Dann Pantoja is beginning to use his Tagalog indigenous name — Lakan Sumulong. This is a statement that our indigenous identities can be a redeeming factor in healing our 'being' (that is, who we are as a people); help symbolize our determination to contribute what we ought to be 'doing' as a nation (that is, active, non-violent, radical transformation); and, determine how we will prioritize what we will be 'having' (that is, inclusive growth and national development based on justice and peace).
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BONIFACIO´S DEATH AND HISTORICAL DECOLONIZATION: REVISITING, BUT NOT REVISING, HISTORY
Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the execution of Andres Bonifacio. But we are not commemorating this today, Bonifacio Day. We are celebrating instead his birthday. Is it because our revolutionary narrative is marred by powerplay, jealousy, and murderous intentions among leaders? We, as a former colonized nation, may need to revisit our history. We may need to decolonize ourselves from Spanish and American narratives in our consciousness as a people. But beware of the Marcos historical revisionism that is corrupting our historical decolonization process.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/11/bonifacios-death-and-historical-decolonization-revisiting-but-not-revising-history/
LISTEN, RECOGNIZE, AND RESPECT THE KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
We are now documenting and processing all the facts and data from our field interaction last July with the Mandaya people in Caraga, Davao Oriental. The Indigenous People’s leadership there officially invited us — PeaceBuilders Community and CoffeeForPeace — through the initiative of the TriPeoples Development and Services Foundation. We are reminded once again that people have wisdom based on, and learned from, their varied experiences and contexts. We ought to listen to them. We ought to recognize their voices. We ought to stop treating them with condescending, or looking-down, attitude.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/10/listen-recognize-and-respect-the-knowledge-and-wisdom-of-the-indigenous-peoples/
OUR JOURNEY WITH EDSAL, A MERANAW PEACEBUILDING PARTNER, CONTINUES THROUGH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Our relationship with Edsal Edres started when our peacebuilding network visited our Meranaw partners during the Marawi Crisis. We got involved in peacebuilding activities together, including: fact-finding mission at the very heart of the war zone; Christian-Muslim inter-faith dialogue on peace; joint peacebuilding strategic planning among leaders of civil society organizations; lobbying at the Congress and Senate of the Philippines; and, livelihood initiatives among families affected by war. We are now focused on Inclusive Development and Social Entrepreneurship as an approach to help the war affected families to rise-up from the ravages of armed conflict.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/08/our-journey-with-edsal-a-meranaw-peacebuilding-partner-continues-through-social-enterprise/
PEACE JOURNALIST BREWS DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN MANDAYA TRIBE AND PBCI-CFP TEAM
28-30 July 2021. It’s energizing to reconnect with Rolivel Oliveros Elusfa and his team. He was my colleague in civilian ceasefire monitoring from 2006 to 2012 as part of a peacebuilding network. A few months ago, he contacted me and shared his passion to do peacebuilding and development among the Mandaya Indigenous communities. Now, we’re exploring a wider and deeper view of peacebuilding—where building peace is understood as encompassing a holistic and inclusive process of transformation: spiritual-ethical transformation, psycho-social transformation, socio-political transformation, and economic-ecological transformation.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/07/peace-journalist-brews-development-partnership-between-mandaya-tribe-and-pbci-cfp-team/
COMMEMORATION, CELEBRATION, AND REFLECTION: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY WITH THE BAGOBO TAGABAWA
Friday, 25 June 2021. We rejoice with the Bagobo Tagabawa Tribe for the completion of their cultural village and peace memorial complex. This was originally envisioned by Bai Jerlina Owok, the local chieftain at Barangay Binaton in Digos City, Davao del Sur. They started building their local village to make their community more visible and to tell their story beyond their tribal community. Because of their initiative, various sectors—government, business, civil society, and media—responded and helped concretize their vision. While celebrating with the tribe about these developments, we also reflect on issues regarding encroachment of certain powerful forces into the ancestral domain of the Bagobo Tagabawa.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/06/commemoration-celebration-and-reflection-a-spiritual-journey-with-the-bagobo-tagabawa/
A CRY FOR HEALING: PRAYING FOR COMPETENT LEADERS IN OUR COUNTRY
May we truly experience being healed as one country of many first nations, religions, ideologies, languages and cultures in this archipelago. May we all learn to listen to each other twice as much as we utter our words. May we learn to harmonize our differences like the different instruments and sounds in an orchestra, like the different colours in a mosaic, like the different parts of a healthy body.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/04/a-cry-for-healing-praying-for-competent-leaders-in-our-country/
CHURCH LEADERS’ APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT IN STRIKING DOWN ANTI-TERRORISM ACT OF 2020
In a statement released last 02 February 2021, Church leaders from various Christian denominations prayed for Supreme Court Justices to exercise “sound judgment” in striking down the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. As an ordained pastor and as a church-based justice advocate and peacebuilding worker, I resonate with the prayer of my fellow justice advocates and peacebuilding colleagues in the Christian church.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/02/church-leaders-appeal-to-supreme-court-in-striking-down-anti-terrorism-act-of-2020/
BARMM LEADERSHIP INVITES CIVIL SOCIETY TO CONTINUE THE JUST-PEACE JOURNEY WITH THE BANGSAMORO
PBCI was invited to participate in reporting the results of the performance review of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA)—the new government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). A team from a network of civil society organizations, called Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus (MPC), was commissioned to do the Rapid Mid-Term Review on the Bangsamoro Transition Period. Upon learning the findings and the recommendations, the Bangsamoro invites the civil society to continue the justice-and-peace journey with them. PBCI commits to continue our humble presence in this journey.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/10/barmm-leadership-invites-civil-society-to-continue-the-just-peace-journey-with-the-bangsamoro/
I’M LAMENTING AND I’M ANGRY ABOUT THE RECENT KILLINGS OF PEACEBUILDING AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
Along with the millions of rural peasants and urban poor suffering from the system that oppresses them, I express my lamentations and my anger with the killing of Randall Echanis and Zara Alvarez. These are two of the many justice and peace activists slain in the past few years. I cry justice for them all. As a faith-based peace-and-justice field worker committed to active nonviolence, I will continue to help lead our community to fulfill our calling and to do our tasks in the midst of these challenges.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/08/im-lamenting-and-im-angry-about-the-recent-killings-of-peacebuilding-and-human-rights-activists/
OUR DIRECTOR OF FIELD OPERATIONS PURSUES INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AMIDST COVID19 REALITIES
Sihaya Ansibod, PBCI Director of Field Operations, has been updating me on her activities. At this point, she’s directing our Inclusive Development Consulting with a corporation and with a government agency, working in three provinces in Mindanao. As far as our team is concerned, her trustworthiness is at 100 per cent level. Sihaya speaks for PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) in the area of field operations.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/07/our-director-of-field-operations-pursues-inclusive-development-projects-amidst-covid19-realities/
PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY? NOT UNTIL WE TRULY ENJOY OUR RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
Independence is freedom from various military, economic, political, and religious systems that still enslave us. It is earning our self-respect. It’s when we can ensure agricultural sustainability in the context of the 21st century global reality. Independence means training more social entrepreneurs who regenerate resources for all. Independence is enjoying our right-to-self-determination as a multi-cultural society. Most of all, independence is the liberation of women in our society.
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/06/philippine-independence-day-not-until-we-truly-enjoy-our-right-to-self-determination/
I SUPPORT MY PALESTINIAN SISTERS AND BROTHERS AS WE COMMEMORATE THE 72ND YEAR OF AL-NAKBA
This is my expression of support to the call of my Palestinian Christian brother and friend, The Rev. Dr. Jack Sara. “I have already written several articles on this subject, expressing how so many of those so-called ‘Evangelical leaders’ have not been helpful in achieving peace here,” he laments. “As we mark the seventy-second year of the nakba,” he adds, “I call upon Christians around the world to help us say enough of the injustice and to join us in prophetically speaking against systems that instill suffering and strife on a weak and almost helpless people.”
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/05/i-support-my-palestinian-sisters-and-brothers-as-we-commemorate-the-72nd-year-of-al-nakba/
PAR IS PEACE & RECONCILIATION
PAR IS PEACE THEOLOGY
PAR IS A SET OF DREAMS
PAR VOLUNTEERS ARE MISSIONARIES
PAR IS GOVERNED BY A CODE OF ETHICS
PAR IS INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT
PAR REGENERATES SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
PAR CONTRIBUTES TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
PAR IS IN METRO MANILA
THE NEXT GENERATION OF PAR LEADERS ARE BEING PREPARED
MORE PAR COMMUNITIES ARE MULTIPLYING
