Mindanao Daily Westmin (February 4, 2014)

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Mindanao Daily NEWS

Volume II, No. 186

web portal: www.businessweekmindanao.com

Tuesday

February 4, 2014

P15.00

northmin . westmin . caraga . davao Your Regional Mindanao-wide Community Newspaper

Grenade blast in Zambo hurts five senior citizens

ZAMBOANGA City––Five members of a senior citizens’ group were injured in a grenade explosion Sunday morning in front of an old church that is now used as venue for meetings. See full story, page 8

South Cotabato execs watched for alleged role in illegal drug trade

COMPUTERIZED, FINALLY. New police officers train on the use of computerized blotter system at Camp

Alagar, headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Northern Mindanao located in Cagayan de Oro City. The reporting of police blotters in all precincts in the city is no longer in typewritten form but computerized. Photo by Gerry Lee Gorit of Mindanao Daily News

Rebels tending to farm amid firefight By John Rizle L. Saligumba of DavaoToday.com

DAVAO City––A breakaway Moro guerrilla group in Central Mindanao said the main bulk of its forces were out of harm’s way of government military artillery shellings and that its forces were divided into engaging in gunbattles or planting and indoctrination of its mass base. Abu Misry Mama, spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) told Davao Today in a phone interview on Thursday night that “while some of our forces are engaged in gunfights with government

troops, they are also busy planting palay and conducting Islamic orientation” within their controlled areas. “Wala kaming ginagawang masama. Nagtatanim kami ng mga palay, nagsagawa kami ng mga Islamic orientation (We are not committing any wrongdoings. Here we are planting rice and conducting Islamic orientation among villagers),” said Mama. The rebel spokesperson did not reveal their location but said that they were far from where the Philippine Army had been training their cannons since the offensive against them started. Mama said they were able to move

away their forces from the direction of the goverment military operation, and claimed that they got wind of an Army “massive operation” seven days before the actual skirmishes started last Monday. They belie reports of heavy casualties. “There was a shelling of 105 and 155 (howitzers), airplane dropping bombs and helicopter attacks for 3 days. There only 7 of us who got wounded,” he said. The Army claimed to have recovered at least 40 bodies of BIFF fighters, including a minor, in

GENERAL Santos City–– Several elected officials in South Cotabato province are reportedly being monitored by local authorities due to their alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade and other related activities. South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said Monday the concerned officials were placed in the area’s drug watch list based

on intelligence information gathered by local police units and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 12. She said some of these officials were supposedly involved directly in the selling of illegal drugs, specifically of metamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, in some parts of the province.

COTABATO City––Lumads or indigenous peoples (IP) in Mindanao are pinning their hopes to achieve just and lasting peace in Mindanao on the final peace pact between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Bae Magdalena Suhat-

Herbilla, chairperson of the Council of Elders of the Federation of MatigsalogManobo Tribal Council (Femmatric), which has about 35,000 members living in ancestral domains in North Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces, said they support the

See trade, page 11

Lumads air support to GPH-MILF pact

See PACT, page 11

See farm, page 4

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