Fearing sniper fire, elements of the 8th Marine Battalion Landing Team take cover as government forces launch full-scale military operations against Moro Islamic Liberation Front positions in Buliok, Pikit, North Cotabato on 11 February 2003, while the Islamic world was observing Eid’l Adha, the feast of the Holy Sacrifice. MindaNews photo by VICTOR KINTANAR

Thousands of villagers are displaced in the fighting, among them this Manobo family in an evacuation camp in Carmen, North Cotabato. MindaNews photo by VICTOR KINTANAR

A bomb explodes at the international seaport in Sasa, Davao City on 2 April 2003, killing 16 persons and wounding 55 others. Barely a month earlier, on March 4, a bomb exploded at the waiting shed of the Davao International Airport, killing 22 and injuring 145. Then Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte blamed the bombings on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which denied the allegation. Bodies were lined up at the morgue of the Davao Medical Center. MindaNews photo by VICTOR KINTANAR

Election officers in a precinct in Bacolod Kalawi, Lanao del Sur under the close guard of the Marines during the Presidential elections on 10 May 2004. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERA

Domingo Tadena, head of the Conservation Breeding Program of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, monitors a hatchling as it slowly emerges from the shell on 17 December 2004. The Philippine Eagle, described by aviator Charles Lindbergh as “the air’s noblest flier,” is classified as “critically endangered.” MindaNews photo by KEITH BACONGCO
Hundreds of journalists join the funeral of MindaNews photoor Gene Boyd Rodriguez Lumawag, 26, on 19 November 2004 in Davao City. A week earlier, he was gunned down on his way back to the hotel in Jolo, Sulu, after taking pictures and video footages of the beautiful sunset, one of his favorite subjects. Police and military authorities blamed the Abu Sayyaf for the killing. MindaNews photo by CHARLIE SACEDA

Students of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, among those cited as “Centers of Excellence” and consistent board examination topnotchers among Mindanao schools, perform experiments in a chemistry laboratory on 9 June 2005. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERA

Bombing victims recount their ordeal as they recuperate in a private hospital in Zamboanga City on 28 August 2005, the day a series of blasts rocked the city. MindaNews photo by CHARLIE SACEDA

US Air Force Capt. Rachel Sanderson circumcises a Meranaw boy with help from Air Force MSgt. Harold Dupre and SSgt. Lupo Melendrez of the Philippine Marines during an outreach clinic of the US military in Marawi City on 28 June 2006. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERA

Engaging soldiers in peace building was unheard of until battle-tested soldiers themselves started advocating it. It may have begun in Basilan in 2001, shortly after the Army was heavily criticized when Abu Sayyaf bandits with their hostages escaped right under the military’s nose despite having been cornered from all sides. The peacebuilding movement among soldiers has spread in many parts of Mindanao, with the support of various peace-oriented non-governmental organizations, like the Cagayan de Oro-based Balay Mindanaw, which initiated this meeting between Mindanao’s top military officers and civil society organizations on 24 August 2006. MindaNews photo by BOBBY TIMONERA