Binibining Pilipinas Universe supports peace process

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines - Newly crowned Binibining Pilipinas Universe Mary Jean “MJ” Lastimoso told reporters that Mindanao's culturally diverse Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous folks should support the peace process to the best they can.

Lastimoso, a native from North Cotabato, said she is, in fact, in favor of a  conduct of a plebiscite as a democratic means of determining the acceptability of the proposed Bangsamoro entity among residents of areas that are to be included in the Bangsamoro core territory.

“It is something that the people, as a community, should decide on. It should not be done according to the decision or wish of only one person, or one group,” Lastimosa told reporters during an informal press conference at the North Cotabato provincial gymnasium in Amas District in Kidapawan City.

She said she is for the conduct of an absolutely free democratic process- a referendum-  to determine if voters in the proposed Bangsamoro territory wants their respective communities to be grouped together under a Bangsamoro government.

The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) aims to establish the Bangsamoro entity, to exist under Philippine sovereignty, based on the Oct. 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro, which was signed last March 27 in Malacañang by the chief negotiators of both sides.

It took both sides 17 years of painstaking negotiations to complete the Comprehanesive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the final peace deal between the government and the MILF.

"She is very fascinating. She wants peace and development to reign in Southern Philippines, particularly in the Moro-dominated areas. She would make a good peace advocate," a multi-awarded broadcast journalist, Malu Cadeliña-Manar of Catholic station dxND in Kidapawan City one of five "peace radio stations" in Mindanao of the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation, told colleagues after Lastimosa spoke about her views on the southern peace process.

Lastimosa said she had witnessed how armed conflicts hit some parts of her hometown, Tulunan municipality in the second district of North Cotabato, while she was still in elementary.

"She spoke about the Mindanao Moro problem so well and so nicely," commented print journalist Ali Macabalang, president of the Kampilan Press Corps, a bloc of reporters covering the Army's 6th Infantry Division, whose units are scattered across Central Mindanao. 

Lastimosa said lasting peace will bring in development and prosperity in troubled southern Mindanao communities.

“And peace should start right in ourselves, within us. We have to be at peace with people around us and, as a community, be at peace with other communities as well,” Lastimosa said.

A rousing welcome greeted Lastimosa in her homecoming to North Cotabato last Tuesday.

Lastimosa, also known as “MJ,” hails from Sibsib area in nearby Tulunan town in the 3rd district of the province.

The welcome honor for Lastimosa, who will represent the country in the 2014 Miss Universe pageant, was organized by the office of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza.

Local folks are hopeful the 26-year-old Lastimosa, who is a veteran of beauty pageants, would have a good chance to win the Miss Universe crown.

She won the title “Mutya ng Tulunan” during her hometown’s fiesta in 2003 and was also  crowned in 2008 as “Mutya ng Davao” while she was studying in one of the schools in Davao City.

Some 10,000 people from Tulunan and other parts of the province gathered at the provincial capitol grounds in Amas District to greet Lastimosa.