The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), a network organization who committed themselves to a shared vision of a Bangsamoro society where people enjoy the fruit of their successful struggle for a peaceful, democratic and progressive society is one with the Civil Society Organizations in the SOCSKARGEN region.
CSO Support Statement
President Rodrigo Duterte signed on November 16, 2019 Memorandum Order No. 41 creating a technical working group (TWG) to study the establishment of a military camp in Barangay Kapantaran, Marawi City “to reinforce current efforts of the government to secure Marawi City and its neighboring areas”.
The Mranao people and their leaders are one in expressing their opposition and rejection to the proposed establishment of a military camp in Barangay, Kapantaran in Marawi City.
Two weeks (Nov. 28) after the signing of MO 41, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), through its chapter in Lanao Del Sur, headed by its president, Atty. Aminodin Macalandap, appealed to President Duterte to reconsider the plan to establish another military camp in Marawi City.
Atty. Macalandap said, “Building (another) military camp will only aggravate the flame of indignation already burning in the hearts of young Maranaos dispossessed of their lands (in) the Marawi siege and denied of economic opportunities because of unfair treatment discrimination from their fellow Filipinos”.
“We recognize the immense responsibility of the President to secure the safety of the people. But then, this power should be balanced with the rights of the people over their private properties, as well as the rights of the Maranao people over their ancestral lands,” Atty. Macalandap added.
The PLGU of Lanao del Sur, headed by Gov. Mamintal Adiong, also aired through a resolution their disapproval and resentment of the military’s plan to set up a new camp on top of the old City Hall in Marawii. “A new military camp may create animosity towards the military, offend cultural sensitivities and transgress private rights,” they said in the resolution.
According to Mr. Drieza A. Liniding, an active and articulate peace advocate in the Lanao area, a local radio program, the Saksi Islamic Radio Forum gathered more than 100,000 signatures opposing the proposed establishment of a military camp in Barangay Kapantaran, Marawi City,
According to Member of the Parliament, Dr. Marjanie S. Mimbantas (Bangsamoro Transition Authority), his office has received Resolution No. 5, dated December 7, Series of 2019 of the Sixteen Royal Houses of Lanao, requesting His Excellency Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President: Republic of the Philippines, to stop the Proposed Construction and/or Building a Carmelite Military Camp inside the Most Affected Area of the Islamic City of Marawi.
In solidarity with the Mranaw people of Marawi City, who are threatened to be uprooted, marginalized, and dispossessed of their ancestral lands by a proposed establishment of a military camp in the City of Marawi, the center of their commercial and economic life, we, a group of CSOs in the SOCSKARGEN region, herby re-echo, reverberate, and amplify their voices and calls
- To President RR Duterte to withdraw his MO No. 41, date Nov. 15, 2019; and
- To the BARMM leadership to intervene and negotiate with President RR Duterte to drop his plan contained in his MO NO. 41, dated Nov. 15, 2019.
Recent Comments