Mindanao Conflict

The recent violence in Maguindanao brought back focus on issues of public safety and peace in Mindanao. Read up on what candidates plan to do to alleviate the conflict in this region.
Jamby Madrigal
Independent
Mindanao has long been a land impoverished by foreign agribusiness, logging, mining, fishing and other economic interests and their local partners. It has also been the locale for grabbing of Moro and Lumad lands by so-called Christians, fuelling separatist and religious conflict. It has also been the medieval setting for feudal warlord-trading clans wielding arms, sowing terror and selling votes in cahoots with exploitative foreign investors, the Philippine military and police, and Malacanang vote buyers.

The resolution of the Mindanao conflict can only be the realization of a truly independent and industrialized economy and politics free from foreign control and feudalism. Like the rest of the Philippines, Mindanao should be developed along the lines of freedom from the “free market/free trade” policies dictated by the IMF, WB and WTO and other foreign agencies. Free from such dictation, Mindanao can truly become a land of promise and lasting peace made prosperous by genuine, Filipino-owned-and-controlled industrialization and genuine agrarian reform and justice measures.
3.3 / 5  (3 votes)

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