Aug272008

BRIEF ENCOUNTER: My First Kadayawan Festival Experience

Pardon me, just a quick entry. I suffered a moment of weakness. There was this big part of me, while going through tough times and sleepless nights regarding my requirements that I haven’t completed yet. Sigh.

Last Saturday, I went to Davao to witness the annual Kadayawan Festival. I arrived at around 1 pm in my first stop. Honeybear. A restaurant located in Quirino Street. I met up with some members of Skyscrapers City.

My Free Lunch. Chicken Cordon Bleu from Honey Bear. The food is great. And with great, I mean delicious, delightful and divine. Yum!

Read More

Aug182008

Manobo natives in Kidapawan

As you enter the City of Fruits and Highland Springs (Kidapawan), you might notice Manobo Statues in a grand welcome arch, and wonder, why?.

In the history of the city during the efforts of the Philippine Commonwealth and of the latter administration to entice Christians from Luzon and Visayas to venture to Mindanao had opened the flood gate for new settlers who introduced advance farming and education. Satellite settlements sprouted and logging roads were built.

The Manobo Datus welcomed the Christians with open arms. They gave away their lands- for free, for a can of sardines, for a kilo of dried fish, or for utensils.

The Manobo natives, hospitable and kind as they are, often invited their Christians friends to visit the springs and crystal waters in the highland. They say, “Tida Pawan” meaning “Let’s go to the spring in the highlands.”

While Tidapawan became Kidapawan in the passage of time, both Christian settlers and Manobo natives remained proud of their stories past.

Read More

Aug162008

Living in the Fear Zone

Yes, I’m living in a region on an intensive care unit gasping terribly for air, breathing heavily and painfully.

Most of our lives, we’ve been praying for peace. But it seems impossible when everybody could see that peace being held in captive, struggling to be set free.

The current news here in North Cotabato…

Bomb attack in Kidapawan foiled
Police hold bomb carrier in Mlang, North Cotabato
TransCo tower in Carmen, North Cotabato bombed
Bomb blast in Arakan, North Cotabato
Fighting intensifies in North Cotabato

…News kept on flooding that seem to die hard, new ones added to the headache, returning issues like bombing just made the scenario worse and the continuing ones has kept its pace. Whew! Sometimes it’s such a heartbreaking thought knowing, seeing and feeling their existence. And it surely makes my eyes bleed reading them again and again.

These inhumane acts are a constant treat.

Every place has been put onto suspicion. Everyone gets fear that anytime a bomb could explode and a war that will take away innocent lives.

Is there any place in the world worth to be called safe?

I’m still hoping these incidents will not completely eradicated.

If we only could get rid of the violence and let humanity grow then maybe that’s when peace will fly again.

Aug82008

MOA on Ancestral Domain (The Real Score)

One of the hottest issue today is the agreement between the government and MILF on ancestral domain or the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

War is inevitable if the Philippine government insists on signing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). If the Supreme Court has not issued a temporary restraining order against the signing of the MOA in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a bloo

dshed could have been blamed on our government.

Isn’t peace the reason for this MOA? Why is peace then the apparent casualty of this MOA?

The MILF has the historical right to claim the public domain they have been demanding. But the Philippine government too has historical and legal rights towards its own public domain.

According to Sen. Pimentel, only a constitutional ammendment can dispose of the public domain. The President or her representative has no right to negotiate its public domain without first amending the constitution.

North Cotabato Vice Governor Manny Piñol is right in petitioning the Supreme Court that the details of the MOA be made public first before any signing is done because it is the right of the public to know.

The MILF and government troops are now positioning themselves in some part here in North Cotabato as if preparing for war. I could only hope that that a peaceful solution could be reached between the Philippine government and the MILF so that the tension could not escalate to war. This could very well serve as a lesson for all all of us. Hasty negotiations without public consultation could lead to more problems. Let us all pray that peace could finally win in Mindanao.

Photo courtesy of thepinoy.net