Mindanao Peace: A Call for Help for Muslim Tribes

Let Us all join hands to
Help Our Muslim Tribes Now!

Not everything is going well at this time in Mindanao. In a recent encounter in Barangay Culambog, Pikit, North Cotabato, one government trooper died and fifteen MILF elements were killed. A lot have things have to be put right. The current troubles in Mindanao must stop. Blogger Girbaudz says:

Portent of War in Mindanao

I shall not venture to give any substantial number of facts except point to some vignettes from the past, existing and current events, statements and discussions about the issue of the government's peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Click to the linked page here…

On the other hand, the suffering members of tribes in Mindanao (in our own syndicate, we prefer calling our brother and sister Muslims by the sobriquet, Muslim Tribes, instead of just Muslims, to differentiate them from other Islamic communities around the world -- some of which consist of the majority population in Islamic states) are not going to get happier. The brief news article below really hit my gut:

Roxas hit for allegedly fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment

By Perseus Echeminada

The Philippine Star

Monday, August 11, 2008 A former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) commissioner hit Sen. Manuel Roxas II over the weekend for allegedly fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment when he announced that Christians in Panay Island are now raising funds to arm their brothers in Mindanao and oppose the creation of an expanded Muslim autonomous region.

Lawyer Nasser Marohomsalic told reporters during the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo Hotel forum in Quezon City last Saturday that high-ranking government officials particularly senators, are unnecessarily raising alarm over the proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

He said Roxas, who is among the strong advocates against the supposed agreement, is practically agitating anti-Muslim sentiments, an allegation that Roxas vehemently denied, stressing he is for peace in Mindanao.

“The statement of Senator Roxas has created strong anti-Muslim sentiments,” Marohomsalic said.

He said the controversy over the ancestral domain issue in Mindanao has practically diverted the attention of the people from the economic crisis facing the country, including the high prices of commodities and oil.

The former CHR commissioner said the ongoing peace negotiations with the MILF are just a repeat of the peace negotiation of the government with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which resulted to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Marohomsalic said the proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain only aims to expand the coverage of the present ARMM but the area is actually lesser compared to the original accord forged with the MNLF.

Roxas, for his part, said he is for peace in Mindanao, but not for an unconstitutional agreement like the GRP-MILF agreement on ancestral domain.

Roxas said that peace won’t be achieved through force and threats just like what he claims is advocated by former AFP chief and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and the Arroyo government. – With Aurea Calica

Whatever your faith is, I implore you to pray for the swift resolution of the troubles in Mindanao. I ask you to be involved and to concerned. Howsoever lowly our station in life, let us all pitch in what little we can offer to not let those that are sabotaging the effort towards peace in Mindanao succeed.

The road ahead is long and tricky, savage and could be violent. Are we prepared to let our future generations be hostage to the whims and caprices of a few people in the Supreme Court? Will we just allow our ethnic communities be forever at the receiving end of oppression? Will we let the Supreme Court continually make rulings that are inimical to the interest of the country?

Will the Filipinos not want to stand up and make history? Will people like Governor Jesus Sacdalan, Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol, Rep. Isabel Climaco, Mayor Celso Lobregat, Rep. Erico Fabian, Sen. Mar Roxas, Rep. Rufino Biazon, Sen. Ping Lacson, Sen. Loren Legarda, be more precious to all of us than the Maguindanao Tribe Maranao Tribe Tausug Tribe, Sama Tribe, Yakkan Tribe, Badyao Tribe, the original people of Mindanao notwithstanding the other Tribes in the area, who used to be a sovereign, very proud and highly cultured people?

Are these idiots and nincompoops combined any better than the Tribes' long-standing relations with the Brunei Royalty -- authentic and non-authentic -- as well the regular Bruneians, the Indonesian Royalty and their subjects, the Malaysian Royalty and the commoner Malays? Let us remember that we have a very rich link both in blood and interchanges with our literal relatives in those countries.

The sooner that we realize how to harness these relations, the faster we will realize that those who think they are as powerful as their saboteur acts and subterfuge, and malevolent determination to divide this already crippled country of ours, are just as the Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian progressive thinkers, call the pseudo politicians: paper tigers.

Paper tigers? As for me, I would neither want them inside my book shop nor even an inch near it.