There are journeys that take us to places, and there are journeys that bring us home to relationships. For me, Bai Madigar’s return to the Bagobo Tagabawa community was the latter. Her presence reminded me that kinship is not confined by blood, age, geography, or even generations. It grows through relationships of trust, respect, hospitality, shared memory, and mutual care. As a member of the Malik Clan of the Bagobo Tagabawa community, I have come to understand that belonging carries both joy and responsibility. What one generation begins, another generation can inherit, deepen, and carry forward. Seeing Bai Madigar, together with Byron and his family, reconnect with our Indigenous relatives touched me deeply. It was more than a family gathering; it was a living expression of intergenerational solidarity. For me, this is the beauty of peacebuilding: relationships becoming bridges, memory becoming heritage, and kinship becoming a pathway toward a more just and harmonious future.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/07/24/when-kinship-crosses-generations-bai-madigar-returns-to-the-bagobo-tagabawa-community/
The SONA ng Sambayanan 2026 is more than a protest statement; it is a prophetic indictment of a political and economic system that continues to produce poverty, corruption, inequality, and ecological destruction. While I affirm its call for accountability, social justice, and the rejection of political dynasties, I also read it through the analytical lens of a more radical transformation, expressed within the ethical commitments of nonviolent Liberation Theology. For me, corruption is not merely the failure of individual politicians but a symptom of deeper structural realities—oligarchic capitalism, landlordism, neocolonial dependence, and the concentration of wealth and power. My commitment remains rooted in the liberating way of Jesus Christ, who confronted oppressive systems through courageous, truth-filled, and active nonviolence. Genuine transformation will not come simply by replacing political personalities but by dismantling unjust structures and building participatory institutions where justice, peace, human dignity, and the common good can flourish.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/07/24/beyond-corruption-a-nonviolent-liberation-theology-reading-of-the-sona-ng-sambayanan-2026/
Malipayon Peace Hub is a shared vision of Dann Pantoja (Datu Pugawang) and Joji Pantoja (Bai Kasunayan) for a more just, people-centered, and regenerative future. Rooted in decades of peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, Indigenous engagement, and community development, the Hub seeks to demonstrate that genuine prosperity is possible when human flourishing and ecological regeneration become inseparable. Inspired by transformative experiences across the Global South, Malipayon brings together peace, justice, Indigenous wisdom, ethical enterprise, regenerative agriculture, environmental stewardship, and intergenerational mentoring. It is envisioned not simply as a physical place, but as a living laboratory where communities can learn, experiment, create livelihoods, restore ecosystems, and nurture relationships grounded in dignity and mutual care. For Dann and Joji, Malipayon represents a continuing journey of hope: creating practical pathways where people, communities, and the land can flourish together—joyfully, sustainably, and peacefully.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/06/22/malipayon-peace-hub-creating-a-justice-based-people-oriented-and-land-regenerating-system-of-holistic-prosperity/
For many years in peacebuilding work among Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao and across Asia, I have become increasingly convinced that authentic leadership is not primarily about authority, position, charisma, or institutional power. Leadership is fundamentally about nurturing life, sustaining relationships, and guiding communities toward justice, dignity, and peace. My understanding of leadership is best represented by a pyramid. Unlike conventional leadership models that emphasize control from the top, this framework emphasizes foundations, relationships, service, and stewardship. It is especially relevant in Indigenous communities where leadership is often understood as relational, communal, and accountable to both present and future generations.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/06/05/the-leadership-pyramid-peacebuilding-leadership-lessons-im-learning-from-indigenous-peoples/
It was both an honor and a privilege to serve as one of the plenary speakers during the First Lumin-awa International Multidisciplinary Research Conference (LIMRC) 2026, held on 25–27 May 2026 at the Teatro Kalinga of Kalinga State University in Bulanao, Tabuk City. The conference brought together researchers, educators, practitioners, government leaders, and development partners from across the Philippines and abroad under the theme, “Innovating Justice and Governance: Multidisciplinary Pathways to Equity, Inclusion, and Sustainable Development.” The event was jointly organized by Kalinga State University and the state universities of the Cordillera Administrative Region through a landmark academic partnership that seeks to strengthen research collaboration and social innovation.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/05/29/i-represented-cfp-at-the-first-lumin-awa-international-multidisciplinary-research-conference-2026/
At 70, I no longer see my life primarily through the language of aging, retirement, or diminished productivity. I experience this season instead as a deepening emergence into my own humanity—a quieter, freer becoming that decades of schedules, institutional demands, leadership burdens, and economic necessity had often obscured. In a culture obsessed with speed, youthfulness, innovation, and measurable output, growing old is frequently treated as decline. Yet many ancient societies understood elderhood not as irrelevance but as ripened presence. Elders were valued because they carried memory, discernment, emotional depth, and wisdom shaped by suffering, failure, love, endurance, and long reflection. I hesitate to call myself wise, because life still dismantles my certainties with remarkable consistency. Yet I do recognize within myself a gentle simplification. The noise of performance is fading. The need to impress is loosening. Ego occupies less space. What remains feels closer to essence.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/05/12/after-a-salaried-job-discovering-new-aspects-of-my-becoming-at-70/
The Toboso encounter in Negros Occidental, where Alyssa Alano (“Ka Kikay”), two children, and others reportedly died during a military operation, grieves me not only as a citizen but as a person of faith. I do not see this merely as another security incident, nor simply as another chapter in the ideological war between the state and the revolutionary movement. I see it as a moral wound upon the nation. Whenever young lives are extinguished in the mountains, fields, or villages of our land, something sacred is violated. Human beings are not expendable instruments of state policy, nor are they disposable fuel for revolution. Every life bears inherent dignity. Every death in this long conflict should trouble the conscience of the Republic.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/04/29/toboso-alyssa-alano-and-the-unfinished-peace-a-peacebuilding-pastors-reflection-on-justice-human-dignity-and-national-reconciliation/
