JDV asks Iran president to intervene in Syrian crisis

The  unsettling conflict between the government and the Nur Musuari faction of the Moro National Liberation Front has killed civilians and soldiers, driven inhabitants to flee to evacuation sites, and paralyzed business and social activities in the once peaceful city of Zamboanga City. Hogging the front pages and prime time broadcasts are images  of the suffering displaced and hungry Zamboanguenos, and of national leaders (led by President Benigno Aquino III and Secretary Mar Roxas) and local executives visiting evacuation sites and handing out noodles and biscuits to the now homeless refugees while expressing and demonstrating that  the government will not buckle down even an inch against  the lawlessness perpetrated by Nur Musuari and his renegade Moro National Liberation Front followers. Observing the situation in Zamboanga,  the Organization of  Islamic Conference (OIC) will  not tolerate the inhuman treatment  of innocent women and children by a group of people using them as shields in their fight against the Philippine military.  Nur Misuari could have chosen more civilized ways to demonstrate his indignation at feeling  left out by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Mindanao peace talks.

Winning the peace by peaceful means should have been the order of the day.

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Our  own former House Speaker, founding chair of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) and president of Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International (CAPDI), is doing his own bit of peace-keeping re the Syrian crisis. Joe de Venecia has written Iran President Hasaan Rouhani  to “intervene on behalf of peace and reconciliation in the worsening Syrian crisis set off  by the reported use of chemical weapons that allegedly killed more than 1,400 civilians including women and children in Damascus, and the consequent American-French  plan to launch  a missile attack to degrade Syria’s ability to use chemical weapons against its own people.”

Not long after De Venecia’s letter was sent to President Rouhani through the Iranian ambassador to the Philippines Ali Asghar Mohammadi, US President Barack Obama and a number of leaders in the community of nations showed their willingness to wait for  the outcome of various peace proposals, including the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons facilities.

De Venecia’s  letter shows the man’s diplomatic mind and hand   in involving international leaders to come to one another’s security and safety. He believes that Iran’s “weight and influence in the Middle East power balance – represented by Sayyed Ali Khamenei, spiritual and supreme leader of Iran,  and President  Rouhani’s personal aspiration for moderation and wisdom – will count decisively in an effort to prevent a wider conflict from breaking out of its Damascus epicenter.”

De Venecia suggested a three-step process for peace.

First, ask Syrian President Bashar Assad to call for an immediate ceasefire “that preserves as far as possible the lines of control and prevents the introduction of additional fighters and use of banned weapons;

Second, call for the immediate convening of the Geneva talks that Russia and the United States have proposed, with plenipotentiaries of both the government and rebel side empowered to discuss as widely as necessary every aspect of the Syrian conflict, and,

Third, initiate the serious dialogues at the regional level with countries like Saudi Arabia, “to address the root causes of the multiple conflicts which have spread throughout the region, resulting in endless bloodshed and hatred among Muslim brothers.”

Sometime back, Joe had written  Sayyed Ali Khamenei and King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, proposing  a direct dialogue between the leaders of Islam’s two major groups, the Sunnis and Shi’ites,  â€œto address the worsening politico-religious tensions and conflicts in Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria and the upsurge of religious extremism in a number of areas in South and Southeast Asia”

It may or may not have been a direct result of  Joe’s suggestion when  the Saudi Arabian leadership said Joe, “made a most successful visit to Tehran which contributed to a significant improvement in Iran-Saudi Arabia relations.”

Joe expressed in his recent letter, that, at the very least, Iran  President Rouhani’s personal intervention on Iran’s behalf “will give the warring parties in the Syrian crisis the interval of pause and calm they need to refine their declared positions, initiate serious discussions for a negotiated political settlement and hopefully, contribute immediately to prevent an attack on Syria, no mater how limited, that could lead to a wider war.”

President Rouhani’s intervention, said Joe, “will also signal Iran’s turn toward political and economic reform under the guidance of Ali Khameni and the president’s leadership.  Certainly it will ease (President Rouhani’s)  own hopes for ending Iran’s nuclear standoff with the world powers. It could even lead to the recognition of Iran’s major role as a peacemaker and  a new beginning in Tehran’s foreign relations.”

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It seems everybody wants to go to Harvard or Yale in the US for their master’s and doctoral degrees. So it came as a surprise that Mariella Antoinette Opena Salazar has decided to study at the University of Cambridge in  the United Kingdom.  

Mariella, a graduate of International School Manila, had been accepted by Yale and Harvard  with full scholarship,  and the Yale-National University of Singapore with a Global Leader Scholarship Award. The Cambridge acceptance also comes with full scholarship and a Jardine Scholarship, both of which takes care of all her academic fees and personal allowance.

She had been personally interviewed by representatives of the educational institutions who recommended her acceptance. But she found Cambridge’s program to be focused, as it determines from the start  the field she will major in, with instruction given one-on-one, and having a tutorial with a PhD  once a week. Marielle will be studying at the university’s Trinity College,  and expects to finish her undergraduate and PhD degrees in four years.  Trinity has had,  among its distinguished students, Isaac Newton, Lord Byron and Prince Charles. 

Mariella is quite articulate, and, small wonder,  she has been a member of the Philippine National Debate Team which was a semi-finalist at the World Schools Debating Championships in 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa, and where she  (the only girl in the five-man Philippine team), was the second speaker and summary/reply speaking during each debate.

She was the International School Manila outstanding student for 2012, a Bryn Mawr Book awardee, and a member of the National Honor Society. Her involvements are just too many there’s no space to  mention them here.  Mention, though, should be made of her acting as Secretary General of the Model United Nations, and her representing her country at conferences in Syria, China and Vietnam.

As if her  academic requirements were not enough to keep her busy, she sings in the IASAS Vocals Chorus,  and is a member of the Philippine Amateur Fencing Association, winning twice the bronze medal in the Dayrit Cup and  another  bronze at  the Olympic Day competition. 

Not surprisingly,  Mariella’s intelligence is due to her bloodlines.  She told me her parents encouraged her to ask questions, and to read, read, read.  Her father, Mario Antoni,  a fish trader, attended the Ateneo and Asian Institute of Management, and her mother,  Pam Opena, an international economist, attended the American University of Paris. And there’s her lolo, Jun, a swashbuckling law graduate of Silliman University, and her mother, Lilia, a former international trade specialist at the United Nations headquarters in Paris.

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