Peace

The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro is expected to be signed next month, the culmination of and testament to the hard work and dedication of our two cover persons this week, as well as the members of their teams and the institutions and peoples they represent – the Philippine government and the Bangsamoro people. It is without doubt a most significant milestone, but it is more a beginning than an end – the beginning of an era of peace and development for the Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

Peace is not a passive state; for peace to truly reign in Mindanao it must be a process. Hand in hand with development, peace must have the commitment of the people and the government who must together work at it. Most of us have a tendency to think that our role ends when we cast our vote; once we put officials in place – in this case, once the Bangsamoro Basic Law is passed and accepted in a plebiscite, and once they vote their officials in in 2016 – we can sit back since it is now government’s duty to take care of us – to give us food, shelter, jobs, protect us from criminals, aggressors and even natural calamities. That sit-back attitude is what allows abominations like the pork barrel scam, the fertilizer fund scam, the immeasurable enrichment of and concentration of power in one clan to exist and thrive, while the rest of the people struggle.

STARweek had difficulty scheduling interviews and pictorial with our two cover persons, because they were constantly coming and going, conducting consultations with stakeholders in Mindanao. The consultations were wide-ranging and, as reports have it, intense, with contentious discussions and even walk-outs. All that positively indicates the involvement of stakeholders – even the dissenters and the “spoilers” – in this process, and hopefully a buy-in of what could finally get the region on the road to progress and prosperity.

Mindanao is such a rich, abundant and beautiful region. Before that infamous 2009 massacre changed the rules of the game, the real bonus of my volunteer work with non-government organizations and civic groups was visiting projects in Mindanao, especially places like Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi. The land and the people – Muslim, Christian, Lumad – are real treasures, and they have every right and reason to enjoy an enriching, meaningful and dignified life as Filipinos. When – I say when, not if – the Bangsamoro Region and its government is finally put in place after the 2016 elections, I hope the Bangsamoro people will take – and keep – their rightful place at the table and not as in the past be content with scraps and crumbs tossed to them as unscrupulous and avaricious leaders gorge at the table of prosperity.

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With this issue we bid adieu to our Table Talker, Tita Baby Orosa, who has decided to leave the table and become a “woman of leisure.” But not quite – I’m sure her myriad friends will continue to have her at their table. Tita Baby, you’re one of a kind!