Mindanao into the 21st Century

a Photographic Journey

Mindanao Into the 21st Century: A Photographic Journey

Copyright © 2011 by the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center (MNICC)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Photographs by Keith Bacongco, Jowel Canuday, Roel Catoto, Romy Elusfa, Froilan Gallardo, Glocelito C. Jayma, Victor Kintanar, Toto Lozano, Gene Boyd R. Lumawag, Rene B. Lumawag, Skippy R. Lumawag, H. Marcos C. Mordeno, Ruby Thursday More, Bj A. Patiño, Charlie Saceda, Bong Sarmiento, Bobby Timonera

Editor: Bobby TimoneraEditorial Assistant: Keith BacongcoDesign: Ruby Thursday More

Editorial Board:Carolyn O. ArguillasGail T. IlaganRudy B. Rodil

Published by:Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center (MNICC)154 Mars St., GSIS Heights, Matina8021 Davao City, PhilippinesTelefax: +63 82 2974360www.mindanews.com

The publication of this book is with the assistance of the Australian Agency for International Development. The editorial content, however, was left completely to us.

Cover Photo by Keith Bacongco in Trento, Agusan del Sur

The National Library of the Philippines Cataloguing-In-Publication Data

Recommended entry:

Timonera, Robert Donato, ed.Mindanao into the 21st Century: A PhotographicJourney / by KP Bacongco, et al. –Davao City : MNICC, 2011.

1. Mindanao history and places.2. Photojournalism – Mindanao news and photos.3. Southern Philippines-Photos. I. Title.

ISBN 978-971-95156-2-3

.

Introduction

EVENTSWar and Destruction

AirPhil Crash

Sipadan Kidnapping

Erap Resign

Camiguin Floods

Fr. Halley

Cabatangan Siege

Balikatan Exercises

US Troops Out

Burnham Kidnapping

Halaw

Buliok War

Davao Bombings

Gene Boyd

Elections

Philippine Eagle

MILF

Zamboanga Blast

Academic Excellence

Military Peacebuilding

Walk for Land, Walk for Justice

CONTENTS

Massacre

Fr. Bossi

Waterworld

Ban Aerial Spray

The MOA-AD

CAFGUs

Ilaga

2008 Bakwits

Resume Peace Talks

Summary Killings

Rallies vs Killings

Rice Crisis

Fr. Picx

Fr. Roda

Rebelyn Pitao

Forgiveness

Ampatuan Massacre

New People’s Army

Elections 2010

El Niño

Environment Code

Balangay

PLACESAgusan del Norte

Agusan del Sur

Basilan

Bukidnon

Camiguin

Compostela Valley

Davao del Norte

Davao del Sur

Davao Oriental

Dinagat

Lanao del Norte

Lanao del Sur

Maguindanao

Misamis Occidental

Misamis Oriental

North Cotabato

Sarangani

South Cotabato

Sultan Kudarat

Sulu

Surigao del Norte

Surigao del Sur

Tawi-tawi

Zamboanga del Norte

Zamboanga del Sur

Zamboanga Sibugay

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The habalhabal is a motorcycle with wooden extension behind its body to serve as extra seats, with or without a roof to protect the passengers from sun and rain. Along with its big brother the “Skylab,” which has extensions protruding sideways that make it appear like its namesake, the habalbal is ubiquitous here in Mindanao and can navigate through narrow streets and even overtake four-wheel drive vehicles along rough roads.

It is very much like Mindanao, which has navigated through extremely difficult pathways and terrains in its journey across a troubled century and against all odds, and which has moved forward into the new millennium determined to correct historical injustices and find solutions to end the conflict.

In the eyes of many, Mindanao is “backward,” a place to be avoided, an island of danger, war, terrorists, bombings, mass evacuations, a constant no-no in travel advisories of embassies.

These images of Mindanao, the country’s resource-richest island, have been carried over from the last century into the next – images of war, environmental degradation, exploitation, injustice, neglect.

The violence and wars notwithstanding, Mindanawons have moved on. Indeed, as Mindanawons we find ways to work around our limitations, improve our situation with what little we have and go on

with life. We stumble, we fall in our journey many times, but we get up and move on. We move on even with our meager resources, even with the most primitive of tools – like the habalhabal on our cover.

Like Mindanao, MindaNews has, despite its limited resources, continued to move on and this year, we celebrate 10 years of documenting our island’s issues, dreams, woes and hopes.

These images we have collected in the first 10 years of the new millennium, we would like to share with you. The photographs in this book offer a ringside view of Mindanao through the lens of MindaNews photographers. We share our awe

at finding majestic waterfalls in areas where Mindanao still has lush forests. Grieve with us at the sight of her once stately mountains now ravaged by mining. Stand with us as we accompany Mindanawons not only in fleeing the war or burying the dead, but also in celebrating a Lumad wedding and triumphantly conquering the surging waves.

We divided the book into two major parts – the major news events of the first decade of the 21st century, and life in Mindanao by geographic location. We attempted to present the news events in chronological order but abandoned the idea because some events cut across timelines. In classifying the pictures by location, we grouped these into provinces arranged alphabetically; the cities are placed in the provinces where they are geographically located, or where they are closest.

Join us in our journey of reliving the major events in Mindanao in the first decade of the new millennium, a decade that sadly, began with an “all-out war” but which also strengthened the many peacebuilding initiatives that have built up hopes for peace in the next decade beginning 2011.

Allow us through these photographs, to guide you to the other places of Mindanao and discover its other faces and facets.

Bobby TimoneraEditorJuly 2011

INTRODUCTION

Events

War and Destruction

The year 2000 opened literary with a big bang with President Joseph Estrada declaring an “all out war” against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from the town hall of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte on March 21. The announcement came a few days after MILF forces led by Commander Bravo (real name: Abdurahman Macapaar) attacked the Kauswagan town center and occupied its municipal hall. The attack was triggered by an earlier clash over land in Barangay Delabayan. The war quickly spread in many parts of Mindanao, culminating in the capture on July 9 of Camp Abubakar, the MILF’s main headquarters in the mountains of Maguindanao. The government and MILF were holding peace negotiations when the war broke out. The peace talks would resume only when Estrada was ousted and the Arroyo administration took over in January 2001.

A house owned by a Maranao family is set ablaze not far from the municipal hall of Kauswagan. BOBBY TIMONERA

MILF members inspect vehicles at their checkpoint along the highway in Buadipuso-Buntong, Lanao del Sur in April 2000. Before the 2000 war, MILF checkpoints were common along the Narciso Ramos Highway connecting Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. This checkpoint was later overrun by the military. BOBBY TIMONERA

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A Marine hoists the Philippine flag on top of a bombed out mosque following the capture of Camp Bushra in Butig, Lanao del Sur in late May 2000. This photograph triggered negative reactions, prompting then Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado to issue on June 8, 2000 a nine-point Code of Conduct, number one of which was for soldiers to “refrain from desecrating mosques or stoking sectarian hatred.” FROILAN GALLARDO

Marines in Matanog, Maguindanao fire mortar rounds towards MILF lairs. GENE BOYD R. LUMAWAG

Casualties of WarDeath of combatants and civilians, displacement of residents and destruction of property, such as this house on fire along the Narciso Ramos Highway, are among the visible effects of war. FROILAN GALLARDO

A Maranao woman inspects what is left of her home in Pacalundo, Baloi, Lanao del Norte after military bombs and tanks were used to drive out MILF rebels entrenched in the houses there. BOBBY TIMONERA

An MILF guerrilla lies dead after the Marines take over Camp Sarmiento in Matanog, Maguindanao. FROILAN GALLARDO

A policeman and residents inspect the damage wrought by a bomb dropped by the Air Force in Pacalundo, Baloi, Lanao del Norte. The bomb, intended to drive out MILF rebels occupying a thickly populated village, rendered the road impassable as it dug a hole 2.5 meters deep and 5 meters wide. BOBBY TIMONERA

A father gently sways the hammock to help his baby sleep amid the noise in an evacuation center in Maguindanao. GENE BOYD R. LUMAWAG

Portrait of a family fleeing the war for safer grounds in Maguindanao. GENE BOYD R. LUMAWAG

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Evacuees occupy the Sultan Dimasangkay Mananggolo Memorial Elementary School in the hinterland village of Delabayan, Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. Kauswagan was the first site of heavy fighting between the military and MILF forces in March 2000. BOBBY TIMONERA

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A US Special Forces soldier instructs Filipino troopers during marksmanship training at a firing range in Barangay Dangkalan, Lamitan, Basilan. CHARLIE SACEDA

The USNS Mercy in Sulu in June 2006. CHARLIE SACEDA

US Air Force personnel perform circumcision on Maranaos in Marawi City. BOBBY TIMONERA

US Marine engineers do maintenance work on a dirt road in a remote barangay in Lamitan, Basilan. CHARLIE SACEDA

ElectionsAside from journalists and election monitors, soldiers are an indispensable presence during elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a region criticized as the country’s “cheating capital.”

Despite the heavy presence of Marine soldiers, “coaching” inside the precinct is still common in Lanao del Sur, as in this case in a precinct in Bacolod Kalawi town. BOBBY TIMONERA

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Army soldiers of the 29th Infantry Battalion escort ballot boxes from Marawi City for Masiu, Lanao del Sur during the 2001 elections. BOBBY TIMONERA

MILF mujahideens pray at the mosque inside their base in Maguindanao. KEITH BACONGCO

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MILF guerillas paddle towards their base somewhere in Maguindanao. KEITH BACONGCO

An MILF fighter inside a guerilla base in North Cotabato. KEITH BACONGCO

Military PeacebuildingEngaging soldiers in peace building was unheard of until battle-tested soldiers themselves started advocating it. It may have begun in Basilan in 2001, shortly after the Army was heavily criticized when Abu Sayyaf bandits with their hostages escaped right under the military’s nose despite having been cornered from all sides. The movement has spread in many parts of Mindanao, with the support of various peace-oriented non-governmental organizations. BOBBY TIMONERA

T/Sgt. Teodoro G. Dupitas helps rebuild a mosque in Basilan. With his civil military operations (CMO) campaigns for the 18th Infantry Battalion in Isabela City, this Ilocano soldier made it to the shortlist of nominees for the Ten Outstanding Philippine Soldiers in 2007.

Resume Peace TalksMaranaos stage a peace rally in downtown Marawi City to push the government and the MILF to return to the negotiating table. BOBBY TIMONERA

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Ampatuan Massacre On November 23, 2009, 58 persons were killed in a remote area in the municipality of Ampatuan in Maguindanao in what is considered as the worst pre-election violence in the country. Thirty-two of the victims were media workers who accompanied the convoy of relatives bound for the Commission on Elections provincial office in Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu. The latter was challenging his former allies, the Ampatuans, by running for governor of Maguindanao.

Most of the victims had been buried in three mass gravesites by the time an Army contingent arrived at the massacre site. FROILAN GALLARDO

Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. (head covered), the principal suspect, is escorted by elder brother Zaldy, the ARMM governor, who turned him over to Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, three days after the massacre. FROILAN GALLARDO

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Places

Agusan MarshDeep in the interiors of Agusan del Sur is a 41,000-hectare marshland that straddles six municipalities. The marsh stores rainwater to control the downstream flow of the Agusan River into Butuan City in the north. The Agusan Marsh hosts a rich diversity of flora and fauna, including a rare turtle, crocodiles and migratory birds making their annual escape from the cold winter of the temperate regions to the welcoming warmth of the tropics to feed and breed. A boat ride through its rivers and shallow lakes offers a spectacular view of this beautiful place. BOBBY TIMONERA

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Basilan

A vendor displays his fresh catch of curacha on the sidewalks of Isabela City. BOBBY TIMONERA

Large fishing boats in Isabela. BOBBY TIMONERA

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A gold rush followed shortly after a group of lumads discovered rich gold deposits in Mt. Diwata in the municipality of Monkayo in the early 1980s. The arduous trek up the 2,000-foot mountain had exhausted prospectors, rechristening the peak as Mt. Diwalwal, literally meaning “gasping for air with tongue hanging out of one’s mouth.” The government’s slow response to the mad scramble for gold has thus far resulted to cave-ins, the dumping of toxic chemicals just about anywhere, squalor, landslides, sporadic outbreaks of communicable diseases, and a host of man-made disasters.

A community of miners and entrepreneurs of all sorts has sprouted on the slopes of Diwalwal, building shanties that are too tightly spaced. RENE B. LUMAWAG

A goldsmith applies finishing touches on a piece of jewelry at his shop. RENE B. LUMAWAG

An “abantero” searches for gold vein in a tunnel under the mountain. GENE BOYD R. LUMAWAG

Diwalwal

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Monte de OroMonte de Oro in the town of Maco could havebeen another Diwalwal. About 6,000 small-scaleminers rushed to the area upon the discovery ofa gold vein there in 2004. But the governmentissued a stoppage order shortly after that,declaring small-scale mining operations in thearea to be illegal. Presidential Adviser for Mindanao Jesus Dureza talked with the miners during a visit in June. GENE BOYD R. LUMAWAG

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davao del Sur

| OPPOSITE PAGE | Durian of all varieties and sizes abound in Davao City street stalls during the peak season in August.RENE B. LUMAWAG

The San Pedro Cathedral in Davao City. RENE B. LUMAWAG

Malalag Bay is a favorite mooring place for foreign ships because of cheap docking fees. FROILAN GALLARDO

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Amihan BoysThe Amihan Surf and Skim Team, named after the northeasterly Pacific winds that bring big waves and strong currents, is a group of local surfers and skimboarders in Dahican, Mati City. The Amihan boys, aged 9 to 29, are mostly sons of local fishermen who learned to surf from watching tourists. Founder and coach George “Jun” Plaza demands discipline and hard work from the boys, with his strict regimen of household chores and prohibitions against smoking, drinking and drugs. RUBY THURSDAY MORE

Chromite is aplenty in the town of Basilisa, and so small scale miners have joined the fray.

| OPPOSITE PAGE | A scenic view of the fish sanctuary in San Jose town.

dinagat

The palatial home of Governor Glenda B. Ecleo in the capital municipality of San Jose.

This driver manages to smile despite his cargo and the rough roads in Barangay Diegas in Basilisa town.

Photos by Roel Catoto

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Lanao del Norte

Iligan Cement Corporation.

The control room of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

The chemical plant of Mabuhay Vinyl Corporation.

Iligan City, the former capital of Lanao del Norte, is known as “The Industrial City of the South.” Over a dozen manufacturing companies set up shop in Iligan after the construction of the hydroelectric plant at the foot of Maria Cristina Falls in the 1950s, availing of cheap power rates. The National Power Corporation has based its Mindanao operations in Iligan to be close to the six hydroelectric plants along the Agus River. BOBBY TIMONERA

Industrial City of the South

Misamis oriental

| OPPOSITE PAGE | Linemen of the Misamis Oriental Rural Electric Service Cooperative-1 perform calisthenics on top of poles as part of their regular training exercises at the MORESCO1 headquarters in Laguindingan. BOBBY TIMONERA

The Mindanao Container Terminal in Tagoloan at night. KEITH BACONGCO FOR MINDA

These solar panels operated by the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company, Inc. help supply electricity to Cagayan de Oro City. Completed in 2004, the one-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in Barangay Indahag is a favorite destination for students and renewable energy enthusiasts. FROILAN GALLARDO

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Bud Daju stands tall as the backdrop of Jolo town. At the foreground is the recently rebuilt Tulay Mosque. BOBBY TIMONERA FOR LGSPA

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Surigao del norteLarge-scale mining is rampant in Surigao del Norte, where there are rich deposits of iron, gold, copper, nickel and other metals. A big portion of the ores extracted in the mountains of Claver (and neighboring Carrascal town in Surigao del Sur) is sent abroad for processing. While this brings in revenues for the government, the exact price in terms of environmental degradation, internal displacement, and cultural desecration remains to be the subject of intense debates. FROILAN GALLARDO

Mounds of iron ore in Claver (right) are being readied for shipment using smaller vessels (below), then onto large ocean-bound ships bound for Japan, Australia and other countries.

A shroud of dust covers Red Mountain in Claver as trucks hauling iron ore go down to the coast.

A busy day at the mine site.

Tawi-tawi The Bongao peak towers over downtown Bongao. BOBBY TIMONERA