It’s Gabii sa Kabilin tonight!

Tonight the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) celebrates the 11th Gabii sa Kabilin (GSK) that has given us in Cebu a night of culture and heritage, which starts from 6 p.m. to midnight. There are 27 cultural destinations involved in the GSK, where tourists, both local and foreign, can choose from to take a peek back into the past. In the Jesuit House in Parian, there is a diorama of how the old Parian Church looked like. This church was destroyed because of quarrels between the clerics of that time.

Tonight’s highlights include a “Heritage Hunt” in partnership with Kool Adventure Camp and a GSK “Blogging Contest”. Again I exhort our readers to participate in this wonderful annual event by bringing your children to look at how our ancestors lived during their time, the days before electricity, mass transportation and communications, and how we played. Indeed, life was simpler in the past.

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While we support the decision by Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte to declare Martial Law in Mindanao, we do not support the idea by the president to expand Martial Law to Luzon and the Visayas. Although in fairness to the president, he said this was if the Maute Group sets a foothold in Luzon and the Visayas. In my book, Military Intelligence simply did not act against the Maute Group when it was still a small band of armed rebels. We’ve been getting various mixed reactions to the Maute Group, but for me, what our good friend, Marit Stinus Cabugon wrote in her Facebook page revealed the truth behind this terror group.

“The Maute group reportedly began as a training unit set up by Marwan around 2011 or even earlier, called al-Ghuraba and briefly Jamaah Tawhid wal Jihad – the name used by the late Abu Musa Zarqawi in Iraq and later by the supporters of radical Indonesian cleric Aman Abdurrahman in Indonesia. By 2012, it had become Khilfah Islamiyah Movement (KIM), initially reported to be led by one Ust. Humam Abdul Najid alias Wai but in fact the Mautes are believed to have been the organizers even then.

“KIM was said to have been responsible for the 26 July 2013 bombing at a Cagayan de Oro bar and bistro that killed six people. After ISIS’s recognition of Isnilon as Amir, the Mautes began using the name “IS-Ranao” to indicate a division of the new as-yet-undeclared province of ISIS – just as BIFF became IS-Maguindanao and Isnilon Hapilon’s territory was IS-Basilan. Butig, Lanao del Sur, where the Maute group now operates, has been home for years to a large MILF camp, Camp Bushra. It was also not that far from the old JI training center in Jabal Quba, so there is a long history of armed activity in the area.

“Renren Dongon (ASG Bohol rescue mission with Nobleza) got his bomb making training here in 2012. And went to CDO and put a couple of bombs at the Maxandria Hotel. He was called leader of Khilfah Islamiyah Movement leader but supposedly, KIM was a creation of one of the Maute brothers... and KIM became Maute and IS-Ranao.”

How could Military Intelligence fail to notice the growth of the Maute Group? Look at the dates again, it was the term of then president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino that denied the existence of the ISIS group in Mindanao. In short, they could have nipped this problem in the bud and thus, Pres. Duterte wouldn’t have to declare Martial Law in Mindanao. I dare say that Aquino’s incompetence allowed the Maute Group to grow! Now the Yellowtards living in Luzon like Christian Monsod are claiming that this declaration of Martial Law was unnecessary! What stupidity from Christian Monsod!

Allow me to give you a very serious reason why Pres. Duterte’s declaration of Martial Law is necessary. Let me reprint a report that I got a couple of days ago, which blared; “The Communist Party of the Philippines on Wednesday called on its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to conduct more offensives as their way of resisting the martial law declaration of President Rodrigo Duterte. The Party calls on the NPA to plan and carry out more tactical offensives across Mindanao and the entire archipelago [sic], the CPP said in a press statement.” Mindanao would burn in flames, which is why Martial Law is necessary!

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