Help increase the awareness and understanding of the rest of the Philippines about the armed conflicts and peace processes in Mindanao!
We call on our fellow Filipinos in Luzon and Visayas to see Mindanao primarily as a land of multicultural people who dream of living a life of peace. Mindanao’s war is usually designed by various political dynasties, oligarch families, and corporations in Manila, motivated by greed and power. Please understand that the parties who are manipulating the political-military mechanisms in the Philippines are after the rich natural resources of Mindanao.
The people of Mindanao — whether Migrants, Indigenous Peoples, or Bangsamoros — do not desire war! We, the TriPeople of Mindanao, are determined to build peace in our beautiful land!
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A CALL TO WAKE UP AND FACE THE FUTURE WITH HOPE!
Our friend and peace building colleague, Datu Waway Saway of the Talaandig First Nation in Bukidnon, composed and sang this song “Gising Na Kapamilya” or Wake Up Family/Household.
It is a call to wake up and face today with a new hope. Wake up with a new possibility of building a new relationship when a person can even love an enemy! Wake up with a new motivation to look at what what we have (in their case coffee and other agricultural products) as part of a Creator-given culture as capital for development!
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AN INVITATION TO BUILD PEACE IN OUR LAND.
The following video music is a composition by Fr. Bert Alejo, S.J. and sang by Davao artist Popong Landero. It is a challenge to the rest of the Filipino people to be aware, to know the stories, and eventually to get involved in bringing peace to war-torn Mindanao.
Each of us can do something based on our current, God-given capacities.
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LOOKING AT A NATIONAL ISSUE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE OTHER.
Christians must not blindly follow their government’s declaration on who should be our friends or enemies. We ought to follow the command of Jesus Christ — to love our neighbors, even our so-called enemies, as ourselves.
The MOA AD legal debacle was a painful experience for us as a nation. Although the MOA-AD has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines, Christians would be best informed, and our prayers for the peace of our land would be more educated, if we will hear the Bangsamoro’s side of the story — why many powerful people in our land would not want to pursue any similar agenda for peace talks.
Here’s the voice of a group of Moro people after MOA AD was declared unconstitutional. (The title of the video is inappropriate to the real message of the rallying Moros. The title should be: “Moro Group Holds Protest vs SC Decision Against MOA AD”):
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LET’S BE TRANSPARENT ABOUT PEACE TALKS. PLEASE DO NOT LET THE SPOILERS OF PEACE FOOL US!
A well-planned legal and media blitz confused the Filipino people about the Peace Talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). It eventually led to the Supreme Court declaring the agreed peace talks agenda, the MOA AD, to be unconstitutional.
While the peace groups were picking-up the pieces from the MOA AD debacle, the Piñol brothers filed again a petition before the Supreme Court to stop the signing of a peace agreement between the peace negotiating panels of both the GRP and the MILF. The Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC) immediately issued a statement dated April 29, 2010 urging Piñol to heed various communities’ call to continue the Peace Talks.
On May 3, 2010, four days after the issued statement, MPC led the Mindanao Peace Power Day 2 held in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato where more than 3,000 peace loving individuals from Davao, Sarangani, Cotabato, and Maguindanao provinces gathered together to muster united efforts for peace in the midst of renewed attempts to sabotage the peace negotiations. Ambassador Rafael Seguis of the GRP Peace Panel was present during the event to deliver a State of the Peace Talks Address, in response to the clamor for transparency and accountability in the conduct of the peace negotiations between the GRP and the MILF. PBCI actively participated in this MPC-organized Mindanao Peace Power Day 2.
During the May 10, 2010 Elections, Vice Governor Pinol lost his bid to become the Governor of North Cotabato.
Background music by Grupong Pendong, “Pinagpala,” based on the sayings of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 5:3-10.
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IMAGINE MINDANAO AS A CHILD THAT NEEDS TO SLEEP IN ORDER TO GROW AND WAKE UP AS A PEACEFUL LAND
We need a new set of lenses to understand the armed-conflicts in Mindanao. Maybe it’s time to get rid of the prejudicial lenses that “the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is the problem in Mindanao” or “the New People’s Army is the problem in Mindanao” — an incomplete and broken set of lenses.
Perhaps the real disturbances causing the unrest of this baby are the Manila-based political-economic powers — like the big families and big corporations — with selfish interest in Mindanao, and their Mindanao-based cronies implementing their greedy, unjust, and oppressive policies?
And maybe, the various peoples of Mindanao — Lumad, Bangsamoro, and Migrants — will be best heard when they lay down their arms and instead use Active Non-Violence in their struggle for just-peace?
This is a lullaby for peace composed by Fr. Albert Alejo, S.J. and performed by Maan Chua.
WHAT YOU TOLD US