PRESS STATEMENT
Feb. 13, 2007

For reference:           Frankie del Rosario
Public Information  Officer
Suara Party-list Southern Mindanao
0918.722.9102, suara.smr@gmail.com


Zaynab Ampatuan
Deputy National Secretary General
Suara Party-list
0926.743.9231, zaynab_ampatuan@yahoo.com

Tagboanay: The Mindanao tri-people synergism

The Suara Party-list group now takes pride in bringing not only the
voice of the often misunderstood Bangsamoro people but also the
marginalized Lumad and Christian sectors of the society who have
always been put at the backseat of government programs, if not totally
forgotten.

The only group that has consistently carried the issues of the
Bangsamoro people to the consciousness of the public and of the
government, Suara dares to cross the line that divides the tri-people
of Mindanao— working to fix the cultural and religious pleats and
bridging the gaps to foster understanding, respect, and the
recognition of the differences.

Always at the forefront fighting for the rights of the Bangsamoro
people, Suara will also be fighting the struggle of the oppressed
Lumad and Christians who are often shackled and victimized by the
misplaced and often deceiving developmental agenda of the government
and aggravated by militarization in the countryside.

Apparently, these renders them landless, if not stripped-off with
their most valued cultural and traditional identities.

Now, Suara desires to see the tri-people of Mindanao emancipate from
the burdens of social ills through an inter-cultural and political
synergy called Tagboanay.

This as Suara remains to be true to its being—as the defender of the
rights of the people's of Mindanao whose voice almost not heard, whose
rights always violated and needs, often abandoned.

Despite this, no one from those (traditional politicians) who have
been given the chance to be at the congress or senate, not even those
who hailed from Mindanao, ever dared to raise the issue of the
tri-people and attempted to advocate for a policy which could have
changed their plight.

Instead, these traditional Mindanao policy-makers threw their support
to the policies of the government that only worsened the condition of
the people particularly on all-out-war, militarization, and
developmental aggression (which undermined and threatened the
environment and the lives of the people like mining and pineapple and
banana plantations).

The civilian Bangsamoro people, for instance, remain to be the usual
suspect when it comes to terrorism and would become the recipient of
the government's ire.

Case in point is the recent evacuation of hundreds of Moro civilians
from the villages of the town of Kabacan because of military
operations against the 48 inmates who escaped from the North Cotabato
Provincial Jail.

In 2oo3, thousands of civilians also took the repercussions of the
all-out-war policy of the government against the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF). The government may have won the war when it
crushed the stronghold of the rebels at the Buliok Complex but it also
destroyed the lives of the civilians with the deaths of a number of
children and elderly at the evacuation centers.

Added to this were the damages left by the Arroyo-war to the people's
properties, which if summed-up could never be justified by the
government's victory over the MILF.

The Lumad, on the other hand, suffer just as worse. At the
countryside, hundreds of Lumad families are dying in poverty—with no
access to basic health services and food.   And their death is made
even more horrendous and painful as they witness how government
developmental policies destroy the environment.

Over the years, Suara criticized the policies of the government on war
and the abuses of its agents on the poor and hapless sectors of the
society.

And no letting up, Suara will remain.

Suara Party-list: Ang Tinuod nga Tingog sa Mindanao!!!