GENERAL SANTOS CITY — This is the continuation of the previous Comment: “Why Postpone the ARMM Election?” The change of the title is in anticipation that Congress cannot pass the necessary law to postpone the election due to the lack of time or the opposition of the Senate. In fact, by the latest report, House [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY  — How many in Mindanao had expected President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to devote space in her State of the Nation Address yesterday (Monday, July 28) to the 11-year negotiation of the Philippine government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front – seven years under her watch? The GRP-MILF talks on the ancestral domain and [...]

PRESIDENT Arroyo endorsed last July 22 the request of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the appeal of some peace groups to postpone the regional election of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao set on August 11. Congress is the only body that can postpone elections. Despite his earlier opposition to clamors for the postponement of [...]

ON NOVEMBER 15, 2007, Rodolfo Garcia, chair of the GRP negotiating panel, and his MILF counterpart Mohagher Iqbal signed in Kuala Lumpur, witnessed by Othman bin Abdulrazak, the Malaysian talk facilitator, the “points of consensus on the core items of the territorial issue” concerning Ancestral Domain. (INQUIRER.net, Nov. 15, 2007) This ended a 14-month impasse [...]

THE PHASED pullout of the Malaysians from International Monitoring Team-4 and the apparent decision of the Malaysian government to cease joining future IMTs in Mindanao occasioned a finger-pointing between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. What are behind the pullout?
At a glance, the suspension of the GRP-MILF peace negotiation the [...]

NO AMOUNTS of appeals, including those from international groups, could stop the departure last Saturday, May 10, of 29 Malaysian members of the International Monitoring Team including Major General Datuk Mat Yasin Bin Mat Daud, the head of mission. They belonged to IMT-4 whose tour of duty ends on September 8, 2008.
A CN-235 aircraft of [...]

FROM KAURAN Bridge, close to the boundary of Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat to Tamontaka Bridge separating Datu Odin Sinsuat from Cotabato City, one can see today what peace in the last four years has done to the life of the Muslims.  This must be true in all conflict-affected areas of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao de Sur [...]

IN HIS APRIL 18 commentary, Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI deplored the imbroglio in the peace process in Mindanao.  Who will disagree? From a tragedy, the Mindanao drama has become a comedy.
But the element of comedy has always been there.  Since Day One, the peace process has been saddled with inconsistencies. When acts and actors [...]

IN THE MAY election last year, priest-on-leave Eddie Panlilio, without a party and millions to finance his campaign, won as governor of Pampaga against rich and politically entrenched opponents. His was a historic feat — the first that a member of the clergy dislodged traditional politicians from power with the genuine support of the poor. [...]

WILL IT happen to us? By “Us”, I mean “we, Filipino Catholics”. The question refers to the possibility of the crisis the Catholic Church in the United States is now facing happening to the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
The crisis is manifested in the closure or merger of parishes, the closure of Catholic schools or [...]