Tire Path Proves Productive For Remote Southern RP Village

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) - A village in the southern Filipino province of Lanao del Sur, whose Maranaw name literally means “risky” is risky no more.

Its newly-built indigenous “tire path,” constructed by Maranaw residents in the village called Pagalamatan, a hinterland community in Tubaran town, ushered reconciliation of feuding clans and brought considerable improvements to the local economy.

“Pagalamatan” means “risky,” or ”dangerous,” or “hazardous,” in the local Maranaw dialect.

The construction of the tire path, which is made of two separate strips of concrete pavements fit only for wheels of jeeps and motorcycles, was bankrolled by the World Bank through the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Social Fund Project (ASFP).

Conaifah Amerol, Tubaran’s facilitator for ASFP projects, said the tire path traverses communities whose farm-to-market roads were impassable during rainy days. The village of Pagalamatan has is inhabited by more than a thousand mostly marginalized Maranaws surviving only on farming as their main source of income.

“In the past, Maranaw farm products rot in their houses during the rainy days, but that was before. Now, Maranaw farmers can transport their harvest to markets in nearby towns because of the all-weather tire paths,” Amerol said.

It was for the dramatic improvements in the productivity of farmers that many feuding clans in the village -- some of them locked in decades old “rido,” or family feud -- have agreed to reconcile and venture peacefully into communal agricultural projects instead.

“More than a hundred people have been killed in previous hostilities among feuding clans in Pagalamatan alone,” Amerol said as he recalled the bitter war that had affected many people in the village.

Farmer Mustapha Arimau, 45, said his income from corn farming increased by three folds during the past two cropping seasons since the construction of the tire path. “Now, our village is finally linked by the tire path to the market in Tubaran’s town proper,” he said.

Arimau said he and hundreds of farmers did not hesitate to help build the tire path when its implementation concept was introduced by the ASFP, which is jointly managed by lawyer Mustapha Sambolawan and Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

He said they are thankful and grateful for the efforts of Ampatuan, under whose administration many ASFP projects for poor communities have been implemented in the ARMM.

Amerol said the newly-built tire path also made the village of Pagalamatan accessible to their municipal health workers. “Municipal health workers now reach the village even during the rainy days to serve the people,” Amerol said. (Jerick Wee)

Photo: Fr Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI

Members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate carry Wednesday, January 23, 2008 the casket containing the remains of their slain companion, Fr Jesus Reynaldo Roda, to their congregation's private burial ground in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Shariff Kabunsuan province in southern Philippines. Roda, killed on January 15 in a botched kidnapping in Tawi-Tawi province is laid to rest in an emotional ceremony attended by some 20,000 Muslim and Christian mourners. (Mindanao Examiner Photo/Jerick Wee)

Abu Sayyaf Lording Again In Southern Philippines

Two Muslim women look at a military truck carrying troops in Sulu province in southern Philippines. Military intelligence reports say Abu Sayyaf militants have put up roadblocks and checkpoints in Patikul town and collecting forced taxation on Muslim villagers on Wednesday. Two policemen rest in Patikul town during a peace caravan Saturday, January 19, 2008. (Mindanao Examiner Photos/Arthur Abasolo and Jun Delgado)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) – Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants have put up roadblocks in the southern Filipino province of Sulu and were extorting illegal taxation from Muslim villagers.

The militant, mostly members of an Abu Sayyaf faction from Basilan province, were spotted in the town of Patikul and had attempted to kidnap local construction workers, according to military intelligence reports.

It was unclear how the attempted kidnapping occur, but another report said one Muslim engineer Jumlail Esmael was almost abducted after he was stopped at a checkpoint, but had negotiated his way to freedom. It was not immediately known whether the man paid money or not.

It said the gunmen, numbering more than 100 had split into several groups near the village of Taung and were collecting so-called "revolutionary taxes." One report said the Abu Sayyaf is also holding in the town of Indanan a Muslim teacher it kidnapped in Tawi-Tawi province on January 15.

It was unknown whether the hostage was Omar Taup, a Notre Dame teacher kidnapped in the village of Likud Tabawan in Tawi-Tawi's South Ubian town. A Catholic priest, Jesus Reynaldo Roda, was killed by the Abu Sayyaf during the kidnapping.

Last week, suspected Abu Sayyaf also kidnapped a junk shop worker and was only freed after his employer paid about P200,000 ransom.

The latest military intelligence reports came just days after the military ordered the pull out of all army troops and redeployed them in the province of Lanao del Norte as part of a new strategy in combating terrorism.

The Philippine Marines have taken over the functions of the army in anti-insurgency operation in Sulu, but dozens of their soldiers were killed by the Abu Sayyaf and Moro National Liberation Front rebels in fierce clashes since last year.

Villagers were worried that the redeployment of army troops would trigger the return of Abu Sayyaf to Sulu province, where security forces are pursuing several Jemaah Islamiya bombers, including Indonesian militant Dulmatin and Umar Patek, blamed for several bombings in the province.

Jakarta tagged both men as behind the deadly 2001 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. (With a report from Nickee Butlangan)

Slain Catholic Missioner Buried In Southern Philippines

Slain Catholic priest Jesus Reynaldo Roda is buried Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008 in Shariff Kabunsuan province in southern Philippines. Roda is killed by the Abu Sayyaf in Tawi-Tawi's South Ubian town during a failed kidnapping. (Mindanao Examiner Photo/Mark Navales)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) – A Filipino Catholic priest killed by Abu Sayyaf militants during a kidnapping attempt in the southern Philippines was buried on Wednesday in his hometown in the Muslim province of Shariff Kabunsuan.

Oblate priest Jesus Reynaldo Roda was peppered with bullets by militants after he resisted the kidnapping July 15 in the remote village of Likud Tabawan in South Ubian town in Tawi-Tawi province.

Roda was killed outside his convent at the compound of the Notre Dame High School, where he also served as its director. The Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a teacher, Omar Taup and seized another Muslim villager as they escaped from pursuing policemen.

Hundreds of villagers and sympathizers, many were weeping, gathered at the Oblates cemetery in Datu Odin Sinsuat town where the priest was laid to rest.

Father Rito Daquipil, head of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate mission in Tawi-Tawi province, said the Abu Sayyaf raided the convent. He said the militants then tied Roda’s hands and then dragged outside the convent where he was shot in the head after resisting the kidnapping.

Roda was praying when the militants, about 10 of them armed with rifles and handguns, seized the priest and dragged him outside the chapel, Daquipil said.

“We are all sad. Father Roda was a good man and loved by everybody. He was there doing missionary works with our Muslim brothers and sisters for the past ten years,” Daquipil said.

Security forces have mounted a massive search for the gunmen, but failed to locate them and their hostages.

It was not the first time that the Abu Sayyaf killed a Catholic priest. In 2002, militants also kidnapped, tortured and killed a Claretian priest Roel Gallardo in Basilan province, several nautical miles south of Zamboanga City.

In 1997, the Abu Sayyaf also assassinated a Catholic bishop Benjamin de Jesus in Jolo town in Sulu province. He was shot several times outside his church in a broad daylight attack.

Three years later, the Abu Sayyaf also ambushed a Catholic missionary, Benjamin Inocencio, in Jolo town while buying gifts for poor Muslims. The Abu Sayyaf also randomly attacked and bombed Catholic churches in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and in Mindanao the past decade.

The Abu Sayyaf, which means "Bearer of the Sword," was originally fighting for a separate Islamic state similar to Afghanistan, but resorted to banditry and kidnappings for ransom after its Libyan firebrand founder, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, was killed in 1998 in a firefight with policemen in Basilan province. (With reports from Mark Navales and Nickee Butlangan)

Mindanao Rallies Continue; US Military Training Slammed

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Former Kidnapped Victim, Italian Priest Bossi Returns To Southern RP To Continue Mission

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) – An Italian missioner kidnapped and freed by Muslim gunmen last year in the southern Philippines is returning to his parish on a remote village in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Father Giancarlo Bossi, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, is expected to arrive in Manila this week from Italy. “I feel good and I am happy to go back to my mission,” Bossi told the Catholic media AsiaNews in Rome.

Bossi was kidnapped June 10 last year in the town of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay province and freed more than a month later after private negotiators allegedly paid a still undetermined amount of ransom.

The clergy returned to Italy on August 10 shortly after his release from captivity and met with the Pope at the Youth Agora in Loreto town.

In Manila, Bossi will meet with fellow priests before flying to Zamboanga. The clergy had long wanted to return to Payao town to continue his missionary works.

“I want to go back as soon as possible to my parish in Payao, to my children.

The poor need people who can give them unlimited and unconditional love, and in Payao people are poor,” he said. “Whilst I was physically a prisoner, too many people are imprisoned by poverty. And their captivity can last a lifetime.”

Bossi is well respected and loved by both Muslim and Christian villagers in Payao where a road was named after the missioner. The clergy is widely known to help the poor and had taken care many children in the town.

“In Italy, I saw children look at food and say that’s yucky. In the Philippines I see kids of the same age rummage through garbage and thank God when they found something. There is something really wrong in this. We must go back to values that afford life more humane conditions,” he said.

It will be the second time the priest would return to Payao since his release from 39 days of captivity from suspected renegade members of the rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Bossi returned to the town in July 25 last year in a farewell to hundreds of villagers who gathered to welcome him.

Bossi’s reunion with the locals was emotional. Many were in tears when they saw the priest stepped out of his vehicle. He was frail, but smiled and waved to the crowds that surrounded his convoy.

They embraced Bossi and led him to his parish where more people were gathered and clapped their hands when they saw the 57-year old priest. It was the first time the priest returned to Payao town since he was freed by kidnappers July 19, 2007.

Philippine authorities said Bossi was kidnapped while celebrating mass in the village of Bulawan by brothers Akiddin and Wanning Abdusallam. Government officials said there was no ransom paid for Bossi’s freedom, but the kidnappers had demanded P50 million for his safe release.

Army Maj. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the 1st Infantry Division, said they will have to talk to Bossi when he returns to Payao to convince him to return to defer his missionary works.

“I will suggest to Father Bossi to defer his plan or missionary works until we are sure that he will be safe in Payao when he returns. The kidnappers are still at large, although police filed criminal charges against them, and we are concerned about his safety,” Pajarito told the regional Mindanao Examiner newspaper on Wednesday.

Bossi has previously told the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines that he had forgiven his captors and does not harbor ill will for them. “In spite of everything they are still my brothers,” he said.

“At night I pray for them. And if they kidnap me again, I would still pray for them, as there’s no bitterness in my heart whatsoever,” Bossi said. “When we pray the ‘Lord’s Prayer,’ we are all his sons and we are all brothers and sisters.”

“Being a parish priest is comparable with a head of a family who ought to be with his children,” he said.Bossi was the third Italian priest kidnapped in southern Philippines the past 9 years.

Rogue MILF rebels kidnapped Fr Luciano Benedetti, 62, in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998 and held for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed in exchange for a huge government ransom.

In 2001, renegade MILF rebels and members of the bandit group called Pentagon Gang also snatched Fr Giuseppe Pierantoni as the 51-year-old from Bologna said mass in the parish church of Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur.

The priest was freed after six months in captivity in exchange for an unspecified ransom, but he claimed to have escaped from his kidnappers. (Mindanao Examiner)

Photo: For Christ's Sake

A man selling a life-size wooden statue of Christ nailed to the cross and an icon of the infant Jesus pushes a cart Wednesday, January 23, 2008 in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines. Zamboanga was a former Spanish colony. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

Thousands Gather For Peace Rally In South RP

Demonstrators carry placards and streamers in Marawi City in southern Philippines. Muslims are opposing the presence of US soldiers in the region where a series of joint military trainings between the Philippines and the United States would begin this year. (Photos by Hannan Masdoc/CBCS)

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2008) - It was six thirty in the morning of Tuesday when vehicles begun to lurk the Tomawis arcade at the heart of Marawi City while men, women and children from the various mnicipalities of Lanao del Sur province groom their vehicles getting ready for the 34-km interfaith peace caravan.

Traversing the roads from Marawi City to Iligan City were vehicles swathe with red flags with the inscription “Allahu Akbar!”, which means “Allah is Great” and black banners saying “No to Balikatan in the Bangsamoro homeland!” alongside streamers “vehemently condemning the perpetrator of Fr. Roda’s mutilation”.

Teams of the US elite Special Forces will arrive and in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte starting Feb. 18 as part of the RP-US ‘Balanced Piston’ Balikatan exercisers, Philippine military officials told the Mindanao examiner newspaper.

The director of the Notre Dame of Tabawan and the head o Mission in Tawi-Tawi, Fr. Reynaldo A. Roda, OMI was brutally killed by unidentified armed men inside the chapel after refusing to go with the kidnappers on January 14.

The peace caravan came together with oozing spirits of frustrations from the different non-Moro civil society organizations and students standing with placards at Iligan City Plaza who assembled earlier.

Close to 10,000 people were gathered to shore up support to the continuous call for the resumption of GRP-MILF Peace talks and the sincere implementation of all the peace processes in Mindanao.

“This interfaith peace caravan-rally intends to prevent possible conflict and to show to the parties that the Bangsamoro is in solidarity with the Christians and the Lumads” Lacs Daligdig, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) Ranaw chairman said in his opening message.

The Interfaith Peace Caravan-Rally is an off shoot of the collective efforts of the Civil Society Organizations (CSO) shown on January 9 during the second leg of the series of the peace rallies organized by the CBCS where some 20,000 from all walks of life gathered in a Peace rally in Marawi City.

“If this acts are not enough to catch the attention of the Government, the Interfaith CSOs will organize the walk for peace from Marawi City to Malacañang Palace to show to the Government that we are indeed very serious in our fervor to attain just and lasting peace in Mindanao”, Daligdig said.

The series of peace rallies spearheaded by the CBCS that kicked off in Cotabato City on January 7 followed by Marawi City on January 9, and General Santos City in January 10 gathered more than 100,000 people, Moro and Non-Moro that draw attention and various interpretations of the Media and the General Public.

“If you want war, declare at your own risk! Do not involve the people in Mindanao!,” participants shouted during the rally. This refers to the statement of Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno opposing the MILF-GRP peace process and advising the government to prepare for war should the peace talks fail.

Caricatures of Puno holding an M16 automatic rifle and US President George W. Bush were publicized by the demonstrators. Atty. Ibrahim Canama of the Federated Royal Sultanate of the Philippines stated on an appeal of the sultanates for the MILF to return to the negotiating table and for the Government to be sincere in dealing with the Peace processes, from the course of the negotiation to the implementation of the agreements to be signed.

“Our people cannot afford to live in fear,” he concluded. “We are one with the Bangsamoro in the call for lasting peace”, contented Fr. Chito Sugano of the Marawi Catholic church, “After all only those who declared war wins, we are all victims.”

“The Bangsamoro homeland, our bread and butter are happily utilized as battlegrounds, leaving its inhabitants with dime of hope”, Fr. Chito contented further. “How many more lives do we need to sacrifice?” Dared Abulkhair Alibasa, an academe youth representative.

“The consensus points were gained at the expense of the lives of the countless Bangsamoro who died fighting for it,” he said. The reneging of the Government to the agreed consensus points was vied by the academe as an “unprofessional” and is indicative of a sheer betrayal of trust.

”President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, an Iliganon, give us the justice we long for!” “We have suffered enough!” Said Bai Lilang Macarampat, a women representative of Lanao Del Sur.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s maternal parents are from Iligan City in Lanao del Norte. “We strongly condemn war, displacements and the long hardship of the Bangsamoro!” said Maria Jittel Saquilabon, the executive director of the Tri-People’s Forum.

The forum comprises huge number of tri-people organizations in Mindanao that works for human rights and peace-building. “The Bangsamoro have suffered for 469 years!” so give us back the justice that was taken from us!” said Mohammad Tamano of the Iligan League of Students in his speech.

The astonishing span of years was derived from the invasion of Spain in 1521 that lasted for 377 years and the Americans colonization period of 40 years plus the Bangsamoro homeland under the colonial Philippines for 52 years entirely because of one thing-to preserve their Islamic rights and culture.

“Give the Bangsamoro their right to self-determination!” said Cha Lavandero of Duyog Kabataan as a statement of solidarity with the Bangsamoro. “We do not want to lose our parents because of war” she emotionally stated. “What does Puno know regarding Mindanao?”

“We, the Mindanawons are to determine our own future”, she ended. “The Balikatan exercises increases rather than prevent the escalation of conflict” marked Adonna Ontillas of the Lanao Disaster Management Organization. The emergency response team appeals to the GRP not to allow the Balikatan troops to deploy in the provinces of Lanao and other adjacent areas. (Hannan Masdoc/CBCS)

Red Cross Boosts Capacity In Sulu Province

An unidentified Muslim member of the international non-government organization, Asia America Initiative, has her face painted during the group's Fun Day in Sulu province in southern Philippines, where the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Philippine National Red Cross inaugurated new premises on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. (Mindanao Examiner Photo/Nickee Butlangan)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2008) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) inaugurated new premises for the local PNRC chapter in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province in the southern Philippines.

"The chapter’s improved facilities are intended to enhance the response of the PNRC and ICRC to the growing needs of Sulu communities," Felipe Donoso, the ICRC's head of delegation in the Philippines said in a statement. "These communities are suffering the effects of repeated armed clashes between the armed forces of the Philippines and insurgent groups."

In its capacity as a neutral and independent organization, and in cooperation with the PNRC's Jolo chapter, the ICRC provided medical care, food, shelter, essential household items and water and sanitation facilities to more than 48,000 displaced civilians in the province the past years.

Local government and military officials said the refugees have long returned to their homes.

The ICRC and PNRC were able to provide this humanitarian aid on the basis of security guarantees given by the parties to the conflict. In response to mounting humanitarian needs in Sulu, the ICRC has been gradually stepping up its support to the PNRC since 2005.

The ICRC consistently reminds the parties to the armed conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law. In particular, it calls on them to respect and protect the civilian population and to allow the distribution of humanitarian relief in accordance with the population's needs and without discriminating on the basis of politics, race, religion or sex.

Both the ICRC and PNRC remain committed to providing humanitarian assistance and protection for the victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence.(With reports from Nickee Butlangan and ICRC)

Batangas Farmers To Rally In Manila

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2008) – Dozens of farmers are threatening to stage a rally in front of the Philippine agrarian reform headquarters in Manila to demand that government place more than 100 hectares of lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Vic Ayap, president of Laiya Ibabaw Samahang Magsasaka (LISAMAG), asked Agrarian Reform chief Nasser Pangandaman to act on the plight of the farmers over the 123-hectae lands owned by Hennessy Development Corporation (HDC).

Pangandaman last year ordered the provincial agrarian reform office “to immediately proceed with the acquisition and distribution of subject property to qualified farmer-beneficiaries.” But until now the Department of Agrarian reform failed to act on the matter.

Ayap said the property owner allegedly failed to comply with the conversion order issued on June 17, 1998 by then DAR Secretary Ernesto Garilao. He said some 50 farmers from the village of Laiya-Ibabaw in San Juan town will set up a camp in front of the DAR headquarters in Quezon City.

He said HDC had five years from issuance of the order to undertake development in the property for eco-tourism, including the construction of a five-star hotel, but it was not able to construct a single road or structure.

“The conversion period had lapsed in 2003. Some former tenants and a number of new tillers had already planted crops to the property. We are asking DAR to immediately issue a notice of coverage for the property so that it can be distributed to the current tillers,” Ayap said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

He said all petitions by HDC for extension of the conversion period had already been dismissed by DAR.

On September 5, 2005, HDC had filed a request for extension of time to develop the property, but DAR denied the request in an order issued on December 21, 2006.

In denying HDC’s request, DAR said that: “no substantial development was made on the property, thus violating the conversion order; the subject property remains agricultural; and iii) the request for extension was filed beyond the period allowed by law, or two years after the conversion period had lapsed.

HDC filed a motion for reconsideration in January 2007, but Pangandaman dismissed the motion on August 21, saying that aside from the lapsed period, HDC also failed to meet some requirements, including the posting of performance bond, submission of the joint venture agreement between landowner and developer, proofs of financial capability of the developer, profile of the developer, and financial statements, among others.

Ayap said that they are willing to “walk on our knees if necessary to compel DAR to issue the notice of coverage for the disputed property.” (Lani Factor)

Manila To Send Jailed Rebel Chief To Exile In Libya

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Nur Misuari Losing Control On Own Leaders

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2008) - The ongoing tripartite review of the Philippine government’s Sept 2, 1996 peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is feared to worsen factionalism in the group, the once solid rebel force now crisscrossed by gaping factional divides.

Eleven ranking leaders of the front, some of them members of the defunct “Council of 15,” which took over the MNLF’s leadership from Nur Misuari in April 2000, have sent a letter to the Organization of Islamic Conference questioning the propriety of Misuari’s designation of non-MNLF members to the five “joint working groups,” or JWGs, that are involved in the on-going review of the peace agreement.

The five JWGs, comprised of government representatives, officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and those chosen by Misuari to represent the MNLF, are now studying the possible enhancement of the 11-year-old truce, based on five areas: education; Sharia; political representation of Moros; regional security force; and natural resources.

Last week’s letter of the complaining MNLF leaders on the composition of the front’s JWGs was addressed to the OIC’s Southern Philippines Peace Committee, which is composed of representatives from Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia, Turkey, Senegal, Malaysia, and Brunei.
The OIC, which helped broker the GRP-MNLF peace agreement, is a pan-Islamic block of more than 50 Muslim countries, including the oil-rich Arab nations.

The 11 signatories to the letter assailing Misuari’s choice of representatives to the JWG -- Hatimil Hassan, Abou Amri Taddik, Habib Mujahab Hashim, Alvarez Isnaji, Ustadhz Abdulmuhmin Mujahid, Uttoh Salem Cutan, Estino Jairi Ayyobie, Abdulkarim Langkuno, Bai Sandra Sema, Romeo Sema, and Aishah Fatima Prudencio -- also questioned the propriety of Misuari’s designation of lawyer Randolph Parcasio as chairman of the MNLF’s panel to the tripartite review of the peace agreement.

Parcasio, according to the complaining MNLF leaders, is not an organic member of the front. Parcasio, who is a human rights lawyer, is a known protégé of Misuari and was his executive secretary when he was governor of the ARMM from 1996 to 2001.

Parcasio represented Misuari in the November 10-12 first tripartite meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The tripartite assessment by the Philippine government, the MNLF and the OIC of the peace agreement was part of the effort to peacefully resolve misunderstandings on the implementation of the accord and address some of its perceived to be “flawed” provisions.

Parcasio, in a statement circulated to selected media outfits, said Misuari, as founding chairman of the MNLF, has the sole prerogative to select his choice of representatives to the JWG and the panel representing the front in the tripartite activity.

"The members (of the JWGs) that the MNLF chairman chose are experts on their field because this is really based on expertise," Parcasio told reporters.

Loyal followers of Misuari, among them foreign-trained clerics, said it is Misuari who is recognized by the OIC as “legitimate leader” of the MNLF.

Parcasio has been Misuari’s legal adviser for almost 20 years now, the sources pointed out.

“Attorney Parcasio stood by Chairman Misuari when some of our companions tried to unseat him as founding chairman of the MNLF. Attorney Parcasio has also been helping Chairman Misuari in his defense against the rebellion charges he is presently facing,” said a follower of Misuari, who is presently occupying a key position in the ARMM government. (Jerick Wee)

1.4 Million Jobless Filipinos Excluded In Govt Data

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 22, 2008) – An independent think-tank IBON Foundation disputed Manila’s data on employment, estimating that government statistical manipulation removed over a million Filipinos from the official unemployment count.

Government data showed that in 2007, there was an annual average of 2.7 million unemployed Filipinos, a steep drop from figures recorded in recent years.

IBON research head Sonny Africa cited the recent IBON study that estimates at least 4.06 million jobless Filipinos and an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent. This was 1.4 more than the official count of 2.7 million, which placed the average unemployment rate for 2007 at just 7.3 percent.

Average unemployment rate of 11.3% over the 2001-2007 period shows the economy is still suffering record joblessness despite government's attempts to obscure the figures. Government reports lower joblessness only because it revised the definition of unemployment to exclude discouraged job hunters from the labor force count, not because the economy created more jobs, Africa said.

The effect of this new methodology in 2007 was to dramatically reduce the labor force participation rate (the percentage of population 15 years and above who are in the labor force) to 64% from the 66.5% under the National Statistics Office (NSO) traditional unemployment definition.

IBON had requested the NSO for employment figures based on the old methodology, but said that it no longer computed such labor force data, unlike in past years when it presented data using both methods.

“This makes comparison of current employment data with previous years impossible as it paints a false picture of an improving jobs situation,” Africa said in a statement.

IBON made its own estimates to roughly compare employment figures using both methods.

Africa added that the 601,000 net additional jobs created in 2007 is just a 1.8% increase from the year before which is the slowest rate of job creation since the start of the Arroyo administration. The most jobs were created in domestic household help with 142,000 additional such jobs created.

In contrast only 72,000 agriculture jobs and 4,000 manufacturing jobs were added. Employment and unemployment trends in 2007 then confirm the deep problems of the Philippine economy despite much hype about rapid economic growth and a “strengthening” peso, Africa said.

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

North Cotabato Sees Bright Prospects In 2008

KIDAPAWAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 21, 2008) - 2007 brought “good tidings” to North Cotabato province, which is fast rising from devastations wrought by armed conflicts, and the area’s religious, political and business communities are confident more improvements will come this year.

The province, home to mixed-Muslim and Christian residents, has been included in this year’s list of top 30 provinces where there is good governance.

Records obtained from the Department of Agriculture in Region 12 also showed that North Cotabato has the widest tracks of idle lands developed into fruit, coconut and oil palm plantations from January to October this year, compared to surrounding provinces.

The office of the provincial agriculturist has pegged to 23,000 hectares of once hostile territories in the province -- which communist and Moro rebels used as sanctuaries in the past -- the total area converted into agricultural farms by North Cotabato farmers.

There was jubilation among Moro and Christian communities in the province when the National Statistics Coordination Board announced last July that North Cotabato was listed as one of the areas in the country where there is sound economic governance, as indicated by the recent rise of new establishments and the opening of big foreign-funded agricultural farms in its far-flung communities.

The expansion of businesses by local traders and the coming in of foreign investors, which started in 2006, generated employment for 68,000 people, many of them marginalized villagers in areas badly affected by the conflicts that rocked Central Mindanao in 2000 and in 2003.

“Credit goes to the Muslim and non-Muslim barangay folks of North Cotabato, to the peace advocates that helped us build solidarity among different sectors in the province, to President Arroyo and the international donor community,” said North Cotabato’s vice governor, Emmanuel Piñol.

Piñol said MILF leaders in the province and their counterparts in the military and the police, also played a key role in the socio-economic and political advancement of the province.

The synchronized local and senatorial election in the province last May 14 was the area’s most peaceful ever, according to Senior Supt. Lester Camba, provincial police director.

The province also ranked 11th in tax collection efficiency from among all of Mindanao’s local government units.Kidapawan City, which is the administrative seat of North Cotabato, has also risen as Central Mindanao’s new investments hub and the fruit capital of the region.

“Our agriculture-based economy has indeed improved that exotic fruits affordable only to rich people before are just sold so ordinarily along sidewalks because of our big harvest surplus, over and above the volume of what we have exported to Luzon and Visayas,” 40-year-old Minda Santiago, a fruit dealer, said in the Cebuano vernacular.

Traders in North Cotabato also noted an increase in production of rice and corn in the neighboring towns of Carmen, Kabacan, Pikit, Aleosan and Midsayap, worst affected by bloody military-MILF confrontations in recent years.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, himself a resident of Midsayap, said there has been a “zero” encounter between soldiers and MILF forces in the five towns since March this year.

“This could partly be attributed to the low-level peace initiatives of the military, the MILF and the local government units in these areas that local Muslim and Christian farmers are now tilling their lands peacefully, without fear of being displaced by armed conflicts,” Ando said.

North Cotabato Gov. Jesus Sacdalan, who started only as a lowly barrio farmer in his hometown of Alamada in the first district of the province, said there have been recent pledges of fund packages for the propagation of rubber trees by local farmers from the central office of the Department of Agriculture.

“Its not difficult for us, local officials, to convert North Cotabato into a progressive agricultural hub because about 80 percent of the incumbent local officials in the province are children of barrio farmers. We can understand better the feelings and the aspirations of our farming constituents,” Sacdalan said. (Jerick Wee)

Thousands Of Infantrymen Leave Sulu Province

Army soldiers patrol a highway in the southern Philippine province of Sulu. Thousands of army soldiers begin pulling out in Sulu and would be redeployed to Lanao del Norte province as part of a new strategy to combat terrorism, officials say. The Philippine Marines will take over the Army in Sulu, about 950 kilometers south of Manila. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 21, 2008) – Thousands of Philippine Army troops have began withdrawing from the southern province of Sulu, where Marines have put up a permanent base as part of a new deployment strategy to effectively combat terrorism, officials said on Monday.

Officials said the 104th Infantry Brigade based in Sulu will be redeployed in the province of Lanao del Norte. The Philippine Marines will solely take over the security operation in Sulu, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.

Philippine Marines have also taken over the Army in Tawi-Tawi province and have been deployed in Zamboanga City where they already established a base.

“The redeployment of army soldiers is part a new concept which will be more effective in addressing various threats, from terrorism to guarding our long coastlines.”

“The Navy and Marines will take care of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi as part of this new Fleet Marine Concept and our the infantry forces will be redeployed to Lanao del Norte province and other areas in the region,” Army Major General Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the First Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Pajarito did not say how many army soldiers were involved in the redeployment of forces, but several thousands of infantrymen are currently stationed in Sulu.

The Army was largely credited for the killing of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani in Sulu and several senior leaders of the terrorist group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya the past years. (Mindanao Examiner)

Gunmen Raid Zamboanga Village

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Sulu Launches Own ID System

Governor Sakur Tan distributes ID to villagers in Sulu province in southern RP. Gov. Sakur Tan says the ID system will help deter crimes and terrorism in the province. Patikul town Mayor Kabir Hayudini also shows reporters his ID. (Mindanao Examiner Photos/Nickee Butlangan and Arthur Abasolo)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 21, 2008) – Sulu province in the southern Philippines has launched its own citizen identification system aimed at curbing crimes and deter terrorism and served as a database for local census, officials said Monday.

Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan said the provincial ID system was launched over the weekend in the town of Patikul, whose population now is more than 50,000. “We are going to issue identification cards in all towns and we have the support of the local government officials and the citizens themselves,” Tan told the Mindanao Examiner.

Sulu, one of 5 provinces under the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, has 19 towns – Hadji Panglima Tahil, Indanan, Jolo, Kalingalang Caluang, Lugus, Luuk, Maimbung, Panamao, Omar, Pandami, Panglima Estino, Pangutaran, Parang, Pata, Siasi, Talipao, Tapul and Tongkil.

Patikul Mayor Kabir Hayudini said his town will serve as a model for the implementation of the citizen identification card in other areas in the province, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.

“The people are really very supportive of the ID system and that’s why we have Patikul as model for this citizen identification card system in cooperation with the Sulu provincial government, the military and police authorities and the national census (office),” Hayudini told reporters, adding, that those covered by the ID system are citizens 12 years old above.

Tan said the provincial government shouldered all expenses needed for the ID system.

“The identification card system in Sulu province is a collaborative effort between local governments, the Armed Forces (of the Philippines), the Philippine National Police and other stake holders of peace and development in the province.”

“The ID system will deter crimes and prevent terrorism because it would be easy to identify those who are not from Sulu and this will protect the citizens. It will also be beneficial for business and other transactions,” he said.

Tan said the local ID system is not part of the proposed national ID system.

“This is our initiative and while politicians and other groups in Manila argue about the national ID system, my province is already implementing our own citizen identification card system. This will also establish an accurate census in Sulu,” he said.

A census is an enumeration of all the people of a village or a systematic and complete count of all who are living in specified places.

The local ID system includes a photo of the holder and the following information - the date and place of birth, civil status, blood type, age, address, thumb prints and sex among others.

Provincial mayors and Muslim religious leaders and business groups lauded the ID system in Sulu province.

The launching of the ID system in Sulu coincided with the closing of the two-day peace caravan joined by thousands of Muslims.

The caravan was a collaborative effort of government agencies and various non-government agencies to address the immediate health, education and livelihood needs of communities affected by conflict.

Tan said the caravan, which began on Friday in the town of Jolo went around Patikul and Kalingalang Caluang towns, scene of previous clashes between rebels and soldiers.

He said the caravan was also aimed at consulting with the communities on their medium and long term concerns particularly on livelihood and employment aspect as well as provides a humanitarian face to the ongoing conflict in Sulu.

He said the caravan provided several millions of pesos in aids to support peace and development in Sulu. The Department of Education also pledged to send at least 15 tons of assorted books to different government schools in the province, Tan said.

Tan also released buffaloes for local farmers and led government officials in medical and dental missions in far-flung villages in Luuk and Patikul town during the caravan.

A similar caravan was also held Monday in Basilan province, which is also part of the Muslim autonomous region. (With reports from Nickee Butlangan and Arthur Abasolo)

Education As A Continuous Process And Enhancer Of Opportunities

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 17, 2008) - As the saying goes, "education is a continuous process,” thus, re-tooling, re-inventing and re-engineering are some of the few words used to describe the activities and events undertaken by an organization to impart education to its target clients.

Just recently, the proposal of Sulu Governor Sakur Tan to send ulama in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia to enhance their knowledge in the area of the shari'a law, philosophy, dialectical theology of Quoranic hermeneutics as part of a local education program through exposure is a case in point of education as a continuous process.

Similarly, the Department of Education has embarked on 'EXCELS' scholarship program for 1,600 public elementary and secondary school heads, nationwide, from November 2007 to July 2008 with the goal in mind to "continue the education process" especially to institutionalized sectors mandated to educate people. Here in Region-9, the program is set on February 27 to March 26 through iFLEX (or INNOTECH Flexible Learning Management System).

Experience, as best teacher pointed out to DepEd Sec. Jesli Lapuz that chunk of expenses were utilized for official travel than in directly teaching the marginal poor school children.

This experience resulted to the order of Sec. Lapuz for the adoption of measures and guidelines to cut travel cost. At the same time, DepEd's Bureau of Alternative Learning System (DepEd-BALS) called on all regional directors to be prompt in releasing the salary and other financial incentives of at least 1,381mobile teachers. A lesson learned that could be taken for granted is: "Give due credit to where it is due. After all, the mobile teachers are the ones deployed to deprived, depressed and underserved areas in the country to do alternative education to reach out all kinds of learners.'

Remarkably, the concerted efforts of DepEd-9, and the LGUs resulted in the improvement of the elementary school children in the National Aptitude Test (NAT), placing it this year at the 6th place from its 11th rank in 2004.

Finally, the continuous education process is also evident in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas system as it re-invents itself to push for the financial literacy campaign for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), teaching them how to use their hard-earned money wisely.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundo said they are going around the country to educate the families of OFWs on the facets of entrepreneurship and investing in different financial institutions, conducting lectures for them to become investors rather than mere consumers, so much so that the peso continues to appreciate against the dollar, short-changing the value of their remittances due to the lowering of foreign exchange rates.

Exposure trips, scholarships, virtue-laden living or paradigm shift of homemakers to entrepreneurship are proofs that education is as incessant as breathing.

The Arroyo Administration, cognizance of this continuous process of educating its citizens called on both chambers of Congress to immediately pass the proposed P1.227-trillion national budget for 2008 to avoid delay in the implementation of the government's priority projects and programs, with a budget allocation for education topping the list at P3.320 billion. (Philippine Information Agency/Mimi Edaga)

Oblate Priests Lliving Dangerously In Philippines

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 17, 2009) - Slain Catholic missionary Jesus Reynaldo Roda was the fourth missionary of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate “martyred” while promoting Muslim-Christian solidarity in the troubled South in the congregation’s more than 60-year stay in Mindanao.

Roda, who belong to a pioneer Chrsistian family in Cotabato City, was killed in a bungled kidnapping by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf in Tabawan, an island town in Tawi-Tawi Tuesday night.

He entered the OMI seminary here in 1970 and was ordained priest in May 1980 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, where his parents -- Bonifacio and Benigna -- regularly attended Sunday mass as devout Catholics.

Roda has worked as a missionary in Thailand before he was given different peace-advocacy assignments by the OMI in different areas in Tawi-Tawi.

The OMI whose main pontifical base is in Rome, founded in the 18th century by French-born Eugene De Mazenod, was first exposed to different missionary works in Muslim areas in the country before World War II, which started with the take over by seven young Canadian and Oblate priests of the parishes originally run by a community of Spanish Jesuits.

Colleagues of Roda in the OMI describe him as a “good mentor, patient and very persevering academician, having been involved in the operations of different Notre Dame schools their congregation operates in Mindanao.

Roda’s death in the hands of his would-be abductors came about ten year after suspected guns-for-hire identified with a Tausog politician shot dead a senior OMI member, Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, near the Mt, Carmel Church in Jolo, Sulu.

De Jesus, then in charge of the Vicariate of Sulu, was popular for his scholarship programs for poor, but deserving Muslim youths and for his inter-faith dialogues among Sulu and Tawi-Tawi’s culturally-diverse Islamic and Christian sectors.

Thousands of Tausog, Samah and Badjao villagers in Sulu attended the emotion-filled burial rites for De Jesus, where mourners sang in chorus his favorite Tausog love song “Baleleng,” which depicts a strong bond between a couple despite being separated away by many islands in the Sulu archipelago.

A retired bishop, Antonino Nepomuceno, who was also an OMI missionary, was killed in a plane crash not far from the Jolo Airport while on his way to Zamboanga City after attending the burial of De Jesus at one side of the Mt. Carmel Church in Jolo.

The gruesome murder of De Jesus, still unsolved up to this day, was followed by the killing also in downtown Jolo, capital town of Sulu, of another OMI priest, Benjamin Inocencio, on “innocents’ day,” December 28, 1999, by suspected religious extremist.

Inocencio was just walking in Jolo when the pistol wielding suspects approached him and shot him in the head with caliber .45 handguns.

The first casualty of the OMI in the troubled Mindanao was Father Nelson Jabellana, who was killed in 1974 an ambush at a secluded stretch of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in what is now Maguindanao province.

Despite the threats on their lives, OMI priests in the South never waivered from living up to their mission of serving the poor Muslims and Christians in the South.

A group of Abu Sayyaf bandits, led by Ghalib Andang, who was to become “Commander Robot,” snatched OMI priest Clarence Bertelsman, a North American, while officiating “Misa de Gallo,” or dawn mass, shortly before the Christmas in 1992, inside the supposedly tightly-guarded compound of the Sulu provincial police headquarters in Jolo.

Bertelsman was rescued about an hour after his abduction by combined members of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Sulu police in a nearby town, but was wounded in the arm by a stray bullet when his rescuers and his abductors traded shots.

The abduction of Bertelsman, now deceased, came about four five years after members of the Mubarak kidnapping syndicate snatched and held captive for about two months OMI priest Yves Caroff, a French, while on his way to a bio-organic model farm for local farmers in a secluded Teduray community in South Upi, Maguindanao.

Caroff was freed by his captors through the joint intercession of the MNLF and local leaders. Caroff has moved to Antipas, North Cotabato, where he operates a demonstration farm which showcases the bio-intensive way of farming.

Members of the OMI are so popular for their contributions to the Mindanao peace process.

OMI priest Eliseo Mercado, for instance, was a minority floor leader of the now defunct Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development, one of the mechanisms for the initial implementation of the September 2, 1996 government-MNLF peace accord.

It was Mercado that pioneered community participation in addressing security concerns in areas covered by the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Mercado was even tagged by the military as “pro-MILF” for having been active in the implementation of the ceasefire, which was, at first, a major irritant for soldiers in the field that were virtually unaware of its deeper intricacies and its importance to the efforts of maintaining the cordiality of the government’s peace talks with the MILF.

The slain Roda, of mixed Tagalog and Zamboangueño descent, was known for his being pro-poor and for being critical of abuses by the military against Muslim civilians. (Jerick Wee)

Peace Caravan Kicks Off In Southern Philippines

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 17, 2008) – Thousands of Muslims are expected to join two days of peace caravan in the southern Filipino province of Sulu, Gov. Sakur Tan said on Thursday.

He said the caravan is a collaborative effort of national government agencies and various non-government agencies to address the immediate health, education and livelihood needs of communities affected by conflict.

Tan said the caravan would kick off on Friday in the town of Jolo and would go around Patikul and Kalingalang Caluang towns, scene of previous clashes between rebels and soldiers.

“It is different now. The areas are now a venue of peace and thousands of people are joining our efforts to spread peace in the whole of Sulu,” Tan told reporters.

Dubbed as Health, Education, and Livelihood for Progress (H.E.L.P) Humanitarian Caravan, it is a mechanism designed to address the needs of communities in crisis due to the prevailing conflict in the area, according to Jesus Dureza, the Presidential peace adviser. “This effort of the government will focus on health, education and livelihood to continuously provide development in the areas greatly affected by conflict.”

“This convergence effort shows government’s sincere desire of achieving sustainable peace and development in the region particularly in the areas affected by conflict,” Dureza said.

In the effort to effectively implement the program for the region, agencies were grouped into four clusters to identify project and services that will be delivered for health, nutrition and sanitation; education; livelihood and employment; and other programs and services, according to Tan.

Tan said the H.E.L.P initiative is also aimed at consulting with the communities on their medium and long term concerns particularly on livelihood and employment aspect as well as provide a humanitarian face to the ongoing conflict in Sulu.

A similar caravan would also be held in Basilan next week. (With reports from Nickee Butlangan, Arthur Abasolo and Jun Delgado)