MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/22 March) --  Two American servicemen stationed in the Campo Ranao up the Signal Hill, Marawi were guest speakers at a recent International Relations Forum at the Mindanao State University (MSU), overlooking the majestic Lake Lanao. But the cool air might have turned warm for the two guests who were asked all sorts of controversial issues ranging from the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) to US President Barrack Obama’s agenda in the Southern Philippines. Many students were curiously asking why were American troops around Marawi, a conservative Islamic City, with barely a handful of foreigners staying because of fears of insecurity.

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/09 March) -- While women  are said to hold half the skies, they also hold more than the sun, rain, its torrents and its thunders. I had just gotten the bad news from sources quoting the Marawi City Hospital, Amai Pakpak, that there were 50 incidents of rido (vendetta) - related incidents since December 2008 (in a record two months alone). What is fearsome is that women have been recent targets of this vendetta phenomenon; it is no longer isolated to men fighting
among themselves with guns. Killing women would make vendetta a more powerful instrument to create fear against the enemy.

(Delivered during the OUR PEACE, YOUR PEACE: MINDANAO YSPEAK, UPPING THE PEACE ANTENNA. A Presentation by Young Moro Professionals of their Roundtable Assembly Outputs held last Nov. 28, Davao City and Dec. 19-21, Zamboanga City on Feb 6, 2009, Asian Institute of Management, Makati City)

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/19 June) -- I am a Maranao whose parents are from Lanao.

My relationship with Sulu started early in life, having grown up with Tausug friends. I was drawn to their fierce loyalty to friendship and relationship. Despite the traditional mistrust between the two major Muslim cultural communities, Maranao and Tausug, my friendships with them disprove that the "other" is a traidor.