The
Davao City Council passed in February 2007 Ordinance No. 0309-07
banning the use of aerial spray on banana plantations. A few years
before, Bukidnon and North Cotabato passed similar ordinances. But it
was in Davao that the ban hit the headlines as residents, led by the
Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (MAAS), stood up against the ill effects
of aerial spraying. Among the protest actions they held was on 5 June
2007. MindaNews photo by BJ A. PATIÑO
A
Marine pays respects to his fallen comrades at a funeral parlor in
Zamboanga City on 13 July 2007. Fourteen Marines were killed in an
ambush in the municipality of Al-Barka, Basilan days earlier. The MILF
admitted staging the ambush but denied responsibility for the beheading
of 10 of the slain Marines. MindaNews photo by CHARLIE SACEDA
Fr.
Giancarlo Bossi was abducted in June 2007 as he was on his way to
celebrate mass in the municipality of Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay. His
parishioners prayed and called for his release. He was freed on 20 July
2007, more than a month later in the town of Sultan Naga Dimaporo
(formerly Karomatan) in Lanao del Norte after intense police and
military pursuit operations. MindaNews photo by KEITH BACONGCO
Farmers
from Sumilao in Bukidnon begin their protest march from their hometown
in Bukidnon all the way to Malacañang on 10 October 2007. Their struggle
to own the 144-hectare land began a decade earlier, their case becoming
a test case of government’s sincerity in its Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program. They eventually got their share of the land. MindaNews
photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
Meranaws
stage a rally in downtown Marawi City on 9 January 2008 calling on the
Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to resume
the stalled peace talks. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERA
Nuns
pay respects to Fr. Jesus Reynaldo A. Roda, OMI, at the Metropolitan
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Zamboanga City on 19 January
2008. The director of the Notre Dame of Tabawan in Tawi- tawi was
praying in the chapel three days earlier when armed men barged in to
forcibly take him away. He resisted, preferring instead to be killed
than kidnapped. MindaNews photo by CHARLIE SACEDA
Milagros
Cubelo, 79, celebrates after lining up for at least two hours to
purchase two kilos of NFA rice at the Bankerohan public market in Davao
City on 9 June 2008. The rice crisis that hit the country that year
caused rice prices to rise beyond the reach of the majority. Long queues
of consumers hoping to buy cheaper rice were a common sight across
Mindanao. MindaNews photo by KEITH BACONGCO
Soldiers
patrol the highway in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte on 19 August 2008,
when war erupted anew between government forces and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of
Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). The war, which spread in many
parts of Mindanao, displaced 600,000 residents. MindaNews photo by BOBBY
TIMONERA
Residents
of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte arrive in Buruun, Iligan City after
leaving their homes by boat when MILF rebels occupied parts of the town
in the August 2008 war. The MILF also occupied Kolambugan, another town
in Lanao del Norte. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERA