Sunday, November 21, 2010
Transforming the Facilitation in the Mindanao Peace Process
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Saturday, November 20, 2010
Human rights group’s HQ inaugurated
November 19, 2010 - Nearly a year of hard work and sacrifice, Mindanao Human Rights Action Center (MinHRAC) has harvested the fruits of their labor and sacrifice. They have moved to a new office at Al-Burhan Mosque Compound, General Luna Street, Cotabato City, where a kanduli (thanksgiving) was conducted.
MinHRAC was launched in Cotabato City on October 31, 2008. It became a member of the Civilian Protection Component of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) on May 5, 2010.
The Center’s primary objectives are: “to foster respect for human rights, constitutional rights, and promote the rule of law in Mindanao as well as other parts in the Philippines; to monitor, expose and oppose human rights violations; to promote critical human rights awareness among the people through education, training, information, research and documentations; to promote cooperation and solidarity among regional, national, and international organizations active in the field of human rights.”
MinHRAC is a collaborative effort of Bangsamoro organizations such as the Bangsamoro Lawyers’ Network, Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, Bangsamoro Women Solidarity Forum, Inc., Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc., Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, United Youth for Peace and Development, United Youth of the Philippines, Bangsamoro Center for Just Peace, Kangudan Development Center Inc., IPRC, Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy and Al Ihsan Foundation.
Guests who were invited to the kanduli were warmly welcomed by Atty. Zainudin S. Malang. MinHRAC Executive Director, and assisted by the Board of Directors (BOD) chairman, Atty. Anwar Malang, and members of BOD, Mr. Rahib P. Payapat, Mr Sammy Maulana, Mr Guiamel Alim, Atty Paisal Abdul, Mr. Duma Mascud, Mr. Bobby Benito, Mr. Rahib Kudto, Ms. Noraida Abo, Atty. Fatima Kanakan, and Deputy Executive Director, Atty. Rasul Mitmug Jr.
Among the guests, who graced the occasion, were members of International Monitoring Team (IMT) from Malaysia, Japan and Brunei, GRP – MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH).
Also presents Gen. Ernesto Aradanas, commander of the Army's 603rd Infantry Brigade, as well as MinHRAC’s partners, supporters, media and friends in humanitarian, human rights groups.
The inauguration coincided with this year’s celebration of Eid’l Adha (the day of Sacrifice).
MinHRAC was launched in Cotabato City on October 31, 2008. It became a member of the Civilian Protection Component of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) on May 5, 2010.
The Center’s primary objectives are: “to foster respect for human rights, constitutional rights, and promote the rule of law in Mindanao as well as other parts in the Philippines; to monitor, expose and oppose human rights violations; to promote critical human rights awareness among the people through education, training, information, research and documentations; to promote cooperation and solidarity among regional, national, and international organizations active in the field of human rights.”
MinHRAC is a collaborative effort of Bangsamoro organizations such as the Bangsamoro Lawyers’ Network, Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, Bangsamoro Women Solidarity Forum, Inc., Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc., Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, United Youth for Peace and Development, United Youth of the Philippines, Bangsamoro Center for Just Peace, Kangudan Development Center Inc., IPRC, Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy and Al Ihsan Foundation.
Guests who were invited to the kanduli were warmly welcomed by Atty. Zainudin S. Malang. MinHRAC Executive Director, and assisted by the Board of Directors (BOD) chairman, Atty. Anwar Malang, and members of BOD, Mr. Rahib P. Payapat, Mr Sammy Maulana, Mr Guiamel Alim, Atty Paisal Abdul, Mr. Duma Mascud, Mr. Bobby Benito, Mr. Rahib Kudto, Ms. Noraida Abo, Atty. Fatima Kanakan, and Deputy Executive Director, Atty. Rasul Mitmug Jr.
Among the guests, who graced the occasion, were members of International Monitoring Team (IMT) from Malaysia, Japan and Brunei, GRP – MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH).
Also presents Gen. Ernesto Aradanas, commander of the Army's 603rd Infantry Brigade, as well as MinHRAC’s partners, supporters, media and friends in humanitarian, human rights groups.
The inauguration coincided with this year’s celebration of Eid’l Adha (the day of Sacrifice).
Monday, November 8, 2010
An Open Indignation Letter Addressed to Philippine President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III
Mr. President, in your inaugural speech at the Quirino Grandstand on June 30, 2010, you announced before the public that you “will be sincere in dealing with all the peoples of Mindanao”; thus, for this reason you pledged yourself to “a peaceful and just settlement of conflict, inclusive of the interests of all – may they be Lumads, Bangsamoro or Christian”.
You also emphatically declared: “You (the people) are the boss so I cannot ignore your orders.” In Tagalog: “Kayo ang boss ko.”
These pronouncements renewed in us that spirit of optimism oozing with hope that a peaceful and just political settlement of the conflict in the Bangsamoro will finally be resolved under your watch.
At that moment, we thought that at last here was a Filipino president who meant serious business; a president who could empathize with the plight of the long-oppressed Bangsamoro people because he, too, experienced the trauma of state oppression and persecution; a president who, like many among our brethren, had lost his own father to the forces of evil that once governed this country.
Mr. President, we feasted on your words of promise like starving men marooned on a desert of despair.
Our spirits were further buoyed, thus, when you announced that the GRP Peace Panel negotiating with the MILF had been reconstituted with a new set of members under a law professor meticulously selected by you on the basis of their competence, knowledge, experience and sympathy for Mindanao.
And when you likewise announced that peace talks would immediately resume after Ramadhan, we went ballistic with joy. We were beginning to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. The pervasive darkness of war and conflict that blighted our Moro homeland, at last, was about to be dissipated by the light of freedom and justice. Elusive peace seemed no longer elusive.
Or so we thought.
For, suddenly things have changed. In the 100 days that you’ve assumed office, the feeling of the people on the ground has progressively turned from hope to disenchantment to anger. For, like an automobile on reverse gear, instead of moving forward the quest for peace and justice, your government has begun to move backwards at a faster acceleration than what it promised to fulfill at the beginning of your administration.
You have closed the door to constitutional amendment that would have accommodated any final political compact agreement with the MILF, which, for your information in case you’ve not yet realized it, has already conceded to constitutional remedy to allow the restoration of peace in our troubled land. Hence, by the very pronouncement of your government shutting down the avenues to constitutional amendment even before the resumption of talks could begin, you have already dealt the death blow to any prospective peace agreement with the MILF by consigning it beforehand to the same fate as the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in 2008.
Not satisfied with that, you have created conditions which lead to the nullification of the gains of the peace process. Your Department of Foreign Affairs has issued new orders to foreign governments, institutions and NGOs, including those actively providing assistance to our poverty-stricken people and our refugees, to seek prior clearance and approval from your government before engaging the MILF in dialogues or launching humanitarian activities in the conflict-affected areas of Mindanao and Sulu.
You have also insisted that peace talks with the MILF should be in the Philippines, not in Malaysia or, for that matter, in any other neutral foreign venue as had been agreed upon by the MILF and the Philippine government in 2001.
Alas, Mr. President, now we are beginning to realize that when you mentioned in your speech before the joint Houses of Congress that the conflict in Mindanao is merely “a situation”, you really meant what you said. The hundreds of thousands of refugees dislocated and the thousands of lives lost every time war breaks out in Mindanao and Sulu are as trivial a “situation” to you as the bungled Manila hostage-taking incident.
This sinister move that intends to isolate the MILF from the international community and in the process control if not prevent the flow of humanitarian aid to the victims of war is an unconscionable act that makes you no different from your predecessors. It is sheer hambug on your part and your government to presume you can resolve and handle alone the Internally Displaced People (IDP) problem in our homeland without foreign humanitarian assistance. In case you have not read the papers, the World Food Program of the UN has just issued a public statement as posted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated October 12, 2010 that 250,000 people in Mindanao still displaced by war and natural disasters are starving and would need $26 million in food and other kinds of assistance. This assistance you cannot provide -nor were your predecessors able to – not only because of entrenched corruption in government but more significantly because in your word the Mindanao conflict is “a situation” which implies it is nothing to worry about. The truth is: the IDPs or the resolution of the conflict is not in the list of your national priorities.
And now you want the international community to stop its humanitarian activities in Mindanao and Sulu without your prior approval? Not only would this drive our people further into the deep bowels of poverty, misery and hopelessness, you are forcing them to abandon the ways of peace to redress legitimate grievances.
Which means, Mr. President, that you are rekindling the embers of the armed conflict whose flames had been reduced to a flicker by the peace negotiation and its promise of a just peace in our homeland.
Are the bottomless pockets of your so-called peace advisers, who, we know, have earned the infamous reputation for making fast bucks out of foreign aid assistance to the refugees in Mindanao and Sulu, more important to you than the welfare of the IDPs or the future of peace in Mindanao?
Lest you forget, Mr. President, you announced in Ramadhan 2010 that the immediate resumption of peace talks with the MILF shall commence after the holy month.
With great anticipation and eagerness, we waited for your words to come true. Then suddenly, the news of the arrest of Brother Edward Guerra, a senior member of the Central Committee of the MILF in charge of foreign affairs, who was arrested by agents of the CIDG-PNP at the Davao International Airport in September 22 to attend a UN conference on human rights in Geneva, hit us like a thunderbolt. We also learned from his family and lawyer that he was tortured while in maximum security detention at Fort Bonifacio. Brother Edward Guerra’s health is in a precarious state given his heart ailment, diabetes and hypertension.
Your late father, for reasons that need not be explained, would have created havoc in his grave if he were to learn that your government still uses torture on helpless political prisoners, especially on those afflicted by heart ailments.
The depression that we felt upon learning this morphed into extreme apprehension when news also brought to us the information that MILF members involved in peace monitoring were arrested by your military and police in Maguindanao.
We also learned that the arrest warrant for Brother Edward Guerra was issued by the court on September 1, 2010. This was well within the timeframe of your invitation, Mr. President, to the MILF to resume talks with your government!
What game of grand deception are you trying to play on us, Mr. President?
The reaction of your Chief Negotiator, Prof. Marvic Leonen, to the protest filed by the MILF on this matter is quite revealing. Leonen said that Brother Edward Guerra is not in the list of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel. What he infers, therefore, is that his arrest and subsequent torture in the hands of his captors are justified.
Even then, the deafening silence of your Presidential Peace Adviser, Secretary Ging Deles, on this matter that is crucial to the fate of the negotiations, is, to say the least, strange. So strange that we wonder whether a presidential peace adviser does really exist in fact or just in the imagination of Ms. Deles.
At any rate, does this mean, Mr. President, that any member of the MILF from the rank and file who is not a member of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel is an open prey? Following this argument, even Brother Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, the MILF Chairman who is not among the listed six members of the MILF Panel, can be arrested anytime by your state police and military!
The convoluted logic of your Chief Negotiator, Mr. President, deliberately leaves out the fact that the principal of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel is the MILF Central Committee of which Brother Edward Guerra is a senior member, being chair of its Foreign Affairs Committee. Technically, in view of the peace talks being held in foreign venues, principally Malaysia, the negotiations are within the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Committee he currently chairs.
For all intents and purposes, Mr. President, Bro. Edward Guerra is as much an important principal of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel as MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, the two vice-chairmen, and all the other members of the Central Committee of the MILF.
Mr. President, in case you still miss the dire implication of the arrests of Brother Edward Guerra and other MILF members similarly abducted by your state police and military, allow us to inform you now that this is tantamount to a declaration of a new war against the MILF and the Bangsamoro people.
It is in this context, Mr. President, that we hold you and your government responsible for any outbreak of hostilities in the Bangsamoro.
We are no longer afraid of war. The long-running conflict in our homeland has drained the last drop of fear from us. What is left are desperation and hopelessness; a permanent and pervasive feeling of insecurity under the Philippine state. And if indeed fear remains, it is the fear that peace will remain as elusive as ever.
We are afraid that in the event peace and justice are not realized in our time through peaceful negotiations, the argument that only though the barrel of the gun can such peace and justice be achieved will rule the day and the days yet to come.
Do not squander the remaining years of your presidency, Mr. President, and leave the future of peace in Mindanao and Sulu to be shipwrecked on the barren rocks of war and conflict. This is what your predecessors did.
You promised that you will be different from them.
So prove it, Mr. President, not merely by uttering empty rhetorical and meaningless statements but by sincerity emanating from the heart and animated by affirmative action.
Prove it, Mr. President, before you are overtaken by time.
Prove it, Mr. President that we, the people of the Bangsamoro and not only the people of Luzon and Visayas and the settlers in Mindanao, are also your “boss”.
If you think that we do not deserve to be in the same category as your constituents in Luzon, Visayas and the Christian-dominated areas in Mindanao, then leave us Moros alone in peace so we can forge our own future in freedom as a people and as a nation.
Signed:
MARAWI CITY CONFEDERATION OF SUPREME STUDENT GOVERNMENTS
COALITION OF MORO YOUTH MOVEMENTS
BANGSAMORO YOUTH VOLUNTEERS PROGRAM
JUST MOVEMENT-MINDANAO
YOUNG RANAW EDUCATORS INC.
Bangsamoro Youth Assembly (BMYA)
Anak Moro Organization
United Bangsamoro Women for Peace and Development
Bangsamoro Center for JustPeace (BCJP)
UNYPAD
UNYPHIL
BMYLF
October 15, 2010
You also emphatically declared: “You (the people) are the boss so I cannot ignore your orders.” In Tagalog: “Kayo ang boss ko.”
These pronouncements renewed in us that spirit of optimism oozing with hope that a peaceful and just political settlement of the conflict in the Bangsamoro will finally be resolved under your watch.
At that moment, we thought that at last here was a Filipino president who meant serious business; a president who could empathize with the plight of the long-oppressed Bangsamoro people because he, too, experienced the trauma of state oppression and persecution; a president who, like many among our brethren, had lost his own father to the forces of evil that once governed this country.
Mr. President, we feasted on your words of promise like starving men marooned on a desert of despair.
Our spirits were further buoyed, thus, when you announced that the GRP Peace Panel negotiating with the MILF had been reconstituted with a new set of members under a law professor meticulously selected by you on the basis of their competence, knowledge, experience and sympathy for Mindanao.
And when you likewise announced that peace talks would immediately resume after Ramadhan, we went ballistic with joy. We were beginning to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. The pervasive darkness of war and conflict that blighted our Moro homeland, at last, was about to be dissipated by the light of freedom and justice. Elusive peace seemed no longer elusive.
Or so we thought.
For, suddenly things have changed. In the 100 days that you’ve assumed office, the feeling of the people on the ground has progressively turned from hope to disenchantment to anger. For, like an automobile on reverse gear, instead of moving forward the quest for peace and justice, your government has begun to move backwards at a faster acceleration than what it promised to fulfill at the beginning of your administration.
You have closed the door to constitutional amendment that would have accommodated any final political compact agreement with the MILF, which, for your information in case you’ve not yet realized it, has already conceded to constitutional remedy to allow the restoration of peace in our troubled land. Hence, by the very pronouncement of your government shutting down the avenues to constitutional amendment even before the resumption of talks could begin, you have already dealt the death blow to any prospective peace agreement with the MILF by consigning it beforehand to the same fate as the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in 2008.
Not satisfied with that, you have created conditions which lead to the nullification of the gains of the peace process. Your Department of Foreign Affairs has issued new orders to foreign governments, institutions and NGOs, including those actively providing assistance to our poverty-stricken people and our refugees, to seek prior clearance and approval from your government before engaging the MILF in dialogues or launching humanitarian activities in the conflict-affected areas of Mindanao and Sulu.
You have also insisted that peace talks with the MILF should be in the Philippines, not in Malaysia or, for that matter, in any other neutral foreign venue as had been agreed upon by the MILF and the Philippine government in 2001.
Alas, Mr. President, now we are beginning to realize that when you mentioned in your speech before the joint Houses of Congress that the conflict in Mindanao is merely “a situation”, you really meant what you said. The hundreds of thousands of refugees dislocated and the thousands of lives lost every time war breaks out in Mindanao and Sulu are as trivial a “situation” to you as the bungled Manila hostage-taking incident.
This sinister move that intends to isolate the MILF from the international community and in the process control if not prevent the flow of humanitarian aid to the victims of war is an unconscionable act that makes you no different from your predecessors. It is sheer hambug on your part and your government to presume you can resolve and handle alone the Internally Displaced People (IDP) problem in our homeland without foreign humanitarian assistance. In case you have not read the papers, the World Food Program of the UN has just issued a public statement as posted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated October 12, 2010 that 250,000 people in Mindanao still displaced by war and natural disasters are starving and would need $26 million in food and other kinds of assistance. This assistance you cannot provide -nor were your predecessors able to – not only because of entrenched corruption in government but more significantly because in your word the Mindanao conflict is “a situation” which implies it is nothing to worry about. The truth is: the IDPs or the resolution of the conflict is not in the list of your national priorities.
And now you want the international community to stop its humanitarian activities in Mindanao and Sulu without your prior approval? Not only would this drive our people further into the deep bowels of poverty, misery and hopelessness, you are forcing them to abandon the ways of peace to redress legitimate grievances.
Which means, Mr. President, that you are rekindling the embers of the armed conflict whose flames had been reduced to a flicker by the peace negotiation and its promise of a just peace in our homeland.
Are the bottomless pockets of your so-called peace advisers, who, we know, have earned the infamous reputation for making fast bucks out of foreign aid assistance to the refugees in Mindanao and Sulu, more important to you than the welfare of the IDPs or the future of peace in Mindanao?
Lest you forget, Mr. President, you announced in Ramadhan 2010 that the immediate resumption of peace talks with the MILF shall commence after the holy month.
With great anticipation and eagerness, we waited for your words to come true. Then suddenly, the news of the arrest of Brother Edward Guerra, a senior member of the Central Committee of the MILF in charge of foreign affairs, who was arrested by agents of the CIDG-PNP at the Davao International Airport in September 22 to attend a UN conference on human rights in Geneva, hit us like a thunderbolt. We also learned from his family and lawyer that he was tortured while in maximum security detention at Fort Bonifacio. Brother Edward Guerra’s health is in a precarious state given his heart ailment, diabetes and hypertension.
Your late father, for reasons that need not be explained, would have created havoc in his grave if he were to learn that your government still uses torture on helpless political prisoners, especially on those afflicted by heart ailments.
The depression that we felt upon learning this morphed into extreme apprehension when news also brought to us the information that MILF members involved in peace monitoring were arrested by your military and police in Maguindanao.
We also learned that the arrest warrant for Brother Edward Guerra was issued by the court on September 1, 2010. This was well within the timeframe of your invitation, Mr. President, to the MILF to resume talks with your government!
What game of grand deception are you trying to play on us, Mr. President?
The reaction of your Chief Negotiator, Prof. Marvic Leonen, to the protest filed by the MILF on this matter is quite revealing. Leonen said that Brother Edward Guerra is not in the list of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel. What he infers, therefore, is that his arrest and subsequent torture in the hands of his captors are justified.
Even then, the deafening silence of your Presidential Peace Adviser, Secretary Ging Deles, on this matter that is crucial to the fate of the negotiations, is, to say the least, strange. So strange that we wonder whether a presidential peace adviser does really exist in fact or just in the imagination of Ms. Deles.
At any rate, does this mean, Mr. President, that any member of the MILF from the rank and file who is not a member of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel is an open prey? Following this argument, even Brother Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, the MILF Chairman who is not among the listed six members of the MILF Panel, can be arrested anytime by your state police and military!
The convoluted logic of your Chief Negotiator, Mr. President, deliberately leaves out the fact that the principal of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel is the MILF Central Committee of which Brother Edward Guerra is a senior member, being chair of its Foreign Affairs Committee. Technically, in view of the peace talks being held in foreign venues, principally Malaysia, the negotiations are within the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Committee he currently chairs.
For all intents and purposes, Mr. President, Bro. Edward Guerra is as much an important principal of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel as MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, the two vice-chairmen, and all the other members of the Central Committee of the MILF.
Mr. President, in case you still miss the dire implication of the arrests of Brother Edward Guerra and other MILF members similarly abducted by your state police and military, allow us to inform you now that this is tantamount to a declaration of a new war against the MILF and the Bangsamoro people.
It is in this context, Mr. President, that we hold you and your government responsible for any outbreak of hostilities in the Bangsamoro.
We are no longer afraid of war. The long-running conflict in our homeland has drained the last drop of fear from us. What is left are desperation and hopelessness; a permanent and pervasive feeling of insecurity under the Philippine state. And if indeed fear remains, it is the fear that peace will remain as elusive as ever.
We are afraid that in the event peace and justice are not realized in our time through peaceful negotiations, the argument that only though the barrel of the gun can such peace and justice be achieved will rule the day and the days yet to come.
Do not squander the remaining years of your presidency, Mr. President, and leave the future of peace in Mindanao and Sulu to be shipwrecked on the barren rocks of war and conflict. This is what your predecessors did.
You promised that you will be different from them.
So prove it, Mr. President, not merely by uttering empty rhetorical and meaningless statements but by sincerity emanating from the heart and animated by affirmative action.
Prove it, Mr. President, before you are overtaken by time.
Prove it, Mr. President that we, the people of the Bangsamoro and not only the people of Luzon and Visayas and the settlers in Mindanao, are also your “boss”.
If you think that we do not deserve to be in the same category as your constituents in Luzon, Visayas and the Christian-dominated areas in Mindanao, then leave us Moros alone in peace so we can forge our own future in freedom as a people and as a nation.
Signed:
MARAWI CITY CONFEDERATION OF SUPREME STUDENT GOVERNMENTS
COALITION OF MORO YOUTH MOVEMENTS
BANGSAMORO YOUTH VOLUNTEERS PROGRAM
JUST MOVEMENT-MINDANAO
YOUNG RANAW EDUCATORS INC.
Bangsamoro Youth Assembly (BMYA)
Anak Moro Organization
United Bangsamoro Women for Peace and Development
Bangsamoro Center for JustPeace (BCJP)
UNYPAD
UNYPHIL
BMYLF
October 15, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Stop talking peace – Moro youth urges GRP, MILF
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By Muhair Abdullah
November 7, 2010 - "There will be no future in a negotiation if one side is not sincere," thus commented a group of Moro youth who joined yesterday’s mass action in the Simuay junction in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao province.
“The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must stop the peace talks and re-evaluate their commitment and sincerity to the peace process because nothing happened so far,” said Datuan Magon, a senior officer of the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD).
“We taught the government already learned lessons from the Arroyo experience in dealing with the serious political and sovereignty-based problem in Mindanao,” Magon, who was also part of crafting of the Philippine Implementing Rules and Regulations on the Anti-Torture Law, added.
Magon claimed the so-called “Mindanao situation” has worsened as illegal arrests and killings have become more and more raging resulting more sufferings in the ground.
“Where will P-Noy (President Benigno Aquino III) be bringing the nation?” asked Magon.
Another group of Moro youth expressed worry that even the youth now are no longer safe because the police and the military are targeting minors for illegal arrest in exchange of reward money.
“Human rights defenders are also receiving death threats,” Magon said further.
The Moro youth group also warned the Philippine government that if the solution to the political problem in Mindanao will not be resolved today, they are more than willing to continue the struggle until the end.
The said group said they joined the public and peaceful assemblies as a manifestation of their willingness to become part of democratic and peaceful solution to the Mindanao problem.
“Should the situation force us to take any other course, at least we have exhausted all peaceful means,” said the group.
Attended by thousands of Moro people from all walks of life, the Bangsamoro Mass Action for Justice, called, among other things, for the immediate release of civilians and MILF leaders who have been victims of illegal arrests.
Raby Angkal, the spokesperson of the group claimed that “the Bangsamoro people have been dismayed and seriously disappointed over President Aquino’s lack of sincerity and political will to resolve the Bangsamoro question through negotiated political settlement.”
Angkal said “no sign of any attempt to continue the talks can be heard; instead, preparation of war by the GRP against the MILF is now very visible, numbers of soldiers are increasing day by day and MILF leaders and members are being indiscriminately arrested including civilians.”
The mass action was spearheaded by independent and non-partisan network of people’s organizations, nongovernment organizations and such other groups as business, religious and professionals as well as concerned individuals from Cotabato City and nearby provinces.
By Muhair Abdullah
November 7, 2010 - "There will be no future in a negotiation if one side is not sincere," thus commented a group of Moro youth who joined yesterday’s mass action in the Simuay junction in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao province.
“The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must stop the peace talks and re-evaluate their commitment and sincerity to the peace process because nothing happened so far,” said Datuan Magon, a senior officer of the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD).
“We taught the government already learned lessons from the Arroyo experience in dealing with the serious political and sovereignty-based problem in Mindanao,” Magon, who was also part of crafting of the Philippine Implementing Rules and Regulations on the Anti-Torture Law, added.
Magon claimed the so-called “Mindanao situation” has worsened as illegal arrests and killings have become more and more raging resulting more sufferings in the ground.
“Where will P-Noy (President Benigno Aquino III) be bringing the nation?” asked Magon.
Another group of Moro youth expressed worry that even the youth now are no longer safe because the police and the military are targeting minors for illegal arrest in exchange of reward money.
“Human rights defenders are also receiving death threats,” Magon said further.
The Moro youth group also warned the Philippine government that if the solution to the political problem in Mindanao will not be resolved today, they are more than willing to continue the struggle until the end.
The said group said they joined the public and peaceful assemblies as a manifestation of their willingness to become part of democratic and peaceful solution to the Mindanao problem.
“Should the situation force us to take any other course, at least we have exhausted all peaceful means,” said the group.
Attended by thousands of Moro people from all walks of life, the Bangsamoro Mass Action for Justice, called, among other things, for the immediate release of civilians and MILF leaders who have been victims of illegal arrests.
Raby Angkal, the spokesperson of the group claimed that “the Bangsamoro people have been dismayed and seriously disappointed over President Aquino’s lack of sincerity and political will to resolve the Bangsamoro question through negotiated political settlement.”
Angkal said “no sign of any attempt to continue the talks can be heard; instead, preparation of war by the GRP against the MILF is now very visible, numbers of soldiers are increasing day by day and MILF leaders and members are being indiscriminately arrested including civilians.”
The mass action was spearheaded by independent and non-partisan network of people’s organizations, nongovernment organizations and such other groups as business, religious and professionals as well as concerned individuals from Cotabato City and nearby provinces.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Press Release; Bangsamoro Mass Action for Justice!
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
November 3, 2010
Contact:
RABY ANGKAL – Spokesman
Mobile: 09269843636 ………………………………………………………………………………
Media Advisory
“Bangsamoro Mass Action for Justice”
An independent and Non Partisan Network of PO’s, NGO’s, Business, Religious Professionals and Individuals from Cotabato City and nearby municipalities join together to fight for JUSTICE and HUMAN RIGHTS in Mindanao
WHAT: Mass Rally
WHO: Bangsamoro Action for Justice and Peace
WHEN: Saturday, November 6, 2010 at 10; 00 to 12; 00 O’clock in the morning
WHERE: Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat Maguindanao
COME ONE!!!!COME ALL
November 3, 2010
Contact:
RABY ANGKAL – Spokesman
Mobile: 09269843636 ………………………………………………………………………………
Media Advisory
“Bangsamoro Mass Action for Justice”
An independent and Non Partisan Network of PO’s, NGO’s, Business, Religious Professionals and Individuals from Cotabato City and nearby municipalities join together to fight for JUSTICE and HUMAN RIGHTS in Mindanao
WHAT: Mass Rally
WHO: Bangsamoro Action for Justice and Peace
WHEN: Saturday, November 6, 2010 at 10; 00 to 12; 00 O’clock in the morning
WHERE: Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat Maguindanao
COME ONE!!!!COME ALL
Thursday, October 21, 2010
MONITORING MAGUINDANAO From Ampatuan to Mangudadatu (3): Starting from Zero
By Carolyn O. Arguillas | Thursday| October 21, 2010 | Filed under: Corruption Watch, Governance, Leadership, Monitoring Maguindanao
BULUAN, Maguindanao (MindaNews/10 October) – He would have delivered his State of the Province Address (SOPA) in early August. In fact, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislature) had been waiting for him to spell out his legislative agenda.
But the governor was often in Manila, a complaint that continues to this day.
Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said he goes to Manila for the hearings on the November 23 massacre “because I am the main complainant. I have to be in Manila).
He said he also goes to Manila to follow up on some concerns with the Department of Budget and that he spends two to three days for a trip to Manila or returns on the same day.
He said he can’t be expected to be in office all the time or up to midnight. “You can’t please everybody,” he said in Pilipino.
“Hindi ako si Superman” (I am not Superman), he added.
But Mangudadatu had another reason for rescheduling his SOPA. “I’ll do that after 100 days because there should be something to show for by then.”
As it turned out, Mangudadatu, a first-time governor, became the only governor in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to have delivered a hundred days after report.
When he delivered his SOPA on October 10, he had nine dump trucks lined up on the left side of the municipal grounds, filled with oil palm seedlings and a bit nearer the stage, the centerpiece of his administration’s first 100 days: the P15-million mobile hospital.
On August 20, the governor told MindaNews that they purchased P10 million worth of oil palm seedlings from Makilala in North Cotabato, for distribution in Maguindanao, to address the livelihood aspect that they promised their constituents.
He said oil palm was a viable crop in his province and would bring huge incomes for the farmers, citing his own family’s experience. The Mangudadatus own vast tracts of land planted to oil palm. “On my own, I have a seven year – old 370 hectare plantation that earns millions of pesos,” he said.
He said he earns P8,000 to P12,000 per hectare per harvest twice a month.
In his SOPA, Mangudadatu said P10 million was spent on the purchase of 40,000 oil palm seedlings and 120,000 rubber tree seedling for distribution to the province’s 36 towns.
Whether or not the beneficiaries will be from the 36 towns or the five Mangudadatu-controlled towns only, or his own plantation, as critics expect would happen, no one can say for sure, for now.
The mechanisms for transparency and even for basic governance are only starting to be set up. For the Mangudadatu-Mastura team, it’s like starting from zero.
But Bobby Benito, executive director of the Bangsamoro Center for Justice and Peace (BCJP) said he is “hopeful the leadership of Toto Mangudadatu and Dustin Mastura will make a difference and bring Maguindanaons a participative and transparent governance.”
“In fact, Transparent Accountable and Participative Governance is no. 2 of his eight-point agenda where CSOs are strengthened through local special bodies,” Benito said, adding a performance billboard and Civil Society Organization (CSO) Desk are also being established.
“For the first time in Maguindanao, Budget Tracking by an NGO is now allowed, where local CSO partners will monitor budget preparation, budget authorization, budget review, budget execution and budget accountability,” Benito said, adding this is a project of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) in partnership with Balay Mindanaw, The Asia Foundation and USAid.
The project is expected to start soon.
CBCS convenor Guiamel Alim cites as “improvements” of the Mangudadatu administration, the “NGO participation in the provincial special bodies, openness to consultations and the mobile hospital.”
In his SOPA, Mangudadatu said that in response to calls for transparency, the province has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Patikai Developer, to set up the province’s official website. He did not, however, say when the website would be available.
“We will also update our Socio-Economic Profile. We will also issue a Provincial Publication/Newsletter so we can monitor the progress of our province. We will also set up Performance Billboards to let the people know about our programs.”
He said the province conducted a CSO Orientation and Workshop on September 24 to 25 at the Palm Pavilion in Barangay Calean, Tacurong City, to ensure partnerships in provincial programs and representation as well in governance.
Among those Mangudadatu set up through Executive Orders are bodies that he said were not activated during the time of the past administration, referring to the Ampatuans: the Provincial Development Council (EO 001); Provincial Peace and Order Council (EO2); EO 3 or the Maguindanao Task Force Reconciliation and Unification to deal with rido (family or clan feuds); Provincial Disaster (Response) Coordinating Council (EO 4); Local School Board (EO 6); Local Health Board (EO 7); Provincial Tax Code Committee (EO 8).
The Provincial Reconciliation and Unification Council was launched July 20 in Parang, Maguindanao to settle community conflicts and ridos.
A joint meeting of the Provincial Development Council and Provincial Peace and Order Council was held on August 5 at Genalin’s Forest Resort and Catering Services in Tacurong City.
On August 10, Mangudadatu reactivated the Provincial Disaster Response Coordinating Council through EO 4 at the BBGM Restaurant in Buluan.
On August 15, Mangudadatu met with the heads and staff of the different departments through a consultative meeting on August 15 also at the BBGM Restaurant.
On August 17 and 18, the province conducted a Local Governance Performance Management System at the Genalin Forest Garden Resort in Tacurong City.
Mangudadatu activated the Local School Board on September 7 at the BBGM Restaurant in Buluan. The board will serve as an advisory committee to the Sanggunian on education matters.
The next day, it was the turn of the Local Health Board at the same venue.
The Genalin Resort, named after his slain wife, and BBGM conference venues are, incidentally, owned by the Mangudadatu family.
In August, when Mangudadatu was asked about criticisms that the province had been holding conferences in their resort in Tacurong City, he told MindaNews, “wala naman pwedeng pag- meetingan dito (Buluan).” (There is no other meeting place here).
He said Tacurong City (in Sultan Kudarat province), is just near. “We can meet here but it will be too crowded. And if we meet here, we can’t really meet properly because look at how many hundreds of people come here,” he said in Pilipino.
But there is a conference venue in Buluan, BBGM Restaurant, MindaNews later learned from “Ulat sa Bayan,” a publication on the summary of his 100-day accomplishments.
BBGM is also owned by the Mangudadatus. “It’s my mother’s,” the governor told MindaNews by telephone on October 16.
RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees provides that public officials “shall not dispense or extend undue favors on account of their office to their relatives whether by consanguinity or affinity.”
Mangudadatu said BBGM restaurant is the only venue for meetings in Buluan. “Wala nang iba.” (There’s nothing else).
He said his mother’s restaurant has been there for long and if he can’t hold meetings in the restaurant or the resort because these are owned by the Mangudadatus, “where will we hold our meetings?”
“All we want to do is to serve the public,” the governor said.
BULUAN, Maguindanao (MindaNews/10 October) – He would have delivered his State of the Province Address (SOPA) in early August. In fact, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislature) had been waiting for him to spell out his legislative agenda.
But the governor was often in Manila, a complaint that continues to this day.
Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said he goes to Manila for the hearings on the November 23 massacre “because I am the main complainant. I have to be in Manila).
He said he also goes to Manila to follow up on some concerns with the Department of Budget and that he spends two to three days for a trip to Manila or returns on the same day.
He said he can’t be expected to be in office all the time or up to midnight. “You can’t please everybody,” he said in Pilipino.
“Hindi ako si Superman” (I am not Superman), he added.
But Mangudadatu had another reason for rescheduling his SOPA. “I’ll do that after 100 days because there should be something to show for by then.”
As it turned out, Mangudadatu, a first-time governor, became the only governor in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to have delivered a hundred days after report.
When he delivered his SOPA on October 10, he had nine dump trucks lined up on the left side of the municipal grounds, filled with oil palm seedlings and a bit nearer the stage, the centerpiece of his administration’s first 100 days: the P15-million mobile hospital.
On August 20, the governor told MindaNews that they purchased P10 million worth of oil palm seedlings from Makilala in North Cotabato, for distribution in Maguindanao, to address the livelihood aspect that they promised their constituents.
He said oil palm was a viable crop in his province and would bring huge incomes for the farmers, citing his own family’s experience. The Mangudadatus own vast tracts of land planted to oil palm. “On my own, I have a seven year – old 370 hectare plantation that earns millions of pesos,” he said.
He said he earns P8,000 to P12,000 per hectare per harvest twice a month.
In his SOPA, Mangudadatu said P10 million was spent on the purchase of 40,000 oil palm seedlings and 120,000 rubber tree seedling for distribution to the province’s 36 towns.
Whether or not the beneficiaries will be from the 36 towns or the five Mangudadatu-controlled towns only, or his own plantation, as critics expect would happen, no one can say for sure, for now.
The mechanisms for transparency and even for basic governance are only starting to be set up. For the Mangudadatu-Mastura team, it’s like starting from zero.
But Bobby Benito, executive director of the Bangsamoro Center for Justice and Peace (BCJP) said he is “hopeful the leadership of Toto Mangudadatu and Dustin Mastura will make a difference and bring Maguindanaons a participative and transparent governance.”
“In fact, Transparent Accountable and Participative Governance is no. 2 of his eight-point agenda where CSOs are strengthened through local special bodies,” Benito said, adding a performance billboard and Civil Society Organization (CSO) Desk are also being established.
“For the first time in Maguindanao, Budget Tracking by an NGO is now allowed, where local CSO partners will monitor budget preparation, budget authorization, budget review, budget execution and budget accountability,” Benito said, adding this is a project of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) in partnership with Balay Mindanaw, The Asia Foundation and USAid.
The project is expected to start soon.
CBCS convenor Guiamel Alim cites as “improvements” of the Mangudadatu administration, the “NGO participation in the provincial special bodies, openness to consultations and the mobile hospital.”
In his SOPA, Mangudadatu said that in response to calls for transparency, the province has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Patikai Developer, to set up the province’s official website. He did not, however, say when the website would be available.
“We will also update our Socio-Economic Profile. We will also issue a Provincial Publication/Newsletter so we can monitor the progress of our province. We will also set up Performance Billboards to let the people know about our programs.”
He said the province conducted a CSO Orientation and Workshop on September 24 to 25 at the Palm Pavilion in Barangay Calean, Tacurong City, to ensure partnerships in provincial programs and representation as well in governance.
Among those Mangudadatu set up through Executive Orders are bodies that he said were not activated during the time of the past administration, referring to the Ampatuans: the Provincial Development Council (EO 001); Provincial Peace and Order Council (EO2); EO 3 or the Maguindanao Task Force Reconciliation and Unification to deal with rido (family or clan feuds); Provincial Disaster (Response) Coordinating Council (EO 4); Local School Board (EO 6); Local Health Board (EO 7); Provincial Tax Code Committee (EO 8).
The Provincial Reconciliation and Unification Council was launched July 20 in Parang, Maguindanao to settle community conflicts and ridos.
A joint meeting of the Provincial Development Council and Provincial Peace and Order Council was held on August 5 at Genalin’s Forest Resort and Catering Services in Tacurong City.
On August 10, Mangudadatu reactivated the Provincial Disaster Response Coordinating Council through EO 4 at the BBGM Restaurant in Buluan.
On August 15, Mangudadatu met with the heads and staff of the different departments through a consultative meeting on August 15 also at the BBGM Restaurant.
On August 17 and 18, the province conducted a Local Governance Performance Management System at the Genalin Forest Garden Resort in Tacurong City.
Mangudadatu activated the Local School Board on September 7 at the BBGM Restaurant in Buluan. The board will serve as an advisory committee to the Sanggunian on education matters.
The next day, it was the turn of the Local Health Board at the same venue.
The Genalin Resort, named after his slain wife, and BBGM conference venues are, incidentally, owned by the Mangudadatu family.
In August, when Mangudadatu was asked about criticisms that the province had been holding conferences in their resort in Tacurong City, he told MindaNews, “wala naman pwedeng pag- meetingan dito (Buluan).” (There is no other meeting place here).
He said Tacurong City (in Sultan Kudarat province), is just near. “We can meet here but it will be too crowded. And if we meet here, we can’t really meet properly because look at how many hundreds of people come here,” he said in Pilipino.
But there is a conference venue in Buluan, BBGM Restaurant, MindaNews later learned from “Ulat sa Bayan,” a publication on the summary of his 100-day accomplishments.
BBGM is also owned by the Mangudadatus. “It’s my mother’s,” the governor told MindaNews by telephone on October 16.
RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees provides that public officials “shall not dispense or extend undue favors on account of their office to their relatives whether by consanguinity or affinity.”
Mangudadatu said BBGM restaurant is the only venue for meetings in Buluan. “Wala nang iba.” (There’s nothing else).
He said his mother’s restaurant has been there for long and if he can’t hold meetings in the restaurant or the resort because these are owned by the Mangudadatus, “where will we hold our meetings?”
“All we want to do is to serve the public,” the governor said.
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