Thousands of devotees from the predominantly Roman Catholic Cagayan de Oro and other places in Mindanao are expected to attend the city’s version of the Traslacion.

Read more.

The death toll in the January 2 flooding in Lanao del Norte climbed to three, while the government counted more than 8,000 people displaced as heavy rain pounded the province after the New Year’s Day revelry.

The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) in Northern Mindanao confirmed the flooding-related deaths in the towns of Tubod and Baroy, including an 8-year-old girl who was swept away by the rampaging floodwater.

The RDRRMC also counted 8,231 people or 2,190 families displaced when floodwaters spawned by a low pressure area submerged communities in the towns of Baroy, Kapatagan, Kolambugan, Lala, El Salvador, and Tubod, as of Tuesday, January 3.

Read more here.

Cotabato Mayor Bruce Matabalao, fuming, says such behavior is unacceptable in his city, the regional center of the Bangsamoro region, and would not be tolerated.

Read more.

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – Mayor Dionisio Cabahug Jr of Tubod town, Lanao del Norte ordered the suspension of work in private and public offices on Tuesday morning, January 3 due as heavy rain overnight caused severe flooding.

The Tubod Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said around 400 families evacuated from 12 barangays. The evacuation center Barangay Pigcarangan has 266 families; Barangay Maluga; 19 families; Barangay Poblacion, 91 families.

MDRRMO head Vicmar Paloma said non-stop rain since the afternoon of January 2 caused the Bulod River to overflow. 

Disaster teams fanned out to communities as an evening red rainfall warning, indicating heavy to torrential rains, went out around 9 p.m.

Read full story here.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Philippine National Police in the Davao region organized Task Force Yvonette to probe the murder on Thursday, December 29 of a 38-year-old businesswoman-model in Davao City’s Tugbok district.

Police Major Eudisan Gultiano, spokesperson for the Area Police Command (APC) in Southern Mindanao, told Rappler on Monday, January 2 that the Yvonette Plaza Chua slay “has generated public interest as to the identity and motive of the suspects” .

Police said two still-unidentified motorcycle riding gunmen shot dead Chua, who uses the name Yvonne Plaza Chua on her Facebook page, as she was about to enter her residence in Green Meadows Subdivision in Brgy Mintal, Tugbok district.

A recovered clip from a closed-circuit video system, captured around 7:30 pm, shows Chua had alighted from her Montero sports utility vehicle and was about to enter her rented house when one of the assailants approached her and shot her at close range using an unknown firearm.

The creation of the task force followed several social media posts claiming Chua had earlier asked friends to help her escape from battery, showing photos of bruises on her face and giving the name of her assailant. 

Read full story here.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A new year’s movement of military officials in Mindanao includes the turnover of the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) to Maguindanao’s 6th Infantry Division (6ID) chief, Major General Roy Galido.

Brigadier General Eduardo Gubat, the deputy commander of 6th ID, also called the Kampilan Division, confirmed that orders appointing Galido to replace Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr. as Wesmincom commander were released on December 23, 2022.

In a phone interview on Saturday, December 31, Galido said othere was no definite date yet for the actual turnover.

“Probably that will take time; second week of January next year”, he said.

DAVAO ORIENTAL, Philippines — The city government of Mati Oriental deployed horses on Friday, December 30 to being relief supplies to around 500 families stranded in hamlets following a December 29 landslide that killed at least one person.

Charlemagne Bagasol, who heads the Mati City disaster risk reduction and management office, told Rappler on Saturday, December 31 that as the weather clears, officials will also use military choppers to distribute relief goods.

Four days since the village of Don Salvador Lopez was hit by landslides, it remains unreachable by most vehicles. The villages’ main roads were all destroyed by landslides.

Around 2 pm, December 31, the Mati LGU page announced rescuers’ decision “to indefinitely suspend its retrieval operation on the three still missing bodies.”

The landslide that struck around 11 am, December 29 buried four men. Only the body of Cristituto Magmusa Paglanson, 62 yrs old, and the leader of a sub-village has been recovered.

DAPITAN CITY, Philippines – Dapitan’s two-kilometer water system, an internationally known engineering marvel that Jose Rizal helped build, “is now gone because (Dapitanons) did not bother to preserve it.”

George Aseniero, grandson of Rizal’s Dapitan student, Jose Aseniero asked Dapitanons to help his dream of reconstructing the water system that the national hero built during his years of exile in what is now Dapitan City in Zamboanga del Norte.

“The water system is gone but remnants are still there, and the source called Linaw is still bringing out water until now,” said Aseniero, the guest speaker at Dapitan’s observance of Rizal’s 126^th death anniversary on Friday, December 30.

Rizal arrived in Dapitan on July 17, 1892 and left for Manila on July 31 1896. The Spaniards executed him on December 30, 1896.

Read full story here.