AFP Chief Gen. Bangit: Military junta option is political 'suicide'

MANILA, April 22 -- Armed Forces chief of staff General Delfin N. Bangit on Thursday reiterated his commitment for credible elections and exhorted AFP Major Service Commanders, and other top brasses to stand by the Constitution.

“I am for the Constitution,” he declared in a command conference the other day as he sought to dispell rumors of military junta. He stressed: “(A) junta is never on our list of things to do. There is no junta, there will never be. Junta is contrary to good judgment. It is suicide."

"Our claim to honor and dignity is not through a leadership where we will be the ones who will decide for our people. Our claim to honor and dignity is our ability to act as on in order to protect our people. Listen to the call of the times. It calls on us to stand firm for our people and not claim to be the voice of the people,” added Bangit.

Talks of supposed military plan to put up a junta had been swirling for the past weeks. The latest allegation was fanned early this week by civil society group leader Pastor Boy Saycon, a supporter of presidential bet Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III.

Bangit called on his men to focus on the most essential aspect at this point and to stand resilient against the many attempts to divide the organization.

“We should move on. There is a concern bigger than appointments – and that is, the upcoming elections, and the rumored military junta being insinuated by some groups. Politics is not what we have worked for in our entire career. Politicians come and go. Even as they do, we stay. Our enemies before are still our enemies today. We know how hard our enemies work to break the unity and integrity that has kept us unbeatable,” said Bangit.


He also exhorted his men to stand firm , saying "to you who are with me in our stand for the Constitution; to you who are with me in our stand against revolutionary government or junta: Labanan natin (let us fight together side by side) because this is clearly unconstitutional.”

Bangit cited the importance of AFP professionalism especially in the coming elections. “The outcome of this elections is a make or break for the AFP. It is also a deciding point for our country,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a letter dated April 21, 2010, Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Raymundo B. Ferrer wrote a formal communication to Bangit to refute having attended a meeting with Aquino or with any other political candidate.

“I am dismayed that my name was dragged into such an issue that is obviously fed information designed to portray disunity in our organization”, the letter said.

Additionally, Ferrer assured his loyalty to the military organization under Gen. Bangit’s leadership, and referred this allegiance as “greater than my personal feelings”.
“I am not disgruntled or else I would have resigned my position and damned the institution to my heart’s content.”

The AFP had been time and again hounded with rumors of polarization and partisanship.

“Recently, there had been renewed efforts to 'fragmentize' the AFP through proliferation of stories on alleged disgruntlement of some AFP officers. We dismiss these rumors as efforts by some groups or individuals with personal and vested interests whose ultimate objective is far from good,” said AFP Civil Relations Service chief Brig. Gen. Francisco N Cruz.

The AFP appeals to these self-interest groups busily propagating discord to stop these schemes and allow the military organization to focus on its mandate and on its mission for the sake of the Filipino people. This is to include providing a secured environment for the voters and for the smooth transport of election materials.

“We are confident, that through the COMELEC and its Joint Security Control Center, the PNP’s and AFP’s Task Force HOPE, the Zeñarosa Commission, and all the election watchdogs could work together to ensure a peaceful and credible election,” said Cruz

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDALCALL OR TEXT ME : E-MAIL ME : pjtremedal@gmail.comvisit my website: www.mindanao on-line.tk

6,055 Mindanao highlanders benefit from gov’t anti-poverty programs

BAYUGAN CITY, Agusan del Sur, April 22 - At least 6,055 indigenous people (IPs) in Mindanao benefited from agri-business opportunities and capacity building activities by the Department of Agriculture (DA) through its Community Fund for Agricultural Development (CFAD).

A statement released by DA and Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) said IP beneficiaries comprise 43 percent of the 14,185 total beneficiaries of CFAD.

The DA-MRDP also reported that among the IPs, 2,640 were female and 3,415 were male.

This statistical record came out after a Mindanao-wide World Bank (WB) review mission of the DA's five-year program.

Most of the beneficiaries were from Northeastern Mindanao Caraga region (8 percent); Region 10 (28 percent); Region 11 (26 percent); Region 12 (22 percent); Autonomus Region in Muslim Mindanao (10 percent); and Region 9 (7 percent).

Among the tribes which received the assistance were Ata Manobo, Mansaka, Teduray, T'boli, Subanen, and Higaonon from Northern Mindanao and Agusan provinces, the DA-MRDP report said.

These beneficiaries are engaged in production of high value crops like banana, vegetables, peanuts and fruits, cattle production and swine breeding, while other groups received farm implements.

The DA-MRDP statement said IPs are the majority beneficiaries of the livelihood projects of the anti-poverty program of the DA in Mindanao.

MRDP, now on its second phase, is a multi-million program jointly funded by the World Bank, the National government and the local government units.

For five years, the program has allotted close to U.S.$ 30 million for its livelihood component, the CFAD.

CFAD is a community driven development where the people themselves identify their own project based on the available resources of the community and skills of their members. This allows poor communities to take part in the decision-making process, establishing a sense of ownership and generating high level of participation.

"Empowering the marginalized sector through agribusiness activities expands the strength of rural economy since agriculture as is said as the mainstay of economic activities in rural areas," said DA-MRDP official Lealyn A. Ramos.

Ramos added that the program has exceeded its IP target beneficiaries. CFAD sets to target only 35 percent IPs among its beneficiaries.

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDALCALL OR TEXT ME : E-MAIL ME : pjtremedal@gmail.comvisit my website: www.mindanao on-line.tk

Climate change is a test of leadership - Legarda

On Earth Day, NP-NPC-LDP vice presidential bet Loren Legarda challenged the country’s local and national officials to show leadership in addressing the ill effects of climate change – stronger typhoons, heavier rains and more devastating droughts.

“Given the urgency posed by climate change, decisive action needs to be taken now from the national down to the grassroots level. Earth Day is a reminder of that,” said Legarda, lamenting on the vulnerability of poor rural families dependent on rain-fed agriculture to the long hot summer brought about by El Nino.

The total damage to agriculture reported as of February 8 included P1.05 billion worth of corn, P343 million worth of rice and P1.39 million worth of high-value crops.

Legarda adds, “Poor and indebted households have little or no surplus capacity to absorb crop losses and to recover. But what we can do is implement measures to help them avert or minimize these losses – an agricultural adaptation program that will ensure more investments in agricultural research and infrastructure, improved water governance and land use policies, better forecasting tools and early warning systems and a strengthened extension system that will assist farmers to achieve economic diversification and access to credit.”

“Disasters have been a fact of life for Filipinos but we must also realize the fact that we ourselves, especially our decision and policy-makers, shape disaster risks in our midst --by the way we change our environment and by the way we choose to live in it,” Legarda stresses.

She likewise challenged the national government to fully translate the Climate Change Act of 2009, a policy integrating climate change in the country’s poverty-reduction strategies, into concrete local actions and measurable gains for the people.

“I urge leaders, especially those running for higher office this May, to reveal their climate change adaptation agenda. And I call on voters to choose leaders who have the vision and the will to take early action on this climate crisis,” Legarda said.

Legarda, principal author and sponsor of the Philippine Climate Change Act of 2009, is the appointed United Nations Regional Champion on Disaster Risk Reduction for Asia and the Pacific and serves as the Chairperson of the Committees on Agriculture and Food, Health and Demography and Climate Change in the Philippine Senate.

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDALCALL OR TEXT ME : E-MAIL ME : pjtremedal@gmail.comvisit my website: www.mindanao on-line.tk

March for justice, march for accountability

Today, April 23, on the fifth month since the Ampatuan massacre, we call on colleagues, media organizations, sectors and the people to join us as we march for justice and for accountability.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chapters nationwide will be leading rallies and other activities both to commemorate the massacre that took the lives of 58 persons, including 32 colleagues, and to protest Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra’s dropping of multiple murder charges against Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan.

So outrageous was Agra’s act that even the National Prosecution Service, led by Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano, rose as one in protest.

In Metro Manila, various sectors and organizations will join us at Mendiola Bridge at 6 p.m. for activities organized by the Malacañang Press Corps. NUJP chapters in Baguio, Pampanga, Davao, Bacolod and Iloilo, to name a few, will also be leading their respective actions.

But more than protest Agra’s stupendous decision, let us seize this day to once and for all demand accountability from whom it is due – this administration whose politics of expediency and its nurturing of impunity made the slaughter in Ampatuan not just possible but inevitable; this administration which, notwithstanding the shock and outrage throughout the nation and the world over the massacre, has no qualms about subverting justice to further its own ends.

Too long have our cries for justice been ignored by this administration.

And let us, likewise, take this occasion to serve notice to whoever next takes the helm of power in this benighted land, given the deafening silence with which those who seek to rule us reacted to both the slaughter and Agra’s desecration of justice, that we will hold you just as accountable for ensuring that justice is given the Ampatuan 58 and the rest of our colleagues whose murders remain unsolved.

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDALCALL OR TEXT ME : E-MAIL ME : pjtremedal@gmail.comvisit my website: www.mindanao on-line.tk

Lakas officials confident Gibo will get landslide victory in Lanao del Norte

TUBOD, Lanao del Norte, April 13 -– Officials of the ruling party Lakas-Kampi-CMD in Lanao del Norte in Northern Mindanao on Tuesday expressed optimism that administration's standard bearer Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro Jr. will get landslide victory in the province on May 10, 2010 national and local elections.

"I’m sure that Gibo will win by a big margin in this province against his rivals," said Lanao del Norte Gov. Khalid Q. Dimaporo.

The provincial chief executive said this as he cited the the massive support of the residents here who trooed to the Mindanao Civic Center (MCC) complex in the capitol town of Tubod to meet Gibo as his helicopter landed in the MCC open field last Saturday.

"The massive show of support is proof that Lanao del Norte is indeed a stronghold of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD," said Gov. Dimaporo.

According to Dimaporo, more than 10,000 people came to personally see and express their support to the Lakas presidential bet.

Teodoro is the first presidential candidate to make a campaign stop in Lanao del Norte.

"I want a president that we can depend on and will help us in our time of need. And Gibo has proven to be that leader," said Gov. Dimaporo.

Since the start of the local campaign period, the Dimaporos in Lanao del Norte have been aggressively campaigning for their party’s standard bearer.

In the season of shifting party loyalty, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD (Lanao del Norte chapter) remains steadfast to its official line-up of national candidates, the governor said.

"We want to send a strong message that we are not affected by any negative media reports and that we remain committed to deliver a landslide victory for Lakas-Kampi-CMD here in Lanao del Norte", added Gov. Dimaporo.

Present during Teodoro’s sortie in Lanao del Norte were Lakas Kampi CMD stalwarts Rep. Abdullah Dimporo, Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo, Fatima Aliah Dimaporo, Vice-Gov. Irma Umpa-Ali, provincial board members, municipal mayors, barangay officials and provincial volunteer health workers.

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Haribon Troopers confiscate Illegal logs in Lanao del Sur

Kampo Ranao, Marawi City. Troops from the 64^th Infantry Battalion, 6^th Infantry Division, Philippine Army under Lt Colonel Rolando E Nerona apprehended five (5) vehicles carrying an estimated total of eleven thousand six hundred (11,600) board feet of undocumented lumbers reportedly owned by Aliodin and Maoi, both residents of Marawi City, Lanao del Sur. The lumbers were being transported to Marawi City when soldiers manning the COMELEC checkpoint at Brgy Dualay West of the city stopped them at about 2:30 in the morning of April 6, 2010.

The soldiers increased their vigilance against unscrupulous people who transport illegally cut logs, especially after the pronouncement of Acting Governor Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that he favors a total log ban in the region.

Lately, the issue on illegal logging around Lake Lanao has become a grave concern especially with the frequent brownouts affecting not only the island of Mindanao but also the rest of the country. Water in the said lake has decreased to a critical level thereby affecting the seven (7) Agus hydroelectic power plants, in which only five (5) are currently operational. Based on the NPC assessment result, the El Nino phenomenon we are experiencing at present is not the only cause of the lake’s water level drop. Improper watershed management, wherein illegal logging is part of, has been likewise identified as the culprit.

“We will increase our efforts against illegal logging. The COMELEC checkpoints that we have established to implement the gun ban will also check the transport of illegal lumbers in Lanao del Sur,” said BGen Rey C Ardo, the Commander of the 103^rd Infantry (Haribon) Brigade based in Marawi City.

“With the prevailing situation, there is a need to support the revival of Save Lake Lanao Movement (SALAM) initiated by the Lake Lanao Development Authority. Members of the SALAM and the local executives must join hands in the advocacy against illegal logging to protect the watershed of the country’s largest freshwater lake, from which more than half of Mindanao’s energy needs are sourced. Your AFP, on the other hand, will always be in support of such advocacy since sound environmental management is part of our internal security operations,” he concluded.

The confiscated illegally cut logs with the vehicles are presently impounded in Kampo Ranao, Marawi City pending the filing of charges by DENR against the perpetrators.

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
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