After extensive preparations by key offices spearheaded by the Ignatian Spirituality and Formation Office (ISFO), in coordination with the University Community Engagement and Advocacy Council (UCEAC), the University Research Council (URC), the office of the Academic Vice President with the participation identified departments, the Arrupe Office of Social Formation, the Al Qalam Institute and the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), the Ateneo de Davao University headed by university president Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ, hosted the Forum on the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement (FAB) on 26th November 2012 at the Finster Auditorium.
The forum brought the crucial discourse on the historic FAB between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) at the forefront and on centerstage when it invited representatives of both negotiating panels in the persons of Atty. Johaira Wahab and Atty. Raisa Jajurie, respectively. Mr. Mussolini Lidasan, the director of Al Qalam Institute, provided the opening salvo by walking the audience through the historical background of the age-old conflict in Mindanao.
The forum generated a great deal of interests on the floor (including answered and still unanswered questions), especially during the open forum when the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions to the three presenters in full candour. The audience comprised of a select group of students representing different classes covering both academic and formation courses stretching from first year to fourth year; other invited guests coming from the academe, civil society, local government units (LGUs), government agencies, private sector, business sector, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), people’s organizations (POs), faith-based organizations (FBOs), peace advocates, among others. At any rate, the forum afforded a leverage for the audience, especially students, to be informed of the history, nature and characteristics, process, limitations, and steps toward achieving the full fruition of the agreement, including the much longed-for peace in this region of the Philippines.
While it was by no means just an exercise of legal and verbal gymnastics on the contents of the newly signed agreement (and other attempted but failed agreements, so to speak, such as the Tripoli Agreement, the 1996 Final Agreement, etc.), the forum somehow opened informative insights as both Wahab and Jajurie, both Muslim women lawyers, tackled crucial points pertaining to the BFA, their implications, nuances, and interpretations. The young legal eagle Wahab particularly captured the imagination of the young audience with her point-by-point discussion of the contents of the BFA, her attempts to navigate by memory specific provisions of Republic Act after Republic Act with razor-sharp precision, not to mention her remarkable knowledge of every punctuation in the Philippine Constitution (“…full stop…”).
Ending in a positive note with an apt spiel by the former Governor of North Cotabato Manny Pinol who closed the open forum with such a characteristic support for the success of the BFA (while nonetheless alluding to his controversial non-support of the failed Memorandum of Agreement – Ancestral Domain [2008]), the forum ignited hopes for genuine and sustainable peace and a challenge to seriously work for inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, massive consultations on the ground, fostering transparency, and building mutual trust among multiple stakeholders in Mindanao. The synthesis provided for by Dr. Renante Pilapil, the Assistant Dean of the Humanities and Letters Cluster of the School of Arts and Sciences, set the tone for a well-thought off reflection at the closing of the forum.
The forum owed its success to the hard work and dedication of those who laid the ground for the conceptualization of the program; the preparation of information materials; the invitation to presenters, as well as to guests and participants both internal and external; the preparation of the Ateneo de Davao community, especially those entrusted with deploying the modules covering the pre-forum, the forum and the post-forum to the students; the crafting of the pre- and post- surveys; the preparation of the venue; and the merienda cena which capped the event. (By M. Isabel S. Actub, Arrupe Communications & Advocacy for Ignatian Spirituality & Formation Office)