Maguindanao scholars’ painting wins contest, embodies peace

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Organizers never thought a mural painting contest among provincial college scholars would become illustrations of their undying aspirations for peace, never even dampened by armed conflicts condoning poverty enslaving their families all these years.

Beneficiaries of the Maguindanao Program for Education and Community Empowerment (MagPEACE) studying at the Upi Agricultural School (UAS) in North Upi town emerged as champion in the contest.

The painting of the UAS MagPEACE scholars vividly depicted the dividends of the Mindanao peace process and their firm conviction that enduring tranquility will eventually reign in the province.

The mural painting contest among MagPEACE scholars at Buluan, Maguindanao’s new capital town, is one of the highlights of this year’s weeklong Sagayan Festival, which started on Sunday.

The Sagayan Festival was named after the centuries-old ethnic Maguindanaon Sagayan war dance. The annual event was pioneered by Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu in 2011, as a showcase of the ethnicity of the Muslim, Christian and Lumad people in the province.

Maguindanao, which has two congressional districts, has 36 towns.

The MagPEACE scholarship program, bankrolled by the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, aims to inculcate among beneficiaries all important “peace paradigms” needed for them to become peace advocates when they graduate from college.

Employees of the governor’s office who helped push the mural painting contest forward said they were fascinated with how the scholars illustrated in their paintings their dreams of peace, never weakened by the underdevelopment in their communities resulting from armed conflicts.

“It is a proof that the MagPEACE program is succeeding in inculcating into the minds of beneficiaries that peace is better than war, that war is destructive and that peace builds good relations among people of different religion and makes war so unimportant,” Mangudadatu told reporters.

The governor urged participants to the mural painting contest to paint “peace images” on canvass, which he promised to help sell to his friends in Metro Manila and abroad.

Mangudadatu gave out cash prizes and trophies to the winners in the mural painting contest, before reporters, at the sideline of Monday’s Sagayan Festival activities.

UAS students Jessa Alcosaba and Rachel Tenorio, who jointly received on their school’s behalf the P20,000 cash and championship trophy from Mangudadatu, said their entry was a tacit projection of their belief that peace would soon be realized in the country’s troubled south as long as people would help the government put it in place.

Both students said credit for their having won as champion in the contest also has to go to their school administrator, engineer Sukarno Datukan, for his active advocacy for religious solidarity among the Muslim, Christian and Lumad students of UAS.