Angel Locsin, bumisita sa evacuation center sa Munai, Lanao del Norte

Amirah Lidasan:

Where angels fear to tread, Angel Locsin came and earned the love and respect of the Moro people. On June 26-27, popular actress Angel Locsin visited the evacuation center in wartorn Munai, Lanao del Norte.  Since she and her sister already released their official reflections on the visit, I hope my story will help contextualize their visit.

When Angel’s brother-in-law sent me a text message a month ago asking me and my organization to assist them in a low-profile exposure trip for Angel to an evacuation center in my province, I was skeptical at first.  How can one hide Angel Locsin from the politicians and military officials who constantly monitor the remaining evacuation centers in Maguindanao?  The route to Datu Piang is probably the most watched highway, and there were several reports  of soldiers refusing entry to NGOs, media and relief agencies, practically food and information blockade. Our organization suffered
the same military harassment when we held a national interfaith humanitarian mission (NIHM) on October last year.

The other option was Munai , the other venue of the NIHM last year where Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo  participated.  I immediately informed the local chapter of Suara Bangsamoro in Iligan City and the Initiaves for Peace in Mindanao to help us in this endeavor.

When I first met Angel during our briefing in a hotel she stayed in Cagayan de Oro City, she explained at length why it had to be low-key. She wants to digest the story of the people, wants to give the one’s she would be talking to the impression that she did not go there as a film star but as a person, as a countryman.  She need not explain; Angel is known for her women’s rights advocacy.

But of course, our partners in the local government unit would interpret this differently.  In Iligan City, we were met by the Mayor and his father, the former mayor.  We again reiterated our request – no media, no military escorts and no broadcast of her presence.  But as soon as we got to our car, we saw several pick-up trucks with loads of people with cameras and police escorts which will become part of our convoy.  We took the diversion road that traversed Kauswagan municipality where a 6×6 truck with loads of soldiers joined the convoy.

I was surprised to see a paved road in Kauswagan extending to Munai. Earlier at Iligan City, the mayor’s father was telling Angel that they needed a farm-to-market road that would help bring progress in his municipality and a way to resolve poverty in the area that has caused the insurgency in Munai.  The road was wide and thick and kilometers long, complete with military detachements, APC tanks and presence of soldiers who were standing by the road every after five to ten kilometers.

Why, war has not restricted development in the area!  I then wondered if the construction started during the war, and if USAID or GEM was responsible for its construction. No politician or local government agency would release millions of pesos for a road that thick.

When we got to the municipal hall in Bgy. Tabuk, where the mayor placed all the displaced persons in Munai and Kauswagan municipalities since last year, it was jampacked with people and school children holding streamers welcoming Angel.  There goes Angel’s low-key visit.

Inside the Mayor ‘s office, the young politician asked why of all places Angel chose his municipality to visit.  Previously we briefed Angel that among the five provinces affected by the war last year, Lanao del Norte is probably the most controversial one.  There was a public outcry against Commander Bravo in suspicion of ordering members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to burn civilian villages, which was fueled by national and local politicians who distributed firearms to Christian residents.

I guess the mayor did not fully understand that if Angel has visited Munai as an actress, he would have to pay her millions of pesos to be able to give in to his request later that she come to the stage at the multipurpose hall where his father has prepared a program for Angel. Angel had to give in to that request, in exchange for a closed-door interview with the victims at the evacuation center.

She barely had time to interview health and education officers at the mayor’s office.  People were pouring in at the tiny mayor’s office at the behest of the mayor’s aunt who was never contented with one shot taken with Angel.  She only got facts like out of the 11,000 population, two thousand children got sick of measles, pneumonia and other common diseases brought about by being camped for a long time in a classroom and bunk houses. There were 50 cases of children afflicted with measles and an unaccounted number of deaths due to diseases.

Angel finally relaxed when she was inside the bunkhouse talking to a family from Bgy. Ramain.  With only three young lady volunteers from the DSWD to accompany us in the interview,  Angel was able to piece together the incident last year. Her personal thoughts in her blog reflected mostly her conversation with Sultan Diyadapon Bayabao, who told her how hard it was to go back to Ramain to farm because of the military presence in the area.  Bgy. Ramain is one of the 26 villages affected by the war. The mayor placed all evacuees in front of his municipal hall which was a kilometer away from an infantry battalion tasked to ferret MILF forces in Munai.

While Angel was conversing with victims, youth volunteers were distributing blankets to the evacuees–a personal gift from Angel. The volunteers were mainly from youth groups based in Iligan City such as League of Filipino Students, Liga ng Kabataang Moro, Anakbayan, local chapters of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and National Union of Students of the Philippines and the STAND-MSU-IIT .

She also provided lugaw for the evacuees. She wanted to personally distribute the gifts and join in the parlor games for kids prepared by the youth groups, but the presence of so many people prevented her from exposing herself outside of the bunkhouse.

At two in the afternoon, Angel had to say goodbye to the people of Munai.  We did not inform all our escorts of our next stop.  We wanted to provide Angel a complete picture of the struggle of Moro farmers and residents in Lanao del Norte, and so we took her to the home of Sultan Macasalong Sarip in Iligan City where he is battling for land rights with an multinational cement firm that built a factory blocking entrance to his home. Although tired due to exhaustion and lack of sleep, Angel listened to the impassioned story of Sultan and his family.

Sultan’s home is no different with the bunkhouses of IDPs in Munai. Sultan never finished the construction of his home due to lack of funds.  He told the history of his family’s land, and how he gave parts of his land for some Bisaya settlers to live in but he never counted that the construction of a cement factory would be the one who will force him out of his land.

In her blog, Angel mentioned the importance of land for the Moro people, especially the likes of the two Sultans who farm the lands that they own.  Her visit marked the reality of the contradiction in a Moro society – that while we call ourselves Sultans and Bai, we are not the rich and influential families that our ancestors were.  There is no more sultanate system that gives credence to the bloodline of the royal families, nor lands to claim territory and economic subsistence.

Angel asked why the land is rich but the people are poor.  We told her that land ownership was monopolized by rich Moro and Christian warlords who got rich from selling their lands to foreign corporations or taking partnership in plantation businesses.  She was exposed to these plantations when she did a film where she played a pineapple picker in Bukidnon.

We told her about the land laws that legalized landgrabbing of Moro lands by the Philippine government in the name of national interest such as mining and plantations.  We told her that the incessant military operations, aerial bombardment and the perennial displacement of people have destroyed the livelihood of the people.  We told her how evacuees became captives in their own land, as they were used by national and local government as a selling point to multinational donors and relief agencies.

While it is true that her two-day visit cannot give a complete picture of the problems in Mindanao, her one-day exposure to war-torn Moro areas has opened a lot of realizations for her, and for us too. As Atty. Beverly Musni of INPEACE put it – when movie stars come down from heaven, they experience the same problems, too.  And that’s what made Angel go down to Mindanao.  She went down to the masses, ate and conversed with them.   And we know, that was not for show.

Angel is known for her political convictions advocating for women and children rights.  She lives the character that she plays, the heroine of fantaseryes.   But only a movie star like her who lives in real life, can empathize with victims and  can bravely call for a stop to war and the resumption of peace talks – and mean it.

Larawan mula kina Locsin, Colmenares at Lidasan.

*Si Angel Locsin ay tanyag na aktres ng ABS-CBN Channel 2. Kasalukuyang tampok siya sa teleserye na “Only You” sa naturang estasyon. Si Angela Colmenares ay kapatid ni Angel at miyembro at dating nominado sa Kabataan Party-list noong 2007. Si Amirah Ali Lidasan ay tanyag na lider-Moro at tapagtaguyod ng kapayapaan at karapatan ng mga Moro. Lider siya ng Suara Bangsamoro at Moro Christian People’s Alliance.

Tingnan ang kaugnay na istorya hinggil sa mga bakwit sa Maguindanao

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Posted by Kontribusyon on Jul 5 2009. Filed under Lathalain, Showbiz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry