AMIN calls for early elections in ARMM

Anak Mindanao (AMIN) party-list is set to file a bill in Congress calling for the early elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), including Isabela City in Basilan and Cotabato City.

The conduct of an early elections in the ARMM, Isabela City and Cotabato City will “provide ample time for the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to conduct violence-free, honest and credible elections in the various areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao including Isabela City in Basilan Province and Cotabato City.”

“The main aim of this proposed measure is to uphold the vote of every voter and not disenfranchised the voters due to perceived electoral violence, such as the Maguindanao Massacre which took the lives of more than sixty (60) innocent lives,” according to the bill’s authors, Rep. Ariel C. Hernandez and Rep. Mujiv S. Hataman.

Hernandez explained that conducting an earlier elections in the ARMM including the cities of Isabela and Cotabato is “a significant step towards realizing our goal for a clean, honest, credible and peaceful elections in our country particularly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao including the Cities of Isabela and Cotabato City.”

Hernandez noted that electoral fraud during the past two presidential elections were done in the ARMM, particularly in Maguindanao, where innocent civilians, including women and journalists were killed along with politicians who were challenging the ruling Ampatuan clan.

“To avoid a repeat of this incident, which is the worst election-related violence in the history of our country, it is necessary that the COMELEC focuses its attention to the ARMM only and it can do that by conducting elections there ahead of the rest of the country,” he stressed.

Once approved, the measure calls for the adjustment of the election calendar in the ARMM, Isabela City and Cotabato City “to give candidates and the political parties to prepare for their respective campaign activities.”

The measure also gives the COMELEC 15 days “to perform its mandate and provide the general public the outcome of the elections in the area.”

The Provincial Board of Canvassers, composed of 6 members including the president of a State College/University and a representative from each of the ruling majority party and dominant opposition party, is also mandated to canvass the votes of all candidates but shall only proclaim the elected member of the House of Representatives, provincial officials, city officials, and municipal officials.

The winners in the presidential, vice presidential and senatorial race will be proclaimed after the votes from all over the country, including that of the ARMM, Isabela City and Cotabato City, have been canvassed. (PR/AMIN)

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
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Congressman Plaza Berates MARINA Head for thousands stranded in Batangas

Rep. Ompong Plaza discuss things with other government officials.

Congress, QC - Agusan Del Sur Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Plaza yesterday lashed out at Marina Administrator Marilen Bautista for stranding thousands of passengers returning from their holiday vacation in Oriental Mindoro and Batangas ports in the wake of the sinking of M/V Baleno 9 off Isla Verde Island.

At the same time, the senatoriable from Mindanao renewed his call for Bautista to resign from her post for being unqualified to run the agency tasked to safeguard the safety of seagoing passengers.

“As if to make up for the Christmas tragedy that killed 60 people, she grounded almost all passenger ships plying the Batangas-Mindoro that affected thousands who had to immediately return to their places of work,” he said.

Earlier, Plaza challenged Bautista and other heads of maritime enforcement agencies to resign for their inability to insure the safety of seagoing passengers. He also urged relatives of victims to file a class suit not only against the ship owners, but also against responsible officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications, Marina and Coast Guard.

Bautista blamed certain politicians exerting pressure on her office to go easy on passenger ships and lack of personnel to make an audit on all seagoing vessels in the country.

Plaza urged the Marina head to name names of the mentioned politicians, adding that her inability to resist their lobbying only showed that she is not qualified to lead the agency, whose paramount mandate is the safety of the seagoing public.

“Ilang buhay pa ang mamamatay, magpapasko pa naman noong nangyari ang nasabing paglubog. Ang mga biktima may dalang pera at regalo pag-uwi nila sa kanilng mga pamilya, pero ito darating silang puro mga patay,” he said.

In a related development, a concerned citizen said that the Norwegian government donated P20 million to the Philippines to enact a law to consolidate all government agencies into a one-stop shop for the documentation of seafarers. This way, our seamen would avoid the tedious process of going to the Professional Regulation Commission, TESDA, Marina, Maritime Council and Department of Labor for their accreditation.

Instead of crafting a bill that will benefit seafarers as intended by the donor, he said that Bautista had other ideas in mind. Her version, now pending in congress, would give more powers to Marina incorporating under it the Philippine Ports Authority, the Coast Guard and Maritime Office of Transport.

What’s more, he said, Marina would be elevated into full-pledged cabinet department, and would give a tenure of seven years to the secretary of the proposed Department of Maritime Affairs.

He asked Bautista to account for the P20 million grant by the Norwegian government that is supposed to create a one-stop shop for the accreditation of Pilipino seafarers.(PR/Office of Congressman Plaza)

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
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AMIN: Fight for the Lumads!

The Anak Mindanao (AMIN ) party-list today condemns in the strongest possible terms the brutal murder of anti-logging lumad leader and urges authorities in Gingoog City to immediately arrest the killers to give justice to him and other Higaonon people who have been killed fighting for their Constitutional and lawful rights defending their ancestral domain.

Higaonon leader Alberto “Berting” Pinagawa, who organized his community to move for the immediate cancellation of the Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) awarded to Southwood Timber Corporation (STC) in May 2008 covering 11,476 hectares of land in Barangay Anakan in Gingoog City and Minalwang in Claveria town was brutally killed while waiting for a habal-habal ride to a get-together in Barangay Kalipayan, Gingoog City on December 24.

His body was riddled with at least 20 bullets from high-powered guns that shattered his abdomen and right arm. He was with his 13-year-old nephew when he was killed.

The STC logging concession is within the Higaonon’s ancestral domain claim.

Berting’s murder is the latest of unsolved killings of at least 140 lumads since May 2001 who were only defending their ancestral domains against government-sponsored development aggressions like mining, corporate plantations, logging concessions and large-scale dams in Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.

Among those killed were 14 women, 4 of which were pregnant; 7 children and 16 key lumad leaders.

Today, AMIN joins in solidarity with the Higaonon nation in calling for justice for Berting Pinagawa.

His cowardly murder last December 24 is the latest of unsolved killings of Higaonons perpetrated by those who allowed themselves to be used to further the inequities against the lumads and unlawful travesty of their ancestral domain.

Last November 21, 2009 Higaonon Datu Elvie Binungkasan was also killed by people who use the guns to silence those who cry against state-sponsored violence against the lumads.

Datu Binungkasan was the 48^th Higaonon datu who was killed fighting for their ancestral domain since the 1980s.

As Anak Mindanao representative, I am not only representing Mindanao in Congress, but more so the tri-peoples of Mindanao: the Christian settlers, our Muslim brothers and sisters and most importantly our lumad brethren whose rights have up to now been sidelined in the name of development.

I and my colleagues in the Anak Mindanao party-list echo the call of the Higaonon and all lumad nations to bring to the bar of justice the cowards who orchestrated Berting Pinagawa and Datu Binungkasan’s murders and the killings of the other Higaonon datus.

To the masterminds of Pinagawa and Binungkasan’s murders, I tell you this: You may have killed them, but you have not killed their cause! Not now! Not ever!

I call on the government agencies, especially our law enforcement authorities, to redouble their efforts to bring to justice not only the butchers of Pinagawa and Binungkasan and all the victims of extra-judicial killings perpetrated by non-state armed groups used by the state and its partners in the private sector but more importantly the masterminds behind these ruthless slaughters!

My native city, Gingoog, had seen the worst flood in its history twice this year, in January and last November. And we cannot afford to let the city and its people drown in another future deluge brought about by typhoons because no forest trees will absorb the rainwaters cascading from a bare mountain in Claveria to the city poblacion.

I, therefore, call on Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to immediately review the IFMA awarded to STC and cancel it immediately in favor of our Higaonon brethren and the environment.

I also call on the Gingoog City government, most especially Mayor Ruthie Guingona and the honorable members of the City Council, to listen to the cries of our lumad brethren in Barangay Anakan whose already hard lives have been made worst by the logging operations of STC. Look at their plight, empathized and immediately act in their favor. Spare the city and all Gingoognons of future floodings and other nature-induced calamities by immediately passing a resolution urging the DENR to immediately cancel the IFMA awarded to STC.

And to STC, spare us, Gingoognons, Misamisnons and Mindanawons a bleak future especially for our children and their children’s children by leaving our forests alone! Stop your unwelcomed and unwanted logging operations in our midst! Go home and never ever return!

Today, AMIN honors Berting Pinagawa and Datu Binungkasan by reaffirming our unwavering support to the lumads’ struggle for their ancestral domain and emancipation from feudal and capital bondage as AMIN unwaveringly struggles for genuine social transformation and equity for all in Mindanao be they Christian settlers, Muslims and lumads.

Pagpugay kaninyo Berting Pinagawa and Datu Binungkasan sa inyong kusganong pakigbisog ug pagpaningkamot alang sa mga lumad. Ang binhi nga inyong gitanom ug gibisbisan sa inyong kaugalingong dugo among amumahon aron motubo ug mamunga ug mahimong sumbanan alang kanamo sa pagpadayon sa inyong nasugdan nga pakigbisog alang sa usa ka Mindanao ng atong gipangandoy diin walay Muslim, Kristiyano o Lumad man kundili kitang tanan mga Mindanawon nga malinawon ug mabungahon nga nanginabuhi sa atong kaugalingon yuta nga gipasa kanato sa atong mga katigulangan.

Mabuhi kamo Berting Pinagawa ug Datu Binungkasan!

Ariel Caringal Hernandez, Representative -Anak Mindanao Party List

(PR Anak Mindanao)

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
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Reform of security sector now an imperative after Maguindanao incident

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—As the hearing of the multiple murder case against Andal Ampatuan Jr. begins next week, calls for reform of the Security Sector, including the justice system, begins to snowball in Mindanao.

Ampatuan Jr. has been charged with multiple murder after he allegedly led hundreds of his men in stopping a convoy carrying supporters of political rival and journalists on November 23, 2009.

The victims were systematically murdered and buried in shallow pits or dumped in grasslands just near the national highway in Maguindanao province, where Amapatuan Jr.'s father and namesake was governor. The dead included pregnant women and about 30 journalists.

Following the massacre, the President declared Martial Law in Maguindanao and lifted it after 8-days. Thousands of high-powered firearms and ammunitions were recovered buried in the Ampatuans’ land bearing markings that the cache came from the government arsenal.

Questions such as who supplied the firearms to the Ampatuans remain unanswered, prompting a lawmaker from Mindanao to call for the immediate reform of the security sector, which includes the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and the justice system.

According to AMIN Rep. Ariel C. Hernandez, security sector reform has now become an imperative in light of the recent events in Maguindanao, which prompted the declaration of Martial Law in the province on December 4, 2009.

The 8-day Martial rule in Maguindanao resulted to the disbandment of the government-created and government-armed Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVOs) and Special CAFGU Active Auxiliary Units (SCAAs), which have been used by powerful clans such as the Ampatuans as their own private armies.

Hernandez suggested that government immediately implement the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) framework in Maguindanao to complement the efforts of the military to disband the CVOs and SCAAs.

“DDR as a framework was first mentioned by government as a part of negotiation with the MILF after the impasse created by the MOA-AD debacle… Obviously, it did not hold any water and it was even thought as an ill-conceived and very weak offer that no respectable revolutionary would dare accept it as it is tantamount to surrender. But in this case, I would argue that rather than completely forget the framework because it failed in its debut, it might be considered as a good framework to complement the objective of disbanding the armed groups (CVO’s and SCAA’s),” he said.

Hernandez stressed that CVOs and SCAAs which were invented by the government to help in its counter-insurgency campaign have become “vulnerable to the interests and agendas of local politicians.”

“Sensing trouble and possible attacks from these government-initiated groups, the national government declared Martial Law to prevent them from doing retaliation after their principals (the Ampatuans) were picked up by government troops for the criminal cases and rebellion charges,” he said.

But the question remains: what should government do with the CVOs and SCAAs now that Martial Law was lifted on December 12, 2009?

The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of the Martial Law declaration in Maguindanao more than a month ago.

According to Hernandez, the continued inaction of the Supreme Court regarding the whole Martial Law issue and its subsequent lifting by the President prompted many to consider it as “another political exercise that did not bring any breakthrough in the important matters of governance and policy making.”

Because of this, Hernandez urged the Executive Department to immediately implement DDR, starting in Maguindanao, and throughout the whole country because “there are also many warlords holding political positions in government in Luzon and the Visayas.”

Reports from the military and police forces indicate that private armies exist in Abra, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Cagayan, Isabela, Tarlac, Masbate , Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, and Isabela.

Hernandez also urged that Malacanang also create security arrangements to the former CVOs and SCAAs after their disbandment to protect them from reprisals which might be carried out by the enemies of the Ampatuans.

Consonant with the implementation of the DDR, especially in Maguindanao, government must also install mechanisms that will ensure an orderly, clean and honest elections in Maguindanao and in the ARMM.

“All these need a restructuring and reformulation of government policies especially because of the ongoing peace negotiations with the MILF,” Hernandez said. (PR Anak Mindanao)

PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
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