Archive - Top Stories

Photos by MARIO IGNACIO, CHIT ESTELLA and AVIGAIL OLARTE
MARKING the first year of the Ampatuan massacre, over a hundred journalists and militant groups on Tuesday marched to Mendiola demanding justice to the slain.

By CAROLYN ARGUILLAS
MINDANEWS
MASSACRE SITE, Ampatuan, Maguindanao.—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima assured residents of Maguindanao that they have government’s commitment “to do all that we can” to convince the Supreme Court to allow live coverage of the trial” of the perpetrators of the now year-old Ampatuan Massacre, because “what is at trial are not just the accused, but our whole government system.”

By AVIGAIL OLARTE
GATHERED around the table were mother, father and son. It was November 20th, a Friday. It would be their last supper together.

By MYLAH ROQUE
RELATIVES of victims of the year-old Maguindanao massacre on Monday sought the help of the visiting United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression in speeding up prosecution of members of the Ampatuan family and more than a hundred others charged with the multiple killings that have been described as the country’s worst election-related violence.

By AVIGAIL OLARTE
NEARLY a year after the Maguindanao massacre, the Aquino administration has yet to make good on its promise to disarm and disband all private armies in the country.

By MARK JOSEPH UBALDE
FORMER President Corazon Aquino was named by Time magazine as one of the “25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century,” joining the ranks of civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Nobel laureate Mother Theresa, and even music icon Madonna, among others.

IF you gather all the Philippine coins circulating in the market today, their combined weight would be equivalent to 24,183 jeepneys, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Philippine coins in circulation run into billions --- 15.74 billion pieces to be exact. BSP says the huge quantity of coins is such that there are 193 coins for every Filipino. That is the ratio of coins to the present population of 92.2 million, excluding the 11 million overseas Filipinos.

By BOOMA CRUZ
THE smile vanishes as soon as she hears a deafening roar across the Abuan River in Isabela province. “I hate that sound,” former Isabela governor Grace Padaca says. “They’re really back.” “They” are hatcheros or chainsaw operators who are indeed back in business, cutting age-old trees at the northern Sierra Madre.

By KAREN TUASON and RODOLFO DESUASIDO
THE land dispute between the powerful Teves clan of Negros Oriental and 30 farmer-beneficiaries has left two persons dead. The killings remain unresolved, but the farmer-beneficiaries say they are agrarian-related.

LONG ago, in the days before the unats or straight-haired people took over their land, home to the Aytas of Bataan was the vast forest that stretched all the way to Zambales and included what is now the economic zone called Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
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By ROLAND G. SIMBULAN
DESPITE China’s emergence as an economic power, it should not replace the United States as the key partner of Southeast Asian countries as U.S. military presence is still needed to combat terrorism in the region, an American security analyst said Friday.

IN 2006, about 300 families of Sitio Agusuhin in Subic, Zambales were forcibly evicted from their land. The government had entered into a deal with Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co., owner of the biggest shipbuilding facility in the country.
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