Minding Mindanao

My plate is sooo full these days, i literally cram on the things needed to be done. I ask for understanding from my sisters in PulseWire if i can only post ever so sparingly. But rest assured, i read almost every post that is downloaded to my email. Now to the task of the second assignment:

My planned front line story will deal on my experience living in the troubled Mindanao, an island in Southern Philippines. I plan to write on how the ordinary people of Mindanao view the continuing and escalating armed conflict between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The recent escalation of violence resulting from failed talks has caused the displacement of 745,763 persons said to be the “biggest new displacement in the world” by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Viewed as “ an impending humanitarian disaster” by international relief organizations, the situation of displaced communities failed to elicit effective actions from the government to address the problem. There are even attempts to keep the journalists from covering the news.

I want to write about how the people of Mindanao , especially the Moro people, are dealing with the increased conflict . What makes affected communities survive and how are unknown ordinary Moro women, as nurturers of displaced families, are coping? How are the people of Mindanao, as stakeholders of peace contributing to resolution of the Moro armed conflicts?

As the Mindanao problem continues to be relegated in the background of national consciousness, stories of Mindanao people affected by the continuing armed conflict nor the peace-building efforts of the civil society and groups rarely get reported in the national mass media.