Mindanao on the Mend Anson, Ryan. SAIS Review, Volume 24, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2004, pp. 63-76 (Article)
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/sais.2004.0001
For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sais/summary/v024/24.1anson.html
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SAIS Review vol. XXIV no. ON 1 (Winter–Spring MINDANAO THE MEND 2004) 63
Mindanao on the Mend Ryan Anson, Network Photographers These images were included in a book about conflict and peacebuilding entitled “Mindanao on the Mend” published by Anvil Inc., Philippines, June 2003.
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arkness descends quietly upon the small village of Nalapaan. The nights remain serene, and are only disturbed by lightening flashes from towering thunderclouds far in the distance. As the parched soil waits to drink from a heavy sky, men sip traditional coconut wine called tuba, and sing about brighter futures. “And our dream,” Elmer Cedeño hums to a group of local farmers, “that someday we’ll live in peace . . . and no more war that scares us, where the people live as one, and there is no want for possession . . . ” The circle of men seated comfortably around him tip back their glasses in approval, quietly acknowledging that Cedeño’s lyrics capture the ambiance of hope that surrounds their community’s “Sanctuary for Peace”. Yet his words also reveal a deep longing for justice in a land scarred by war and displacement. These scenes are taking place in Mindanao, a war stained island in the southern Philippines that had been struggling for independence since 1972. Although the government had fought various separatist groups over the past three decades, the “all-out-war” campaign launched by President Joseph Estrada in April 2000 against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resulted in levels of destruction unseen since the 1970s. Scores of civilians died, homes were burned and looted, and relationships among Christian, Muslim and the indigenous Lumad —collectively known as the tri-people—were severely strained by a conflict that had no end in sight. Finally, in August 2001, thirty years of fighting came to an end with the signing of a ceasefire between newly elected President Gloria MacapagalArroyo and the Mindanao separatists. The separatist movement had been fighting to establish an Islamic state on the island of Mindanao, the poorest region of the Philippines with 18 million inhabitants. In three decades of fighting, over 120,000 people were killed. After years of destruction, thousands of people who had languished in sprawling evacuation camps without adequate food or safe water packed up their few belongings and cautiously returned to their communities to begin anew. Even though most had nothing to return to, ideas like peace building surfaced from underneath the rubble of bombed-out churches and mosques. Inter-religious dialogue had even become a popular buzzword in villages such as Nalapaan whose residents later organized it into Central Mindanao’s first “Sanctuary of Peace”. 63
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Although other areas of the Philippine’s second largest island experimented with similar concepts, it was in Central Mindanao where peace building appeared to be most visible and effective. Perhaps it was because the tri-people here had much from which to recover. As Christians, Muslims and Lumads slowly transcended prejudices aggravated by generations of war, the entire region began moving in a direction filled with promise. Even the sporadic clashes between MILF and government forces, both of whom increasingly began to ignore the ceasefire, failed to destabilize the slow yet deliberate progress made toward reconciliation. Village after village shrugged off the fear of displacement, and declared their areas as gun-free, violence-free communities. There are few places in our polarized world that demonstrate what peace really means: how it is broken and how it can be remade. The thoughts and actions of the tri-people of Mindanao show how ethno-religious conflict can be solved creatively without the use of weapons. “Our hope is that one day, all of Central Mindanao will become a space for peace so that armies have nowhere to go,” said Father Roberto Layson, parish priest in Pikit who helped to organize relief and peace building efforts in the nearby villages of Panicupan and Nalapaan. Despite this renewed optimism, however, parts of the tri-people’s homeland now seem to be slipping back into a quagmire of instability. Land disputes and family feuds rage on in parts of Maguindanao and Cotabato provinces, and new movements, including the Indigenous People’s Federal Army (IPFA) and splinter factions from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), have emerged as frustration and anger in disenfranchised communities mount. In addition, the al Qaeda linked group Abu Sayyaf has been using the Southern Philippines as a base of operation, thus causing renewed clashes with the Filipino government. And, like last year, the U.S. military will continue its war on terror in southwestern Mindanao by training their Filipino counterparts in counter-terrorism tactics to eliminate Abu Sayyaf. In an effort to accurately depict life in Mindanao, this photo essay documents both the disappointing setbacks as well as the signs of success and hope for the future of the tri-people. Despite the constant militarization of their homeland, the people of Mindanao are determined to forge ahead with their peace building campaigns. Through summer youth camps, forums on religious and cultural awareness, and meaningful day-to-day interaction; Christians, Muslims and Lumads are laying solid groundwork for a future built on mutual understanding and genuine reconciliation.
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Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) soldiers gather together in prayer at Camp Jabal Nur before starting an educational seminar on the ceasefire. Officially created in 1984, the MILF continues to wage both an armed and political struggle for an independent state in Muslim Mindanao.
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Norma Angi sifts rice that she received from relief workers at the Da’wah Center near Cotabato City. More than 200 displaced families from areas near the MILF’s former headquarters at Camp Abubakr As-Siddique have made this maddrasah their home since May 2000, but refuse to return to their places of origin until the U.S. Army’s 64th Infantry Battalion withdraws its forces from the separatists’ traditional mountain lair.
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Jesibelle Gape, 8, of Sitio Spring, Liliongan, visits the Garos’ home in the evacuation center after playing with her friends. The sound of heavy mortar fire and helicopter gunships during the war traumatized many children from this village.
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With assistance from a policeman, an elderly woman squeezes through a congested food line to collect a 5-kilogram bag of rice from aid workers in Pikit. She was among 20,000 people who escaped fighting between government and MILF soldiers in the nearby town of Buliok in November 2001.
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Muslim students protest the deployment of American soldiers on the island of Basilan in southwestern Mindanao at the Bangsamoro Youth’s Anti-Balikatan Peace Rally in Cotabato City. In January 2002, 1000 US soldiers began training Philippine troops in counterterrorism tactics to help them defeat Abu Sayyaf, a notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang that allegedly has links with al Qaeda.
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During the safe return ceremony, officers from the New Spring Community for Peace and Prosperity (NSCPP) are sworn into their respective positions by Liliongan’s Barangay Chairman, Julio Bagong Sr. Although once a battlefield, Spring is now a relatively peaceful place where people are slowly rebuilding their lives.
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Rain or shine, Dina Ansaya, left, and Arcelie Pendaupan watch Arumanen Manuvu dancers perform their traditional sayaw in the village of Bentangan, Cotabato Province. For the people of this community, the weekly dance restores a sense of peace and continuity in an environment constantly threatened by conflict, says dance troupe leader Rufino Amado.
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Julita de Catalina of Takepan, one of many young women leaders in the Panicupan Space for Peace program, listens to a speaker at a culture of peace seminar in Pikit. Throughout Central Mindanao, women play extremely active roles in communitybased peace programs which aim to create non-violent, justice-based alternatives to the region’s history of insurgency, violence and suffering.
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A handful of Christians join Barangay Panicupan’s Muslim residents in celebrating Eid-al-Fitr, an important Islamic holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. In return, Muslims will celebrate holidays such as Christmas with their Christian neighbors.
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Franklin Salilin, the clairvoyant healer of Bentangan, examines the location of evil spirits that have occupied the body of Bolin-as Lantong and caused her great pain. During this healing ceremony, which is known as Panahuwahawiran, Salilin serves intervenes on behalf of Lantong to defend the woman from negative spiritual forces.
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Members of SAMAKANA, youth peace advocates and Baton’s Manuvu residents join a peace march to sitio Baton at the base of the Daguma Mountain Range. After concentrating peace and reconciliation efforts primarily on Bual, the local people’s organization decided to use the peace zone’s anniversary celebration to formally welcome their indigenous friends into their community programs.
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Jonathan Barat scans the hillsides near Bentangan for potential intruders. Barat is one of four CVO militiamen who provide daily security for farmers when they work in their fields. Although Bentangan’s predominantly Arumanen Manuvu residents once enjoyed harmonious relationships with their Muslim neighbors, the 2000 war against the MILF aggravated tensions along ethnic and religious lines, and eventually led to an influx of arms in the area.
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