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Philippine Counterinsurgency on Mindanao Fuels Civilian Displacement March 26th, 2015
Villagers fleeing fighting crowd refugee centers.
(Photo Credit: www.icrc.org)
Humanitarian agencies are struggling to cope with a growing number of people displaced by fighting between government forces and a Muslim insurgent group on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says more than 120,00 have sought shelter in public buildings or informal camps since fighting broke out in January between government forces and rebels from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Provision of food, water and latrines is proving to be a major difficulty. Meanwhile, the fighting has disrupted the rice harvest, which will lead to further food shortages for affected families.
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Thousands rally for peace in southern Philippine city of Cotabato February 12th, 2015
Activists in the Philippines have urged government to pass legislation, and formalize an end to decades of war.
UCA News, an independent news source on Asia, reported that around 20,000 people held a pro-peace rally in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato on Thursday. Participants were calling for for the immediate passage of legislation to formalize the peace process in Mindanao and end almost four decades of Moro rebellion. Passage of the legislation has been threatened by the death of at least 67 people, 44 of whom were police commandos, in a bungled raid against suspected terrorists in the town of Mamasapano on January 25.
In the cities of Marawi and Davao, also on the island of Mindanao, peace activists join condemning the calls for war, saying the passage of the BBL “is the only solution for lasting peace.”
“We sympathize with those who perished in Mamasapano, but we should not make it a reason to abandon the peace process, abandon the BBL, and make millions more including helpless children, orphans, women and elderly suffer from the horrors of another all-out war,” said Ustadz Mauladdin Sagapan, who led a group from the religious sector in Davao Oriental to the rally in Davao City.
Philippine Oblate Archbishop Quevedo Named to the College of Cardinals January 17th, 2014
Pope Francis has named a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato to the College of Cardinals. Cardinal-designate Quevedo represents the large island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, which experiences all the major problems facing the Philippines, including poverty, peace and justice issues and the complex and often difficult relationship between Christians and Muslims.
The rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front said the elevation of the cardinal-designate is a “welcome development”. “It’s good for peace efforts in Mindanao,” said rebel spokesman Mohagher Iqbal. In a 2003 paper titled “Injustice: the Root of Conflict in Mindanao,” Quevedo said the root cause of the Moro rebellion in the southern Philippines was “injustice” to the Moro people’s “identity, political sovereignty, and integral development”.*
He said that as a member of the College of Cardinals he will try to contribute to Pope Francis’ vision of a church of the poor.
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Italian Priest Killed in the southern Philippines October 25th, 2011
Fr. Tentorio, PIME (from the PIME website)
Fr. Fausto Tentorio, PIME, parish priest of Arakan Valley, Mindanao was shot dead on October 17th. Fr. Tentorio was an Italian priest who had been serving Mindanao since 1978 and was head of the Tribal Filipinos Apostolate of the Diocese of Kidapawan. He was gunned down at around 8:30 Monday morning just as he was preparing to leave his convent in Arakan Valley, North Cotabato, for the 9 a.m. Presbyterium in Kidapawan City.
