The IMT and clashes between the govt. and MILF

MindaNews checked the records of the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (Joint CCCH)  and found that the number of skirmishes between the governent and MILF forces has steadily gone down from 698 in 2002 to 569 in 2003, a year of war; to 16 in 2004, the year  the IMT came to Mindanao; 13 in 2005; 10 in 2006 to only 8 in 2007.

I think this is an evidence of the usefulness of the IMT. While we become a part of the scenario of a possible pull out what with all its feared consequences, these numbers should speak loudly.

Pikit stop over: Pamogon coffee break

Pamogon Store
Stall No. 04
Pikit Public Market

For coffee drinkers, a natural choice for a stop over in between Cotabato and Davao cities aside from rest room visits and road side meals, is the Pikit Public Market.

Aside from it being a vibrant and busy market place, it offers Pikit’s famous Pamogon ”excelsa” coffee.

We scoured for that ‘aromatic’ redemption and found it for sale in many stalls at P130 per kilo.  

I had been curious about what makes the humble native Pamogon coffee unique. I’ve been drinking this coffee for a while and I wanted to know more about how this was made.

And in this recent trip to Central Mindanao I wanted to know the answers.

When its the ant’s view, not the birds eye view that matters

He willingly accepted our “invitation” for a courtesy call posed as a quick stop over. D.A., a known and even vocal advocate and leader of Lumads in Mindanao received us warmly in his humble shed-reception hall-meeting place made of bamboo. It was despite our short notice. 

My colleague J.J. and DA knew each other for quite a while and with their mutual respect and admiration for each other’s works, it is obviously the reason of the warmness.  

DA talked openly about what has kept him busy over the years: the life, plight and struggle of the Lumads in Mindanao. He is part of a group of lumad leaders working together to assert their role in today’s Mindanao, their aspirations, their futures and lives.

Working offsite in Mindanao

Technology has whipped the way we work, allowing us many conveniences and sometimes inconvenience, too.

I’m wrapping up a training workshop for kids on Basic Reporting here in Davao City. The two weeks engagement gave me a chance to relive my four years here in Mindanao’s most populated city.

Oh its not vain, not really.

Because it also took me out from my commitments in my “commune” in Bukidnon barely five months after reclaiming homage there.

IMT pull out due to stalled talks - official

Malaysia’s decision to cease sending a peace monitoring team to Mindanao when the current team’s mandate ends in September, is due to non-progress in peace talks between the Philippines Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said this as quoted by Bernama.com.

He said in order for a resolution of the conflict, both sides must show goodwill. Read full Bernama report here.

The pull is not in  the Malaysian side even if the recent announcement is five months ahead  of their commitment to stay put, in September.

It is sort of a kind of pressure to both parties of the peace process, the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to show progress in the talks.

MindaNews reported about the pull out here and the drag it might cause to the peace process here.

Peace groups in Mindanao are asking the monitors to stay.

Excavations of hollowed words

“I’m bored. I don’t really know what exactly I wanted to do, but I know I wanted to do something, right now.

If only there is internet, I would probably be surfing and reading something.” I finally decided to do something worthwhile.

I scoured an old and dirty collection of books in the office library.

Honestly, it was one of the most revealing boring nights I’ve had this decade.

An exaggeration, it could be.

Would you think of monotony if you find a combination of books from Franklin W. Dixon, Ricardo Manapat, Donald Abel, Angela Stuart Santiago, and a Time Magazine 1941 Capsule.

Yes, Dixon wrote the syndicated series The Hardy Boys and Manapat is no other than the author of “Some are smarter than others. The History of Marcos Crony Capitalism.” — From an undated and unfinished entry entitled “Walter is bored” in a desk top file I recovered recently.

Remembering and forgetting are relatives, and as relatives they are opposites. A relationship one cannot mistake because if one is The One, then the other is not The one. When you remember, you don’t forget and vice versa.

There is mystery of course on the gray line between when do we start remembering and forgetting just as we could never be certain, which is which between reality and the imagination.

And before getting lost myself in my own textual misadventures, my little crux of the matter is that if we lose grip of the context (or the North Star?) we lose sense, momentarily first and then, forever.

Living in a Mindanao suburb

“Suburbs are commonly defined as residential areas on the outskirts of a city or large town. Most modern suburbs are commuter towns with many single-family homes. Many suburbs have some degree of political autonomy and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods.”

I enjoyed attending a village social gathering last Saturday. It was a fellowship party for a new organization, one that sought to gather the professionals in our suburban village called Kalasungay.

Ours, now a village of at least 1,000 households, is home to Bukidnon’s earliest recorded native settlements. Majority of the residents belong to either the Bukidnon or Higaonon tribes.

There is much pride in me to settle in this village, where I could trace history by recalling the family names of our neighbors.

What?

I can’t delay this. Perhaps there is no other time.

I have due respect for the competent people at Reuters, but I have to raise this one.

Reading the news below have disturbed me as a resident in Mindanao and as a citizen relating to many decent Muslims everyday.

There is clearly bias here and stereotype —working to anticipate a public notion.

If its the hideout that is suspected to be of the terrorists, where is the connection to “Islamic militants?” as presented in the first paragraph? Is terrorism = Islamic militants? Are we sure the government has learned to distinguish between an Islamic militant and a law-abiding citizen?

No rice shortage in Bukidnon?

Measuring my rice has been the tease at home — something that has caused me ‘hunger’. When you are carrying heavier load than you should, you know what I mean.

I did try to eat less of it every time I remember; most of the time I failed.

So when the rice shortage news was carried in broadsheets the tease hit me even more. There was a friend who said I was to be blamed. I was also blamed for the protests in Tibet.

Surviving in the Mindanao “island village”

I couldn’t help but be depressed listening to stories of conflict that continue to afflict our people.  The images and sounds are chilling.

Sometimes I shut my senses out in order to avoid the hassle. But, normally that isn’t possible.

Maybe its the same surge of terror that pushed me to post this piece even if I had been plagued with a mysterious strain of “blog silence”. Mute, but not muted.

New blog on Bukidnon news and information

The Central Mindanao Newswatch, Bukidon’s local newspaper, is launching this week its online journal Bukidnon Newswatch Online.

This is the paper’s second attempt to put up a blog for the community newspaper based in Malaybalay City.

This try was triggered by a recent mechanical problem, which delayed the release of the week’s issue. The paper received constant queries on when to release the paper.

This inspired Newswatch staffers to put online some of the paper’s top stories.Going online, at least in the blogosphere, would be among the new ways the paper can serve the people of the province who are in Bukidnon and in many parts of the world.

This becomes part of the way the paper celebrates 20 years in service as “press freedom fighter from the Heart of Mindanao”.

Bukidnon to Iligan and back

After months of planning and preparation, the proposed training on Basic Journalism with Iligan City-based Civil Society Organization - Forum for Peace (CSOFP) was finally done.

We conducted the training on February 22 to 23 at the Redemptorist Compound in Brgy. San Miguel, Iligan City.

It was conducted under the Grassroots Documentation and Reporting Training arm of the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center, the group running MindaNews.

The engagement provided opportunity for me to travel, again, to another city in Mindanao for GDRT. It’s the fifth grassroots training engagement which I helped facilitate after that in Upi, Maguindanao (now in Shariff Kabungsuan); Caraga, Davao Oriental; Tandag, Surigao del Sur; GSIS Heights, Matina, Davao City.

We gave basic training workshops on News writing, Feature writing, preparing press statements and basic photography.

There were about 30 participants in the training representing non-government organizations and peoples organizations in Iligan City, Marawi City, Lanao del Norte and Lanao deo Sur.

The trip served as a breather for me from the “provincial” confines of Bukidnon. I traveled by bus from Malaybalay City to Cagayan de Oro late afternoon on Feb. 21.