No one wins a war

NEW York–Two remarkable women, one heartbreaking fate… Here’s to hope they died for us to see the light.

Feb. 16 will mark 40 years of one day in my life I would never want to remember but will never forget for as long as I live.

Forty years (Feb. 16, 1977) since my mother was ambushed by insurgents in the South and we are still talking about peace in Mindanao.

Forty years and the basic foundation of the peace talks is still flawed. What is the core problem?

Leaders, even President Duterte’s frame of reference is wrong or taken out of context.

Leaders have to look beyond the 14th century when Islam was first introduced in the Philippines or the 15th century when Christianity was introduced to our shores.

Yes, before these period, we were one. Proof of the existence of our ancestors is staring at us. The burial jars in Maitum carbon dated at Metallic Age (5 BC. – 225 A.D) show of the existence of a people way before Islam and Christianity were introduced. So why won’t history focus on these facts rather than divide us more?

It is time our history books need to be rewritten. Why can’t Muslims and Christians look each other in the eye and truly ask ourselves, why can’t we seem to grasp the fact that before modern day religions divided us, our ancestors were one? They were animists living in peace–one with nature and the Creator. There was no religion or land to fight or kill for.

Why do we fuel division among us when it is our kin who are killed in this idiotic race for possession of the land ? When it is our children who suffer from poverty due to economic deprivation as a result of unrest? When it is us who have to bear disease, hunger and misery because we cannot go beyond subsistence due to insurgency problems.

Ours is a beautiful country, its beauty unique and incomparable yet tourism and eAconomic development cannot go full blast because of this problem.

How many billions go to waste every year to buy artillery instead of seeds and plows?

I challenge those involved in the peace process and negotiations to ponder on this. Too much time and lives have been lost due to nonsense. Know your history. The truth shall set us free.

Is it by choice we don’t want to look or even think about it because we are so damn headstrong about our flawed beliefs? Are poverty and death a loving God or Allah wants for us? Isn’t it that a paradise was prepared for us so that we may live abundantly and in peace?

Any religion which promotes death I have no respect for. Nada… Nil…. I love you my Muslim and Christian friends. We are one, I hope one day we wake up to a realization that no one wins a war.

I write in memory of my mother Fidencia Villanueva Peralta, RN and Ms. Lourdes Martinez, the wife of the late Mayor Cornelio Martinez who were victims of senseless violence due to flawed beliefs.–Carolina Villanueva Peralta

(The author is the daughter of the late Fidencia V. Peralta, RN who was killed in an ambush along with Lourdes Martinez, wife of the late Mayor Cornelio Martinez of Kiamba, South Cotabato (now part of Sarangani province) in 1977. She presently resides in New York but is actively involved in development efforts in her hometown Sarangani Province. She is a member of the Board of Kiamba Sarangani Development Foundation Inc.. She believes that peace is attainable in Mindanao.)