Mindanao

By Maya M. Padillo, Businessworld, Jun 26, 2017 DAVAO CITY — The Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Mindanao, Inc. (JCCMI) said investors had put on hold their plans in Mindanao as the situation and the possible outcome remain unclear while the southern islands are under martial law.

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Mindanao faces the prospect of longer rotational blackouts at the start of the year as worsening right-of-way (ROW) issues continue to stall restoration work on bombed towers, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao is experiencing rotational brownouts from an average of 1-4 hours due to the lower water level of dams, according to the Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC).

By Gerardo P. Sicat (The Philippine Star), June 24, 2015 Three major urban areas serve as magnets for Mindanao’s economic heartland: Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and General Santos. These magnetos collectively provide transport logistics and the industrial and commercial support to the growth of Mindanao’s economy.

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno has warned that the vulnerability of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to constitutional attacks might jeopardize efforts to bring about a lasting peace in Mindanao.

A group of Catholic rural missionaries is concerned over what might happen to farmers, indigenous peoples and the environment if oil palm plantations are allowed to expand “unbridled” in Mindanao.

The report of the National Peace Council formed by Aquino III to review the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) definitely shows that it was formed merely to ensure the passage by Congress of said document as demanded by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). It is really quite disturbing and ironic that for the purpose of…

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – More and longer blackouts are expected in Mindanao in the coming weeks, an official said yesterday. “The situation is generally back to normal as the system regains stability, but derated capacity from Agus Hydroelectric Power Complex due to low water levels is expected during summer,” said Romeo Montenegro, assistant director of…

I couldn’t believe what I was reading in the bill for the “Bangsamoro Basic Law” President Aquino personally submitted to Congress as his priority to implement his peace agreement last March with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Have Aquino and his negotiators gone mad?

HUNDREDS of thousands of residents in four Mindanao provinces continued to suffer from rolling blackouts over the weekend, but the Energy Department was still in the dark about the major systemwide outage that crippled almost the entire island on Feb. 27.

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao will continue to experience two- to three-hour rotating blackouts because not all power plants are back online after the region suffered an island-wide power outage on Thursday, officials said yesterday.

Business leaders identified nine major sectors in Mindanao that require attention if the region’s competitiveness is to improve ahead of the anticipated Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration in 2015, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said in a statement Thursday.

DAVAO CITY—The long years of neglect that Mindanao suffered would have its painful and telling blow when the country is forced to open its entire economy to the scheduled single market of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) by 2015.

(Last of two parts) MANILA, Philippines – There’s a wide-array of reasons for the Mindanao crisis. As expected, President Benigno Aquino blames his predecessor for the problem.

MANILA, Philippines – Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said he is losing his hair because of the Mindanao crisis. As he said this, in a recent meeting with Mindanao-based electric cooperatives, Petilla drew laughter from the crowd.

THE CAT is out of the bag: the strong economic growth in 2010 and 2012 failed to pull many poor Filipinos from the poverty trap. Poverty incidence at the national level has remained unchanged. And that’s the good news! The bad news is that, by island territories, the improvement in the poverty situation after two…

A former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said on Sunday that the power problem in southern Philippines is expected to drag down the economy, which is projected to grow by 6 percent to 7 percent this year.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is skeptical of the ability of the Philippine government’s interagency committees to deal with labor issues such as labor-related killings, the transcript of a United States Trade Representative (USTR) hearing showed.

Much work remains to be done to transform a framework agreement into a peace accord that will bring about security and prosperity in Mindanao, the Philippines’ second-largest island, the World Bank said on Monday. At the same time, the international financial institution welcomed the signing of the Framework Agreement between President Benigno Aquino III and…

THE administration-controlled Senate has given assurances that close to P260 billion has been set aside for various infrastructure projects in Mindanao for 2013. The assurance was given by “administration” Sen. Frank Drilon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, who said the implementation of the projects would be hastened by the peace deal the government…

President Benigno Aquino on Sunday said the government had reached a preliminary peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in a major breakthrough toward ending a decadeslong insurgency in the country’s impoverished south.

MANILA, Philippines – The government has reached a preliminary peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), with a new political entity called Bangsamoro to be created. The deal was seen as a major breakthrough in ending a decades-long separatist insurgency in Mindanao. President Aquino yesterday described the deal in a nationally televised announcement…

The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed on a framework agreement that would pave the way for a “final enduring peace” in Mindanao that would end the cycle of violence and poverty in that region, President Aquino announced on Sunday.

The government’s inability to look after Mindanao, a vote-rich island visited by politicians only during election campaigns, is home to the country’s poorest provinces, disclosed the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) which said the 10 richest local government units (LGUs) are situated close to the seat of power.

BONN, Germany — The low enrollment and literacy rate in Mindanao vis-à-vis the rest of the country is just among the many negative effects of decades of conflict and crisis in the region, an international expert on crisis and education said here at the 2012 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Acting Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman signed Tuesday the ARMM’s Human Rights Act, a regional law meant to complement the humanitarian components of the national government’s Southern peace process.

Electricity users in power-strapped Mindanao are up in arms against government plans to build more coal-fired plants to relieve the critical energy shortage, warning that these would lock the island into a polluting source of power. The warning was sounded ahead of the energy summit in Davao City at the weekend by the environmentalist foundation,…

Mindanao is now experiencing frequent power failures. Given the nature of the problem, the situation is expected to get worse before it gets better. That should not come as a surprise. As early as two years ago, energy experts have been predicting such power outages in Mindanao and the Visayas. Yet, the government has failed…

DAVAO CITY — The blackouts lasting for six hours or more belie the Energy Department’s claim that Mindanao only experiences 30 minutes to 2 hours of power outages a  day, says a resolution passed by the Kidapawan City Council. Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit on Tuesday said that the media had blown the power crisis…