"Bayanihan" Update: Philippine Dragon Boat Team ' paddle to save flood victims

'Dragon warriors' paddle to save flood victims | The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online: "After watching TV footages of hapless people, even children and elderly, wading in neck-deep flood, members of the PDBT volunteered to paddle to rescue their countrymen from the devastating effects of the back-to-back typhoons – Pedring and Quiel – that battered the country in recent days.

Col. Arnulfo Burgos, Jr., chief of the Armed Forces Public Affairs Office, said the PDBT is assisting local governments, non-governmental groups, and those involved in relief and rescue efforts for two days, starting Sunday.

Army deputy spokesman and PDBT team manager, Maj. Harold Cabunoc, led the champion paddlers in the operations. Cabunoc said the team is using the actual dragon boat that they used in the recent world competition in Tampa, Florida, where they emerged as champion paddlers. Their victory was hailed by their countrymen, and the sports world."

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Peace Update: Public Eagerness for Peace Agreement, Strongest in Mindanao - Filipino people already tired of armed conflict

7 in 10 Pinoys believe peace accord possible - The Philippine Star » News » Headlines: "Combined with those holding a 2014-2016 timeframe, optimism was still highest in Mindanao at 55 percent followed by the Visayas, 51 percent; and 50 percent each in balance Luzon and Metro Manila, 50 percent.

On the other hand, 23 percent in Metro Manila, 21 percent in both balance Luzon and Mindanao, and 15 percent in the Visayas expect an agreement to happen in the next administration, or 2016-2022.

Those who think that a deal will never be reached comprised 30 percent in the Visayas, 24 percent in balance Luzon, 22 percent in Metro Manila and 20 percent in Mindanao.

Of the overall 71 percent “hopeful” of an agreement, 26 percent said they were “very hopeful” while 45 percent described their sentiment as “somewhat hopeful.”"

Note: Results of the SWS survey, which were published in BusinessWorld yesterday, showed that public eagerness for a peace agreement is strongest in Mindanao, with 24 percent expecting a deal to happen in 2011 to 2013, compared to 12 percent in Metro Manila, 10 percent in balance Luzon and six percent in the Visayas.
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Peace Update: PHL gov't offers MILF "enhanced autonomy" (economic dev't & gov't recognition of Bangsamoros' historical ties to the land)

Frustration grows for Philippine Muslim rebels: "There are roughly four million Muslims in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, an area they see as their ancestral homeland dating back to Islamic sultanates established long before Spanish Christians arrived in the 1500s.

The region is among the most fertile and resource-rich in the Philippines, but it is also one of the country's poorest and undeveloped, a legacy of the conflict that began four decades ago.

Muslims, known as Bangsamoro, are now a minority in Mindanao but insist they should be allowed to largely govern the region themselves and control its potential riches.

The MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group with about 12,000 soldiers, has for the past decade sought to negotiate a settlement rather than achieve its aims through armed insurgency, which peaked in the 1970s when an all-out war raged."
Note: The Philippine government insists on using the constitutional framework to address the Bangsamoro problem. But the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is insisting that what they want is a substate
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