VERA Files
10 years, 10 stories.
The celebration honors the bounties of the sea, especially seaweed, the top source of livelihood in the province.
By JOSEPH ARNEL DELIVERIO BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—They were arrested by authorities for illegally working in Malaysia, and detained for months in cramped cells where they were fed only twice a day. Yet the four Filipino deportees said they would give up everything for a chance to go back, even if it meant going through the whole […]
By JAKE SORIANO BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—Tawi-Tawi authorities are alarmed at the growing number of fishermen from the Visayas who end up here after being recruited by human trafficking syndicates to engage in dangerous compressor diving. The latest case involves 13 fishermen rescued from a fishing village here on March 15 by a team composed of the […]
By BABYLYN KANO-OMAR
BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi— The Philippine National Police is sending a company of Special Action Forces to Tawi-Tawi, the country’s southernmost province, as security measures are being tightened in the run-up to the May 13 local elections.
Text and photos by VINCENT GO
BONGAO, Tawi-tawi – Endangered sea turtles are being harvested in Tawi-tawi seas and sold in the public market of Bongao, despite various laws banning such activities.
BONGAO, Tawi-tawi—Muslim leaders challenged followers of Islam to change public perceptions that the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is the cheating capital of the Philippines.
By BABYLYN KANO-OMAR VERA Files BONGAO, Tawi-tawi—Former Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, now vice president of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), arrived here Sunday for a brief visit to check on PPCRV operations. Larrazabal visited six registration centers, and in some of these centers saw that among the PPCRV volunteers were persons with […]
By BABYLYN KANO-OMAR, VERA Files BONGAO, Tawi-tawi—The 10 days set aside for the general registration of voters would be sufficient to accommodate all registrants, and an extension would be unnecessary, election officials said. But some sectors have been asking for a extension of the registration, giving rise to suspicion that such calls are a ploy […]
By BABYLYN KANO-OMAR VERA Files BONGAO, Tawi-tawi—Reports of “flying” registrants in different barangays here are reaching the election watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting. On Day 4 of the 10-day general registration, residents lining up to enlist complained that unknown people have been cutting through long lines of registrants waiting for their turns to […]