[Mindanao Consortium of Ateneos (MCA) Press Briefer, 13 October 2021]

Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) is happy to join Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU) and Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro (XU) in the revival of our consortium, which we now call the Mindanao Consortium of Ateneos.  Through the consortium and the collaboration that it brings, we hope to be able to serve Mindanao better.  As during the current preparations for the forthcoming May Elections in 2022.

We are pleased that after the week of filing of certificates of candidacy for the forthcoming national and local elections, many persons of diverse backgrounds and personalities are offering themselves to the Philippine electorate for political office.

In this context, we are happy that Congress has heeded the clamor of the people to extend the deadline for voters' registrations.  So far 63M have registered.  But considering that 73M Filipinos are eligible for voting, as many as 10M have not yet registered.  We consider it a good sign that despite long lines at Comelec registration booths so many of our youth are sacrificing much in order to register.  Some have even patiently queued all night just to be able to register in the morning.  We call on Comelec to accommodate all those who approach it to register, and not cut its daily registration process short because some internal local quota has been reached.  To augment its services, we call on Comelec to consider the help our schools and Universities have offered to act as satellite registration centers.  Finally, so that civil society can participate in safeguarding our forthcoming elections, we call on Comelec to release its 2022 Election Guidelines immediately.

We urge Comelec to empower all qualified voters to use their votes to help determine the future of the nation based on the wisdom that is theirs through experience or education, through facts not fiction, through knowledge from mainstream or social media, through assessment of personalities, characters or political platforms.  Based on our 1987 constitution, we are not a monarchy, not a dictatorship, not an autocratic state.  We are a democracy governed by the People through law. 

The importance of this is underscored by the colorful profiles of those who are offering themselves to the people in political service.  We have two former national police chiefs.  A son of a former President and dictator.  A former world-class champion boxer.  A former actor and current mayor.  A widow of a former mayor, the current Vice President. 

As a consortium of Ateneos of Mindanao we come to encourage the electorate to consider not just a list of formers, but to discern among the candidates who may be the right person, or who may inspire the right team of competent people, to lead the nation forward, not only in Metro Manila, but particularly in Mindanao.  Till today national development continues to benefit Luzon and the Visayas before it benefits Mindanao. 

We want to know how each of the candidates proposes to lead us out of the grip of this Coronavirus pandemic which has crippled our economy and our lives.

We want to know how each of the candidates intends to support the peace process in Mindanao where in the face of great religious and cultural diversity on the island including Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities the culture of dialogue is the path, collaboration is the code of conduct, and mutual understanding the method and standard. 

We want to know how each of the candidates sees the role of the security forces in supporting the civic and religious call for an end to violent extremism in Mindanao, even as powerful forces in the world continue to foment this.  We want to know how the candidates intend to bring the CPP-NPA-NDFP rebellion still plaguing Mindanao finally to an end. 

We want to know where each of the candidates stands in the protection of the environment, our common home, especially in the light of President Duterte's EO 130 s. 2021 which re-opens mining in the country under the problematic provisions of the Ph Mining Act of 1998 (RA 7942).  This is especially critical for the Mindanao environment because the EO supports such as the environmentally disastrous SMI mines in So. Cotabato and endangers our river systems and food security.

We want to know how each of the candidates intends to protect national sovereignty and national interests in the light of the interests of China, the US, the EU in the West Philippine Sea, and the notorious penchant of all "allies" to act only in self interest.  Here we consider the interest of farmers and agriculturists in Mindanao in the China market. 

We want to know how each of the candidates proposes to support the education of our people for the 21st century and how they intend to make quality education accessible to all through a system where public and private educational institutions fulfill complementary roles in educating the people.  We want to know how the future national leaders intend to foster complementarity between the educational system legislated by the BARMM through its recently passed Education Code and the educational system in the rest of the Philippines. 

In an information society, we want to know how each of the candidates intends to address the lack of access of all in Mindanao to the Internet – stymieing not only online education, but health services, commerce, and e-governance in Mindanao.  Internet access is worst in the Bangsamoro areas, a condition that Mindanao cannot accept.

We want to know how each of the candidates intends to govern, whether they intend to listen to people, to farmers, to  the Lumad, to representatives of religious communities, to educators, to students, to members of the LGTB community.  Do they intend to listen or do they expect that once in power they alone be listened to?  Are we electing persons who will lead us to solve our national problems together, or persons who intend to solve our national problems for us.

As the Mindanao Consortium of Ateneo we intend to support democratic elections especially as it impacts Mindanao. 

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