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My last panorama submission was 4 years ago and today I just want to express people like me that aiming for PEACE in our country and Peace for the whole world is primordial for us to tell our story for the benefit of the others who are also experiencing conflict in their very own country…
My war torn town, where I was born and grew-up now in a big battlefield with the Philippine Government Troupes the lawless Muslim extremist groups! As a native of my beloved town Mangal, Sumisip, Basilan Province, I experienced once in my life that breakfast is the sound of firefight in our community.
I was born and grew-up in this island province which I considered as one of the most beautiful place in the planet. Not that because it’s my place, but with the beautiful white beaches the blue lagoons is tempting you but to swim the… While you’re swimming you can see the seabed with different kinds of species that you can touch them like the starfish and even the most venomous fish in the world called the stone fish can be found in our place. I love this place, our lifestyles is very simple in our day-to-day living. Even as the minority among the Muslim populous in our area, I can say that no place like home then…
Now my community is being in the front page of the news. It all started when Italian priest Father Giancarlo Bossi was kidnapped last June 10, 2007. His abduction in his parish of Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay, on June 10 has left them shocked and saddened. Then the operation began in the neighboring provinces of Zamboanga Peninsula, Jolo, Sulu and Basilan. When the marine troupes pursue the Italian priest in our area last July 10, there was a bloody encounter the marines was outnumbered and 14 of them was killed and that includes the beheading of the 10 soldiers. The killing is very brutal and in barbaric way. It’s okay if the marines were killed because in every encounter there will always be casualties, but what hurt me most is the inhuman way of killing them by way of beheading the 10 of them…
Now after the Italian priest was release last month, the government is still operating the area and yesterday another encounter occurred. Bunker-to-bunker fighting
in Basilan leaves 30 dead. Other reports said as many as 30 Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed, but this could not be independently confirmed. Abu Sayyaf is the lawless Muslim extremist groups and they are connected to Jamaah Islamiyah the terrorist cell of Al Qaeda network in Southeast Asia and Philippines is one of their “so-called” hiding place then…
Armed Forces spokesman, Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo that four of the 15 Marine casualties were officers. “The fighting was intense,” said a Marine officer who was on the ground. “It’s CQB [close-quarter battle]... our troops have to move from bunker to bunker,” he said. The fatalities in the latest fighting brought to 53 the number of government troops killed in clashes with the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu since July.
In Sulu, 26 soldiers were killed when Army and Marine troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf gunmen reinforced by rogue Muslim rebels in Parang, Maimbung and Indanan towns from August 7 to 9.
As a Filipino and a native of this area, I am not happy to write these stories, but as an ordinary citizen I have an obligation to my country that we should give importance to the people who lost their lives in honor of attaining peace and give them the heroism in their very own right!I can feel the situation ongoing in my place and what worries me so much is the civilians that traps in the middle of the war and majority of these civilians is children who is fighting to survive…
I am still hoping and praying that time will come that PEACE will be attain in my province and the whole cultural clashes we have will be put to an end, in God’s time…
Muchas gracias!
Grace
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Hail Marygrace
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