A Cry for Peace in Mindanao

" A Hope for Peace in a dark world" , by Orange Tulip

As a global citizen i join the world and the Philippines in its cry for peace, foremost of which is its war-torn Mindanao. The photo above was taken at the then newly opened " People's Park" in Davao City, probably the major gateway to Mindanao due to the presence of the international airport, on my December 2007 visit. I was saving this for a photo exhibit in the near future but the events concerning the ancestral domain issues has inspired me to upload this photo in today's post.

Strategically located close to the hotels in Davao City is the " People's Park" where i took this photo while having a walk one early evening. I was in front of the fountains dancing gaily to the delight of both the children and adults as water sparkles in various hues. Although i am very much fond of fountains, what really got my attention during that time was the Christmas decoration in lights in one of the hotels nearby with words " Peace on Earth" referring to the essence of Christ's birth. While composing the photo, i was thinking that the fountains of various colours represents the multicultural Mindanao hoping for peace. And i asked myself- "When will peace be really achieved in the world and in this island?" Thinking about it sent a tremor to my heart. The words " Peace on Earth" in a dark evening was like an enormous longing for the Mindanaoans who have witnessed, emotionally and physically scarred and displaced by seemingly endless "war". I was thinking that the title of the photo should be " A Hope for Peace in a Dark World" As i dropped few coins in the "wishing well" close to the multicoloured fountains in the park, i quietly wished that peace in Mindanao, Iraq and other parts of the world will not remain a wish, or a political strategy or a buzz word -but a reality soon.

The news about the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity or BJE came as a huge surprise. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has a good account on this matter( http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080804-152469/GRP-MILF-draft-pact-on-Bangsamoro-homeland). While reading the broadsheet Philippine Star over a cup of chamomile tea, a front page photo of a family in Aleosan, North Cotabato, with uncertainty expressed in their eyes while taking all their necessary belongings to evacuate struck me.(http://www.philstar.com/) In the inside part of the paper is a photo of evacuees with the caption lining up for registration for possible aids (although i was thinking this is probably an SOP for evacuations). I have heard in the previous news accounts weeks ago that many houses were torched, and thousands of villagers have fled from their own homes bringing with them their livestock and belongings- as a result of the actions done by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF), the group that the Mindanao Peace Panel was supposed to have been negotiating peace with. This rampage was an aftermath of the temporary restraining order on the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the Government Republic of the Philippines(GRP) peace panel with the MILF, another faction of the Muslim secessionist group Moro National Liberation Front(MNLF) headed by Nur Misuari, had a peace agreement in 1996 and as a result, having the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao(ARMM) through a plebiscite. Watching the television news about such volatile topic left me very much concerned. The day's big news is parallel to last night's midnight news. As a result, senators are calling for a new peace panel to be formed. (http://www.philstar.com/archives.php?aid=20080806125&type=2)

Being raised in Mindanao by migrant parents, i have perfectly assimilated the culture, happily mixed with natives and common folks , and joined the entire Mindanaoans in their continuous desire for peace. I grew up having both Muslim and Non-Muslim(well, its surprising why even in the milennium era Mindanao is still referred to as inhabited by Muslims and Christians which probably eliminating the indigenous groups in the process) Filipino friends and just like the children portrayed in the movie "Bagong Buwan http://www.mc.edu.ph/library/avinfo.asp?strSearch=&nType=3&nResourceID=1000008768 i saw no remarkable difference between Muslims and non-Muslims at all (except for the way they dress up and the food they prefer to eat) because i have observed how these people of various descent, culture or religion have lived harmoniously with each other in the places where we have been. I have seen a peaceful coexistence among the Muslims, non-Muslims, the Indigenous Groups and the local and foreign migrants. Does my perspective about the supposed harmony i am talking about fall short maybe because while growing up, we have not stayed in a particular place for a considerable amount of time?

While i was growing up in Mindanao, I was quite lucky for not experiencing the evacuation scenes portrayed in that movie that i watched with friends sometime in 2001 although i have heard about the places currently affected by the BJE misunderstanding, if i can put it that way, and the real-life scenes of fleeing civilians as shown in the television news account. I have experienced to set foot and basked in the sunshines of Cotabato to Davao City, thus passing by North Cotabato and going to the far Zamboanga City to see the famous tree house in its Pasonanca Park. My recent visit to Mindanao last year made me more familiar with the ARMM provinces (whose constituents have made a choice to be included through a plebiscite), including the Lanao provinces going to Misamis where Cagayan de Oro is. In addition to the "tinikling" and other Filipiniana dances, the "singkil" has continuously fascinated me. I have taken photos of sceneries in Zamboanga countrysides which fantastic landscapes awed me to no end. One of the cattle farms that i visited have really beautiful sceneries that could be compared to the the mountains and cattle farms of Switzerland.

The people of Mindanao, Muslims and non-Muslims alike are warm and friendly offering the best that they could have- their warm smiles, friendships and a variety of foods not only during fiestas but even on an unannounced visit/s to their homes. I remembered hearing a joke spreading around among friends in Manila that sardines or corned beef( yes, canned goods!) are considered as " special dish" in the countrysides of Mindanao . Well, this is probably because long before the word "food shortage" and "hunger" were not yet redundant, overused and experienced by many, there's plenty of food in the island who was once considered as " food basket", where families could easily butcher their free range chickens, or cook the eggs from their backyard poultry or gather vegetables readily available from their gardens. The sweetest and most delectable tropical fruits like banana and pineapples are from Mindanao. Well, the multinational companies Del Monte and Dole Philippines are strategic and wise enough to discover the favourable soil and weather for their farms. I have tasted different varieties of durian in a fruit stand near the bay in Davao City but i had a taste of the "native durian" in Zamboanga Sibugay last year.

As a little girl, i picked coffee( the experience is very similar to cherry picking) in one of the villages in the foothills of Mt. Apo, the highest peak in the country. I was also privileged to have a dip in various beaches, rivers, lakes and springs in Mindanao, which surprisingly cost half or one fifth of a hundred pesos as entrance fee with its equally beautiful developed resorts in Laguna, Quezon and provinces in Luzon charging hundreds to thousands of pesos for a day tour. I was awed when i heard a little boy sing probably a folk song with remarkable words,

"Mindanao the land of promise"... in one of the community fiestas that i attended. And i wondered when will the words of the song come to a reality? I reckon the main problem why peace is elusive until these days, despite the continuing efforts of the Philippine government for peace negotiations is basically economic. Although the political and social aspect in the lives of- shall i call Mindanaoans is being considered as the root of the continuing struggles of the secessionist group/s, at the end of the day its all about the poverty and inequality that these people have arguably experiencing and given the opportunities to grow economically, i believe this island will be a great place to live.

Studying political science Down Under, i have further understood the deep rooted causes of the perennial conflicts in Mindanao when i took a lot of political science subjects on an international perspective. Most importantly, reading a thesis of a Mindanao State University political science professor discussing the ancestral domain and other concerns of the armed struggle in Mindanao further opened my eyes to a lot of realities in the entertwined lives of multicultural and multireligious Mindanao. When the news about the volatile situation in Mindanao, i immediately wished that the very elusive"peace" would become a reality making the evacuation centers most notably in Pikit, North Cotabato and neighbouring provinces like Sultan Kudarat would be devoid of any "resident". I wished that the displaced communities, families, bewildered,scared and scarred individuals, including children could go back to their homes and live "normal lives", depending on how they perceive normal to be. Similarly, i wish that instead of fighting the fellow Filipinos in their armed struggles for their causes, the military troops (a lot of which has been far away from their families, and using their limbs and even life in skirmishes and bigger battles, like the war aginst terrorism- to protect the country's interests as mandated by the Constitution) could rest for a while or for a longer while and would use their energies to maintain peace and order. Arguably, the search for "peace" still goes on and there is not yet any " order" to maintain- to start with. But "hope springs eternal", so they say and i have always opted to see the world with my pink coloured glasses. Mindanao is beautiful- the place, the people and its varied culture and i hope that its beauty will be relished by many soon.

Heading the Peace Panel in the past few years was the recently appointed Philippine Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, a native of Mindanao himself who pretty much know the culture in The South. Although his work was done sans media attention and criticism, only the Sulu and Basilan provinces were arguably considered as "hot spots", as portrayed by the media and even though there has been a lot of untoward and unhappy incidents of kidnapping and war against terrorism which was probably related to the 9/11, i havent heard any protest action as vast as what have the people in Iligan City, North Cotabato and Zamboanga has done in the past few days as a reaction to his work as the chief peace negotiating person and his panel.

Hermogenes Esperon, a general born and raised in The North, i gathered, has argued that he has been assigned in Mindanao and accordingly took care of North Cotabato for nine years as what he has been trying to convince the very much offended Vice Governor Manny Pinol with, at last night's television news. Taking care of Mindanao is foremost his job as he was then a military general. Although a lot of criticisms has been expressed as soon as he was named the Chief Peace Negotiator by the President of the Republic, he was still installed-regardless. I first got interested on this man after his name was dragged on the 2004 Philippine presidential elections and the issues on human rights violations specifically on extra judicial killings, was brought out in the open by no less than the UN envoy himself, Philip Alston to which a lot from the government, notably the Justice Secretary of course, reacted negatively(instead of taking it as a constructive criticism, something to learn lessons from). I do not exactly remember and aware when did the former general who fought these armed group including the MNLF and NPAs( i wonder why they are quiet this time) during his watch as the Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but he- along with his peace negotiating panel, has created big news. This is brought about by the very sensitive issue of the ancestral domain. Is the BJE memorandum of agreement a sort of Trojan Horse? Once the agreement would be signed(which draws a lot of criticisms) , what is the guarantee that only the identified part of ancestral domain would be "covered" by the MILF? Even the ordinary folks in Mindanao, i gathered, are familiar with the Minsupala(stands for Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan) as the real target of these armed group. And when they heard that the national government would not help the villagers to secure their lands and properties as allegedly announced by Esperon, they have taken it upon themselves to arm and gather ammunitions in preparation for future or further assaults from MILF to defend themselves.

The Temporary Restraining Order issued by the Supreme Court, to the relief of the numerous petitioners led by Vice Governor Manny Pinol of North Cotabato and Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga among others, had in contrast disappointed former general Esperon and the current foreign affairs secretary Romulo who were prepared to sign the Memorandum of Agreement in Malaysia scheduled yesterday. MILF through its chief negotiator, Muhaquer Iqbal has expressed that it is already " a done deal"http://www.philstar.com/archives.php?aid=20080805119&type=2. which probably sends both fear and anger to many Mindanaoans who know MILF pretty well. The enraged senators, who were elected by the Filipino people have then demanded for a replacement of Esperon. This is the headline of the Philippine Star( http://www.philstar.com/) and other major papers and the top news in all media. Senator Francis Escudero argued that Esperon's threat not to send aid in the hapless North Cotabato communities as a result of MILF retaliations due to the failed "signing" at the agreement that supposedly would bring "lasting peace" in Mindanao was tantamount to treason as reported by Christina Mendez in the day's issue of the Philippine Star. This enraged not only the senate but a lot of sectors in the Philippine society forcing a lot to air out their opinions.

To his credit, Esperon is admirable for standing for what he believes in. Regardless of the criticisms and reactions that was given his way, i reckon that this is his most admirable trait as a person which i reckon works both to his advantage and disadvantage. I am just wondering how does he define or describe the word " peace". Does his replacement or staying in the peace panel matter? What happens to the affected areas in the next few days? How will survival go for ordinary folks displaced or living in the periphery or close to the areas allegedly controlled by the MILF? While critical issues in relation to the BJE are being discussed or refined, if there are any or while waiting for the constitution to be amended to give way for the implementation of the so called " peace agreement" how could these affected folks live? Given posible displacement/s, where would they go to gather food for their families on a day to day basis? Is the government and civil society aids enough for their survival and for how long?

Meanwhile, while many of the politicians and top government officials based in Manila are busy in expressing their contrasting opinions about the issues related to the "ancestral domain", i wonder how the displaced locales of North Cotabato and neighbouring provinces are faring. Do they have any food to ease their hunger? Do they have any medicine or medical attention to ease their pains? Can they ever sleep amidst the horror of the ongoing circumstances, or to simplify my question, can they find a shelter, no matter how temporary it is- for a night's sleep? I have cried all throughout the film "Bagong Buwan'(New Moon) showing a glimpse of the sufferings in Mindanao but i can hardly bear to see these people's sufferings in reality.

And deep in my heart, i continuously cry for peace not only in Mindanao, but throughout the world and deep in the hearts of mankind. And i hope that this word "peace" goes beyond rhetorics.