Lakan Sumulong

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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Author's posts

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.

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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.

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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.”

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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/

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH IMPACT INVESTMENT, INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT, AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

There is a need to sustain strategic peacebuilding through impact investment. Such investments support social entrepreneurial endeavors that lead towards regenerative and inclusive development. This is how Coffee for Peace (CFP) and PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) operate in synergy.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/02/peacebuilding-sustainability-through-impact-investment-inclusive-development-and-social-entrepreneurship/

OUR SPIRITUAL MOTIVATION IN ADVOCATING INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abundant Life. This is our spiritual basis for inclusive development and our perspective on sustainability. With this understanding of ‘the good life,’ we will intensify our search for excellence to be effective and efficient team who have been entrusted with running and leading PeaceBuilders Community and Coffee for Peace.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/02/our-spiritual-motivation-in-advocating-inclusive-development-and-social-entrepreneurship/

DISMANTLING OLIGARCHY AND PATRONAGE POLITICS: A CALL FOR NONVIOLENT RADICAL TRANSFORMATION

I’m praying for a radical social transformation. Our land and people need to be liberated from this oligarchy, from this corrupt and rotten system of patronage politics, from the big media who lull the people in the midst of the violent oppression by the oligarchs against our people. Our powerful response is the way of active nonviolence.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/02/dismantling-oligarchy-and-patronage-politics-a-call-for-nonviolent-radical-transformation/

THE GLOBAL REALITIES WE’RE FACING AS INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT ADVOCATES

Much of the local conflicts and national crises we’re facing as a faith-based justice advocates and peacebuilding workers are actually immediate manifestations of unjust, long-term, global worldview or ideology that functions like a religion. For our strategic peacebuilding to be effective, we must understand the unjust powers and principalities we’re facing.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/01/the-global-realities-were-facing-as-inclusive-development-advocates-a-peacebuilders-perspective/

UAE-BASED ‘FORUM FOR PROMOTING PEACE’ HONORS CHIEF MINISTER EBRAHIM AND BISHOP TENDERO

Abu Dhabi, 09-11 December 2019 — H.E. Dr. Mohammad Al Kaabi (Chairman of the Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, UAE), and H.E. Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies) honored Al Haj Ahod ‘Murad’ Ebrahim (Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and Bishop Efraim Tendero (Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance) for their inter-faith peacebuilding contributions in southern Philippines. The awards were presented before the 500+ political, religious, and civil society leaders from 80 countries during the 6th Assembly of the Forum for Promoting Peace, The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/12/uae-based-forum-for-promoting-peace-in-muslim-societies-honors-chief-minister-ebrahim-and-bishop-tendero/

‘PBCI-CFP TRIBE’ PARTICIPATES IN THE TALAANDIG INDIGENOUS CELEBRATION

12-13 October 2019, Talaandig Ancestral Territory — It was a blessing to be a participant in a series of Talaandig rituals, a gathering together as a people before the Creator for worship. It was a time to ask for the Creator’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, and blessings to the people and to the land. It was a time to affirm, as one people, the harmonious relationship between the Creator, the people, and the whole creation — wherein the spiritual and the physical realities interplay in the same realm.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/10/pbci-cfp-tribe-participates-in-the-talaandig-indigenous-celebration/

SIHAYA ANSIBOD SOLIDIFIES INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK IN CENTRAL MINDANAO

10-13 September 2019. Sihaya Ansibod, our Director of Field Operations, invited me to travel with her team. First, we met with our partners among the Erumanen Ne Menuvu tribe on Mt. Agkir-Agkir. Then we visited the Iranun coffee farmers in Alamada who invited us to market their coffee. Afterwards, we responded to an invitation of a Maguindanao farming community who envisions to develop a Robusta coffee plantation near Ligawasan Marshlands. Finally, we sealed our partnership with the Obo Bagobo coffee farmers in Ilomavis at the foot of Mt. Apo.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/09/sihaya-solidifies-inclusive-development-network-in-central-mindanao-and-davao-region/

THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE TALAANDIG INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND PBCI-CFP IS RENEWED AND ENHANCED

Our teams at PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) and Coffee For Peace (CFP) are being led, spiritually, to work with the leaders of the Indigenous Peoples (IP) who seek The Creator’s heart and who walk with what we mutually understand as The Creator’s just and peaceful statutes as they serve as stewards of their ancestral domains and as they struggle to realize their right to self-determination. This spiritual perspective of partnership govern the inclusive development strategies we practice in the field.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/08/the-partnership-between-the-talaandig-indigenous-people-and-pbci-cfp-is-renewed-and-enhanced/

PLEASE RESPECT THIRD WAY BRIDGE-BUILDERS IN OUR DIVIDED SOCIETIES

Third Way communities are usually called to be mediators and must be faithful to provide a safe space and a neutral team of facilitators for both sides of the parties-in-conflict to engage in authentic dialogue. Please do not shoot the bridge-builders! Please respect the calling of the bridge-building Third Way communities.

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/07/please-respect-third-way-bridge-builders-in-our-divided-societies/

OUR GLOBAL PEACE COMMUNITY

We are sent by Mennonite Church Canada Witness in partnership with our international community.