During the final years of the Martial Law era in the Philippines, massive dissatisfaction with President Marcos’s brutal dictatorship prompted thousands of idealistic young Filipinos to align themselves with the Philippines’ various rebel fronts. Most joined up with the leftist revolutionaries of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA), and …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/06/hard-lessons-of-the-purge/
For the last seven years, Mindanaoan acitivist Jun Aparece has given great service to PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. as a partner and consultant. To our shared tasks of grassroots organizing, rallying Mindanaoan communities for anti-war demonstrations, and broadcasting the cries of war-weary Mindanaoan civilians to their countrymen throughout the Philippines and to lawmakers in Manila, Aparece …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/06/jun-aparece-activist-missionary-agitator-and-peacebuilder/
For more than two decades, an indigenous southern Philippine tribe, the Dulangan Manobo of Sultan Kudarat Province, have reportedly been harassed, intimidated, and forced to struggle for the right to live and to practice their livelihoods within their own ancestral territory. Since 1992, when government contracts placed much of the Dulangan Manobo territory under the control of …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/05/one-pbci-volunteer-slain-five-new-par-monitors-commissioned/
The character of a nation’s youth can never be underestimated when judging its health and efficacy. The same can be said of any movement, whether it be for peace, rights, politics, a religion, or even a sports team. This is the basis for our optimism with the Kalinaw Youth Movement based in Valencia City in …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/05/kalinaw-youth-movement-peace-theology-and-the-evangelical-consciousness/
Peacebuilders Community, Inc. was invited by Central Mindanao University (CMU) as consultant for Proposal Writing for Peace Process last April 28-29, 2015. The said activity was participated by selected professors who are members of Mt. Kalayo Institute for Social Enterprise Growth (MKESEG). CMU decided to have this kind of workshop because they believed that …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/04/cmu-starts-university-center-for-peace-and-reconciliation/
The mighty Pulangi River of Bukidnon Province is in trouble. Year by year, as Bukidnon’s deforestation continues, each rainy season sluices exposed soil into the Pulangi, so that today the river is wider, slower, and shallower than ever before. In the glare of the summer sun, the Pulangi’s fish perish by thousands in the super-heated …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/04/pbci-partner-pastor-mannys-brickmaking-ministry-part-2-of-2/
The last Juno Awards, which took place in Winnipeg, Canada in March 2014, were the scene of a prolific encounter: that of Matt Epp and Willard Metzger. It seems strange that Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Epp, born in a Mennonite family, should meet Willard Metzger, executive director of Mennonite Church Canada (MCC), in a big …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/03/matt-epp-visits-coffee-for-peace/
Engineering was Alkuino’s love from an early age, but his parents urged him to study agriculture so that he could take charge of the family farm. After earning his degree at the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Agriculture, Alkuino dutifully returned to Valencia to cultivate corn. But when a seven-month drought caused the loss …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/03/brickmaking-ministry-part-1/
One of the most distressing calls for justice around the world today comes from the Indigenous voice. Amplified by the indignities suffered through historic theft and displacement of their life and land, their marginalization today is a story told to many but heard by few. As the world changes so must they, but how they …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/indigenous-rights-and-the-mennonites-from-panama-to-the-philippines/
On Monday the 16th, after attending the spectacular Awong Chi Gangsa ceremony, we enjoyed an afternoon of good fellowship at the Grand Zion Hotel. Darnell, Regina and Bryan from PeaceChurch; Twinkle’s mother, grandmother, and cousins; and Kuya Dann talked of all their dreams and plans for PeaceChurch in Manila, and for Twinkle’s PAR network …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/strengthening-our-relationship-in-the-cordilleras/
In Tabuk City, on Saturday the 14th, we met with the farmers of Asimbanglan. Hart and Ginny Wiens hosted the meeting, and they helped us to explain to the farmers that it had never been our intention to mislead them or to leave them hanging. Kuya Dann gave the farmers a rundown of the many …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/cordillera-listening-tour-part-4-feb-14-15/
After listening to the public employee’s hopes for the Cordillera Region, Twinkle, Kuya Dann and I shared an evening of fellowship with Twinkle’s grandmother’s sister and her family in their Baguio home. That night, we boarded a bus for the City of Tabuk in Kalinga Province. On the morning of Thursday the 12th we arrived …
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/cordillera-listening-tour-part-3-feb-12-13/
Together with Mennonite Church Canada Witness and our international peacebuilding partners, we journey in companionship, nurturing relationships that strengthen our collective commitment to justice, reconciliation, and lasting peace.
