Peace-Inspired Artworks Exhibit Opens In Zamboanga City

Rameer Tawasil's "The Flight". (Photo by Darwin Wee)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – In an effort to deliver the message of peace artistically, 19 renown and local visual artists all over southern Philippines have staged an art exhibit at the National Museum in line with the observance of the Mindanao Week of Peace.

More than 40 peace-related art pieces are currently being displayed at the right-wing of the centuries-old Spanish Fort-turned-museum.

The art exhibit, dubbed as "Artes y Paz" (art and peace), was formally opened to the public on Monday. It was attended by different religious groups locally and internationally, peace advocates, and local officials.

"Through our art works, we hope it can contribute in the movement to free Mindanao from the different levels of conflict," said Tausug-Zamboangueno artist Rameer A. Tawasil, who led the gathering of visual artists here.

Rev. Fr. Angel C. Calvo, CMF, president of Peace Advocates Zamboanga (PAZ), who is initiating the weeklong peace celebration in the city, said that the art exhibit signified that Mindanao stakeholders should work collectively to create a peaceful environment in the south amid continuing hostilities in Central Mindanao and in the neighboring island provinces.

The participating artists are Tawasil, Al-qasmi Lakibul, Chito Alvarez, Kit Lorenzo, city councilor Gerky Valesco, Jupiter Pollisco, Saad T'laa, Jojo Martinez, Juni Grapa, Kurt lluch, Leah Padilla, Raymund Malicay, Errol Balcos, Nick Aca, Ivan Macarambon, Joel Geolamen, Jake Vamenta, Nonoy Estarte, Michelle Lau-ta Naw, and Michael Bacol Lagos.

Among the art pieces are the abstract series of Cagayan de Oro-based Aca's "Inner Peace" and mixed media art on "Lead Me lord," which comes from the medium of metallic lead.

Tawasil also unveiled three charcoal and pencil drawings on peace meditation entitled "The Flight."

Martinez, who is a practicing architect in Dipolog City, displayed his unique colorful 14 x 14 inches hologram collage art piece called "Malinawon" which means “peaceful” in the Bisayan dialect.

"When you keenly view the semi-three dimension of my art, there is a message of calmness. The layered colors represent the diversity of the people here in Mindanao, which connotes the beauty of harmonious relationships," the 60 year-old Martinez, who is also a sculptor, said.

Young Lakibul, who is known for his colorful and intricate Arabic-inspired calligraphy, also put on display several peace-related artworks.Local visual artists Pollisco, Lorenzo, Alvarez and the others put on view their own masterpieces, which include a depiction of the daily life of the Badjaos, scenic landscapes, and flowers.

The exhibit, which will run for two months, can be viewed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Darwin Wally T. Wee)

Give Voice To The Voiceless; Denounce Poverty, Spanish Priest Urges Zamboanga Media

A boy digs for scraps in the village of Tetuan in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines. Influential Spanish priest Angel Calvo gestures as he speaks about poverty during a training and seminar on poverty and human rights reporting by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in Zamboanga City on Sunday, October 12, 2008. The training was attended by journalists in Zamboanga City. (Photos of Father Angel Calvo and participants to the NUJP training are courtesy of FotoReportage / http://fotoreportage.wordpress.com/)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – “Journalists should denounce poverty and give voice to the voiceless,” this was the message of Spanish Father Angel Calvo in his lecture during a training on human rights and poverty reporting in Zamboanga City in Mindanao.

The training, held at the Solidarity Center in Roseller Lim Blvd., was sponsored by the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, Center for Community Journalism and Development and the Davao City-based media cooperative MindaNews.

At least 18 local journalists, who are working for newspapers, radio and television outfits, participated in the training.

Father Calvo, who heads the independent Zamboanga-Basilan Integrated Development Alliance (ZABIDA), spoke on the poverty condition in Zamboanga City.

“Poverty is a very complicated issue and journalists should take extra care when reporting it,” he told participants.

He also presented photographic slides and a documentary-MTV about poverty in Zamboanga City.

The influential priest, who also heads the Peace Advocates Zamboanga, cited the massive influx of people from neighboring provinces as one factor that contributed heavily to the poverty situation here.

The Spanish-funded ZABIDA program, which started in 2007, aims to fight poverty and at the same time strengthens peace and security in the communities.

The Manos Unidas together with the Agency for International Cooperation, the development assistance arm of the Spanish government, are funding the ZABIDA program.

The Peace and Equity Foundation also has listed 33 out of 98 villages in Zamboanga City as priority areas, which mean that many of its residents cannot even meet their basic needs and have no access to basic social services.

In a study, it said that more than 50% of the entire city populations are living below the poverty threshold.

“Poverty is not only economic issue but more of moral issue today,” Father Calvo said.

The Peace and Equity Foundation was formed as an independent non-profit foundation on October 2001 by the Caucus of Development NGOs to support the work of civil society in eradicating poverty and marginalization.

The Foundation administers an endowment fund from the net proceeds of the Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificate (PEACe) Bonds developed and sold on the capital market by CODE-NGO. As a funding institution, it will not go into direct implementation of projects nor undertake direct training and capacity building programs.

Darwin Wally Wee, chairman of the local NUJP chapter, the seminar is part of a series of training being carried out by the local NUJP chapter since it was organized in August.

He said the seminar is aimed at educating journalists on poverty and human rights reporting and the responsibilities of the media as the vanguard of democracy.

“Such training would further enhance the knowledge and widen the understanding of journalists on reporting these sensitive issues of human rights and poverty,” he said.

“Human rights and poverty are sensitive issues and therefore critical analysis of the situation is necessary,” said Maricel Pascual, a participant in the seminar. “The training and seminar is very helpful because it presented a very clear picture of poverty as well as other factors involved in it,” said Pascual, a local radio reporter.

NUJP Secretary General Rowena Paraan was the main speaker during the training and she lectured on the basics of human rights and the role of media in covering and writing stories on poverty, among others. (Nung Aljani)

Military Halts Rescue Operations For Kidnapped Aid Workers In South RP

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 17, 2009) – The Philippine military halted operations to rescue two aid workers being held by the Abu Sayyaf on the island of Basilan to pave way for a peace negotiation for their early release.

Militants are holding Esperancita Hupida and Millet Mendoza after they were kidnapped Monday on a village in Tipo-Tipo town. Five other aid workers from the Christian Children’s Fund had either escaped or freed by the Abu Sayyaf, authorities said.

Hupida is the program director of the Nagdilaab Foundation, while Mendoza was a former staff worker at the Office of Presidential Adviser to the Peace Process (OPAPP).

Basilan Deputy Governor Alrasheed Sakalahul, head of the local crisis management committee, and Father Angel Calvo, of the Peace Advocates Zamboanga, are helping to secure the safe release of the hostages. But there have been no reports about the fate of two aid workers.

“We have temporarily stopped the (rescue) operations to give way to peaceful negotiations for the release of the victims,” said Marine commander, Colonel Domingo Valdez.

Different humanitarian and solidarity groups have condemned the kidnappings.

“Mesdames Hupida and Mendoza are compassionate and morally courageous persons who have braved, as we know they continue to brave, the dangers of working in conflicted, violence-prone areas, particularly Basilan.”

“They deserve to be treated with the same compassion and moral decency by those who come into contact with them, but especially those who they serve whether directly and indirectly,” the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace said in statement on Wednesday.

The Christian Children's Fund and the Nagdilaab Foundation are both active in various peace and humanitarian projects in Basilan.

The military tagged the Abu Sayyaf group under Puruji Indama and Nur Hassan Jamiri as behind Monday kidnappings.

Calvo said the hostages are community development workers who have been serving the Muslim areas in Basilan for many years now. He said the victims were on their way back to Isabela City from a meeting with town officials when the gunmen flagged down their vehicles.

The Nagdilaab Foundation spun off the Isabela Foundation, which was organized many years ago by the Roman Catholic prelature of Basilan to provide community and humanitarian help to poor residents in the province.

The CCF, an international child-sponsorship group based in Virginia in the United States, has worked in the Philippines since 1954 and has been assisting more than 453,000 children and their families and contributed more than $7.8 million for community programs in the country.

The Abu Sayyaf also kidnapped nine people in recent months in Basilan and sent letters to Christians living on the island threatening them with harm if they do not embrace Islam. The letters were signed by Indama and Jamiri. (Mindanao Examiner)