PEACE remains a rare and elusive commodity in Mindanao from the time the Spanish colonizers tried to subdue and convert the Muslims in the South to Christianity in the 16th century. Neither has a Philippine President been able to forge and instill a lasting peace in the region that comprises more than 21 percent of the country’s population and contributes roughly 15 percent to total gross domestic product.
As long as there is no lasting peace in the South, as long as violence is the currency of exchange and innocent Filipinos end up as collateral damage in the crossfire, the Philippines as a nation cannot savor the freedom relished by those who first recited the Act of the Declaration of Independence and waved the yellow, red, white and blue in Kawit, Cavite, on June 12, 1898, after more than 350 years of oppressive Spanish rule.
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