WHYS IN MINDANAO

      Mindanao is indeed a land  of contradictions, rich that is oozing with natural resources, very rich yet very poor. It is where you find thousands of hectares of pineapples, banana, palm oil, rubber and other industrial trees. But these resources are for exports to serve the consumerist lifestyle of the people in the North. Whatever precious dollars the country earns are readily returned in payment of our never- ending foreign debts.Because of this, you instead witness a different scenario... It is Mindanao where 14 of the 25 poorest provinces in the country are found based on studies; the poor in Mindanao are the poorest in the country. It is where you see poor farmers tilling marginalized lands because the choicest of lands are controlled by 'hacienderos', planting high value crops for exports. That's why, based on SWS Survey, hunger is glaring in Mindanao, a land that is called the" food basket of the nation". What a mockery! 

   Yes it is where you see thousands of fisher folk coming from back of the sea with empty nets because of the degraded coastal ecosystems as the sea is treated as a 'waste pit' by surrounding industrial plants. Blackouts, power shortage? These should be strange to the people of Mindanao because the island is surrounded with watersheds and river basins that can sustain our hydroelectric power. However

 instead of tapping such energy , big business is bent on establishing several coal-fired power plants that will surely damage the health of the people and the environment with the emissions of millions of tons of toxic elements, which are so horrible even to contemplate. 

    Such is a paradox that is Mindanao, where bounty and poverty meet, where hope and despair loom and where light and darkness fight. Who will correct this glaring and painful paradox? 

     History tells us that social wrong, gross inequities and social injustices can only be rectified by the people themselves. The consistent crimes that are happening and when this will end. Take a closer look on it. Perhaps, it's where not so for you to realize why these things are happening in the land of promise, the Mindanao.