Transformational Change for People, Planet, Prosperity & Peace
There is an increasing consensus at the top level that peace cannot be achieved through the fire-power of the guns but by addressing the roots of conflict. Unless the causes of dissent are addressed, all peace initiatives will be, at best, palliatives, or at the least, mere empty rhetorics. There can be no peace if many Mindanawons are wallowing in poverty. In an island oozing with ecological resources where two-thirds of the nation’s exports are coming from, there should be no reason for poverty, yet the poor in Mindanao are the poorest throughout the country. All the six regions are suffering from high poverty gap ratios compared to other regions in Luzon and in Visayas. The BARMM has the highest incidence of poverty at 70%, followed by CARAGA Region at 69%, based on the Study of the United Nations Development Program. Yes, amidst the bounty lies so much poverty.
It is of due notice that there can be no peace if people are hungry. In Mindanao, aptly called the “food basket” of the nation, no one should be hungry, yet, it is in Mindanao where there is high incidence of hunger. It is a pity seeing malnourished children against the backdrop of vast agricultural lands producing high value crops and all kinds of fruits. But these are not meant to be eaten by the people. These are for exports, to feed the over-nourished people in highly developed countries. In fact, about 70% of the choicest of lands in Mindanao have been transformed into massive plantations by foreign investors/corporations, earning billions of dollars at the expense of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs).
This truism is concretely shown in Butong, Quezon, Bukidnon where a powerful corporation owned and managed by the present Mayor of Quezon has transformed the 1,111-hectare ancestral domain of the Manobo-Pulangiyon Tribe into massive plantations. Some one thousand tribal families have been living along the hi-way, under shattered tents for eight years now, eating only once a day. All the children have to be tied-up at night while their parents are sleeping as five children have already been hit by running cars. That area is the ancestral domain of the tribe which is legally established as no less than the Secretary of the National Commission of the Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has issued a Certificate signed by the Secretary himself and six NCIP Administrators to that effect but was not respected by the Corporation. After receiving the certificate, on April 19, 2022 they tried to enter a 4-hectare adjacent vacant area near the hi-way shouting MAAWA PO KAYO, GUTOM NA KAMI, they were shot upon for thirty minutes. I was with them then, barrage of bullets rained upon us by the corporation’s security force, shouting -LABAS, BANG, BANG, BANG. Five tribal members mostly women and children were wounded. We found out later that the security force is not even registered as such but are just armed men of the corporation. Until now, no justice has been done.
Indeed, the enrichment of the powerful corporation means the displacement and impoverishment of the IPs. Such painful truism is also concretely shown in Sumilao, Bukidnon where a powerful Ramcar Corporation did fence the 5,000-hectare ancestral domain of the Manobo Tribe headed by Bae Merlita Mayantao, transforming the ancestral domain into a ranch. When they protested one early morning in 2016, the Security Force of the Corporation rained bullets upon them where then and there, three tribal members including the son of Bae Mayantao were killed and three wounded. Until now, no justice has been done.
This is also true in Valencia, Bukidnon when a rich corporation with armed men harvested the crops of the IPs which was reported to me in 2021 by Datu Wenifredo Sumael and Datu Alim Saway. I told them to take pictures to be presented during our national zoom meeting with national officials which I scheduled a week after. The following day, they were murdered. Upon my verification, the killing was ordered by no less than an influential political official in cahoots with the landgrabber corporation. Until now, no justice has been done. It is so painful as both murdered Datus were my close allies in our advocacy for social justice and in protecting the environment.
What is so painful is what is happening now in Amai Manabilang, Lanao del Sur where several thousands of Ilocano farmer-settlers who have already acquired prior right over their three thousand hectares of farmlands are now being forcibly evicted by no less than the Southern Philippines Development Authority, under the Office of the President, in favor of two foreign corporations to convert their farmlands into massive plantations. Some 400 hectares of their farmlands planted with different kinds of crops have been bulldozed and if they resist, they were being harassed. The house of their leaders had been demolished and water-system tampered upon. No action from the Commission on Human Rights and concerned agencies of government. When a leader in a dialogue with local officials and foreign corporations questioned why they are being displaced, he was mauled by the mayor’s bodyguards in the presence of the PNP and AFP officers. Worse, some 21 Ilocanos including a pregnant woman were tied-up, forced to enter a mosque and massacred sometime in year 2000. Until now, no justice ever happened on the massacre, a blatant mockery of the Constitutional pronouncement that, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty and property without due process of law.”
This kind of great social injustice and travesty of the rule of law are also happening in Sitio Kibaritan, Malinao, Kalilangan, Bukidnon which is being claimed by the Mindanao Army Training Group as a military reservation. Such declaration is contrary to the stand of the Local Government and government agencies that the Sitio is already a community with an Elementary School, a Chapel and a Day-Care Center. How can that be a part of military reservation? But such official declarations were totally disregarded, thus, in 2016 three school children playing near the school were victims of an UXO bomb explosion, planted by the military without any warning sign. Now they have known that the Sitio will be transformed into a Hybrid Banana Plantation as the community has known that a contract has been signed to that effect between military officials and a foreign corporation.
But all of the above narration is just a “tip of the iceberg,” so to speak. What is so puzzling is the claim of the AFP that some 46,000 hectares in Bukidnon are part of the military reservation. How can that be? The IPs are so puzzled as their ancestors have been occupying the area as their ancestral domains for hundreds of years. We went around to several government offices showing their documents and the imperative protection of their land right as embodied in Indigenous Peoples’ Right Act (IPRA) Law. But such is not being respected and they are being forcibly evicted and if they will not leave, they are being tagged with Red Flags.
Unless these social wrongs and contradictions are rectified, peace will remain an illusion. Unless those in the margins are drawn into the mainstream of development processes, all the outpourings of development assistance will just be palliatives and cannot be the real solution. Unless social injustices and inequities are erased in a social structure characterized by bureaucratic capitalism where the few elites in cahoots with political leaders will continue to have much too much and the many who are poor have much too little, we will have negative peace, ready to erupt anytime given a flimsy stirring as in the case of the “Maguindanao Massacre.”
As the Mid-Term Elections is fast approaching, it so outrageous to note that these important issues as well as the sacred act of regaining back the lost dignity and morality has been trampled upon. Like vultures, these politicians are feeding upon the flesh of the poor who are prisoners of hunger and poverty all these years. If the sacred act of regaining back the lost dignity and morality has been trampled upon, replaced by diabolic and horrible greed, then such dastardly act should be a subject of our freedom of speech and right of suffrage to decry and stop those perpetuating bureaucratic capitalism. Student activists during those golden days of the “First Quarter Storm” in the ‘70s had been condemning “Bureaucratic Capitalism” as one of the oligarchs’ economic dominances in cahoots with powers-that-be which is impoverishing the people. Indeed, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well, this rhetorical statement might have been interpreted as very radical during those days but beyond the rhetoric lies the truth that has been concretized by the continuing massive corruption that seems to be the order of the day. Such truism is Res Ipsa Loquitor (the thing speaks for itself) as being shown now by the Congressional QUADCOM inquiries. Why have we allowed the killings of some 30,000 victims of EJKs on so-called war on drugs, yet, powerful drug lords in connivance with powerful officials, remain as formidable as ever? Life is sacred. As Christians, we should have never allowed that!! Are we a civilized country? Why are we allowing the misuse of precious public funds amidst the worsening poverty? How can the AYUDA Program uproot poverty? Such measures may provide some food temporarily, but still that kind of assistance reinforces the political strategy to control the stomach of the people so that they can control their mind! So outrageous!! Enough is enough of bureaucratic capitalism! Indeed, sovereignty resides with the people and all government powers emanate from them!
Foremost in the mind of the electorates should be, what is the Government for? Isn’t it one to serve the people, not the oligarchs? This is based on the dictum that reverberated during those days being shouted by nationalist activists, “Let not a single drop of rain go out to the sea without serving the people!” Where are they now who were oozing then with love for country especially for the poor and the oppressed? They were isolated, mocked, imprisoned and even killed! What they were advocating before is now reverberating here in the United States, initiated by the Occupy Movement, lead by the number one intellectual in the world named Dr. Noam Chomsky, i.e., Down with American Imperialism, Stop Bureaucratic Capitalism! Bureaucratic Capitalism doesn’t want to serve the people but the rich and powerful oligarchs in a highly skewed-societal order where economic power begets political power!
To make sure that “Bureaucratic Capitalism” will not just serve the interest of the privileged few, i.e., the cartels, monopolies and conglomerates, there must be people awakening and people’s participation in all phases of national life. This Is so because without people’s participation, all the outpourings of government assistance like the AYUDA will be palliatives and cannot bring development and genuine liberation from poverty. Wake-up all of you prisoners of hunger and poverty! Let notice be served that the primary beneficiaries of development are the Filipino people, not the oligarchs, not foreign investors! People’s participation in the best guarantee of justice and sustainability – all for God’s greater glory!
