Datu Pugawang (colonial name, Luis Daniel ‘Dann’ Alba Pantoja, and also known as Lakan Sumulong), whose name means MindSetter, was entrusted by the Bagobo Tagabawa tribal council with the role of mentoring the next generation of Indigenous leaders to navigate modernity and globalization without losing their roots. While the elders continue to safeguard and deepen the community’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP)—its spirituality, worldview, values, and customary laws—Pugawang helps harmonize these ancient foundations with the realities of the 21st century. He guides young leaders to see technology as a means to preserve culture, to engage in the economy for community well-being rather than profit, and to participate in politics as bearers of ancestral wisdom. For him, Indigenous values are not relics of the past but prophetic voices urgently needed in today’s pursuit of peace, justice, and ecological balance. In this shared work, the elders nurture the roots, and Pugawang shapes the branches—helping the youth grow deeply grounded yet outward-reaching toward the wider world.
Author's posts
OUR DAUGHTER LÉLÉ IS ‘BAI MADIGAR’: A GIFT OF NEXT-GENERATION KINSHIP FROM THE BAGOBO TAGABAWA COMMUNITY
09 March 2026, 1028PHT — At the foothills of Mount Apo lies the ancestral domain of the Bagobo Tagabawa people in Barangay Binaton, Digos City. For generations, this Indigenous community has regarded the mountain—known to them as Apo Sandawa—as sacred ground, a source of life, identity, and spiritual connection with the Creator. Their relationship with the land is not merely economic; it is ecological, cultural, and deeply spiritual. It is within this living tradition that our daughter, LéLé Chan, was entrusted with a sacred honor: the name Bai Madigar, which means “Lady of Goodness.” This was not simply a ceremonial title. It was an act of kinship. The Bagobo Tagabawa Indigenous Political Structure in Binaton formally embraced her as an honorary member of the tribe, affirming a relationship that our family has nurtured with the community since 2015. In Indigenous understanding, such naming is not about prestige; it is about relational responsibility across generations.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/03/12/our-daughter-lele-is-bai-madigar-a-gift-of-next-generation-kinship-from-the-bagobo-tagabawa-community/
WHEN POWER ESCALATES AND PEACE IS CORNERED: A PEACEBUILDER’S REFLECTION ON THE U.S.-ISRAEL-IRAN CONFRONTATION
I write this reflection not as a military analyst nor as an advocate of any state’s strategic doctrine, but as a peacebuilder who has spent decades accompanying communities wounded by war, militarization, and political violence. From Mindanao to global conflict zones, I have learned that when great powers escalate, it is always ordinary people who pay the highest price. The recent escalation between the United States–Israel alliance and the Islamic Republic of Iran marks a dangerous turning point — not only for the Middle East, but for the fragile architecture of world peace itself. What has unfolded this early morning, 28 February 2026 at 0215 PHT (0945 IRST), represents a shift from containment to confrontation, from proxy warfare to direct interstate violence. This is not merely another episode in an enduring rivalry; it is a rupture with potentially irreversible consequences.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/02/28/when-power-escalates-and-peace-is-cornered-a-peacebuilders-reflection-on-the-u-s-israel-iran-confrontation/
FROM WASHINGTON TO MANILA: THE GLOBAL FALLOUT OF AMERICAN-INFLUENCED EVANGELICAL COMPLICITY
This prophetic-theological critique argues that the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, rather than serving as a space for moral accountability and humility before God, has increasingly functioned as a ritual that blesses political power—especially through white evangelical leaders’ unwavering support for Donald Trump—thereby undermining Christian credibility both in the United States and globally. Drawing on biblical prophetic traditions and contemporary data showing evangelical alignment with a leader widely perceived as unethical, the essay contends that prayer divorced from justice becomes complicity rather than witness. The participation of Filipino evangelical leaders intensifies this crisis, as their presence signals alignment with a politicized form of Christianity that risks being imported into the Philippine context. The result is a weakened Christian witness marked by moral inconsistency and public disillusionment, as faith becomes entangled with political expediency. The essay ultimately calls for repentance rather than rebranding, urging evangelical leaders—American and Filipino alike—to reclaim a prophetic faith that speaks truth to power and restores prayer as an act of justice-centered faithfulness.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/02/06/from-washington-to-manila-the-global-fallout-of-american-influenced-evangelical-complicity/
OUR CFP–PBCI TEAM HOSTED AND CONDUCTED SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAINING AT THE MALIPAYON PEACE HUB
25–29 January 2026, Barangay Managa, Bansalan, Davao del Sur — The Malipayon Peace Hub came alive as Coffee for Peace, Inc. (CFP) and PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) conducted an Agri-Aqua Social Entrepreneurial Training under the Bangsamoro Agri-Enterprise Programme – Leveraging and Expanding Agri-Aqua Production in Bangsamoro (LEAP). Twelve (12) key coffee farmers have shown commitment to the agricultural segment of this program. They are from the Island Province of Basilan and journeyed across Mindanao to take part in this intensive learning experience. Hosted by the Malipayon Peace Hub staff, the training created a safe and nurturing space for skills-building, dialogue, and shared reflection—rooted in the belief that sustainable livelihoods are essential foundations of lasting peace. Over five days, participants engaged in hands-on learning, peer exchange, and practical discussions on agri-aqua production, social entrepreneurship, and market access. The training also emphasized cooperation, trust-building, and shared leadership as vital elements of enterprise development in conflict-affected communities.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/01/30/our-cfp-pbci-team-hosted-and-conducted-social-entrepreneurial-training-at-the-malipayon-peace-hub/
ORIENTATION, DISORIENTATION, NEW ORIENTATION: GOING THROUGH A PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION
Human transformation—personal and collective—rarely unfolds in a linear or painless way. Across Scripture, psychology, history, and political economy, transformation follows a recognizable rhythm: orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. This triadic pattern, articulated most clearly by Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann, offers a powerful interpretive lens for understanding spiritual-ethical, psychological-physical, social-political, and economic-ecological transformation in a decolonizing world. Transformation, in this sense, is not merely change. It is re-formation—the dismantling of old meanings, identities, and structures, and the emergence of new ones rooted in truth, justice, and relational wholeness.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/01/05/orientation-disorientation-new-orientation-going-through-a-process-of-transformation/
CHURCH, STATE, AND COUNTERINSURGENCY: A CRITICAL PEACEBUILDING ANALYSIS OF PCEC’S PARTICIPATION IN NTF-ELCAC
This article, sent today by PBCI Board Chair Emil Jonathan L. Soriano to Bishop Noel Alba Pantoja, critically examines the participation of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) in the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). While the task force promotes a “whole-of-nation approach” to peace and development, its record of red-tagging and militarized posture has made it a controversial institution within the peacebuilding community. Drawing from field-based perspectives of peace practitioners, civil society critiques, and academic literature on faith-based peacebuilding, this essay analyzes the opportunities and risks inherent in PCEC’s engagement with NTF-ELCAC. The paper argues that while PCEC’s involvement presents a possibility for moral oversight and community engagement, it also carries the dangers of co-optation, erosion of prophetic distance, and complicity in harmful state practices. The analysis concludes by proposing conditions under which faith actors may engage state programs while safeguarding ethical commitments to human rights and civilian protection.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2025/12/18/church-state-and-counterinsurgency-a-critical-peacebuilding-analysis-of-pcecs-participation-in-ntf-elcac/
CONSTANTINE’S NICENE CREED: A DECOLONIAL REFLECTION ON EMPIRE-SHAPED CHRISTIANITY
For many Christians, the Nicene Creed is a sacred summary of faith—timeless, universal, divinely inspired. But when we peel back the layers of imperial history, the Creed looks less like a purely theological achievement and more like a carefully engineered imperial document produced in service of Constantine’s political project. What emerged from Nicaea in 325 CE was not simply a consensus of early Christian spirituality. It was a consensus manufactured inside the machinery of empire. This blogpost critiques the imperialist religiosity behind the Nicene Creed by grounding the discussion in historical data and scholarly research.
Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2025/12/04/constantines-nicene-creed-a-decolonial-reflection-on-empire-shaped-christianity/
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