25,000 join peace parade in Zamboanga City

Members of the Akbayan partylist in Zamboanga City participate Thursday, November 26, 2009 in the opening ceremony of the Mindanao Week of Peace. (Photo by Neil Dalena).

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Civil society groups and the local city government have jointly called the public to rally behind the promotion of culture of peace and multi-cultural understanding and respect amid the hostilities and atrocities that are plaguing the island of Mindanao.

The call came as stakeholders here launched this year’s Mindanao Week of Peace celebration with a grand parade on Thursday morning.

“We hope to renew our commitment to peace as we think of all the sufferings of the world and history of Mindanao,” Fr Angel Calvo, president of Peace Advocates Zamboanga, told the more than 25,000 people who joined the grand parade and the opening ceremony at the Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.

“We have been suffering from the atrocities in Mindanao but we would also like to be the inspiration of our children and youth in dreaming about peace and harmony in our life,” he said.

Datu Meltino Sibulan, legal officer of the Sultanate of Sulu and United Tausug People Council of Regent, said that learning the history of Mindanao is also a way to solve the decades-old conflict in the southern Philippines.

In a short statement given during the opening program, members of the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace said that “This occasion is a perfect venue to revisit and renew the commitment of creating better understanding and sharing task for peace building.”

“To pursue our common aspirations to seek peace and find the truth,” the evangelical group speaker said.

“The Subanon community since time immemorial has been a peace loving people. In this celebration, therefore, we renew our commitment once more to work not only for our own tribe but for the greatness of all,” the ethnic Subanon representative said.

The Muslim group relayed that “the great things can be done if we work closely with one another regardless of our faith and religious affiliation.”

People from different walks of life that included religious groups, the datus from Sulu, ethnic groups such as Badjaos, Subanens, government employees, students, and even tricycle drivers marched in the parade in an expression of solidarity.

Participants carried a placards and banners demanding justice for 57 massacre victims in Maguindanao.

College students painted their bodies and carried white doves as they danced at the city’s main thoroughfares inviting bystanders to join them in solidarity with the victims of the massacre.

This year’s Week of Peace celebration is anchored on the theme: “Think Mindanao, Feel Mindanao, and Bring Peace to Mindanao.”

The theme was made by the Bishop-Ulama Conference to “thankfully energize Mindanawons to express in many varied ways our need and aspirations for lasting peace. This variety of ways inspired by our respective faith and culture has repeatedly shown us that peace must begin with each and everyone of us.”

Among the activities included in the weeklong peace celebration is the Peace Weaver Awards on Sunday, November 29 to pay tribute to individuals and organizations who devoted efforts towards peace building in the city or region.

Raising the awareness on interfaith, religious leaders will gather in an event on Monday, November 30 entitled “A Common Word.” It will be a conference wherein leaders of different faiths will share their values and practices.

Moreover, indigenous tribe Subanon leaders will also hold BUKLOG, a ritual celebration in the West Coast village of Limpapa on December 1. The local Samabadjao community will have a convocation at Plaza Pershing on November 27.

Photographers in Mindanao have also staged a week-long exhibit called “Mioradas de Paz” starting November 25 at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

Other activities include a peace writing seminar, inter-school peace caravan and inter-institutional youth leaders congress.

A grand torch parade to be capped by a musical peace concert will climax the weeklong celebration at the Paseo del Mar open ground on the night of December 2. The event will be participated by prominent local bands and indigenous performers. (Cristine Taola and Albert Arcilla)

Peace Advocates Hold Program In Zamboanga Village

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Creating a harmonious relationship in the community level is an important means to spread the advocacy of peace, according to Fr Angel Calvo, president of Peace Advocates Zamboanga, as the organization brought the message and action of peace to the village of Santa Catalina in Zamboanga City on Friday.

”It is very important to start the advocacy on peace in the community level such as in the Barangay,” he said during the opening ceremony of the ‘Paz na Barangay,’ which is part of the week-long observance of peace that started on November 27 to December 3.

Hundreds of out-of-school youths, students, teachers, and Christian and Muslim families gathered at the Don Gregorio Evangelista Memorial School in a day-long activity to broaden their appreciation of peace in their community. The event was also initiated by the school in celebration of Filipino Values day.

In his message, Manuel Banua, Santa Catalina village chieftain, said: “We must talk, sit down and coordinate so that we can attain real peace and unity in our community.”

Fr. Calvo emphasized the importance of communal relationships particularly in the inter-religious level.

During the event, colorful cultural presentations were rendered by the school's pupils to signify the diversity of the village and region.

”The multi-purpose court of the school was filled with students wearing colorful clothes. It reflects our different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, but that peace is still attainable,” one young student said.

Simultaneous peace skills workshops on visual arts, culture of peace orientation, and peace on environment and literary were also held during the day.Each of the clusters has several facilitators who trained the participants on how to integrate the “peace in their field of interest,” organizers said.

The Paz na Barangay has been held annually by PAZ to bring peace-making to the grassroots. (Albert Arcilla)

Catholics Hold Rally Vs Muslim Homeland In Southern Philippines

Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat speaks during a rally attended by about 3,000 people in front of the Zamboanga City Hall on Monday, August 4, 2008. Lobregat spearheaded the rally to protest the inclusion of eight most Muslim villages to a proposed Islamic homeland in Mindanao. Manila signed a deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels on the Muslim ancestral domain that will make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Zamboanga was the former capital of the Moro province and part of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 4, 2008) – Some 3,000 mostly Christian residents here held a rally Monday to protest the inclusion of at least eight Muslim villages in a proposed Islamic homeland in the southern Philippines.

Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City also criticized the government for including the villages in the ancestral domain that the government supposedly would grant the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels under the peace pact.

He said the century-old Zamboanga City Hall and the Fort Pilar, an open-air Catholic shrine and the Cathedral are located in two of the eight villages, he said.

Many of those who joined the rally wore red shirt and were mostly local government employees and students who were ordered by their teachers to join the protest. Others were curious about the rally and the issue of the Muslim ancestral domain.

Local Catholic priests in their homily on Sunday also urged the residents to join the rally.

“Our teacher told us to attend this rally. We do not know what they are talking about here,” one high school student told the Midnanao Examiner.

His teacher said the principal ordered them to bring the students at the rally. “We were just told to bring the students here at the rally and to put on a red arm band in support of the protest rally,” she said.

Some of the protesters carried placards denouncing the inclusion of Zamboanga villages in the Muslim homeland. One placard reads: “Gloria tumigil ka na…Gloria magisip-isp ka.”

Another reads: “I am a good Moro. I am against the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Let us all unite to live in peace.”

Lobregat, also wearing a red shirt and Zamboanga City Archbishop Romulo Valles, clad in white robe and red skull cap, also spoke about the ancestral domain before the huge crowd. Some of their followers carried wooden crosses and different statues of the Virgin Mary.

President Gloria Arroyo’s peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said there is need to amend the Constitution to allow the referendum in areas under the ancestral domain that would make up the Bangsa¬moro Juridical Entity.

Peace negotiators are to formally sign the agreement on the ancestral domain on Tuesday in Malaysia, which is brokering the seven-year old talks. The peace agreement also supposedly would provide for a referendum on whether more than 700 other villages across Mindanao wanted to be part of the ancestral domain.

Lobregat said residents already twice rejected plebiscites in the past to include the city in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Esperon denied Lobregat’s claim on the coverage of the proposed plebiscite. He said only Sacol Island in Zamboanga City is included in the ancestral domain. “I assured the people of Zamboanga that only Sacol, which is a predominantly Muslim island, is included in the ancestral domain,” he said in a separate interview.

Sacol is one of 25 island communities largely populated by poor Muslims, mostly fishermen and seaweed farmers. Many Muslim enclaves in Zamboanga have little or no development projects at all and villagers rely mostly on foreign aid for their water and electricity sources, despite the city government's more than P2-billion savings in banks.

US government agencies such as the USAID, AMORE and GEM and the US military have been active in providing Muslim villages in the city with infrastructure projects, medical missions and solar-power technology that provides electricity to homes.

Several department stores, mostly owned by influential Chinese businessmen, also closed shops before noontime in support of Lobregat’s call to protest the inclusion of Zamboanga City villages to the Muslim homeland.

Lobregat said many Muslim village leaders are also opposed to the inclusion of their communities in the Bangsamoro homeland. Most of these leaders, however, are also the mayor’s allies and supporters.

But many Muslims in Zamboanga City said they wanted to be part of the Bangsamoro homeland and are supporting the MILF peace talks. Many of them claimed that they are being discriminated against by Christians. Others also claimed that many department stores in the city do not hire Muslims, but only Christians.

Muslim groups and peace advocates in Zamboanga City are supporting the peace talks and favor the ancestral domain. Ancestral domain was arguably the thorniest issue that blocked a political settlement between the government and the rebels.

Zamboanga was the former capital of the Moro province and part of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo.

Aside from Zamboanga City, the ancestral domain includes the whole of ARMM and also some areas in Zamboanga Peninsula, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces in Mindanao where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. It also covers Palawan province in western Philippines. ARMM is composed of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and Marawi City.

Lobregat said the Arroyo government is using the policy of “divide and conquer” and “divide and rule”.

“We are for peace. We are for honorable and long lasting peace. Christians and Muslim live in harmony and peace in Zamboanga City. And we respect each other culture and religion.”

“This issue of ancestral domain again cropped up. We are appealing to the government peace panel to listen to our calls. We are part of Mindanao. We are part of the Philippines. We are Filipinos and we should thread what binds us together and not our differences. We do not believe that a juridical entity should be created out of religion or base on segregation. Here we should live together and in harmony,” Lobregat said.

Residents of Iligan City, led by Mayor Lawrence Cruz, also held a protest rally, Lobregat said. Vice Gov. Emmanuel Pinol of North Cotabato said he will also oppose any attempt to include his province in the Muslim homeland and has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the signing of the ancestral domain accord in Kuala Lumpur.

Zamboanga City Rep. Erico Fabian also filed a similar petition on Monday at the Supreme Court.

The independent, but influential group called Peace Advocates Zamboanga (PAZ), headed by Claretian priest Angel Calvo said the signing of the ancestral domain is a big step in achieving peace in Mindanao. “It is one big step to achieving peace,” said the Spanish priest, who is also the president of the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace in Philippines.

PAZ is a Catholic organization whose objective is the promotion of peace by strengthening good relations among Muslims and Christians, and all other peoples.

The United Opposition also called on President Gloria Arroyo to postpone the signing of the peace pact until the Supreme Court determines the legality of the agreement.

The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, appealed to Christians and Muslims in Mindanao to promote trust, understanding and cooperation, not hatred and mistrust. Rebel leaders said they will not sign any peace deal with the Arroyo government unless the demand of Muslims for self-determination is granted.

Last year, peace talks were stalled after government negotiators reneged on the ancestral-domain deal.

President Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001 after deposing President Joseph Estrada. But despite the peace talks, sporadic fighting between rebels and soldiers still continue in Mindanao with both sides accusing each other of violating a fragile truce accord. (Mindanao Examiner)

Prayer, Anti-Corruption Rally All Set In Zamboanga

ZAMBOANGA CITY - As public outrage against high-level corruption in government continues to snowball, different religious groups will hold a protest and prayer rally on Friday in Zamboanga City.

The interfaith rally, dubbed as "Heal Our Land", aims to gather hundreds of people in a symbolic solidarity act to bring back the moral values among political and government leaders and ultimately put a stop to corruption in the system of government, the Inter-religious Solidarity Movement for Peace (IRMSP), one of the organizers, said in a statement relased by the Peace Advocate Zamboanga)

At least five religions -- evangelicals, Muslim, Subanon, Buddhist, Catholic -- will offer respective prayers during the rally. The two-hour event will be highlighted with the singing of Jamie Rivera's "Heal our Land" and Freddie Aguilar's "Ang Bayan Ko."

Torches will also be lighted to symbolize the Filipino's "quest for truth" in the wake of the flawed and overpriced $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp. which President Gloria Arroyo scrapped five months later after the scandal brokeout.(Darwin Wally Wee/PAZ)

A Call For Truth and Clean, Corruption-Free Society

A STATEMENT OF THE INTER-RELIGIOUS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT FOR PEACE (Zamboanga City,) A CALL FOR TRUTH AND A CLEAN, CORRUPTION-FREE SOCIETY.

Our country has constantly scored high on the scales of corruption in Asia and the world. As a people, we have seemingly become habituated to the culture of sleaze and dishonesty in the way that many of our leaders carry out their supposed duties to the people.

In these days we have again become flooded with these exact same stories of corrupt transactions happening in high places. Information on the blatant manipulation and obstruction of the truth on the NBN-ZTE Project has implicated very important government officials, including the President of this Republic and her family.

Because the project shall be prosecuted on a loan, the Filipino people shall assume the task of servicing the national debt, including the super-heavy kickbacks that would have gone on to line the pockets of those who have brokered the deal.

This is now leading us to a crisis point that is prompting us to even question the integrity of the highest official of the land. It is utterly immoral to impose this obligation upon our people without consideration for their poverty and struggle to live in dignity and peace.

As one witness after another unravels the disgusting elements of immorality, treason and flagrant racketeering, there is a call to bring the truth to light. There is a call for morale support to these witnesses to pluck up their courage amid threats of litigation, physical harm, and even death.

We add our collective voice to the many who call for an end to corruption, falsehood and dishonesty. We are not a society of cheats. With a sense of urgency, we exhort everyone to consider the consequences of the culture of corruption that plagues our society from top to bottom. These practices must end in UNITED, HONEST, AND SERIOUS WORK FOR TRUTH AND ADHERENCE TO THE RULE OF LAW.

Confident in our legal system, let us get to the bottom of these anomalies and prosecute those who are found liable – regardless of their high or powerful positions, including the President of the country– and replace corrupt leaders with those who are more transformational and moral. Let us rebuild our country on the building blocks of participative working democracy, reflective of the will of our people. A clean, peaceful and corruption-free society, where people are empowered as they live in security and dignity, is our best legacy to our children.