlungsod declared on Since Friday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology Saturday the city to be under a state of calamity due See rises, page 7 and Seismology (Phivolcs) have recorded more than 130 aftershocks. On Sunday, one strong aftershock alarmed residents, s ome of w hom screamed in fear while waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte to arrive at a gymnasium in the
Reelectionists, newbies, comebackers compose 15-man COPC board Abacahin gets fresh mandate By URIEL C. QUILINGUING, Contributing Editor
Reelectionists, newbies and comebackers now compose the 15-member board of directors of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club who, on Saturday’s (Feb 11, 2017) general assembly, bestowed on Monsignor Elmer Abacahin his fourth one-year term as president.
Abacahin, who produces and directs a weekly religious and public-affairs television program Kampana, earlier topped the balloting among 33 candidates for the board. COPC past president and Mindanao Daily editor-in-chief See board, page 7
See strong, page 7
Phivolcs dismisses talks of a bigger quake that will hit Surigao By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN, Contributing Editor
SURIGAO City––Aired live over a local radio station here, the chief of Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) yesterday dismissed rumors of another big earthquake amid panic calls he received from residents of this city. “Wag na po magkalat kalat ang ating mga kababayan ng mga haka-haka ( I asked residents not to spread these speculations),” appealed Renato Solidum, Philvolcs chief Crying women. Nenita Resma and her neighbor, who were among the residents of San Juan village where in a live phone patch interview with Jun Clerigo, many houses were flattened by the strong tremor were weeping hard after the second aftershock was felt at the See quake, page 7
City Auditorium. Photo by Chris V. Panganiban for Mindanao Daily
MINDANAO DAILY
SECOND FRONT PAGE
A1
NPA declares ceasefire in quake-stricken areas mark francisco, Section Editor EDITOR: RUEL V. PELONE
Tuesday
By Roel Catoto of MindaNews
SURIGAO City--The communist guerilla front operating in Surigao del Norte and portions of Agusan del Norte has declared a unilateral ceasefire effective 6 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 11) “until the province will recover from the disaster” wrought by the magnitude 6.7 earthquake that struck the city at 10:03 p.m. Friday and left at least seven persons dead, over a hundred injured and several structures damaged. Ka Oto, spokesperson of the Guerilla Front 16 of the New People’s Army (NPA) told MIndaNews in a telephone interview at around 7 p.m. that they ceased tactical offensives against government forces effective 6 p.m. Saturday “until the province will recover from the disaster.” He said they will focus on humanitarian efforts to help the quake victims. Guerilla Front 16 operates here and in the rest of Surigao del Norte, and Agusan del Norte’s Kitcharao, Jabonga and Tubay towns. “Rest assured we will not do any harm to the military
New People’s Army Guerrilla Front 16 spokesperson Ka Oto declares ceasefire in Surigao del Norte and three towns of Agusan del Norte to help assist quake victims. This photo was taken last December 26, 2016 somewhere in the hinterlands in Surigao del Norte.Photo by Roel N. Catoto for MindaNews
as long as they will not come to our areas,” he said. Ceasefire effectivity The 6 p.m. effectivity of the ceasefire at 6 p.m. is 20 hours after the quake jolted the city and neighboring areas and 18 hours after the termination of the unilateral ceasefire the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People’s Army (NPA) they declared
in August. To recall, NPA spokesperson Jorge Madlos aka Ka Oris announced on February 1 that they were terminating the unilateral ceasefire they declared on August 28, by 11:59 p.m. of Friday, February 10. The quake struck an hour earlier. Madlos explained they were terminating their unilateral ceasefire because
government had “not complied with its obligation to amnesty and release all political prisoners” and that it had “treacherously taken advantage of the unilateral declaration of interim ceasefire to encroach on the territory of the people’s democratic government,” claiming the AFP had occupied at least 500 villages nationwide “which are
Surigao quake death toll now at 8 By Roel Catoto of MindaNews
SURIGAO City––The death toll in the magnitude 6.7 earthquake has risen to eight people, with those injured likewise rising to 203, according to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office. Ramon A. Gotinga, assistant provincial administrator and officer-in-charge of PDRRMO-Surigao del Norte, said seven of the fatalities were from Surigao City: Robert Eludo, 40; JM Ariar, 4; Lito Wilson, 35; Lorenzo Deguino, 85; Roda Justina Taganaham, 83; Jenelyn Ebale, 5; Rommel Tano, 17. The eighth victim was from the neighboring town of San Francisco in Surigao del Norte: Wenedreda Aragon, 66. Gotinga said most of the victims had blunt trauma and severe head injuries, apparently hit by falling
February 14, 2017
within the authority of the revolutionary government.” Hours after Madlos’ announcement, three soldiers were killed in an ambush by the NPA in Malaybalay City and a junior officer was killed in Manay, Davao Orietnal. In response, President Rodrigo Duterte on February 3 terminated “effective tonight” the unilateral ceasefire he declared last year; called off the peace talks on February 4, and on February 5 called the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front) a “terrorist group” and NDF chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison, his professor in Political Thought, a “terrorist.” Ka Oto urged the military, CAFGU and police strike force unit to go back to their barracks,” adding they will remain in “active defensive mode.” “Naglikom pa kami og pondo para matabangan ang mga biktima sa linog diri sa Surigao” (We are still mobilizing resources so we can help the quake victims here), he said. Come and help Fresh from their combat operations against com-
munist rebels, troops under the 30th Infantry Battalion immediately shifted to humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations in areas badly hit by the quake. An hour after the quake struck, Lt. Col. Rico Amaro, 30IB chief directed his troops to immediately respond and assist communities affected by the quake within his area of responsibility. Amaro assured Surigaonons they will provide local government units all the necessary assistance in their rehabilitation efforts. “As we conduct our humanitarian assistance and disaster response operation in the area, we remain vigilant against the terrorist NPAs that are still causing havoc in the entire region,” he said. But Amaro said he is glad the NPA declared a ceasefire to. He urged them to come to the city, “maguniform at walang armas para sama-sama matulungan ang mga tao para sa victims of calamity” (in uniform, without firearms and together let us help the victims of calamity).
4ID, Kalumbay in verbal tussle By MARK FRANCISCO, Correspondent
AFTERSHOCK PANIC.
Surigao City residents lining up the streets awaiting President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrival noon Sunday (12 February 2017) run away from tall buildings when an aftershock occurred. Dozens of aftershocks followed the magnitude 6.7 earthquake that shook Surigao City and neighboring areas late Friday evening. MindaNews photo by Roel N. Catoto
debris, while one suffered from heart attack at the height of the quake. Eighteen of the injured are still confined in three hospitals in Surigao City, nine referred to different hospitals outside Surigao City while 176 were treated
as outpatients. Six of the victims who perished received cash assistance from President Rodrigo Duterte during his visit Sunday. Duterte promised to allot P2 billion for rehabilitation of damaged in-
frastructure in the area. Several other buildings in the city have been ordered closed while still to be inspected. “City engineers will check the structural integrity of the buildings,” Villaces said.
THE military and local-based tribal advocates group Kalumbay accused each other of exploiting the Indigenous People (IP) in Northern Mindanao. In a phone text message yesterday, 4th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. accused the New People’s Army (NPA) of forcing the Lumads in their extortion activities. However, in a press conference also held yesterday, Kalumbay chair Jomorito Goaynon accused the 4th Infantry Division of allegedly militarizing the IP communities in the region. Goaynon said the all-out war declaration of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last week against the NPA will greatly affect the Lumad communities all over Northern Mindanao, especially in Bukidnon. He cited the February 3 killing of local Lumad leader Renato Anglao in Botong, Quezon, Bukidnon as an example. Goaynon said that up to his death, Anglao has been actively campaigning for the Manobo-Pulanginons’ ancestral domain in his barangay which is currently being used as a pineapple plantation. A few hours later, Madrigal sent another text message saying “we are still saddened by the grave violation of the NPA leaders on the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) Law, human rights and international humanitarian law when they continue to arm our indigenous peoples to exploit our IP communities and force them to join their moneymaking and extortion activities.”
In Focus
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Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Lack of urban planning dev’t policy in PH poses more risks
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By Antonio L. Colina IV of MindaNews
HONOLULU, Hawaii--The lack of urban development policy in the Philippines may even cause a more troubling impact on the economy and the poor urban migrants in several communities when natural calamities like typhoons hit, an expert from the East West Center here said Tuesday (February 7). Speaking to Filipino journalists participating in the US-Philippines Relations Reporting Tour, Allen Clark, senior fellow at the East West Center Research Program, said that the massive unplanned urbanization in the country’s urban centers when coupled with climate change and explosive population growth would cause “unparalleled disaster.” “If you combine climate change and urbanization process and this increasingly marginalization of large group of people, future disasters are going to be much larger and much more severe than we’ve seen before,” he said. He cited the impact of Super Typhoon Yolanda that wreaked havoc on November 8, 2013 in the Visayas area on November 8, 2013 where 6,300 lives perished and affected 1,473,251 fami-
lies. He said that the migration of families from rural area to the cities in search of a better life causes the rapid population growth in urban centers that is not “reported or dealt with as much as it should be.” “It’s a matter of opportunities. There’s more money there,” he said. Based on the September 1, 2016 report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the total population in the Philippines as of August 1, 2015 reached 100.98 million and annual population growth rate of 1.72 percent from 2010 to 2015. Only four out of 33 highly urbanized cities in the country surpassed the one million population mark, namely: Quezon City (2.94 million), City of Manila (1.78 million), Davao City (1.63 million), and Caloocan City (1.58 million), according to the PSA report. But Clark said that the movement of people from rural to urban areas is alarming in a way that it creates more “slums and slum living,” which expose the families to even greater dangers when they choose to live in the metropolitan areas.
He said that more social problems are found in slums, which may become even worse if not addressed immediately. “You’ve got all the social problems. That means a lot of your infrastructure developments – it has a very difficult time to put in place so you can’t actually improve the situation in terms of the overall urbanization process until you deal with these particular areas,” Clark said. Allen Clark, senior fellow at the East-West Center Research Program, discusses “In Asia, you have a mas- the effects of unplanned urbanization and climate change. Photo courtesy of Harley Palangchao sive explosion of urban slums. This is an issue which is not given anywhere near an emphasis as it should be because it’s creating this high number of people living in vulnerable situations,” he said. Revise laws Clark said the government must update two of its important laws on environment and disaster management to come up with a better and more congruent government effort in managing the impact of natural calamities in the country. These laws, he said, are the Republic Act (RA) 9721, or the Climate Change Act, and the RA 10121, or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act. Both laws were See risks, page 7
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Opinion
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
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God never fails to love
God never fails to love but we do. How often do we need to be reminded of our love for our spouse? Every day, minute, perhaps moment? We get engulfed by our busy work life that our real priorities in life seem to slip away. Many times, it’s a small chip each day. How long will you wait? Remind yourself
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When boredom strikes
AL JACINTO Regional Editor-WestMin
WHILE being a columnist of “Tinig ng Bayan” (published in Abra) during the 1980s, I remember our Taiwanese coordinator Cristina Lising-Geronga, who expressed herself in innumerable write ups about the topic loneliness. Sure, “Tinig ng Bayan” has been a publication or Filipinos abroad. Loneliness, borne by Filipinos living abroad while missing their families in the Philippines became a very “normal” expression. During that time, my Philippine mentor, the late Monsignor Professor Dr. Hermogenes E. Bacareza, Chaplain of the Philippine Community in Berlin, started together with me publishing “Ang Mabuhay”. Believe me, “loneliness” became a main topic in many write-ups. Nowadays, loneliness and boredom seem to be
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the splitting image of each other - so to speak being as like as two peas in a pod. While browsing in social networks like Facebook, one can find more and more comments as in “When Boredom Strikes” or so. Boredom, ending up in loneliness - or vice versus? How comes that loneliness and/or boredom are still a general topics in our today’s society? Loneliness has been called one of the main diseases, even during the last century. It really doesn’t strike not only the Filipinos abroad and their love ones back home. Too often loneliness are being followed by alcoholism, drug abuse and even suicide. Yes, loneliness becomes a modern day plague. I observed several people trying to surround themselves with so-called “friends” only to find that
such relationships are often shallow and unsatisfying. Loneliness can be painful, but being lonely or alone at that is not always a bad thing. Ask yourself, how do you use your time, if you are really alone? Do you simply let the time pass without doing anything at all? Why not use such time productively? There are many worthwhile activities to engage in, even if you are alone, such as reading, writing, listen to good (light) music, play an (forgotten?) instrument, gardening... . Reading the Bible can be also very particularly beneficial. The Word of God is “alive and exerts power” and can take our minds off ourselves. To break the cycle of loneliness, one must be a giver. Let’s keep an eye, not only and always on our personal interests, but also
Klaus Doring
for the interests others. Look around and watch out who needs help, or who needs a real friend or good listener. Once you have spotted such a person, act! Thus, in order to have friends, you must act like a friend. Luke 6:38 says, “Give to others, and God will give to you!” Besides, “There is more happiness (and less loneliness) in giving than receiving”, says Acts 20:35. +++ Suggestions, comments, questions? You can email me: doringklaus@gmail. com or follow me on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.
Kakampi Mo Ang Batas
Love that takes sins away
LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “… truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love but with actions and in never fails…” -oootruth…” (1 John 3:18, the THE GREATEST LOVE Holy Bible). OF ALL: In John 3:16, we -oooLOVE: WHAT IS IT? are reminded of the greatHere is a message of love, est love of all, which is the found in 1 Corinthians 13 love of God: “For God so of the Bible: “If I speak in loved the world that he the tongues of men or of gave his one and only Son, angels, but do not have love, that whoever believes in I am only a resounding him shall not perish but gong or a clanging cymbal. have eternal life. For God If I have the gift of did not send his Son into prophecy and can fathom the world to condemn the all mysteries and all knowl- world, but to save the world edge, and if I have a faith through him…” This love of God for us that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am is priceless, because God loved us when we were yet nothing…. “Love is patient, love unlovable as we were full is kind. It does not envy, of sin, as what 1 John 4:9it does not boast, it is not 10 said: “This is how God proud. It does not dis- showed his love among us: honor others, it is not self- He sent his one and only seeking, it is not easily Son into the world that we angered, it keeps no record might live through him. This is love: not that we of wrongs. “Love does not delight loved God, but that he in evil but rejoices with the loved us and sent his Son
PAT SAMONTE CHRIS PANGANIBAN Dear children, let us not Regional Editor Caraga Regional Editor-Davao love with words or speech
Rene Michael BaÑos uRIEL C. QUILINGUING Regional Editor Northmin Contributing Editor
Juvy Sarraga
Have My Say
DANTE M. SUDARIA Publisher and President TERESA ZAFRA PELONE Comptroller
with a photo of her in places you visit often. It may be a wallpaper of him or her on your phone or better yet a real physical photo of the two of you in your wallet. Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” -Jeremiah 31:3
“
as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…” So, if God greatly loves us that He even removed our sins from us after we believed and accepted Him, then how can we even respond to this love? How can we show our own love for God? In 2 John 1:6 we are told: “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love…” -oooLOVE THAT TAKES SINS AWAY: When we walk in obedience to the commands of God, we are walking in the light. And if we are walking in the light, we are continually cleansed of our sins by the blood of God that was shed in the cross of Calvary. In 1 John 1:7, we are told: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
Atty. Batas Mauricio
purifies us from all sin…” If the blood of Jesus purifies from all sin, we become one with Him, as 2 Chronicles 5:17 is saying: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” What is the “old (that) has gone” and the “new (that) has come?” It is our sinful flesh. Because we are already in Christ, we become a part of His flesh (Ephesians 5:30). Our flesh, because it has become a part of Christ’s flesh, becomes the “forgiven flesh”, a flesh free from sin. And if our body already forms part of the flesh of Christ, the “flesh of forgiveness”, would He agree that the blood flowing in our veins would still be the “blood of sin”?
All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair. --Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
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Forum
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
5
Hidden lakes found draining below West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) in the US Pacific Northwest and the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom have used data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite to identify a sudden drainage of large pools below Thwaites Glacier. Thwaites Glacier on the edge of West Antarctica as part of the larger West Antarctic Ice Sheet, already one of the planet’s fastest-moving glaciers, is sliding unstoppably into the ocean, mainly due to warmer seawater lapping at its underside, speeding up by about 10 percent from June 2013 and January 2014. In a study published in The Cryosphere, the researchers report finding four interconnected lakes drained during the eightmonth period. “This was a big event, and it confirms that the long-term speed-up that we’re observing for this glacier is probably driven by other factors, most likely in the ocean,” said corresponding author Ben Smith, a glaciologist with the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory. “The water flow at the bed is probably not controlling the speed.” The authors used a new technique to discover drops
at the glacier’s surface of up to 70 feet, or 20 meters, over a 20 kilometer by 40 kilometer area. Calculations show it was likely due to the emptying of four interconnected lakes far below. The peak drainage rate was about 8,500 cubic feet, or 240 cubic meters, per second, the largest meltwater outflow yet reported for subglacial lakes in this region. “This lake drainage is the biggest water movement that you would expect to see in this area, and it didn’t change the glacier’s speed by that much,” Smith was quoted as saying in a news release. The reason is likely that Thwaites Glacier is moving quickly enough, that friction is heating up its underside to ice’s melting point. The glacier’s base is already wet and adding more water doesn’t make it much more slippery. The study supports previous UW research from 2014 showing that Thwaites Glacier will likely collapse within 200 to 900 years to cause seas to rise by 2 feet, or 0.6 meter. Those calculations were made without detailed maps of how water flows at the glacier’s underbelly. The new findings suggest that doesn’t really matter. “If Thwaites Glacier had
Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/ yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels. Along with Pine Island Glacier, Thwaites Glacier has been described as part of the “weak underbelly” of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and recent observations of large changes on both of these glaciers. In recent years, the flow of both of these glaciers have accelerated, their surfaces lowered, and the grounding lines retreated. Text by enwikipedia. org, photo by NASA - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-148 (JPL), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia. org/w/index.php?curid=33763182
POWER FORUM IN ORO
Workshop on drafting of rules for WESM in Mindanao slated on February 17 Proposals for the Electric Power Industry in Mindanao: Addressing the Problem of Overcontracting of Power Supplies and the Alleged Overcapacity of Coal-Fired Power Plants
RPN Radyo Ronda Stations Nationwide
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THE Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AMRECO) and the AMRECO Power Supply Aggregation Group Corporation (AMRECO PSAGCORP) will be holding a workshop on February 17, 2017 in Cagayan de Oro City on the “Drafting of Rules for WESM in Mindanao.” The invitation sent by AMRECO President Sergio Dagooc and AMRECO PSAGCORP President Adelmo Laput states: “The workshop will serve as the Mindanao Electric
Cooperatives’ key initiative in support to the present Administration’s quest in establishing affordable and sustainable electric services in Mindanao. The AMRECO is consistent in strongly reiterating its proposal for the establishment of an independent market in Mindanao that should be separate from the WESM administered by PEMC and should only be managed by the stakeholders and market participants in Mindanao.” The workshop is somewhat misnamed in its reference to a WESM in Mindanao, and should be more accurately named as “Drafting of Rules for the Economic Dispatch of Electric Power Plants in Mindanao.” But President Dagooc
David A. Tauli
and President Laput make it clear in their invitation that the long-term objective for electric cooperatives is the establishment of a WESM in Mindanao that is not administered by the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation, but by an organization that would be accountable to the electric power industry players in Mindanao. There is no need to formally change the title of the workshop as long as it is understood that the reference is to the establishment of a WESM that benefits the people of Mindanao. There is no intention to establish in Mindanao a WESM that is administered by See workshop, page 7 NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the intestate estate of decedent WENEFREDA PABILLARAN DURIAS, married to PABLO M. DURIAS, has been the subject of Extrajudicial Settlement of an Estate with Waiver in favor of MARIE YVONNE P. vDURIAS, covering a parcel of land Katibayan ng Orihinal na Titulo Blg. P-35970, containing an area of 29,532 square meters more or less, on July 16, 2014, in an instrument executed and acknowledged before Notary Public Atty. Anastacio C. Rosos, Jr., of Malaybalay City, entered in his Notarial Register Book as Doc. No. 327; Page No. 67; Book No. 606; Series of 2014. MDN: FEB. 7, 14 & 21, 2017
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In focus
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
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Resume peace talks, resume interim ceasefires By Soliman M. Santos Jr. of MindaNews
NAGA City––The call to resume the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is only right and just because their scrapping by President Duterte was premature,
even as the NDFP Panel Chief Political Consultant and Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) guru Jose Maria Sison says he understands him. But this call should be accompanied by another call to resume the unilateral interim ceasefires that were also prematurely terminated first by the CPP and New People’s Army (NPA) leader-
ship for the NDFP (not the other way around) and then soon after followed suit by President Duterte for the GRP. This was the casus belli, as it were, or what triggered the downward spiral of this whole peace process. This prematurity we had already discussed last weekend in an article “Urgent Motion for Reconsideration of the Ceasefire
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Termination,” forgive the court case terminology of MR. To save and bring the whole peace process back on track should entail, to use court case terms again, a return to the status quo ante — the situation before the breakdown in the process. That status quo ante was clearly one of peace talks accompanied by unilateral interim ceasefires up to the Rome Talks of last January 19 to 25. The “Joint Statement on the Successful Third Round of Formal Talks between the GRP and NDFP in Rome, Italy” is the best evidence of the prematurity that we are talking about. It is not the interim, repeat interim only, ceasefire that was premature but rather its termination. In the Joint Statement, it was in fact stated particularly that “The Parties note that their unilateral indefinite ceasefires remain in place.”
If only the peace process breakdown could be subject to a court injunction (like U.S. President Trump’s travel ban), the injunction would be to restore that status quo ante of unilateral interim ceasefires This is what would avoid a deterioration of the situation now that the dogs of war on both sides have been unleashed. This is what is needed as “a measure of restraint” (Sison’s words, akin to a court temporary restraining order or TRO) before it is too late — before there can no longer be any holding back of the fighting which creates its own negative dynamic for the whole process, as experience has shown. Some peace advocates no less, ironically say that “the absence of reciprocal, unilateral ceasefires should not unhinge our efforts for building peace.” But it has unhinged this process under President Duterte,
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if not himself also. Others say “Keep on talking even when there is fighting. But keep on listening as well.” But that’s very hard “amid the din and drone” of gunfire and explosions, whether from NPA landmines or Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) artillery shelling and aerial bombardment. These disrupt not just listening but the very business of living in the conflict-affected areas of the countryside. Sison et al. cite at least 10 major agreements that have been sealed since the Ramos administration of 1992-98 despite the continued fighting. But only one of those is considered a substantive agreement, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). That is only the first of four major substantive agenda items under the framework Hague Joint Declaration of 1992. Just one substantive agreement in nearly 25 years or one generation! That is already “untenable,” to use the CPP-NPA’s description of the unilateral interim ceasefires. Compare that to the two years from the 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro to the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in the peace talks cum ceasefire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during the Aquino administration. We have precisely “been there, done that” already with fighting while talking for the most part of several decades of the GRP-NDFP peace process since 1992, more so if we count from the first round in 1986-87. It’s about time that we try talking and listening without fighting where the latter is understood to be for a reasonable interim period only of an estimated (by the CPP leadership and See peace, page 7
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Board... from page 1
Allan Mediante will sit the board as executive vicepresident while newcomer Jao Gumapac of Radyo Agila and reelectionist director Philip Kenn Jaudian will serve as vice-presidents for broadcast and for print, respectively. Criminology instructor Jasper Uy, who had been in the board in the past, is the club’s corporate secretary a post which past-president Herbie Gomez vacated by not seeking reelection. Cagayan de Oro City Information Office chief Maricel Rivera got reelected as club treasurer while Sunstar Cagayan de Oro senior photojournalist Joey Nacalaban retained his post as auditor. Other members of the board are veteran journalist Froilan Gallardo of MindaNews, Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Jigger Jerusalem, Magnum Radyo chief-of-reporters Joel Jacobo, public relations consultant Ruffy Magbanua, Radio Mindanao Network DXCC operations manager Rey Maraunay, broadcaster Rene Abris and Radyo ng Bayan retirees Vic Cabanag and Tony Albania. Except for Jerusalem and Abris, all the directors have served the club’s board in the past. Founded in 1951, the COPC is one of the country’s oldest media organizations who pioneered the observance of the Press Freedom Week every last week of May, boasts of a press freedom monument in collaboration with Misamis Oriental provincial government, and manages two buildings and land which she owns.
Strong... from page 1
tal.
hard-hit provincial capi-
With a rosary in one hand, 67-year-old Rosalina Busano shouted in prayer as an aftershock was felt inside the auditorium here where hundreds of people waited for the President. Busano stretched out her arms and called for the Virgin Mary’s intervention. “She saved us (from the earthquake) and we pray again that she would protect us,” Busano, a utility worker at city hall, shouted. Two women near Busano started to wail. One of them was Nenita Resma, whose house in the village of San Juan was destroyed by Friday night’s tremor. Resma asked social workers to just give them the relief goods so they could go home. Resma and her women neighbors came to the auditorium as early as 6:30 a.m. for them to be among the 500 people who will be allowed inside and have an audience with the President. The President, who promised relief for the victims, arrived past noon. He did not witness the panic inside the auditorium when
two aftershocks jolted the city Sunday morning. Even if she was on loud speaker, Annete Villasis, the city government information officer, failed to persuade the people to stay calm and remain in their seats. The panic prompted police officers and even members of the Presidential Security Group to help calm the audience down. Outside the auditorium, hundreds of residents gathered after they learned about a mining firms’ plan to distribute bottled water. Residents have been suffering from a water supply shortage after several pipelines of the Surigao City Water District were damaged by the tremor. Duterte later expressed sympathy and pledged financial help to quake survivors needing medical treatment. Meanwhile, officials have warned residents to ensure their houses are stable amid aftershocks, which experts say are normal and can continue for weeks following a powerful earthquake.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017 Saturday that they intend to supply at least 50 percent of the city’s water supply by midnight. The earthquake rendered impassable the Anao-aon Bridge in San Francisco municipality. It also damaged the runway of the airport here, forcing airline companies to divert flights to neighboring Butuan City, according to a report by Engr. Junelito Abrazado, Surigao manager of the Civil Aviation Authroity of the Philippines. Classes and work in private and public schools and offices were likewise ordered cancelled by the CDRRMC, according to Annette Villaces of the city’s Public Information Office. “C lass es and work, both in private and public [schools and establishments], are now cancelled per order by the vice chairperson of CDRRMC [City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council] and City Vice Mayor Alfonso Casurra effective immediately until further notice,” she added. (Roel N. Catoto / MindaNews)
Rises...
Quake...
to the “untold damages in the city to real and personal properties.” The CDRRMC has no names of the fatalities but the Office of the Civil Defense, in an update issued 3 p.m. Saturday, reported six deaths so far, all from Surigao City. The victims were identified as Roberto Eludo, 40; JM Ariar, 4; Wilson Lito, 35; Lorenzo Deguino, 85; Roda Justina Taganahan, 83; and Wenefreda Aragon Bernal, 66. All died because they were hit by falling debris or collapsing walls, except Taganahan who died of a heart attack in the middle of the chaos. The OCD-Caraga Regional Director Rosauro Arnel Gonzales Jr. reported that there is total blackout in the municipalities of San Francisco and Malimono in Surigao del Norte and partial power failure in Surigao City. Vice Mayor Alfonso S. Casurra told MindaNews that after initial assessment this morning, the CDRMMC endorsed the declaration of a state of calamity to the city council, who promptly issued a resolution. “The unexpected and sudden tremor had literally caused untold damages in the city to real and personal properties, not to mention death of 7 persons and injuries to 120 individuals and the numbers is still increasing,” said the SP’s resolution number 23-2017. The city continues to have no potable water coming from its taps, forcing residents to join the long queue in water refilling stations. Engr. Benjamin Ensomo Jr., general manager of Surigao City Metropolitan Water District, said in a text message late afternoon
anchor of a news program over DXKS AM radio station. Solidum said his office has been flooded with numerous panic calls from Surigao residents telling him about Facebook posts that spread like wildfire of a more powerful earthquake of 7.4 magnitude that will hit the city anew. He believed the information may have been mistook from a primer at the Phivolcs website which explained that the last strong tremor that struck Surigao was in 1879 with 7.4 magnitude which was generated from the Surigao segment of Philippine fault, considered as the largest historical earthquake in this area. “We don’t discount the possibility, but the chances are remote,” Solidum said. Clerigo has also appealed to local residents to stop the rumors because the situation in the city is still volatile because of continuous aftershocks since the strong earthquake struck the city on February 10. “This is not a joke and the rumors have caused many residents opted to stay on tents at the provincial capitol grounds. Now on the third night, hundreds of residents from the coastal villages of the city continue to camp out at the provincial grounds which is located on higher elevation due to such rumors and apart from the scare of a tsunami that refused to die since it spread after the 6.7 magnitude earthquake. Dante Paraguya, a fish vendor, in the coastal village of Mabua, said they have transferred to three separate locations where they could spend their night with his family of five lying only on mats, pillows and blankets braving the cold winds. Paraguya’s concrete bun-
from page 1
from page 1
galow he built 35 years ago while still being a newly-married man was flattened to the ground when the tremor came. “We felt that the earth was moving strongly under our feet evn during the aftershocks that is why we decided to leave our community,” he said.
Risks... from page 3
passed on July 27, 2009. “But what we’re faced with in the present time is that those laws and those activities – because of other changes that we have been talking about – they desperately need to be updated in order to reassess where the emphasis should be, where the money should be placed, and what the priorities should be with respect to disaster management in the Philippines,” Clark said. He lamented how much attention was given on the number of lives that perished during calamities while very little on the economic losses, which would often leave a longterm impact on families as they stand to lose their livelihoods. “Those figures, in terms of fatalities, reflect a reality but in terms of money and impact, they underestimate the impact of disasters,” he said. Clark emphasized the need to integrate the climate change adaptation program more into an actual development process to effectively manage the effects of natural calamities. “The climate change adaptation is a huge area where you can have both local and large scale developments taking place simultaneously. The other one is basically the climate change development activities that are climate change-sensitive. It’s not really built into national development,” he said. Clark said that poor families migrating into the cities tend to live in high risk areas. “But the place more of these people can find to live is the lowest cost of land that is available either just to squat on or they purchase,” he said.
Workshop... from page 5
the PEMC, which is now doing very badly in its administration of the Philippine WESM in the Luzon-Visayas grid. In holding the workshop, the officers of electric cooperatives in Mindanao are taking the initiative to address the problems in the electric power industry that result from: (a) construction of coal power plants with total capacities in excess of the baseload requirements of consumers in Mindanao over the next several years; and (b) overcontracting of baseload power supplies on the part of many of the electric cooperatives. These problems could be addressed by ensuring that the dispatching of power plants connected to the
Mindanao Grid (now being done by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines as System Operator) will be carried out in such a manner as to result in the least cost of power supply for consumers. The AMRECO workshop is for the purpose of developing the rules that would govern system operations of the Mindanao grid and also govern the behavior of distribution utility companies and large power consumers that are connected directly to the grid. In effect, the electric cooperatives hope to develop rules that would govern all stakeholders in the electric power industry in Mindanao. The proposals that would be formulated in the AMRECO workshop will have to be taken up and agreed upon in another conference to be attended by all stakeholders in the Mindanao EPI – the electric cooperatives, the investor-owned distribution utilities, consumers directly connected to the Mindanao grid, power consumer groups, the NGCP, and representative from the DOE, NEA, ERC, Mindanao Development Authority, and other government agencies dealing with the Mindanao electric power industry. Following are some proposals and issues that can be taken up during the AMRECO workshop and considered by other stakeholders preparatory to the holding of a conference for all stakeholders to agree on the rules governing system operations of the Mindanao grid. 1. Dispatching of power plants by NGCP should be done with the primary objective of least-cost power supply (based on duly-approved rates for existing power supply agreements) while ensuring the integrity and security of the Mindanao grid. 2. Appropriate penalties should be imposed on distribution utilities and directly-connected consumers who draw power supply from the grid in excess of their contracted power supplies. 3. The NGCP should develop a plan and implement measures that would eliminate possible congestion in the grid where it is economically feasible to do so by uprating of power lines and equipment on the grid. 4. The hydroelectric power plants on the Agus River should be operated in accordance with the Rule Curve for Lake Lanao to ensure that the minimum level of Lake Lanao (699.15 Meters above Sea Level) will not be breached at the projected peak monthly load in the period from April to June of every year. 5. Distribution utility companies should submit petitions to the ERC to pass on to their consumers any of the costs that would result from the implementation of the rules or measures that are agreed upon by the stakeholders.
7
••• (Engr. David A. Tauli is the president of the Mindanao Coalition of Power Consumers)
Peace... from page 6
(by the CPP leadership and the NDFP Panel) two years or so to possibly work out comprehensive agreements on socio-economic and politico-constitutional reforms. The Rome Joint Statement indicated fair, if not good, advances on this. Indeed, as an NDFP partisan said, “the aim of the talks is not just to end the fighting but also to address the roots of the armed conflict.” But in the meantime, for a reasonable period, can the fighting (just this, not other forms of struggle) not be put on hold as a “specific measure of goodwill and confidence-building to create a favorable climate for peace negotiations”? This is not yet for the “end of hostilities and disposition of forces.” A mere interim ceasefire in this context is not “tantamount to the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary people and forces.” AND at the end of that reasonable period, IF good faith negotiations still fail to achieve substantive reform agreements, THEN a return to armed struggle would be understandable or even justified, depending also on the circumstances. It is fair, not only by the GRP but also by all peace-loving Filipinos, to raise a privileged question of sincerity about talking peace while fighting a war. As we had written a number of years back, why continue to fight a war if the peace talks are “successful” so far, especially in working towards comprehensive agreements on substantive reforms to address the roots of the armed conflict? Why suffer the loss of precious lives, including of thy comrades, in the meantime if these are going to be achieved? Or does the desire to continue armed struggle indicate an expectation or worse, an intention, that the peace talks will ultimately fail? By the CPP-NPA’s termination of its unilateral interim ceasefire (followed suit by the GRP), it has in effect (or as intended?) preempted an interim bilateral ceasefire already scheduled for another meeting of the two ceasefire committees. One relevant simple question that nobody seems to be asking is: are both sides willing to reinstate the prematurely terminated unilateral ceasefires as an important “compelling reason,” or “key link,” or key gesture (as far as President Duterte is concerned), to reverse the premature announcement of an “all-out war” and the premature scrapping of the peace talks? The simple proposition is that it is only right and that all that have been prematurely done should be undone before it can no longer be undone. ••• (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. PeaceTalk is open to anyone who wishes to share his/her views on peace. SOLIMAN M. SANTOS, JR. is presently a Judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Naga City, Camarines Sur. He is a long-time human rights and IHL lawyer; legislative consultant and legal scholar; peace advocate, researcher and writer, whose initial engagement with the peace process was with the first GRP-NDFP nationwide ceasefire in 1986, particularly in his home region of Bicol, a long-time rural hotbed of the communist-led insurgency. He is the author of a number of books on Philippine peace processes, including his latest How do you solve a problem like the GPH-NDFP peace process? (Siem Reap, Cambodia: The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, 2016).
Business 8 BDO signs $280-M loans with Cemex Tuesday, February 14, 2017
BDO Unibank, the country’s biggest lender, has signed a US$280-million peso equivalent term loan agreement with Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. (CHP), an indication of the bank’s firm support for the business prospects and positive long-term outlook of CHP. “We’ve been together from the boom of the cement industry, to the bust and then to the boom again. We are happy that Cemex has once again chosen BDO to be its partner,” said Walter Wassmer, senior
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BDO, Cemex sign $280-M Term Loan. BDO signed a US$280-Million Peso equivalent term loan agreement with
Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. (CHP), with the cement firm using the facility to refinance its long-term loan obligation with New Sunward Holding B.V. Present during the signing ceremony were (from left to right): Mary Ann Hipe, CHP treasury manager; Edmundo Soriano, BDO Unibank executive vice president; Pedro Jose Palomino, CHP president; Walter Wassmer, BDO senior executive vice president; Vincent Paul Piedad, CHP treasurer; and Ma. Concepcion Narciso, BDO first vice president.
executive vice president of BDO. For his part, CHP President Pedro Jose Palomino said they appreciate the support BDO has extended to the cement firm. “We are pleased with the help and relationship,” said Palomino. The continued growth of CHP’s subsidiaries, Apo Cement and Solid Cement, has made its Philippine operations as the most profitable in the Asian region. CHP launched a very successful initial public offering (IPO) last year where a total of 2,337,927,954 shares were subscribed at P10.75 per share, giving the company roughly P25 billion in IPO proceeds. Supply, prices of goods in Surigao remain stable-DTI. Supply and prices of goods in earthquake-hit Surigao del Norte remain “normal,” Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Sec. Ramon Lopez assured Monday. “Basically, normal supply conditions here in Surigao. Prices are stable since flow of goods is not affected and passing through ports and by land from Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao,” said Lopez who is in Surigao del Norte to conduct an assessment of the situation there. Supply of goods in the province remains stable because most of supermarkets were not damaged by the earthquake last Friday evening, he said. philippine news agency