Mothers of Mindanao Unite

by Patmei Bello Ruivivar


“Ipanendeg tano so rek tano!”  Let us fight for what is ours!  That is the call of the mothers of the Maranao tribe when they heard that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is still bent on privatizing the Agus Pulangi Hydropower Complex as his administration’s solution to the power crisis in Mindanao, despite the consensus of different sectors in Mindanao not to sell the power complex during the Mindanao Power Summit the president convened last April 13, 2012 in Davao City. 

MOTHERS OF MINDANAO UNITE TO FIGHT FOR THEIR CHILDREN’S HERITAGE. 

“Mindanao’s major source of hydroelectric power comes from Lake Lanao and its only outlet, the Agus River, and historically, it belongs to the Maranao, which literally means the People of the Lake,” shared Professor Geoffrey G. Salgado of Marawi State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). “Actually, calling it Lake Lanao is redundant because Lanao is really Ranao, a Maranao word for lake so calling it Lake Lanao would be saying Lake Lake,” he adds. 

The Lake is one of the 17 ancient lakes of the world and it is the ancestral domain of the Maranao people. It is the heart of their spiritual, cultural, social, political, and economic life. An American writer, Lindy Washburn, in 1977 beautifully captured the Maranao people’s relationship with the lake when she wrote: “To the lake they have bound their identity: in their own eyes and in the eyes of the outsiders they are Maranaos, the People of the Lake. On its shores they established their villages and towns and built their mosques, with its water they purify themselves for prayer, in its wetlands they cultivate their rice, from its depths they gather fish, across its spans they transport goods and people, from it they take water for drinking and cleaning. Each boulder and island in the lake, each hill and valley in the land surrounding it, is woven into the legends and epics of the people.”

Mothers of Mindanao Lead Pipol's Power

“We must fight to keep Lanao-Agus Hydropower in our people’s hands. The Agus River is a high energy stream with hydroelectric potentials of 944 megawatts (944,000 kilowatts) when fully tapped. That translates to billions of pesos worth of electricity per day and that should be used for the benefit of all, not just for profits of few private interests,” insists Dr. Melchie Ambalong, chair emerita of the Lanao Power Consumers Federation (LAPOCOF) and vice-chair of the Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW). 

Women leaders from the Maranao tribe in Lanao del Norte visited for the first time in their lives the Maria Cristina Falls on May 4, 2012. They brought their children with them and promised them that they will fight to keep their heritage in the hands of the people and stop any attempts to sell it to private interests.

The MCW and LAPOCOF have joined forces to launch the Pipol’s Powercampaign to keep Lanao-Agus-Pulangi Hydropower in the hands of the people of Mindanao. 

“If the national government insists on selling Agus-Pulangi, then we will ‘buy’ it,” said MCW chair emerita and chief executive officer Irene M. Santiago, who heads the secretariat of the Pipol’s Power campaign. “If there are 21 million people in Mindanao and each will pledge 50 pesos, then we can raise one billion pesos as seed money to buy Agus Pulangi Hydropower,” she explained. 

Pipol’s Power kicked off last May 5, 2012 in Iligan City, home of the iconic Maria Cristina Falls.  It was held in the city’s plaza and attended mostly by women, youth, and children. Leading the protest were the feisty and proud Maranao women who stood up for their children’s heritage. 

Celia Rajah, a leader of the Mothers for Peace in Lanao del Norte, declared: “The Maranao women are declaring a jihad (literally means “struggle” in Arabic) against the privatization of our ancestral domain. Our lake, our river, our lifeline are not for sale!” 

But the struggle against the privatization of Lanao-Agus-Pulangi Hydropower Complex is not just confined to Maranao women, it is a struggle shared by all women of Mindanao. 

“The issue of ownership of Mindanao’s hydropower is very much a women’s issue. We believe privatizing it will lead to higher electricity rates as proven by what happened in Metro Manila and Luzon and even in other countries where the power industry is in private hands. Our electricity bill now accounts for nearly 15 percent of our household budget, how will we make ends meet if it goes even higher?” asks Amy Bojo, area director of MCW in Bukidnon, home of the Pulangi River. 

Children join their mothers in protest in Iligan.

A country that does not own and control its own supply of electricity has limited sovereignty, states the Pipol’s Power campaign primer. Mindanao’s vast water resources used for hydropower -- Lake Lanao, Agus River, Pulangi River -- are all part of the Moro and Lumad peoples’ natural and cultural heritage. Selling these resources to private corporations will violate their rights and deny their children and grandchildren access to their birthright. And that is why the mothers of Mindanao are leading the fight against its sale. 

If PNoy wants to honor the memory of his mother, who rose to power because of People Power, then the best Mothers’ Day gift he could give her and all the mothers of Mindanao is to not sell Agus-Pulangi. 

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