CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY )(MindaNews/19 Jan) — One of the thorniest issues debated during the Fourth Assembly of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Paris in February of 2007 was whether climate change is natural occurrence or a result of human activity.
DAKBAYAN SA ISABELA, Basilan (MindaNews/Enero 19) —Wala gihapon kausaban.
Gawas sa mga tambok nga mga bakawan pasulod sa pantalan niining dakbayan diin nahimulat ang kadaghanan sa kapit-os ug kalisod, wala na'y laing bag'o sa Isabela—ang sentro sa usa ka probinsya nga nahimong sikat tungod sa Abu Sayyaf.
(Presented on the first day of the conference on Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao 3: Strategic Planning for Peace Post MOA-AD, in Penang, Malaysia, on January 12 to 15. The author is the Deputy Executive Secretary at the Office of the Regional Governor in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao).
The Peace Research Institute Frankfurt in a 2005 comparative study of conflicts in Sri Lanka, Philippines and Malaysia noted that the Filipino conflict perspective in the Mindanao (Moro) conflict:
(This paper was read on the first day of the Consolidation for Peace (COP3) for Mindanao: Strategic Planning for Peace for Post MOA-AD at Park Royal Hotel, Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia, January 12-16, 2009. Ms Arnado, secretary-general of the Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus, was unable to attend the conference).
I like this first topic in the Plenary Session of this Conference. What happened to the Peace Process? The question is very simple yet extremely difficult to satisfy given the situation when we seem to be in a state of quandary and denial. The irony here lies in the fact that in the midst and thick of the MOA-AD controversy, we were all there and yet we seem to miss the story. Indeed, just what had happened? If I may add, how did the peace advocates allow this to happen?
MUSUAN, Maramag, Bukidnon (MindaNews/19 January) – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's proclamation taking at least 670 hectares from the Central Mindanao University's titled property and awarding it to the Manobo-Talaandig tribe as ancestral domain will not hold through, as only Congress may alter a reservation, former CMU president Isabelo Alcordo said.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 January) – Mindanao will likely experience brownouts and power outages starting next year as power supply has remained stagnant despite increased demand for electricity in the island.
KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/19 January) – Police arrested on Saturday another jail escapee after a massive manhunt in Kabacan, North Cotabato, bringing to 13 the number of escapees caught in the province since February 2007.
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 January) – The three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who were abducted Thursday in Sulu have been in constant touch with the ICRC head of delegation in Manila by telephone since Friday.
Jean-Daniel Tauxe, ICRC’s head of delegation in Manila, said in an interview posted on its website (http://www.icrc.org/eng) that they were “first contacted by them on Friday. This was followed by other calls from the three over the past few days.”
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 January) – Muslim religious leaders in the Philippines will make history next week when at least 200 ulama (religious scholars) and aleema (female ulama) from Mindanao, Luzon and the Visayas, gather on January 26 to 29 Imperial Palace Suites, Quezon City for the 2nd National Ulama Summit, to ratify the charter for a national network of major ulama organizations.
PENANG, Malaysia (MindaNews/18 January) – Participants to the three-day 3rd Consolidation for Peace conference-workshop here have proposed several ways of “moving forward” with the most immediate addressed to both government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to resume the peace talks “as soon as possible” and to resolve at the negotiating table ”issues involving the parties,” including what are perceived to be impossible preconditions.
PENANG, Malaysia (MindaNews/18 January) – “What happened to the Mindanao peace process? Is there hope for peace in Mindanao? What is the way forward? How do we get there?” were among the questions (see other story) that participants to the 3rd Consolidation for Peace in Mindanao conference discussed here from January 12 to 15, on the prospects for peace beyond the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).
