Moro CSOs mark Jabidah’s 50th anniversary in Marawi

MYLAV MANGONDATO
March 18, 2018

KILOMETER ZERO, Marawi City: Members of various civil society organizations (CSOs) held Sunday a program of cultural shows, speeches and a street parade to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the infamous Jabidah Massacre.

The activity was held at Kilometer Zero where participants converged. Kilometer Zero was so-called because the roads and highways connecting Mindanao started first from.

Camp Kiethly (now Camp Amai Pakpak) which was then among American big camps during the occupation is located here.

In Corregidor Island, Muslim youth were led to a sort of familiarization tour in the area of the massacre. This is under the auspices of the Bangsamoro Youth Office, one of the local agencies of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). 

The Corregidor tour is an annual activity spearheaded by ARMM under Governor Mujiv Hataman, a known CSO leader who has been cooperating with various civil society organizations in the region. 

Hataman is an active street parliamentarian before his Anak Mindanao party-list organization won him a seat as a legislator in the House. 

In a written statement distributed at the commemoration of the Jabidah Massacre in Marawi, the CSOs which said they were peace advocates composed of various sectors from the academe, the youth, and those who love peace declared their unrelenting support to all principled and meaningful solutions that seek to address the Bangsamoro question and resolve the decades-old Mindanao conflict. 

The CSOs believed that passing a BBL that genuinely reflects and recognizes the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Bangsamoro, and all other inhabitants of Mindanao, is a crucial step towards achieving sustainable peace, social justice and progress and not just for the war-torn southern region but for the whole country. 

They said denying them their inalienable right to chart their own political destiny and govern themselves as a people in accordance with their distinct cultural identities and traditions is to also deny an opportunity for the whole nation to once and for all heal the wounds of war and achieve genuine peace. 

The CSOs also called for the continuous support to the needs of those who lost homes, the thousands of innocent victims of the past war so that they can be helped to stand,, rehabilitate and safely return to their homes. (RSP)