Magkaubusan ng lahi?
October 27, 2008
Commander Bravo is seething and lying through his teeth as he justifies his attacks on remote barangays in Kauswagan and Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte. He wants to impress us that he is merely protecting the Moro people and their homeland when the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain was restrained by the Supreme Court.
His memory obviously failed him and worse, his justification of the assaults done in the remote towns in Lanao del Norte has no place in a civilized society, Islam or Christianity. Like Umbra Kato who occupied villages in Aleosan and Pikit, Kumander Bravo swooped into unsuspecting communities shooting unarmed civilians on sight. These two trigger-happy commanders attempted to occupy territories listed in the MOA-AD soon after they heard that the documents were initialed. It is not true that they made the assault after the High Court issued the TRO. They did it to pre-empt the other processes which should have followed after the formal signing of the MOA. Of course that is now water under the bridge as the Supreme Court had ruled that the MOA is unconstitutional.
In his rare appearance courtesy of ABS-CBN, Commander Bravo bared his true nature and what are precisely his personal motivations concerning the resolution of the Mindanao conflict. His utterances on TV revealed his aversion against peace negotiation. As far as he is concerned, the entire island of Mindanao belongs to the Moro people and that it is not negotiable.
“Amin and Mindanao ”, he says, and that remains to be the objective even to the extent of “magkaubusan tayo ng lahi”. And Bravo dared President Arroyo and all his military generals that.
With brave and daring talks like that, what good indeed is the MOA on Ancestral Domain? With Bravo and Kato still on the loose we will see more troubles ahead in addition to the economic meltdown that is already knocking on doors. The consolation here is that the overwhelming majority of the Moro people do not subscribe to the agenda of these rogues commanders of the MILF and like many of us we just want to move on with our lives in an atmosphere of peace, reconciliation and unity.
Military says DDR approach vital element for the peace process
October 27, 2008
Major Benedicto Manquiquis, Commanding Officer of the 1st Civil Military Operations Unit, 1st Infantry Division, Philippine Army said the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) approach of government is an important element to achieve peace in Mindanao . Read more
What Women Want
October 26, 2008
U.S population activist Sharon Camp once suggests that if all the world’s women could determine for themselves when and when not to have children, population problems would resolve themselves with no need for government “control.” And I agree with her enthusiastically.
You see, the traditional view holds that men go out and hunt for food while women give birth and nurture helpless infants to adulthood. Men then kept honing their tools and weapons for bringing down big animals, and human domination then started. However, there is no particular reason to assign men the credit on that, for even after they assumed mastery of weapons and other tools, planetary domination would have eluded them without help. All the meat in the world won’t keep children alive if they aren’t born safely and nurtured with care and vigilance the women who bore them. That suggests some vital roles for women.
Our species wouldn’t have survived without women’s efforts – in fact, not without adaptations that almost surely belonged to women. This is not to say that any particular woman is obligated to perform this task, which I choose not to, or that any man cannot do, the nurturing I mean. Each of us is, or should be, free to choose. It is to say everywhere, at every time in the past, directly assuring a child’s survival to adulthood has been a triumph for which women far more than men can claim credit.
The reason I am tackling this subject is because of the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 authored by Rep. Edcel Lagman Rep. Lagman’s bill promotes information on and access to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible. It assures an enabling environment where women and couples have the freedom of informed choice on the mode of family planning they want to adopt based on their needs, personal convictions and religious beliefs. It does not have any bias for or against either natural or modern family planning. Both modes are contraceptive methods. Their common purpose is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. So what is the issue of the use of artificial and the natural family planning method if their goals are the same? Because one is sanctioned by the church and the other isn’t? Or because one is much effective and the other is not?
There has been a strong, in fact almost violent reaction coming from the church and church-based organizations like Couples for Christ, on the passage of the bill. In fact, no less than Archbishop Paciano B. Ancieto, the chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines argued that the Reproductive Health Bill is going to lessen the number of people in the country. He said that the population of the country is the best asset the country has and by curbing the growth of the country’s best resource, the Reproductive Health bill is anti-poor. What? Does the good bishop mean we should reproduce more and export manpower overseas or make a meat of each person, sell it in the market and buy food so that others may live? Assuming that the bill would be a success and thus actually would make a dint in decreasing the ballooning population of the country which the government cannot sustain, then we no longer be 85 million hungry Filipinos but at least be reduced to 65 million well-fed and strong people and that is going to be bad, how? Forgive me Bishop, but that argument is lame. It is not the quantity of people who live in an area that matters, it is the quality of the people who dwell in it that is important.
Nowhere in the proposed bill did I see a single provision that promotes abortion or that it is anti-life. The bill expressly provides that “abortion remains a crime” and “prevention of abortion” is essential to fully implement the Reproductive Health Care Program. And although “management of post-abortion complications” is provided, this is not to condone abortion but to promote the humane treatment of women in life-threatening situations in which they don’t have any choice. Young women, unguided and untutored, condemned before they are understood, get pregnant and resorts to illegal abortions, this provision can also help them.
We do know with reasonable clarity what the Philippine population is today and how it is changing. We also know that unrestrained population growth equals unrestricted poverty, yet the opponents of the reproductive health bill don’t see it that way. They believe that by sweeping the issue of expanding population under the rug will somehow lessen the poverty issue, the corruption issue, the peace issue and all other issues that affect the existence of 85 million Filipinos.
Population is a sensitive topic, sensitive because any discussion of population growth quickly taps into an edgy confusion of feelings most of us harbor about contraception, abortion, childbearing and family size, gender relations and sexuality. But it is outstanding how many words have flowed in the population debate, how many heated language and near blows exchanged in the reproductive bill debate without much consideration of the lives of those who bear and raise children.
For us women, it is not just population control, but letting go of control over women’s lives that could lead us safely from between Scylla and Charybdis of poverty and progress, restraint and freedom, servitude and empowerment. (For comments and violent reactions e-mail me at coi_416@hotmail.com)
PROMOTING A CULTURE OF PEACE
October 26, 2008
Mindanao, the southern island of the Philippines, is home to three general cultural groups – the indigenous people communities comprising 18 ethnic groups; Muslim communities from another 8 ethnic groupings; and the Christian population coming from at least 12 language regions of the country. It is this tri-people composition that has at times caused inter-cultured hostilities in several sub-regions of Mindanao. In particular, the protracted conflict between Muslims and Christians has erupted into periods of violence.
At the same time religious leaders have made repeated calls for promoting a culture of peace wherein warring parties can lay down their arms – and prejudices – to build a brighter future for their children. It is in this light that we can examine six social concerns in promoting a culture of peace, which also constitute the foundations of a Christian ethical framework.
The starting – point and core of these social concerns is Human Dignity – i.e., that every human being is a person endowed with reason and free will and made in the image of God. Thus, as the social teachings of the Catholic Church states, “far from being the object or passive element of social life,” the human person “is rather, and must always remain, its subject, foundation and goal”.
The first social concern is Personal and Family Integrity. Wholeness and fullness of life are goals for every individual as well as for every family. These can be more readily attained through value formation and a deepened spirituality – vis-à-vis the mass media values of materialism and consumerism.
A second social concern for forging a culture of peace is promoting Human Rights and Democracy. Human rights are moral claims to the means needed to protect and promote human dignity. These are concisely articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. For Pope John Paul II, this Declaration “remains one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time.” Some of the these major rights are enunciated in his encyclical, Centesimus Annus – such as the right to life; the right to live in a united family; the right to develop one’s intelligence and freedom in seeking the truth; the right to work; and the right to live in the truth of one’s faith. Respecting these rights is a matter of justice.
A third social concern is Poverty Eradication. Peace in society is illusory if the basic needs of individuals and families are not met. A nation’s economy must be able to utilize its natural and man-made resources in order to create wealth and income for all its citizens. The virtue of compassion and sharing should be inculcated in all citizens.
Complementing personal and family integrity along the social continuum is Intercultural Understanding and Solidarity. In Mindanao, Christian and Muslim religious leaders have engaged in a quarterly bishops-ulama dialogue over the past decade to highlight this need for mutual acceptance and appreciation of cultures. Every November, the Bishops-Ulama Conference has been promoting a Mindanao Week of Peace wherein local communities are encouraged to organize common activities for peace-building – such as multi-cultural programs, peace marches, etc.
Disarmament and Cessation of Hostilities are immediate steps to take toward creating a culture of peace. As part of the political continuum, the ending of armed hostilities represents a shift from recourse to force to recourse to reason in a democratic society. As exemplified by Gandhi in India, Mandela in South Africa and the People Power Revolution of 1986 in the Philippines, active non-violence can be a more potent force than recourse to arms in building a culture of peace.
The sixth social concern and part of the economic continuum is Environmental Protection. In a rapidly modernizing and globalizing society, the irreversible destruction of the environment is not a remote possibility. Indeed many countries have learned lately to conserve and manage carefully their watershed areas, fishing preserves, and clean air domains. In Mindanao, local communities have raised outcries against irresponsible logging and mining operations that are usually undertaken by multinational corporations.
Stewardship is an operative value that has been stressed to highlight the responsibility of everyone for the common good and to remind us that we are only caretakers of God’s creation. Conservation of the environment is an imperative for sustainable development for our present and future generations.
These then are six social concerns revolving around the core value of Human Dignity – which are essential in promoting a culture of peace. Although arising from Christian ethical principles, one could also point out that this framework resonates with the human and spiritual values of other faith traditions as well as of secular governments that endeavor to work out a more comprehensive paradigm for human development. There is no peace without development; but neither can there be development without peace.
150 local sectoral leaders to call for Binay to run for president in 2010
October 26, 2008
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
Some multi-sectoral leaders here in Northern Mindanao will be joining their counterparts in other parts of the country this Monday in the call to have Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay as the “alternative” presidential candidate for the opposition in the National Elections this coming 2010. Read more
ABS-CBN wins support of COPC on Bravo’s Ubusan ng Lahi Interview
October 26, 2008
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
The largest media organization here in Northern Mindanao yesterday slammed Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales for accusing ABS-CBN of violating the law when the television network broadcasted its “Ubusan ng Lahi” interview with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rogue commander Macapaar alias Bravo. Read more
Letter from BIR-16 Mustapha Gandarosa
October 26, 2008
Dear Liza,
This has reference with the recent publications against my person as regional director of BIR District Office 16. Read more
What Financial Crisis?
October 23, 2008
What financial crisis?
SHESPEAK: By Fiscal/Sai/Mami Eldred Cole Read more
Cagayan de Oro traders keep cool amid threats of legal charges for Sera Protesta
October 23, 2008
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
The Coalition of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Association in Northern Mindanao remained unfazed over threats that legal charges will be filed against them for economic sabotage in connection to the Oct. 22 “Sara Protesta.” Read more
37 completed City Hall projects worth P53 million can’t be substantiated: COA
October 23, 2008
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
The Commission on Audit (COA) auditors reported that they could not fully audit 37 completed projects worth P53 million of the City Government of Cagayan de Oro because all the required documents related to these projects were not submitted to them. Read more
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