DAVAO CITY ------ Concerned about the destruction of lives and properties brought by the ongoing armed conflict in various parts of Mindanao after the failed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), partners of Bread for the World (BftW)-Germany, an international program for the poor, urged armed forces of both sides - the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to STOP THE WAR IN MINDANAO.
As a result of the renewed fighting between the AFP and the MILF, hundreds of innocent women and children were killed or wounded. Hundreds of thousands of them have been forced to flee from their homes and farms. Mindanao has once again become highly militarized. Christian-Muslim relations are once again undergoing strain.
“Reports from the Amnesty International and the Department of Health-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao stated that as of October, the number of internally displaced persons has risen to around 610,000. Fifty six of them, mostly children and women, died during the actual armed encounters and while staying in the evacuation centers”, said Mary Luz Feranil, Executive Director of the Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), an NGO partner of Bread for the World-Germany.
Thus, to reverberate their call to the public, NGO partners of Bread for the World-Germany will be conducting a March Rally for Peace on November 18, 2008 from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon from Freedom Park to Rizal Park here in the city. One thousand participants from NGOs, church, academe, and peasant groups are expected to join the rally.
Dolores Corro, Executive Director of the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE) said that “through this campaign, we hope to bring about unified and collective actions from all sectors – NGOs, CSOs, academe, church.- to call for peace and spare the lives of the innocent victims of war and to contribute to a broader consensus on peace and development in Mindanao and in the country”.
Bread for the World-Germany is a programme of help instigated by the protestant churches in Germany in 1959. It works jointly with local churches and partner organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe on over 1,000 projects, and are aimed at helping people to help themselves. The motto behind their work is “justice for the poor”.
Its partners here in Mindanao includes: Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE), Alagad-Mindanao, Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), Foundation for Agrarian Reform Coops in Mindanao (FARMCOOP), Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc. (KFI), Pailig Development Foundation Inc., Silingang Dapit sa Sidlakang Mindanao (SILDAP); Sustainable Integrated Area Development In Mindanao Convergence for Asset Reform and Regional Development (SIMCARRD); and the Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women (TWMAEW).