I TOOK WOUNDS FOR PEACE

A privilege speech, February 10, 2015, by

DEPUTY SPEAKER PANGALIAN M. BALINDONG
Representative, 2nd District of Lanao del Sur

Mr. Speaker, distinguished Colleagues,

I rise to speak for peace and support the policy of the
President to push for peace without let up, and call for this
August Chamber of Congress to deliberate on the Bangsamoro
Basic Law with urgency and pass it in opportune time.
Mr. Speaker, distinguished Colleagues, the Bangsamoro
Basic Law is a product of peace negotiation, and the MILF and
the Government worked for 17 years to put it together.
No doubt, it is a political resolution to the secessionist
struggle of the Bangsamoro.
As we all know, obstacles littered the way.
But the parties were able to surmount them.
For peace, to borrow from George Bernard Shaw, is not
only better than war, but more infinitely arduous.
That cannot be gainsaid.
But Im afraid Im hearing the drumbeats of war within
this August Chamber in the wake of the Mamasapano Incident.
Mr. Speaker, at this time and without a thorough
investigation as yet, I do not wish to locate responsibility for the
incident.
But I understand that it is a foison of an earthquake, and
some of our colleagues were stirred into antipathy at the BBL
and are pushing for the suspension of its deliberation.
I too felt the shock.
But instead of antipathy, I was moved with greater resolve
to work for peace and mend fences.
I know war and it is cruel.

Many kin and friends, more than the figure of 44, died in
the struggle of the Bangsamoro for self-determination.
According to literature, more than 100,000 of our people,
most of whom were innocent civilians, lost their lives, their
graves mostly unmarked and the whole of Moroland their
graveyard.
And how they were done in and abused were much
horrendous.
Many were killed in the masjids and while in prayers, their
villages and masjids looted and burned, crops destroyed, draft
animals either killed for meals or carted away, the bodies
mutilated, pregnant women disemboweled, children left to
survive without ears.
Moroland was a warren for soldiers and the Bangsamoro
were the game.
Let me highlight instances that flash me red even to this
day.
In Manili, Carmen, 70 Muslims were killed inside a mosque
including 29 women and 13 children, one of whom was a 3month-old infant suckling his mothers breast when they were
both felled.
In Siocon, Zamboanga Del Norte, Muslim women were
herded in a school building and openly molested and later
killed.
In the towns of Lebak and Kalamansig, Muslim women
were dried naked under the heat of the sun and made to do
striptease act, the pretty ones frequently taken to naval boats
to satisfy the lust of its officers and crewmen.
Every night at least four to seven men took turns to
divest every woman of her dignity.
Many professionals with promising careers have left the
comforts of life and preferred a difficult existence in the care of
rebellion to vent their pent-up emotions.

In economic terms, the war is a deadweight on the

progress of the country. In a 26-year period, the Philippine
military spent 73 billion pesos, or an average of 40 percent of
its annual budget.
Mr. Speaker, distinguished Colleagues, I want this war to
end now.
I am afraid time will come when I have no more tears to
shed for empathy.
I am now old and I know when that time comes, my legs
will not carry me to the warfort of rebellion.
But many of my descendants and kin will.
The Muslims persevere and their armed champions have
entered into peace agreements with the government and
observed ceasefire holidays.
We Muslims love peace, its pursuit an injunction of our
faith.
One of the names of God is Peace.
Our salutation is an expression of peace.
Our formalistic prayers end with words of peace. The
Quran says
If your enemy is inclined to peace, Muslims should also be
inclined.
Mr. Speaker, the Bangsamoro have taken wounds for
peace.
The Tripoli Agreement of 1976 between the MNLF and the
Government were violated by the latter and went on to create
an Autonomous Region for the Bangsamoro sans the
participation of the MNLF and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference.
The 1996 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the
same parties were not implemented fully, and until Misuaris
Zamboangas show off, it was a subject of discussion between
them under the auspices of Indonesia.
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The 2008 Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral

Domain between the MILF and the Government was scrapped
off by the latter despite having initialed it.
Autonomy for the Bangsamoro was treated by
Government as a political experiment and only half-heartedly
passed an emasculated autonomy law, Republic Act 6734 and
its amendatory law, Republic Act 9054.
Mr. Speaker, at this juncture, let me pose the question:
What is bothering some of us as to be unwilling to take wounds
for peace?
The voice of the first woman legislator in the U.S. House of
Representatives and human rights activist Jeanette Rankin
brattles in my ears.
She said, You can never win a war than you can win an
earthquake.
Even Napoleon Bonaparte himself, the first emperor of
France and one of the greatest military generals in history, puts
premium on peace.
He said, If nations want peace, they should avoid
pinpricks that precede cannon shots.
I emphasize, however one slices it, war is cruelty.
Earnest Hemingway says it is a crime.
It dehumanizes warring parties.
To borrow from John F. Kennedy, war ensues because of
failure of wisdom. And in the Mindanao Conflict whose failure of
wisdom is it?
Mr. Speaker, Just asking, and I have no intention to dwell
on the issue.
What I am concerned about is our state of affairs in
relation to the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
Do we stall its passage in view of the Mamasapano
Incident and wait for what eternity will bring and miss
altogether the bus of peace?
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A great medieval bard wrote an eternal verity, a font of

wisdom that should guide our action on the issues before us
today. And I quote him:
As peace is of the nature of conquest, for then
both parties
nobly are subdued and neither party loses
The pursuit of peace is not only a divine injunction to
Muslims.
Its a mandate on Christians as well. In the 1 st Epistle to
the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote:
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be
called the
children of God.

Mr. Speaker, distinguished Colleagues,

In conclusion, I urge the Leadership to resume
our review of the BBL, and not to equate the bill
with the Mamasapano incident, or else, those who
want the armed struggle to continue will have won.
We must not fail to take the chance to make our
nation right, or the lives lost for the sake of peace,
like those of the fallen in Mamasapano, shall have
died in vain.
It is NOW, or it may be NEVER.
Thank you.