Local News

COTABATO CITY --- Efforts to entice investors to come to this once hostile city got a boost with its having won another governance efficiency citation from a national entity.Cotabato City on Wednesday landed on the second top spot for the government efficiency category of the 2017 search for most competitive cities in the Philippines.Halima Satol-Ibrahim, city information officer, said on Thursday that the award was received by Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi during the 5thRegional Competitiveness Summit Awards Ceremony at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.The yearly

COTABATO CITY --- An off-duty policeman was injured in a grenade blast that ripped through a residential area here on Tuesday night.
Investigators said one of two men in police uniforms hurled a grenade at the house of PO2 Samanudin Bidsuk Yusoph and escaped using a motorcycle.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (Aug 16) – Residents in North Cotabato have expressed fears about the series of shooting incidents that ‘rocked’ the province since August 1.The recent killings happened on August 15 where at least five shooting incidents took place in at least four different towns in North Cotabato.Harra Laquinan, 25, resident of Barangay Batasan, Makilala, said, It’s giving us chills. We could no longer do gimmicks, especially during night time. Mark Flores, 23, nurse from Barangay Sangat in M’lang, asked authorities, Do we have an organized crime group operating in North Cotabato?

MAKILALA,
North Cotabato - A police officer here
was abducted by alleged members of New Peoples’ Army (NPA) near his residence
in Barangay Katipunan.

The victim was
identified as Police Officer 1 Briston Catalan, 52 years old, a resident of
Purok 3, Barangay Katipunan, and detailed in Makilala Municipal Police station.

Reports said
Catalan was driving his motorcycle to send his two children to school when he
was flagged down by three suspected rebels armed with pistols.

KIDAPAWAN CITY ---Inaprubahan na ng Office of the President ang hiling ng Kidapawan City LGU na ideklara ang August 18, araw ng Biyernes sa susunod na linggo, bilang special non-working holiday. Ito upang bigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga Kidapaweños na ipagdiwang ang ika-70 anibersaryo ng siyudad.Ang kalatas ay pirmado ni Acting Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra sa pamamagitan ng proclamation no. 287, na may petsang August 15, 2017.

KIDAPAWAN CITY – The fire that gutted on Monday the rest house and stock room of a state-run college in a town in North Cotabato could be ‘intentional,’ a fire official today said.Fire Chief Inspector Ibrahim Guiamalon, Cotabato provincial fire marshal, said they are baffled as to what caused the fire at a building inside the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology (CFCST).The fire started around 745 p.m., Monday, and engulfed the whole place for about 15 minutes, Guiamalon said.The room, according to Guiamalon, has been used as rest house of a certain Ruben Mamburao, CFCST’s

KIDAPAWAN CITY --- Officials launched Monday the Task Group Kidapawan as additional layer of protection against violent religious extremists and criminal gangs.Kidapawan City, which has 40 barangays, is the administrative and political capital of North Cotabato, a component province of Region 12.Captain Silver Belvis, civil military operations officer of the Army’s 39thInfantry Battalion, said on Tuesday that the TG Kidapawan will help Mayor Joseph Evangelista maintain law and order in all barangays under his jurisdiction.Evangelista is the chairman of the multi-sectoral, inter-agency Kidap

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Two motorists who were involved in a vehicular accident have been subjected to thorough investigation by the police after two unlicensed firearms were recovered from them when the incident happened along Barangay Kalaisan here on Sunday.Police Officer 3 Mardonni Alegarbes, investigator on case, identified the suspects as Rodrigo Anura, 37, dispatcher of passenger vans plying Cotabato-Davao route and Renante Agamon Borda, 41, carpenter.Both are from the city.Alegarbes said they recovered from Borda a caliber 45 pistol with serial number 105266 and a magazine and from Anura

KORONADAL CITY
– More than P150,000 worth of prohibited drugs were seized when agents of the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Central Mindanao conducted
anti-drug operation that led to the arrest of five drug personalities Friday.

Despite
massive campaign against illegal drugs, persons still venture into clandestine operations,
selling illegal drugs in the city, according to PDEA-12 regional director Gil
Cesario Castro.

BANGA, South Cotabato -- Police and military authorities recovered in a remote village here explosives believed to be hidden by communist rebels, police said Saturday.And there could be more buried in the same village, according to Chief Inspector Jardi Mont Sibal, Banga town police chief.Sibal said prior to the discovery of five clamour mines, improvised bombs and battery, an Army informant alerted authorities about explosives buried in the village of Lamba.Technical Sgt.