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The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society

Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)

Knowing the Truth: The Truth may save the IDPs from further miseries

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By Guiamel M. Alim
Executive Director, Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc. (KFI)
Chairperson, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)

(Presented during the State of the Bakwits CSO-Media Dialogue and Information Exchange on 29 June 2009 at Hotel Estosan, Cotabato City.)


Magandang araw po sa lahat. Peace and Blessings of God be upon us!

Let me thank first the women and men behind this occasion and the leaders of the NGOs who took extra time to make this thing happen.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 30 June 2009 10:26 ) Read more...
 

A Peace Advocate's Fashion/Passion Statement

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Peace advocate Atty. Soliman "Sol" M. Santos, Jr. of Naga City, Camarines Sur in the Bicol region makes a fashion/passion statement with the design in the t-shirt he is wearing in the photo. It has to do with adding a crescent moon under the bottom star in an already popular Filipino nationalist design of the day, the sun and three stars like in the Philippine flag. Sol first made his modification on that Filipino nationalist design, adding the crescent moon under the bottom star, for a proposed mini-poster in support of the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement. The crescent moon and star motif is found in both the MNLF and MILF flags. So, it was then an attempt to depict some kind of constitutional accommodation of Moro aspirations (like autonomy) in relation to the Philippine juridical entity -- in a way that would be more meaningful to Moros (because of the crescent moon's symbolism of Islam) than would be the adding of a ninth ray to the sun (in the first place, the Moro armed resistance to Spain was not part of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 starting with eight provinces in Luzon). Sol's design might also be said to be an attempt to combine Filipino nationalism and Moro nationalism, if that can be done at all, without a clash of nationalisms.
Last Updated ( Friday, 26 June 2009 04:13 ) Read more...
 

IDPs in Southern Philippines: More Scared for Life than Hungry for Food

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By Nina Somera, Isis International

As the armed conflict between Philippine soldiers and the members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) continues, residents are not only worrying where to get their next meal. They now wonder who could be taken next.

On the morning of 7 May 2009, five “bakwits” or internally displaced persons were abducted my men in military uniforms. The five were walking along a highway in Pagatin village as they wait for the distribution of relief goods by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 June 2009 04:18 ) Read more...
 

Addressing MILF (and GRP) Concerns on Constitutional Framework for the Peace Negotiations

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By Atty. Soliman M. Santos, Jr.

      Independent Peace Advocate

      Quezon City, 25 May 2009

  

In a speech entitled All Sovereignty-based Negotiations are Extra-Constitutionalduring the meeting of the Department of Minorities and Muslim Affairs of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) at Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 18 April 2009, Mohagher Iqbal, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Panel Chairman, re-stated clearly enough “why the MILF does not agree to make the Philippine Constitution the framework of the peace talks.”  He gave four reasons:

 
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