The Antique provincial board passed on Thursday an ordinance institutionalizing programs and projects for sacadas or migrant sugar workers (MSWs) in the province. The ordinance titled “Programs and Projects for Sacadas and their Families” is to uplift their living conditions, said Board Member Karmila Rose Dimamay, author of the legislation which was approved on final reading during their virtual session. “As I went around the province to interview the sacadas, I learned that they still have no database and some of them had not yet heard about the government programs for them,” she said in an interview. The deployment of
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said his office will await the result of the initial investigation on the killing of a lawyer in South Cotabato. “As part of standard procedure, the DOJ (Department of Justice) will await the report of local police investigators and evaluate whether the killing falls under the jurisdiction of the Inter-Agency Committee on EJKs (extrajudicial killings),” Guevarra told newsmen. Lawyer Juan Macababbad was shot by three gunmen in front of his house in Surallah, South Cotabato on Wednesday. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead. Macababbad, 68, who once ran for
A top leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) and eight of his followers on Wednesday surrendered to the 23rd Infantry Battalion (23IB) at the unit’s headquarters in Barangay Alubihid, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte. Lt. Col. Julius Cesar C. Paulo, 23IB commander, told the Philippine News Agency Thursday that the surrenderers belong to the dismantled Guerrilla Front 4A (DGF-4A), North Central Mindanao Regional Committee of the NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Among those who surrendered were Khim Agad Mapoy alias Patrick, the front secretary of DGF-4A; and his brother Loreto Agad Mapoy Jr. alias
Tired and weary of fighting the government forces, some seven members of the New People’s Army (NPA) surrendered in Baggao, Cagayan on Wednesday. The Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) reported on Thursday that the surrenderers, who have been on the government’s watchlist, are all members of the NPA’s East Front under the Komiteng Rehiyon–Cagayan Valley (KR-CV). The surrenderers yielded five M16 rifles, an M653 rifle, an M14 Rifle, and other war materials. The latest surrender brought the total number of NPA members who returned to the government fold in Northern and Central Luzon to 633 from Jan. 1, 2021 to date.
France and the United Kingdom are seeking the support of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s terrestrial and marine habitat by 2030 amid the unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss facing the planet. The call was made during a virtual roundtable called “Better Understanding of the 30×30 Target: Protected and Conserved Area Management,” organized jointly by the British Embassy Manila, the Embassy of France to the Philippines and to Micronesia, and the Asean Centre for Biodiversity last Sept. 9. France, the UK and Costa Rica co-chair the High Ambition Coalition (HAC)
