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Former journalist shot dead

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015 Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

A FORMER correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer was shot dead noontime today, April 13, 2015, in Batangas City.

The Inquirer reported that a motorcycle-riding gunman shot dead Melinda “Mei” Magsino-Lubis, 41, in the village of Balagtas. She died on the spot with a gunshot wound to the head.

Click on the photo to read the full article on the Inquirer website.

PHOTO from Mei Magsino’s Facebook page

Magsino also wrote an article for the PCI on February 2007 about Batangas Governor Armando Sanchez who was alleged then to be a major operator of an illegal numbers game in his province.

WHETHER OR not he is or once was a jueteng lord as many people seem to be believe, it can at least be said that Batangas Governor Armando Sanchez has been enjoying the luck of the draw for the past few years. In 2001, he was elected mayor of Sto. Tomas town, which leaped from being a fifth-class municipality to first-class during his term. In 2004, he emerged winner in a field of seven candidates for governor, despite the fact that he was a relative unknown who was up against big-name and more experienced politicos. In 2006, he narrowly escaped death (although two of his aides were killed) when a planted bomb blew up his Humvee, which he was riding at the time.

Click on photo to read Magsino’s report on our iReport magazine online version.

In 2005, Magsino became the subject of a PCIJ report “Reporting Under the Gun,” which detailed how she fled Batangas after receiving a tip from police sources that two prisoners were released and were given specific orders to kill her.

That same night, Magsino-Lubis said goodbye to her family and left the farm, her home for only nine months, and Batangas, where she has lived for all her 30 years. “Doon ako tinubuan ng sungay (That’s where I grew horns),” Magsino-Lubis says of her province. “But I did not have a choice (other than to leave).” In her backpack, she tucked five tops, three pairs of jeans, six pairs of underwear, four pairs of socks, documents, photographs, notepads, pens, and about P22,000 in cash. In her bones ran a cold, steady stream of fear.

Click here to read in full “Reporting Under the Gun.”

Resume discussions on BBL

March 27, 2015March 27, 2015 Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

LEADERS of the MBC with Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III | Photo from Makati Business Club website

LEADERS of the MBC with Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III, second from right | Photo from Makati Business Club website

BUSINESS leaders urged Congress to resume discussions on the Bangsamoro Basic Law as soon as possible as the nation marks the first anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

The Makati Business Club also renewed its call for the government to put the peace process back on track as it reaffirmed its “continuing and unwavering support” for peace efforts that would put a stop to the conflict in the Philippine South.

Below is the full text of the MBC statement.

As the nation commemorates the first anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Makati Business Club reaffirms its continuing and unwavering support for the Mindanao peace process, and we renew our call to the government to put the peace process back on track at the soonest possible opportunity.

To enhance the prospects for peace in Mindanao, we urge Congress to resume discussions on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) at the earliest time. Consistent with the position released by 14 esteemed framers of the Constitution last 9 January 2015, MBC shares the belief that the Constitutional principles of genuine human development, social justice, and lasting peace underlie the CAB and, ultimately, the proposed BBL. In this context, we respectfully urge Congress to not allow revisions that would contravene these values nor run against the aspirations of the Filipino people to attain a just, harmonious, and progressive Philippines.

It has been more than two months since the Mamasapano incident. While the search for truth continues, we reiterate our stand that as the nation steadily moves forward from this tragedy, we must not allow political manipulation to take advantage of the legitimate grief and emotion that continues to pervade the public’s consciousness. Rather, sobriety, unity, and reason must be cemented as the guides that will steer efforts of government and the private sector towards genuine peace and in preserving the noteworthy gains that we have achieved in the last four-and-a-half years.

At this crucial juncture in the peace process, let us move forward with sobriety and courage as one united Filipino nation in search of Justice and Peace.

VIDEO: On the road to peace

March 27, 2015March 27, 2015 Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

We are reposting this article originally published on the blog on March 30, 2014 .

THE SIGNING of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro is a milestone event, but like all significant events, it is never to be taken in a vacuum.

Decades of fighting and negotiating have left their imprints on this peace agreement, as they have on the first agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996. As well, years of neglect and prejudice have shaped the public’s view of Muslim Mindanao as they have shaped the Moros’ view of themselves.

PCIJ Multimedia producer Julius Mariveles has put together this soundslide of images and sounds, and facts and figures from the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front last Thursday in Malacanang.

#FridayFlashback: CAB signing

March 27, 2015March 27, 2015 Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

EXACTLY a year ago today, the peace panels of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in Malacañang Palace.

President Benigno S. Aquino III and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim led the signing that capped at least three years of negotiations between the government and the MILF since Aquino became president in 2010.

The landmark agreement was hoped to pave the way for the creation of a new, unique, and in some ways controversial political subsystem in the country that many hope would put an end to almost four decades of fighting in the Southern Philippines.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called the agreement “a momentous act of courage” by both the government and the MILF rebels. Razak graced the signing of the agreement in Malacanang Thursday afternoon, since Malaysia has taken a very active role as an intermediary for the two sides.

The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro provides for the creation of the only parliamentary substate in a country that has always had a presidential form of government. The BangsaMoro would take the place of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an earlier political experiment on Moro self rule that has been branded by both the government and the Moro rebels as a failed experiment.

PRESIDENT AQUINO, second from right, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, led in the signing of the CAB in Malacanang Palace, March 27, 2014 | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

THEY WANDERED into the Palace grounds, some with the confident strides of hardened and fearless combat veterans, others with the uncertainty of warriors suddenly confronted with the violent colors of pomp and pageantry.

Several hundred representatives from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front joined diplomats and dignitaries, government officials, civil society members, and even their old enemies from the Armed Forces of the Philippines at the Kalayaan Hall grounds in Malacanang Palace on Thursday to witness the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, a peace agreement aimed at ending four decades of strife in the Southern Philippines.

Read also the accompanying article “Of warriors and peacemakers” by clicking on the photo below.

Murad in his old office in Camp Abubakar, 1999 | Ed Lingao Photo

Want to know more about the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro? Click the photo to view the document on the website of the Office of the Presidential Adviser On the Peace Process.

MILF delegates arrive in Malacanang Palace on March 24, 2014 for the CAB signing | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

Purgatory on earth

March 25, 2015March 25, 2015 Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

We are reposting this article published on April 15, 2014 about the challenges being faced by the sugar industry in Negros Occidental.

CUARESMA or Holy Week is the time when Filipinos reflect on the agony of Jesus Christ. It is also the time when the mamumugon — the workers in the vast haciendas or plantations of Negros Occidental — slip into a suspended state between life and death, a seeming purgatory on earth.

This is Tiempo Muerto, the dead season in the Philippines’ sugar bowl, a period between the planting and harvesting of sugarcane. It lasts from April until August, and is a season that the sugar plantation workers dread more than the typhoons that enter the country also around this period.

Click on the photo to read the full story.

NENE ROBATON studies at night using an improvised kerosene lamp as her source of light. Nene lives with her family in a hacienda. She hopes to become a teacher someday | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

View the accompanying video to this article on our Youtube Channel.