First steps

“Mindanao youth leaders support Bangsamoro ‘sub-state’ demand.” This was the headline of the first issue, this October, of “Mindanao Scoop,” an Iligan City-based newspaper. My reaction as a balikbayan and retiree? “Here we go again. O ship of state! Sailing in Mindanao waters where the wind blows in different directions. Will our sailors be skillful enough to come to port, even against the wind? Will we achieve peace this time?”

Back in 2008, in one of our periodic returns to our farm in Dalipuga-by-the-sea, we were warned by relatives that new fighting had erupted between Christians and Muslims. This was the violence precipitated by the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was about to enter into with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).  The situation was so tense that my children in United States wanted us to “come home asap.” Friends in Manila, concerned for us, offered to take us in for the duration of the conflict. My best friend, Chita Almario texted: “Mi casa es su casa” (My home is your home).

But we stayed. I was impressed that while the national government debated on what action to take, the local people were quietly working to restore the harmonious relationship that Muslims and Christians have had for such a long time in the two Muslim-Christian provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte. One step was the peace dialogue of the Muslim ulamas, imams, Catholic bishops and Protestant and other Christian leaders with local government officials. Subsequently, they tried to draft a Peace Covenant. What was accomplished was a clarification that the MOA-AD-triggered raids in Mindanao was not a jihad (religious war). Instead, the Muslims responsible for the violent attacks were seen as extremists. The Muslims who joined the dialogue stood for peace and order, one with their Christian brothers.

I appreciated that these were the people on ground zero. Their families and their lives at stake, they opted for peace. They focused on what was really important: Relationship with one another, and respect for each other’s God. They voiced a need for a structure in which to listen to one another in face-to-face communication exchanges. The crisis passed.

Now it’s 2011, a new administration is in place, with new hopes… and new problems arising. From what I read in the papers, preparations for the new peace talks is in process. Echoes of the past—of lives lost, grief, anger and the call for vengeance—are still up in the air. But the involvement of young leaders is a good sign. Unlike the adults who carry the burden of dark memories, maybe the young can start without any heavy mental baggage. At any rate, one must start somewhere to rebuild the trust that has been lost.

Which reminds me of the birds of Iligan, which I have been “watching” for three years now. Right after we came back, my husband put up a bird feeder, like what we had in our garden in California. But unlike the California feeder, this one did not attract the birds of Iligan, which seemed to be more wary than their Californian counterparts. They just flitted from tree to tree. They chirped. They looked at the birdhouse. But none of them came to feed. Why? I wondered.

Then one day, I saw a little boy with a sling shot, looking up at the trees in our garden. “Aha! There’s the answer,” I told  myself. “The birds are afraid to feed because someone has been hunting them down. Once hurt, it is hard to make birds trust human beings.”

I told my husband about my “discovery.” But he merely replied in jest, “That bird feeder which you painted blue and white, with shutter windows and a picket fence looks ‘stateside.’ Maybe we should build a nipa hut.”

But I told myself, “No way, am I giving up that bird feeder. I enjoyed painting it, and if I say so myself, I think it’s cute. Besides, to be practical, if we make it with bamboo and nipa, a single rain storm with strong winds will blow it away.”  I told myself, “Patience!” Relationship must be built on friendship and trust. Even with birds.

The first step was to talk to that little boy with a sling shot. So I waited for that boy by the beach, then, when I had the chance, engaged him in a conversation: Where do you live? Do you go to school? What grade…  etc?

When he felt comfortable with me, I told him that I liked birds. “Do you?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said. Then I asked what he learned in school about birds. “They are our friends, they eat insects,” he answered.

“Then, why do you hunt them?” He smiled shyly. Needless to say, the sling shot was gone, and I found a friend.

But that was not enough. The birds remained wary—until one bird finally found enough courage to peek inside the bird house and pecked at some seeds inside, and then flew away. In the afternoon, he came back, took more seeds, and flew away again. Days later, our bird-visitors have grown in number and soon the birdhouse was too small for all of them. So my husband built one more feeder which, now, also gets a full house.

Today, birds come in and out of the bird feeders, happily chirping and eating, What joy it is to hear the singing of birds, the joy their songs bring to our everyday world. But the “trust and friendship” we have with the birds were not built in a day. Not even in weeks. It took months.

It takes time and patience to rebuild trust that has been lost. So it will be in the case of the Mindanao conflict. So much of the past intrudes on the present. Both sides, Christians and Muslims, are hurting. The military, following orders, continue to lose soldiers. But is there any other alternative?

Mindanao does not have the luxury of dreaming new dreams. The immediate task is to restore the peace that is being rudely broken time and again by outbursts of violence.

But like birds, we take one step at a time.

Dette Pascual, 79, was HRD consultant at the Development Academy of the Philippines  before leaving for the United States and was part-time guidance counselor at a Dominican school in Los Angeles. She used to write a weekly column for the LA/ Philippine Weekly Inquirer. Retired and now residing in Mindanao, she writes for a US travel Internet magazine, “Traveling Boy,” and a weekly column for “Mindanao Scoop.”