MindanaONE: Fist to Peace?

A full glare of international publicity has been brought to the Philippines these
past few months right after the Marawi War between the Maute group and the
Philippine Military broke out last May 23, 2017 resulting in the declaration of Martial
law in Mindanao. It has received diverse reactions which, up to date, have been
parading indistinctly over the street, television, internet and inside every Filipino home.
However, President Digong has deemed it expedient than necessary, thus taking its
prompt effect in full swing anyway.
Consequently, Filipinos have been crying for which fence does Martial Law
really stand behind? Is it actually an impetus for peace? Or a means to slide back to a
looming hegemony of the past dictators? Is everything about martial law attracted to
sealing the peace pact between and among parties in conflict since time immemorial?
Or Martial Law is heading towards something unspeakable? Is it a truce in disguise? Or
a curse in devise?
Or is it the “fist” way to “peace”?
Needless to say, Mindanao has been a gulf between sociocultural complex and
armed conflicts before the eyes of the local strangers – Kababayans who have been quite
ignorant about the world outside theirs. Most of them reside under the northern sky
and neither have a pristine picture of the southerness of Mindanao nor have a pleasant
smell of the island. Most often than not, these Kababayans would associate Mindanao
with the picture of war, hostility and, worse, illiteracy. But what is the most striking is,
from their point of view, Mindanao is in a continuous fierce wrestle for peace. A wrestle
on the ring of ambivalent perspectives which has been nurturing social turbulence. A
concept that even most Mindanawons have been made to believe and grow old with. A
long standing quest for freedom from disputes is what it seems.
A misconception. A misperception. A misrepresentation of peace.
But is Peace really measured against War in the first place? Is it really a
dichotomy in the second? Does one exist in the absence of another in the third?
If peace in Mindanao or in the Philippines as a whole, is an advocacy and not a
paradigm, if peace is about security and safety from social coarse particles, and if peace
means harmonious relations under whatever circumstances; then, peace must be about
the collective understanding of the diverse cultures in Mindanao, tolerating its
differences, respecting the rights to just and humane self-determination while all along
strengthening the similar bond that binds everything together – being a Filipino, a
Mindanawon.
Clearly, peace and war, is no binary opposition. Peace is never the absence of
war, it is the endurance during the times war.
 Therefore, Martial Law, peace process negotiations, BBL, etc., these have only
been vessels to materialize peace amidst crisis in Mindanao. None of which could
totally and downrightly extinguish the cancer cells of war in the society. No standard
chemo therapy duration for this stigma, no antihistamine to temporarily serve as
inhibitor for this order –allergy society; everything works indefinitely piecemeal.
There are just about so much at stake to dispose the idea and act of war: money,
power, territory and identity. It has rooted so much on egocentric economic
predispositions and aspirations: anarchy, bigotry, capitalism, fascism and imperialism,
all seeking for self-glorification. Thus, this should be a lifelong journey for the
Philippines where peace is not a destination here; instead, it is already part of the road
map itself. Hence, looking at things from this angle, in Mindanao, where peace has been
clichéd but loosely understood, one can only see things around from the eyes of faith.
Inherent. Natural. Universal.
Actually, achieving peace in Mindanao starts at the interest in oneness despite
the culture of a multiparty type of society: oneness in goal to prosper and sustainably
develop Mindanao and oneness in treading the common path towards enriching
similarities.
Misperceiving peace is already an internal warfare; one is in conflict with the
truth about such a condition.
A lot have already been lost to different forms of war, both in Mindanao and
across the Philippines: lives and properties during armed conflicts; loyalty and pride
during power play, credibility and even oneself during the times of social ignorance
and intercultural insensitivity. How can we still afford to keep losing even our grasp
over essential things in life such as “freedom”, “equality”, and, most importantly,
“peace”?
If it takes to have a step as firm as a hand with the fingers clenched in the palm
for the National Government to move mountains while cultivating peace in Mindanao
as one island harboring the beauty and profit of diversity; then, who does not want to
give it a chance?