UNUSUAL DURIAN SEASON IN DAVAO
COTABATO CITY, JANUARY 31, 2012
(STAR) By John Unson (PHOTO - Police forensic experts sift
through a scene of a recent roadside bombing at Sinsuat Avenue in Cotabato where
an M18A1 Claymore went off, slightly wounding a policemen who tries to prevent
passers-by from getting close after a bystander found the explosive near an
Acacia tree along the sidewalk. JOHN UNSON)
After having been tagged as the "kidnapping capital" of Mindanao in the
1990s, the city might soon just be labeled with another moniker for having been
the scene of 85 murders in 2011.
There are in fact dozens of peace activists from various foreign-assisted
peace advocacy outfits now contemplating to embark on a roundtable forum to
discuss the city's security woes.
It was only after the January 10 near-fatal ambush of Cotabato Vice-Mayor
Muslimin Sema that the city's mixed Muslim and Christian sectors learned that 85
local residents have been killed from January to December last year.
An incumbent member of the city council, Froilan Melendrez, told reporters
that only a small fraction of the murder cases have been solved by the local
police.
"When they say solve, they mean corresponding cases have been filed in
court," Melendrez said.
He said the city council is now in possession of documents detailing how many
people were killed here the past 12 months.
City police director Danny Reyes, in an interview with Catholic station dxMS
here, did not refute the facts Melendrez revealed.
Reyes, however, assured the public that they are doing everything to prevent
escalation of crimes in the city.
Along with the 85 killings in 2011 were more than a dozen bombings, more than
a dozen supposed bomb attacks were foiled by members of the Army's 6th Ordnance
and Explosive Detachment with their prompt deactivation of powerful improvised
explosive devices in different spots here.
Sources from the city's media community, among them officials of the local
chapters of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas and the National Union
of Journalists, said most of the unsolved murders were perpetrated by notorious
guns-for-hire, virtually unfazed by the heavy presence of policemen and
battle-ready combatants of the 7th Marine Battalion in the city's key entry and
exit routes.
Two popular hosts of a public affairs program of the Notre Dame Broadcasting
Corporation here, Jeff Mendez and Marychill Faunillan-Hawtay, took turn in
asking why the city police office has been reluctant to provide journalists with
data on the crimes and other peace and security issues besetting the 37
barangays here.
Chua Yu Beng, a senior official of the city's Filipino-Chinese Chamber of
Commerce, earlier said there is an impression now among some of them that
ordinary city residents are no longer safe because even the city's supposedly
influential and powerful vice mayor almost got killed in a daring attack last
January 10.
Sema was on his way home from a session at the city council when one of two
men riding a motorcycle in tandem opened fire at his 4x4 vehicle with a
customized M-16 assault rifle fitted with a noise suppressor.
Sema, chairman of the most dominant of at least three factions in the Moro
National Liberation Front, was hit in his jaw, hospitalized for six days in
Davao City and returned to work last Tuesday.
Concerned sectors wanted the judiciary to deploy more judges in the city,
where there is only one judge now, Bansawan Ibrahim, who is litigating hundreds
of cases at the Regional Trial Court here.
Ibrahim's house was strafed with automatic rifles by unknown attackers two
years ago in what he believed was a work-related attack.
Motorcycle-riding men gunned down last year Maguindanao's provincial
prosecutor, Akil Balt, in a broad daylight attack at the busy Sinsuat Avenue
here. The murder of Balt has remained unsolved.
The attack on the house of Ibrahim and the murder of Balt was preceded by the
still unsolved ambush-slay of Judge Sahara Silongan also at the same
thoroughfare about five years ago.
Davao City has unusual Durian season By Keith
Bacongco Home Updated January 27, 2012 10:28 AM 0 comment to this post
PHILIPPINE DAILY STAR
[PHOTO - Durian sold at the fruit stands near Magsaysay Park in Davao
City. Durian season came only this January as it usually blooms during the
months of July to August. (KEITH
BACONGCO)]
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The City Agriculture Office said Friday that
Davaoeños and tourists alike may now enjoy the bountiful harvest of Durian
fruits starting this month and may even extend until Araw ng Dabaw in March.
Unlike in the past, when Durian season comes every July and August, Leonardo
Avila III, acting chief of the City Agriculture Office, said the Durian fruiting
came five to six months late due to rains.
Avila said the volume is determined by the selling price, which has now
dropped from P70 per kilo to just P30 to P35 per kilo.
"This may stretch to two more months so we hope to have Durian during Araw ng
Dabaw, " he said adding that climate change has been a factor for the delay of
the Durian season.
Meanwhile, the agriculture chief said his office could not yet provide the
total harvest of durian last year, saying his office still consolidating data.
But Avila has earlier said that they are expecting a low harvest for 2011 due
to climate change.
In 2010, the city government has recorded at least 36,800 metric tons of
Durian have been harvested from different parts of the city.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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