MINDANAO, WHAT NEXT?

A Report-Commentary by Wilhelmina S. Orozco
A symposium was recently held on Mindanao, Maguindanao, Martial Law, What next? sponsored by the La Liga Policy Institute in Quezon City. Actually, I am not a stranger to this place as my father was a Surigaonon. He came to Manila in the 20's a product of the diaspora at that time, but in reverse and married my mother.

While the people of Luzon were looking forward to Mindanao as the Land of Promise, my father had chosen Manila as the Land of Opportunity, Actually, according to my cousins, he was running away from his grandmother who had wanted him to become a priest. And here in Manila, he was able to hone his talent in piano-playing and using this to earn a living.

Back to the symposium, one speaker said how some of the media people were drawn to join the Mangudadatu filing of candidacy papers in order to generate funds as their salaries were not enough to pay for their daily needs. He said that a photo journalist was paid P53 per picture while a reporter, P12 per column inch.

The media people could have been drawn by the fees to be given them by the organizers of the event, but they should not be criticized in this way for they could no longer answer back, although what he had said was true.

The better way of saying this could have been: "The inclusion of the media people in that massacre only underlines their sufferings two-fold: the need for them to be true and honest media practitioners, no matter the political circumstances, and their having to live as such no matter how little the pay. Whatever extra pay they could have gotten from covering the event could only be termed "bonus," and not the main reason for their having gone to meet their death."

Pancho Lara, a doctoral student at the London School of Economics, the main speaker, spoke about how the local leaders in Mindanao are also engaged in gun-running, drugpushing, money-laundering and other nefarious activities rendering nation-states inutile politically. Actually, political and economic gangsterisms are allies. There is not much difference between the two.

Amina Rasul narrated that before Marcos Martial Law was installed in 1972, the Muslim leaders in the south were upright professionals and those who belonged to the royalties. Muslim administration of government did not have much problems. There were no murderers like the Ampatuan clan. And the clans were institutionalized positively in Mindanao as fall-back buffers to help cushion the economic woes of the people. The clan subsidized, helped and saved their own kins from the trials and travails of living when government help was amiss.

Here we can see that traditional customs and blood relations were kept intact by the Muslims to maintain the race. However, when Marcos through ML took over the reins of power, many of these Muslim intelligentsia left and scattered all over the Philippines and the world. Those left behind were the "latak" of societies, the kinds who would not respect human rights.

To my mind, what is actually needed now is the opinion of the Mindanaoans themselves, on how they want to develop. We Luzonians (whom they call imperialists) should develop tighter links with the progressive Muslims so that we could live more peacefully with them.

These past weeks, many groups had put pressure on the government to lift Martial Law in Maguindanao as they could see that it could be a prelude to a bigger coverage in the country. The administration was besieged in Congress during the joint session of the Senate and the House Representatives by the most erudite of the Constitutionalists, as well as in the Supreme Court by civil society groups who questioned the legality of the ML.

Now, Maguindanao is free again, but the question is will the charge of rebellion be sustained against the Ampatuans? Some sectors say that ML was installed in Maguindanao to convert the charges against the Ampatuans who perpetrated the crimes and who are known to be responsible for the false victory in the elections by GMA from pure murder to rebellion to allow them to post bail and/or get a lighter sentence.

Whatever the outcome would be, the lifting of Martial Law in Maguindanao province, on the 13th of December 2009 brings about a new perspective in looking at Mindanao. We can now probably look forward to a more humane treatment of Mindanao, a greater zeal at solving the problems of kidnappings there, the increase in literacy rates, the absence of the peoples' being used there to manipulate elections like what Garci had done, the many changes in the Madrasah -- for example the teaching of democratic ideals and what are so-called democratic behavior, apart from the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and the pulverization of the Abu Sayyaf groups, the Lost Command, and all other groups that are causing the elusiveness of peace in this 2nd largest island of our country.

Mindanao is rich in natural resources and is one of the greater food suppliers of Luzon. It is high time that we look into how we can profitably unite with our Filipino brothers and sisters under more peaceful circumstances.

On my part, I wish to be able to travel freely and without fear of meeting dire circumstances rendering my trip bizarre.