DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 April) – The two-volume “Bangsamoro: Documents and Materials” published by the Ateneo de Davao University in partnership with MindaNews, is now off the press, the first book on the Bangsamoro peace process published after the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 27.
“Bangsamoro: Documents and Materials” is a compilation of speeches, news, commentaries, documents and statements on the recently-signed CAB, the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) signed on October 15, 2012 and its four annexes — Wealth-Sharing, Power-Sharing, Normalization and Transitional Arrangements and Modalities, and Addendum on Bangsamoro waters.
The book was launched at the Ateneo de Davao University on Wednesday, at the end of the first day of the “Conversations on Peacebuilding in Mindanao” organized by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission on Inter-religious Dialogue (CBCP-ECID) and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP).
The commentaries in “Bangsamoro: Documents and Materials,” written mostly by Mindanawons, were earlier published in www.mindanews.com, the online publication of MindaNews, and the weekly OUR Mindanao newsmagazine. The commentaries represent diverse views on the issue.
Featured in the book are commentaries by veteran journalist Patricio P. Diaz, who has continuously followed, chronicled and analyzed the Bangsamoro struggle and the government’s responses from the beginnings of the armed conflict to the peace processes between government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and later with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as editor of the Cotabato City-based Mindanao Cross from the 1960s to 1980s and later Mindanao Kris, and as columnist of MindaNews since it was set up in 2001.
Diaz, 87, has written at least four books on the Bangsamoro struggle: “To Tripoli and Back” published in Cotabato City in 1995; “What ails Muslim autonomy?,” published in General Santos City in 1998 and the MindaNews-published “Understanding Mindanao Conflict” in 2003 and “Troubled Odyssey” in 2011.
Also featured are commentaries by historian Rudy Rodil former government peace panel chair Jesus Dureza, Judge Soliman Santos, Mayor Zamzamin Ampatuan of Rajah Buayan in Maguindanao; UP Professor Julkipli Wadi and Dean Antonio La Vina of the Ateneo School of Government, who both write columns for MindaNews; Michael Henry Yusingco; Miriam Coronel-Ferrer before she became GPH peace panel chair; Bangsamoro Transition Commission members Johaira Wahab and Froilyn Tenorio Mendoza; and other MindaNews columnists Aveen Acuna-Gulo, H. Marcos C. Mordeno, Ramon Jorge Sarabosing, Bro. Karl Gaspar, William Adan, Ayesah Abubakar, Bong Montesa, Manny Valdehuesa and Mussolini Sinsuat Lidasan, who is also executive director of the Al Qalam Institute at the ADDU.
The commentaries of Dr. Steven Rood of The Asia Foundation, and now a member of the Third Party Monitoring Team; Kristian Herbolzheimer and Emma Leslie of Conciliation Resources and the International Contact Group (where Dr. Rood was a member until he moved to the TPMT) and Jeremy Simons on Initiatives for International Dialogue – who have been accompanying the Bangsamoro peace process for years — are also featured in the book.
At the launch, Fr. Joel Tabora, SJ, President of the Ateneo de Davao University and chair of the CEAP’s National Advocacy Commission, said the university is “proud to have partnered with MindaNews in producing this double volume of documents and materials on Bangsamoro.”
“I am certain it will be an invaluable source not only for studying the foundational texts of the current peace process but also for stimulating informed discussion on its many open issues,” Tabora said.
The book’s editors are MindaNews’ Carolyn O. Arguillas and the Ateneo de Davao University’s Romulo Vinci R. Bueza and Atty. Jamil Adrian Khalil S. Matalam with Mussolini Sinsuat Lidasan as Technical Consultant.
According to the preface, the book aims to “inform and serve as a study resource for the diverse opinions and insights about the matters and issues related to the making of the new political entity that is The Bangsamoro.”
“It informs the readers of the various opinions and insights from the Government, the MILF, stakeholders coming from the academe, critics and other professionals concerning peace and The Bangsamoro,” it said, adding it will serve as a “good resource book or reference for any student of the Bangsamoro and peace.”
The book also hopes to “contribute, ultimately, in the realization of peace not only in Mindanao, but most significantly, in the Country” and “is a prayer and a call for peace!”
Copies of the book are available at the Office of the University President, Ateneo de Davao University. The two-volume book costs P1,200 but you may may avail of the promotional price of P800 until May 31. (MindaNews)
