We, members of the Mindanao Institute of Journalism (MINJOURN)and the Federation of Reporters for Empowerment and Equality (FREE), all based in Mindanao, came together last July 5 to 10 for a visitation to war-torn areas in North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.
Despite differences such as religious faiths, organizational affiliations, disciplines, and political influences, we saw only one glaring truth in our six-day in-depth coverage: this war in Mindanao has brought immense damage to human lives, some already irreparable.
Armed with only our papers, pens, cameras and video, we became witness to how the war has destroyed the very soul of the person, whether he or she is a combatant or a member of a simple rural community suddenly caught in the war.
Both as journalists and citizens, we saw the need for a comprehensive and lasting rehabilitation. We also declare it as immediate, considering an impending phase of another war as President Joseph Estrada announced the alleged fall of MILF's Camp Abubakar and the MILF's declaration of a jihad, or holy war.
The communities we visited all needed indemnification, reparation, and economic assistance to the civilians. Many peoples' homes were either burned or destroyed, while some were badly damaged due to the impact of bombs falling just a few meters away. Other homes were vandalized or ransacked by the combatants.
In Barangay Limbalod, Pagagawan town in Maguindanao, 18-year-old Bai Kong Jama pointed to us a pile of charred wood when we asked her where her home used to be. Of a total of 419 houses here, 411, including Jama's house, were either destroyed or burned in the area en route to the MILF's Camp Rajamuda.
In Barangay Rajamuda, in Pikit, North Cotabato, the community school was virtually turned into a military barracks while some houses became the soldiers' sleeping quarters. The community mosque bore bullet holes while a large portion of the wall was ripped off due to a bomb explosion nearby.
In Sitio Kilabao, in Carmen, North Cotabato, the war prevented the farmers from tilling their lands, and eventually harvesting crops. Crops from a 10-hectare cornfield here were harvested by MILF troops.
What struck us most, however, was the unpronounced yet obvious need of the civilians for psychosocial intervention. The war has taken so much toll in the minds and hearts of the people, who struggle to find a sign of life either in their war-torn community or in evacuation centers where subsistence and survival are the name of the game.
In the tent city in Pikit town plaza, 18-year-old Bai Nalot Payot was nervous how to answer her family's weekly needs for food, since they fled here from their home in Barangay Balong, in Pikit, North Cotabato last May. All of the eleven (11) families -- or 50 individuals -- of the Payot clan cramp together in one tent here, measured at 10 square meters. Each family receives a weekly relief assistance of three kilos of rice, two small cans of sardines in tomato sauce, three packs of instant noodles, 5 sachets of instant coffee and sugar. Life in the evacuation centers is already difficult, yet war-weary people like Payot could not go home, since they do not have homes to go back to.
Most of all, we saw the extra toll of the war on children, who at their young age, are forced to understand and use the language of war. In our consultations with different religious groups and non-government organizations, it is the children who are forced to take the burden more of the ugly and inhumane war. Some children from war-torn areas who underwent psycho-social interventions revealed emotions like these about the war: "Do not cry when your house gets burned or bombed" or "The bullet has no friends or enemies."
As for the combatants, MINJOURN and FREE documented atrocities committed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as seen by burning of houses, harvesting of crops and killings of members of the Aromano Manobo community in Kimadzel, Carmen, North Cotabato between November 1999 up to the present.
The MILF mujahideens have likewise set up bunkers and tunnels underneath houses in at least 15 clearly defined and accepted civilian communities in North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte. We saw as violation the occupation of the municipal hall of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte last March 16, which led to President Joseph Estrada's declaration of an all-out war against the MILF.
The Philippine Marines were singled out as the most responsible for the burning and looting of not less than 500 houses in communities in North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte. Both the Army and Marines were likewise pinpointed as having engaged in unauthorized occupation of privately-owned structures and forced evacuation of civilians. The team documented two young deaths, one-year-old and 14-year-old boys, as a result of shellings in Matanog and Pagagawan towns in Maguindanao.
While we leave to the MILF leadership the responsibility of taking care of the psycho-social needs of their combatants, we, however, strongly urge the Armed Forces of the Philippines to set in place a stress debriefing program for the war-weary soldiers.
We found out in our coversations with government soldiers in Camp Abubakar in Matanog, Maguindanao and in Barangay Rajamuda, in Pikit, North Cotabato that they are the same as most of us: they long to go home, they long to have a nice warm bath, they long for good and tasty food, they long to see their loved ones. But to do all these, the war must end first.
The environment has likewise suffered a heavy toll in the war, particularly within the more than 200,000 hectares Liguasan Marsh which comprise portions of North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat. Bombing sorties and shellings resulted to fish kills, flight of endemic species of birds, as well as the disturbance of the biodiversity of Liguasan Marsh.
We commend the swift, sustained and sometimes, politically-risky interventions made by local officials in provincial, city, municipal and barangay levels in responding to the needs of displaced constituents. Some managed to network beyond the traditional sources of relief and medical assistance.
Some of them, however, compounded the resurgence of anti-Moro and anti-Christian sentiments with their public pronouncements and political antics. Despite knowing the political implications of coming out with a decision, some of them were forced to either endorse or reject the national government's all-out war policy.
While there are some members of the civil society, even those foreign-funded organizations, which may have used the war for their own financial and orientational pursuits, majority of those which responded provided the much-needed comfort and assistance to the displaced civilians.
Many of these civil society groups are also in the forefront of the campaign for the stop of the war, despite knowing the cry for peace may fall on deaf ears. Some of them have even initiated more sustained intervention programs that would ultimatey allow their beneficiaries to stand on their own.
Since defense of life is a universal responsibility, MINJOURN and FREE have taken the task to share these findings to all sectors -- including media, government, church, non-government organizations and even to the combatant forces. As our roles as journalists and citizens, we will make available details of the findings in the stories we will be individually submitting for publication in our respective local, national and international news organizations.
Since the war started, it seems that there has been an orchestrated creation of a "gyera" mood among officials from both combatants and even with the aid of the media. Our six-day journey, however, has revealed that even those at the forefront of war join the innocent civilians in their dream that the war would end soon.
It is our hope and prayer that these stories, coming from Mindanao journalists themselves, will reflect a truthful and a Mindanaoan perspective of the almost four months war.
ROMY ELUSFA
Manila Standard/Mindanao Headliner/FREE
TINA ATILLO
Mindanao Headliner/FREE
KEITH BACONGCO
Mindanao Headliner/FREE
LORNA TADINA
Mindanao Headliner/FREE
ROMER BUTUYAN
Mindanao Headliner/Abante/FREE
GEORGE VIGO
UCA News/Headliner/FREE
RICHEL UMEL
dxIC/Freeman Mindanao/MINJOURN
REY PEROCHO
Freeman Mindanao/MINJOURN
BUTCH ENERIO
Today/MINJOURN
RYAN ROSAURO
Freeman Mindanao/Manila Times/MINJOURN
AURORA FAJARDO
UCA News/Women's Feature Service/MINJOURN
ISAIAH GOLEZ
Southern Mindanao News/FREE
HERNAN DELA CRUZ
Philippine Daily Inquirer/Agence France Presse/MINJOURN
MACH ALBERTO FABE
Philippine Post/UCA News/MINJOURN
AIDA LYN DE LARA
Mindanao Headliner/FREE
BOBBY TIMONERA
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ UCANews/MINJOURN
MERPU ROA
Philippine Daily Inquirer/MINJOURN
