The United Youth for Peace and Development, Inc. (UNYPAD) has just sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama of the United States of America (USA) regarding the ongoing conflict in Mindanao, South of the Philippines.
We are quoting below the said letter:
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
UNITED YOUTH FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT, INC. (UNYPAD)
Datu Liwa Candao St., Shariff Kabunsuan, RH-3, Cotabato City
S.E.C. Reg. No. CN 200428294
08 November 2008
His Excellency Barack Hussein Obama
President
United States of America
His Excellency,
We join the people in your country and around the world in congratulating you for your victory in the newly-concluded presidential elections held in your great country.
Indeed, your victory is a great moment in the history of the United States not only because it represents your people’s undying hope to prosper amid the beatings of the present global crisis but it also affirms that your people had already burned the corpse of a culture that disrupts the birthing of a new democratic America. Your victory has demonstrated that there is hope as long as we do not stop from dreaming to change our country and world into a better place to live in. We wish you strength and sustaining fortitude as you work to change America and the world.
We, the members of the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD), a broad coalition of peace advocates in Mindanao, note and applaud your commitment to supporting the cause of peace and security around the world. As you work for change in your country, we heartily behoove upon you to look at us with charity and mercy in Mindanao, an Island which has been soaked in blood and sufferings brought about by decades of ferments.
The Bangsamoro Struggle
The age-old struggle of the Bangsamoro people in Mindanao to fight for freedom from Filipino domination and for self-determination has been the second oldest internal conflict in the world, next to Sudan, and the largest movement in Southeast Asia.
This armed conflict is rooted from the Spanish colonial period when the Bangsamoro people had been deprived of their basic rights as a sovereign people. They were marginalized in their own homeland when the colonial government supported the influx of Christian settlers from Luzon and Visayas in Mindanao. This flared up the conflict between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao and resulted to centuries of open hostilities between the government and the Muslim rebels.
It is sad to note that this war had already claimed thousands of lives, devastated millions of properties, fostered hatred between and among tribes, and destroyed the stability of the national politics and economy.
How the Mindanao Conflict is Handled by the Current Administration
The administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo initiated the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as an attempt to forge a viable peace agreement that would address the legitimate grievances of the Bangsamoro people. This resulted to the forging of the Tripoli Peace Agreement in 2001 between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF revolving around three substantive agenda: security, rehabilitation and ancestral domain.
The peace talks between the GRP and the MILF suffered from various setbacks. The most recent obstacle happened on August 5, 2008 when the signing of the GRP-MILF Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in Kuala Lumpur has been suspended by the Supreme Court. The MOA-AD could have been a breakthrough towards the attainment of the long-held aspirations of the Bangsamoro people for Freedom. This was however struck down by the Supreme Court in just a short period of three months, totally abandoning the long years of painstaking negotiations between the GRP and the MILF.
The Philippine government has dissolved its negotiating panel, withdrawn its commitment to sign a peace instrument, and shifted the paradigm of peace process within the context of disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation (DDR).
Now, Mindanao has plunged further into a savage armed conflict. The fighting between the government and MILF forces has been intensified. Mindanao is carrying the heaviest cost of the armed conflict and is now suffering from a very serious humanitarian crisis that already displaced more than 500,000 civilians.
Our Appeal
We know that you are not alien to the nature of the war that is being waged in this Island for you had lived and worked in Asia, and, therefore, you are aware of the problems here. We know that you could do something to put an end to the armed conflict in Mindanao and usher this Island finally into the era of peace and prosperity.
We, then, heartily appeal to you to directly intervene to help us in our effort to convince the GRP and the MILF to go back to the negotiating table and eventually ink the MOA. The application of military solution in resolving the Mindanao conflict will only prolong the agony of the communities directly affected by war. Your direct intervention is also of significant value to help us influence the United Nations to send its peacekeeping forces in Mindanao to help us stabilize the situations on the ground.
We behoove upon you to hear the cries of our people.
Sincerely,
Sgd. RAHIB L. KUDTO
National President
Sgd. BADRUDIN T. ABAS
National Vice President for Internal Affairs
Sgd. ANWAR A. UPAHM
National Vice President for External Affairs
Sgd. SAMSODIN C. AMELLA
Executive Secretary General
Sgd. ANWAR Z. SALUWANG
Asst. Executive Secretary General for Finance
Sgd. TAHER G. SOLAIMAN
Asst. Executive Secretary General for Administration
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