cotabato news Archives - Mindanaoan - Multi awarded CDO and New York Lifestyle Blog

Feb22016 by Mindanaoan IreneNo Comments

Challenge to MILF: help secure the NGCP towers in Mindanao

ARMM, Cotabato, Muslim Mindanao, News, North Cotabato

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) should play an active role to ensure the coming May 2016 elections will push through in Mindanao by helping secure the transmission towers of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) that have been the subject of at least 17 bomb attacks since last year. If you recall, the latest NGCP tower bombing occurred in Cotabato just a few weeks ago. “There can be no better time for the MILF to show good faith and sincerity than now when the BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) is under consideration in the legislature,” said Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, the leading vice-presidential candidate in the May polls. Escudero said that while the NGCP has issued urgent appeals to the military, police and local residents to help secure its towers, the MI...

Dec132011 by Mindanaoan IreneNo Comments

Cotabato City Crab Festival 2011

Cotabato, Events, Festivals, Fiesta, Food, Maguindanao, Mindanaoan Update, North Cotabato

I love eating crabs. No, make that - I love, love, LOVE eating crabs! If you want to make me happy in an instant, serve me a crab dish. The regular steamed crab dish is my all time favorite. I also like roasted garlic crab, beer-steamed crab (yup, you read that right!), Sprite-steamed crab (again, you read that right!), ginger and scallion steamed crab, pepper crab and of course, the chilli crab (preferably cooked the Singaporean way!). So, yes, as you can see, I love crabs! (Do you as well?) So I'm pretty excited to know that here in Mindanao, a large city is set to celebrate its first ever crab festival! Presenting the Cotabato Crab Festival 2011! The 2011 Cotabato City Crab Festival, a component event of the upcoming Shariff Kabunsuan Festival, will take place from December 15 ...

Jun82011 by Mindanaoan Irene1 Comment

Blog Action Day 2011 – please, let us save our seas!

Advocacy, Agriculture, Beauty, Blogging, Commentary, Controversial, Cotabato, Features, Government, Headline, Internet, Journalism, Media, Mindanao, Mindanaoan Update, Musings, News, Opinion, Personal, Society

Truth be told, I felt so sad and embarrassed when news about the smuggling of black corals, turtles, rare seashells and other marine life here in the Philippines first broke out. Who wouldn't be? The shipment that was apprehended last May 1, 2011 at Pier 15, South Harbor Manila was from the Port of Cotabato City, Mindanao. The apprehended shipment included two 20-footer container vans declared as "rubber." Obviously, the seized shipment was far from containing "rubber." Instead, the vans yielded, among others, 134 bundles with 21,169 pieces of dried black corals, 161 turtles and roughly 7,340 pieces of rare sea shells. And to think that was just ONE shipment! That signaled a lot of concerns --- from the fact that my beloved Mindanao has apparently been the home of greedy individu...

May302011 by Mindanaoan IreneNo Comments

Full text: Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri privilege speech on black corals smuggling in Philippines

Advocacy, Blogging, Cotabato, Features, Government, Headline, Mindanaoan Update, Personalities, Politics

Here is the full text of the privilege speech of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri on the alleged smuggling of black corals in the Philippines. Senator Miguel Zubiri delivered this speech today, May 30, 2011. Zubiri's speech was prompted by the recent confiscation of multi-million peso worth of black corals in Cebu. The Rape of Our Ocean (privilege speech of Senator Migs Zubiri on the poaching of corals in the Philippines) Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I rise on an issue that has been the newspaper headlines and the topic of many discussions on social network, particularly on Facebook and Twitter, for the past week. Dubbed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer as "the rape of the ocean", I refer to the confiscated black corals, stuffed hawksbill turtles and other marine species. Mr. Pre...

Jan112011 by Mindanaoan IreneNo Comments

Sen. Chiz Escudero seeks relief of Cotabato police, army leadership

Cotabato, Government, Muslim Mindanao, News, Personalities, Politics

The rising number of abductions in Cotabato City over the past months has prompted Senator Chiz Escudero to call for the relief of the local police and armed forces chiefs in the area, saying they failed in their duties to secure and protect the people from criminals like the kidnap-for-ransom gangs. Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, condemned the latest abduction in the city involving Chinese businessman Eulogio Lim Yu last Saturday. This came a month after a nine-year-old girl was kidnapped but rescued in Pigcawayan, a town adjacent to the city. The girl’s father, trader Allan Tamayo, was killed when he tried to stop the abductors. Before this, Chinese businesswoman Conchita Tan was also snatched in Cotabato City, and her driver and bod...

Nov232009 by Mindanaoan Irene1 Comment

By 2014, Mindanao power deficit will be equivalent to putting out power in 5 major Mindanao cities

Announcements, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro City, Cotabato, Davao City, Events, Headline, Mindanao, Mindanaoan Update, News, Technology, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Peninsula, Zamboanga Sibugay

The press statement of the upcoming Mindanao Power Summit 2009 alarmed me. It said that "by 2014, projections have it that Mindanao will have a deficit capacity of 484 megawatts which is equivalent to putting out power in the five major cities of Mindanao - Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Butuan, and Cotabato." That means that five years from now, Mindanao will suffer a devastating power crisis and that the situation may reach the most critical state if we do not act fast and act now. The press statement also claimed that the entire Mindanao grid may experience regular rotating brownouts as early as next year (!), especially with the coming in of additional new investments that are anticipated to further deplete the grid’s reserve capacity. I don't know about you but their statemen...