PNP and AFP is ready to assist the COMELEC starting the campaign today until election on October 28

City Police Director Superintendent Glenn

Macario Dulawan (Photo by JONG CADION)

By JONG CADION

PAGADIAN CITY, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR– The Pagadian City Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are ready to assist the Commission on Elections to ensure the conduct of a Clean Honest Accountability Meaningful and Peaceful (CHAMP) barangay elections today October 28, 2013.

“We are 100% ready and had already established preparations and made our necessary plans together with our counterpart from the AFP-Philippine Army thru the 53^rd Infantry Battalion. Our action is under the supervision by the COMELEC Officials from the start of the campaign up to today the barangay elections proper,” City Police Director Superintendent Glenn Macario Dulawan told SOLAR NEWS.  
 

Philippines: Manila to host international seminar on law of war

By Alison Lopez

 

MANILA (ICRC) – 40 civil society, government and military representatives from across Southeast and East Asia will meet in Manila on today to attend a six-day seminar on the international laws governing military operations.

The seminar, the eighth of its kind to be held in the region, has been jointly organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the College of Law of the University of the Philippines. This is the first time the Philippines has hosted the event, which runs from 13 to 18 October.

"The seminar will help build a broad understanding of what laws apply in armed conflicts and why they must be respected in the interests of humanity”, said Alain Aeschlimann, the ICRC's head of operations for East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific. “It will also provide a rich forum for civil society professionals involved in the promotion of the law and policy surrounding humanitarian issues to debate their role.”

Pagadian businessman kidnapped victim released

By JONG CADION

PAGADIAN CITY, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR – A kidnapped victim businessman in Pagadian City was released Thursday morning October 10 after 5 days of captivity by his abductor.

Lee Tan was presented to the media at Zamboanga del Sur Police Provincial Office (ZSPPO) by the police authorities together with Pagadian City Councilor Ernesto Mondarte, Council chairman of Police and Public Safety Committee  after he was meet by the operatives of Anti-Kidnapped for Ransom operatives following his released in the municipality of Ramon Magsaysay, Zamboanga del Sur.

Police confirmed that the abductors demanded P500,000 pesos ransom for the early release of the victim but refused to confirmed if there was a payment made. 

South Asia: Media debate their role in reporting violence and conflict

Media covering Zamboanga City crisis (Photo by Richel Umel)

By Allison Lopez

NEWS DELHI (ICRC Ooctober 9, 2013) – More than 20 senior editors from media organizations in South Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific will convene in New Delhi yesterday October 8 and today to discuss the challenges of reporting on violence and conflict.

"Media do not just report news, they also form opinion – and that, in turn, shapes events," said Mary Werntz, head of the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in India.” "It will be interesting to discuss with top professionals from South Asia how reporting can help address humanitarian consequences of violence and conflict."

Bringing humanitarian concerns into focus remains a challenge during conflicts and other situations of violence. Senior editors from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Iran, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore will share their experiences and discuss the role and responsibilities of the media in covering different crises across the region.

This conference is being jointly organized by the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre and the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution of the Jamia Millia Islamia University together with the ICRC in New Delhi. Over the past few years, the ICRC has cultivated its relationship with the media in South Asia, hosting similar events in Manila in 2011, Dhaka in 2007 and New Delhi in 2006.

Live updates from the conference will be available on Twitter (follow tweets tagged #asianmedia13). More information about the conference is available at http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/event/2013/10-03-south-asia-media-conference.htm

Amid growing mercury imports, environmental group calls Ban mercury imports, ratify mercury treaty!

By Angelica Pago

(63) 915-9260371/angelica@bantoxics.org

KUMAMOTO, JAPAN (October 8, 2013) -  As more than 140 countries convene near the small town of Minamata, Japan, in the next few days to adopt a new legally binding treaty on mercury, environmental justice group BAN Toxics! (BT) calls on the Philippine government to ban mercury imports into the country.  Citing data from a new study it is releasing in Japan, “Mercury Trade in the Philippines:  An Investigative Research on Mercury Flows in the Philippines”, the group is concerned that if the volume of mercury trade remains unabated, the Philippines will end up with major mercury pollution a thousand times more serious than the mercury spill that recently happened in Fabella hospital.

Culling data from the United Nations Statistical Division-Commercial Trade (COMTRADE), a global database on the volume, origin and destination of traded commodities, the report reveals that the Philippines imported over 295 tons of mercury from 2000-2011.  According to the report, the mercury originated from countries such as Japan, Germany, Spain, and Hong Kong/China.

“The critical question is where did the 295 tons of mercury end up,” explains Atty. Richard Gutierrez, Executive Director of BAN Toxics. “Based on our findings the excess mercury usually finds its way to small-scale gold mining operations in the countryside, where it is ending up in the environment.
http://frontlinemindanaobalita.blogspot.com/2013/10/amid-growing-mercury-imports.html?view=magazine

Zero Mercury Working Group welcomes new Mercury Convention, calls for its speedy ratification - 50 by 2015: Make it Happen!

By Angelica Carballo

     angelica@bantoxics.org

KUMAMOTO, JAPAN (October 7, 2013) - As more than 140 countries are expected to convene near the small town of Minamata, Japan, in the next few days to adopt a new legally binding treaty on mercury, the Zero Mercury Working Group[i] welcomes the new treaty.  It also urges governments pay homage to Minamata and the tragedy that befell this bucolic village by undertaking concrete activities that begin reducing global mercury pollution and ratifying the treaty quickly so that it legally enters into force. http://frontlinemindanaobalita.blogspot.com/2013/10/zero-mercury-working-group-welcomes-new.html?view=magazine

“Governments and all the stakeholders involved need to build upon this momentum by continuing to undertake mercury reduction activities in parallel, and ratifying the treaty as fast as possible,” said Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, ZMWG International Coordinator.  “We urge 50 countries to step up and ratify by 2015 — “50 by 2015 – Make it Happen!”

(STATEMENT) To the military: Stop branding media outfits as state enemies

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines takes exception to military officials mentioning the work of a journalist at an alternative news outfit in reference with the reported “capture” of her husband, a scientist and university professor who the Army claims had joined the New People’s Army.

In talking of physicist Kim Gargar, Captain Alberto Caber, public affairs office chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, noted that the scientist’s wife is “a writer of the leftist Bulatlat.com online news website.”

Even if the military’s claims about Gargar are true, we do not see how his wife’s work with Bulatlat.com, which has been operating for several years, is relevant at all to any statement Caber has to make.

Unless, of course, it is to insinuate that Bulatlat.com’s perceived leanings somehow make Gargar’s wife – and the whole outfit – complicit in the insurgency.

In the same manner the ISAFP so famously branded as “enemies of the state” the NUJP and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism – and even the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines – in the infamous 2005 PowerPoint “Knowing the Enemy.”

Incidentally, we continue to receive reports that the PowerPoint is still shown in schools and other venues throughout the land.

Caber’s thinking has clearly not evolved beyond that of a brute who immediately brands anyone with a different perspective an enemy, the kind of thinking perpetuated during Martial Law that, alas, somehow continues to infect the minds of officers such as him.

We demand that Caber publicly apologize to Bulatlat.com, not only for slandering a legitimate news outfit but endangering its staff as well.

It is the likes of you, Capt. Caber, who are the real enemies of the state because your blinders and one-track minds are anathema to the democracy you claim to protect and defend.

1ID recognizes Zamboanga siege heroes

(From Left) PFC Julmuin J Abdulahid and Cpl Hakim I

Jaafar Both were former members of MNLF who were

integrated in the AFP (Photo provided)

 

By JONG CADION

PAGADIAN CITY, ZAMBOSUR (October 4, 2013) – As the smoke of 24-days standoff between the government forces and the Moro National Liberation Front – Misuari Group faction subsides, different acts of heroism emerged to tell their own story in the historic defence of Zamboanga City against organize threat groups under Nur Misuari.

But two (2) of the members of 1^st Infantry Division (1ID) will no longer tell their stories to their families and friends. They were among those killed-in-actions (KIA) during the crisis, while 33 others of the 192 wounded in actions in the government side were under the 1ID.

The two (2) KIA were identified as PFC Julmuin J Abdulahid 820168 PA of 32IB from Indanan, Sulu and Cpl Hakim I Jaafar 819932 PA of 44IB from Parang, Sulu. Both were former members of MNLF who were integrated in the AFP.

PFC Abdulahid was the first casualty on the part of the 1ID when the standoff started on September 9, 2013 at Brgy Sta Barbara, Zamboanga City. While Cpl Jaafar was killed last 30 Sep 2013 at same area, two (2) days after the operations was declared manageable by authorities.

BGen Felicito Virgilio M Trinidad Jr, Commander of 1^st Infantry Division expressed his deepest sympathy not only to the bereaved families of the two fallen Tabak troopers but also of the other AFP by saying: “Before, they were among our brothers who took arms against the state, now they are heroes defending our state. They were true to their oath of loyalty to the Philippine Flag. 1ID was very lucky having them, they are warriors and heroes, and they will never be forgotten”